6 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting The Piano
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- čas přidán 14. 06. 2024
- “I wish I knew this before”! Sounds familiar? Learn 6 things every beginner piano player needs to know if you are seeking top tips for getting better at piano faster.
This need to know piano tutorial will reveal best piano tips and tricks on learning piano chords and scales, piano practice tips and much more!
If you want to progress fast, do not ignore these must know piano tips in this beginner piano lesson, as they will get you to the next level before you know it. But more importantly, these beginner piano tips will inform your deeper understanding of music inner workings from the start.
If you like to learn more how to play piano for beginners and start with best piano chord progressions, watch this video next:
• 7 Best Piano Chord Pro...
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Thank you for watching and hope it is helpful! What are your practice techniques and strategies?
I will now move beyond the Key of C thanks to you. My strategy is to learn the 12 major scales, each of their diatonic chords and inversions of 1-4-5 progressions in each scale, all within the next 30 days. I am no longer intimidated by keys with flats and sharps. Your insights and direction have freed me to allow myself to do that. That may sound a little dramatic but it's true. Keep making those Awesome videos!
Love your tips.
Love the tips on Practice.!
I really love the tip:
Practise Slowly!!!.
My strategy is to enjoy the piano! I’ve started learning at 64 and the resources for learning piano now are wonderful. And coming across videos like yours.. well, I can’t praise you enough, you really have the ability to teach and the generosity that’s needed in order to teach. That’s very rare. Thank you. All the best for the future!
Yes you have worldwide audience. Im from France and I listen to you with great interest. Your teaching is high level cristal clear and your english is so perfect that even foreigners understand. Thank you for taking time helping.
@@jeannettestuckelschwaiger5071 I'm thrilled to know that you find the lessons clear and helpful, and that the language barrier isn't a hindrance. It's a priority for me to make these lessons accessible and understandable to as many people as possible, regardless of their location or native language.
Your kind words and appreciation mean a lot. They encourage me to continue this work and strive to keep improving the quality of these lessons. If there are any specific topics or techniques you'd like to learn about, please don't hesitate to mention them.
Thank you for being a part of our global community of learners. Keep enjoying your musical journey, and happy playing!
I am 68 years old. I wish you had been my piano teacher! In fact, I wish you had been my mother's piano teacher even more! She was so afraid that I would grow to hate piano lessons that she never sent me for lessons - we didn't even have a piano in my childhood home!😥 Only my hanging out at my neighbor's house, trying to replicate the lessons that Elissa and Karen played, got me into trouble with their parents - I was keeping the girls from practicing! They told my parents to get a piano so I would get out of their house! My parents agreed, and I started learning piano, but only with my mother's lesson books! Nonetheless, I majored in theory & composition at uni, became a church organist, and currently work on research projects based internationally.
How I wish scales were explained as beautifully as you do. I am an analytical person, and your explanations make perfect sense. I will now practice all major scales more easily - then the minors!
Thank you again, and please send me your free reference materials. I will share them with others who need them, too!
Wow, all the years I’ve practised scales and never realised the C and the F thumb - strewth, I’m enlightened.
You are truly a gifted tutor. 🙏
I checked this out and whilst it's true for many scales, it isn't for all of them. I wish it was, would make things simpler.
First time I've really looked at your videos and looking through the comments I'm just going to add the sentiments already made. I've being playing or trying to play for nearly 70 years and never properly grasped a technique. Looking forward to working with your methodology.
These are all excellent points that I needed to hear. Thank you.
Really appreciate your videos. I originally only bought a keyboard to do scales along with singing and have really enjoyed simply learning circle of 5ths and improvising each scale and working out chords within scales and improvising with each bit of new knowledge. I find this fun and intuitive, only thing is I do find I lack structure a little and have to sort of figure out what I need to learn next. Grateful to come across a method of teaching that I relate to. You're an excellent pianist and teacher.
Thank you. You actually want to impart your knowledge and love of music! That takes kindness and generosity. This is a great lesson for all those wishing to teach, let alone wanting to learn the piano!
I'm glad to hear that you appreciate the intent and effort behind my teaching approach! Many thanks
There are many teachers, but you make it all simple and doable. I am pleased to learn from your method. I look forward to more ways to improve my playing. Thanks. Ed.
Many thanks Edward for your kind words.
I've been watching countless videos of piano theories, but none of them explains the theories in ways that makes it easy to actually put them into practice as you do. Your lessons make it easy for my fingers to learn. Thank you for these videos.
Wow, thanks!
This channel is an absolute find. Empowering enthusiasm and serious sensible ( etc etc) I could add words but it just encourages me to add PRACTISE and practise ideas and routes. Thank you so much , phew.
You last point was a huge revelation for me. I only started piano at 65 years old, and had joked that I was born with two left ears. My choir classes were a breeze since every teacher from 3rd primary until 2nd secondary told me to move my lips and not make a sound. My voice helped me develop my comedy chops.
And for 8 months I'm trying to change that. But I don't have music in my head when I play piano. Until now the technique was filling my brain with music, and I need to learn to reboot my thinking. I am listening to lots of piano music now, and I know if a note or chord is wrong.
I'll try to practice differently from now on.
Merci beaucoup.
Thanks for sharing your story Lawrence.
I don't usually comment, but I find your content actually helpful. I also watched your tip on sightreading I'm blown away. In this vid you made me realize the keys are related. I'm interested in the fingering where you mentioned there are about 3 types of scales to hand positions. Can you elaborate on that and of possible show? I have a feeling it would finally solve my fingering challenges. Thanks, Tom
Seconding all this!
I really enjoy your playing. Been playing guitar for 30 years, want to learn piano , massive light bulb moment the other day in visualising the keys in a more guitar like fashion.
Yes, taking a guitar like approach is perfect for piano!
Thank you Tom....a bit of a lightbulb moment for me. I'm off to stack some scales!
Same here. This was a thought provoking video.
Years ago I had brain surgery that wiped out 40 years of music. I decided to start from zero and learn to play piano but minus the fear of sharp and flat keys. The impact has been dramatic and I am a far more sophisticated musician today.
Thanks for the great tips.
That's an incredible story, would love to hear more about it. You can reach out to our team anytime, www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com
All of the music teachers that trained me in sight reading had us learn a measure at a time. Piano was my first instrument that I learned how to play but I also played B flat and alto E flat clarinet and bass clarinet in Jr high and high school. And all of my teachers made us play our music a measure at a time until we got pieces flawless. The same principles are applied to piano as well. When I play a piece on piano I play a measure at a time until I have gotten the whole piece down. This method works well for me. I thank all of my music teachers for teaching me strong study habits of learning pieces each measure at a time.
That's a good approach, breaking down the piece, bar by bar.
Semitone at 3-4 and 7-8. Easy.
The incredible insights and advice you provide in this video are beyond comparison. I've watched 500 or more piano- instruction videos on CZcams and none of those have had an impact on me like this one. To borrow one of your thoughts, now I have a clear picture of how to get the sound out of my head that I am chasing and working on enabling my fingers to achieve that sound. Thank you!
Many thanks for your kind words Richard.
Same take away for me. Hope i can act on it and achieve my goals this time. Thanks a lot for this
Thank you for all this information. 🎉🎉🎉
Holy s$it! This makes so much sense! Your way of teaching has been the missing piece for me all these years (I'm 53, started with piano at 12, then a hate/hate/hate/like/hate/hate relationship on and off, but I couldn't let it go completely)... to be able to make the piano "my own", it's the scales and chord progression where it's at. Dissecting a piece, practicing in sections, etc. OMG, a whole new world with the piano has opened up to me these past few years, especially this last one. I "happened upon" you a few days ago. I'd love to learn with you.
Thanks for this video Tom👍🏾👍🏾
So glad to find this channel ❤
What a good teacher, so important knowledge you are sharing. Thanks a lot!
You're very welcome!
Hi Tom, thanks for this video, as its very enlightening
I'm just glad you exist ❤
Just love everything about your teaching. Thank you.
SIMPLY FANTASTIC SIR!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just solid gold. I took notes during the whole video, and I NEVER do that. And then I listened to it again. You hit all the areas I am having trouble with. More info in my message to your website. Thanks.
Sometimes the thumbs fall on the C and F, but sometime the thumb is placed on B and E. Wonderful lesson!!
It's that natural "missing" semitone at those keys.
Another wonderful video lesson. I can’t say enough how terrific you are at teaching piano in a holistic way.
Thanks, Tom for this!
Lovely to hear from you Calvin. Hope you are well.
Oh my gosh! Brilliant subscribed
Great stuff Tom - thank you
It's a pleasure.
Great video. Thank you so much!!!
Yes deep down I always believed there was an easier way to “see” and play music. A little of the old style I believe is a good basis but then to quickly move on to something like you show now. Thank you for sharing.
This video is so insightful, I didn’t expect finding so many new and useful tips. Thank you for sharing, I hope your channel will grow!
Glad it was helpful!
You are brilliant re thumbs on C and F for scales!! And I love the scale stacking! Yours in Gratitude
Thanks
I cannot emphasize enough the value and impact of the insights presented in this video/lesson, "6 Things I wish I knew..."! Amazing! Liked! Subscribed! I would fly to London to shake your hand and hug you, if I was financially able!
I agree totally that the flat keys should’ve taught from the beginning. I really “arrived” at the piano when I learned Db Major and the natural placement of the thumbs. ‘Love the videos !!
I'm glad you had that experience with D flat major!
Great video, great teacher. Thanks.
Fascinating! Thank you!
Hi Tom, thanks for this video. It's a very enlightening demonstration.
Lovely to hear from your Calvin. It's always lovely hearing you play as well.
No soy pianista pero aprendí mucho de tus consejos , me gusto mucho . Espero el próximo vídeo . Gracias
¡Me alegra mucho saber que encontraste útiles mis consejos! No necesitas ser pianista para disfrutar y aprender de la música. El objetivo es compartir conocimientos que puedan ser beneficiosos para todos, sin importar su nivel de habilidad.
So interesting. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this video, it really made sense. Now, I must start to play slowly! Very difficult, but it probably will sound much better with less mistakes!!
So good!! Thank you, Tom.
Excellent teaching.
THANKS.
Excellent Tom, many thanks.
Great, thanks !
You’re amazingly great at teaching !!!! Thanks
One of the most real and true ways of approaching learning piano, it has made me excited to learn more then just songs I like at the piano! Where the teaching service I paid for started me off in that same way with C maj playing simple versions of songs i wasn’t interested in and was very off putting, made me feel like I was years off from even starting to look at the music I actually wanted to play, I’m going to start with all major scales and that alone will free up the keyboard for me, thank you so much!!!
I'm thrilled to hear that this approach has reignited your excitement for learning piano! It's so important to connect with the music you're playing and feel that your practice is leading you towards your personal musical goals.
Starting with all major scales is an excellent strategy. It will indeed open up the keyboard for you and provide a strong foundation for understanding and playing a wide variety of music. Remember, every bit of progress counts, and you're never as far off as you might think from playing the music you love.
Your feedback is really valuable as it highlights the importance of learner engagement and interest in the teaching process. I'm glad you've found a path that resonates with you, and I'm honored to be a part of your musical journey.
Keep up the great work, stay curious, and enjoy your exploration of the piano. I'm here if you have any questions or need further guidance. Thank you for your kind words, and happy playing!
really helpful Tom, as always. I was just going to skip thru it then was hooked by the scales and insights there that were so helpful. As always you manage to distil what is important and are able to communicate it. I am listing the 6 points as a permanent reminder on my practice notes and making a map to guide me and help discipline my errant ways....! Jeremy
Great to hear from you Jeremy!
Very useful content. Thanks for sharing important points
So good,thank you
You are so expressive in teaching things.. happy to have met you!
Thanks and welcome
Very interesting and well explained. I like it. Thank so much.
No way!!!!! Thank you so so so much
Wow! Brilliant!!! Thank you. I’m just starting to play piano. This will be good.
Very good information to apply.
You teach very well
Remarkable
You are on your way to encompassing the beauty while teaching music and piano
Thank you
I am endlessly amazed and dazzled by the patterns and merging of one scale into a minor into major and exploring adding notes and renaming the chord and key ( learning some Jazz adds much )
I have found kindred souls who share a way forward that makes sense and tunes it up a level
We're nearly all busy people, and to make piano feel productive and therapeutic, we need to intersperse our playing between all the other stuff we do. So for example, I work from home and, with my physical exercise, I schedule training. The same applies for piano. I need routine where sometimes I'm practicing and sometime I'm just playing 'pop'. For example, I am learning the Eminem rap song with my daughter '8 Mile', and I realise there is a very nice paino ref to loop. So, I just want to jump on to taht and teach here and then we're having fun. In the venings, I like to lock-away and work on my learning, which in my case is blues piano. So, this is what I need help organising ans structuring.
Some very useful observations here!
Excellent tutorial. Many thanks. Illuminating. B
Thank you so much❤
One of the tools that I found very helpful or me to get over my uneasiness with accidentals was Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. This is a work in two books, each book having a prelude and fugue in each major and minor key. I highly recommend it.
Tom your tip of thumb always landing on C and F is brilliant. Another thing I realized is that the 3 black keys match up to the three longest fingers on your hand (index, middle, ring).
Great teacher
Thank you so much for the lesson. Learned something new. I love how you teach, very well explained....😊
Many thanks Jacqueline
You're an amazing teacher!!
Many thanks, JL Music.
When you demonstrate that the thumb always starts and finishes on C and F respectively for all scales, you didn’t mention that you start each scale with a different finger?!
How do you know which finger to start with?
No, not for all scales. All scales on the flats in the right hand. Which is Bb, Db, Eb, Ab, and even F major (and C major). Now if you reverse engineer your fingering, and look at your hands. Db major right hand for example. Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C Db. Thumb F and C. So let's work from that. 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2. Would make most sequential sense to the fingers.
@@contemporaryschoolofpianosorry but I still don’t get it?! Could you possibly explain it a different way please ? 🙏🏾
Back from Morocco and happy to hear you AMAZING MUSICAL ADVICE 😊😊😊😊
THANK YOU SIR!
Nice video!
When I started I just learned c major scale to learn crossovers then every week I would add a new major scale to add then every minor scale added one at a time then every blues scale then pentatonics major/minor. Then learned them all over 2- octaves to gain more freedom up and down the keys. With these scales I started recognizing the same patterns. Then the modes I started realizing were just the same scales starting with a new tonic, made modes extremely easy to learn. I think the biggest thing that blew open my door of improvisation was when I figured out the pentatonic scales can be played over any chord in the same key and sound great. I’m not big on reciting though, i actually don’t really like classical heh, I like noodling so not sure how this applies to anyone else🤷♀️
Thanks! You are a phenomenal teacher!
Thankyou very much appreciated. Reach out to me at tom@contemporaryschoolofpiano.com, we have a little treat to say thank you for your support.
Excellent video. Thanks
Glad you liked it!
So glad I landed on your channel. You took both the venom and the teeth out of the snake! I like the way you approach learning the piano. I will continue to follow your lead. Thank you.
💯
You're right. Practice makes permanent, not necessarily perfect.
So true!
Tom…this is excellent. Thank you brother.
Pleasure 🙏
This is so good. I’m watching it again
Great video Tom thank you. You referred to technique and I think to begin i need to focus on literally using the Left hand correctly and also being able to play without looking at the keyboard as I currently do!
Yes, looking away gives you the opportunity to train your muscle memory. Though, for large leaps, I wouldn't get too caught up in looking away for those sorts of tricky passages, just focus on the simple stuff first, playing scales and melodies, and finding chord shapes using more of your muscle memory, and not just the visual. All of these components are important, think of them like pillars. Hope this helps!
Studying music theory is like studying English grammar as a student like myself who is learning it as a second language. People who learn grammar in practice and real situations are more fluent than the ones who want to be fluent by reading grammar books. ( knowing all rules in books wont help without practicing in real situations). Mastering music is exactly the same. By knowing basic music theory a musician can play most of pop songs if they actively get involved with songs.
While theory and notes etc are essential, for non musical folks like me, I found learning by ear first and then by note, theory and structure later to be easier and make sense. Similarly I find easing into a language first by ear and then learning the grammar etc. I still don't know what past participle or subjunctive are but can speak a few languages without that knowledge.
@@zamar2158 Thanks. True.
Oh yes! Wish this was shown to me 60 years ago, but it still important now. Thanks.
Practising slowly with phrasing dynamics and phrasing direction dynamics with a sense of rhythm with subtle accents gets a great result if included. That way it might end up being consciously more musical. Your videos are important to anyone at any level. Thank you !!
Many thanks Charles
Impecable
Thank you,Maestro.🌹🌹⭐🌹🌹
Welcome!
Love your videos. I’m nowhere near your level and I’ve been saying how incredibly the setup of the piano is. And in a physical sense a baby and a cat can play a piano even by accident it’s that easy. Compared to say a trumpet or guitar. So easy to make beautiful sounds. 😊
This is brilliant!
BTW, I read that chord as Gbmaj9+11/Ab. Perhaps the software limits how many characters it uses to describe a chord, so the 'b' was dropped? Anyway, would anyone write it that way on a lead sheet? At some point the short-form description becomes slower to read than just writing the thing on the staff, as well as being more ambiguous.
Cool software, though. What is it, and is it reading from midi?
Thanks for all this, Tom. I'm very early in my piano journey though later in life, and these tips are golden for an old duffer like me who won't have decades to achieve whatever I can. Certainly young students who absorb this will get a boost and an early sense of accomplishment. Should be part of every keyboard teacher's toolbox in my opinion, for whatever that's worth.
Thank you for a wonderful video. The Pianist who inspired me to take up piano at 68 years old is Elton John. I have always been enchanted by Chopin. Just by the way, you have a beautiful voice! I watched your walk through of "Your Song" :)
Tom, that was simply awesome. For the last six months I've been looking for ways of improving my piano playing fast. Through trial and error I came up with these six points myself. I wish I'd found your video sooner. One thing I do every day is try to find yet another pattern in the scales. There are dozens and dozens of patterns that can help every musician master the scales a lot faster. This is the way I do it: for a few minutes every day, I have a printout of all the scales (major and minor) in front of me, and I go through them looking for patterns - and finding them.
I also have a seventh point: learning tunes by heart. Playing with your eyes closed is a great way of developing a good ear. It's quite hard, specially at first, but it pays off big time!
Thank you for your kind words and sharing your unique approach to mastering scales. Your dedication and inventiveness in seeking out patterns within scales is truly inspiring. This is a wonderful strategy that many can benefit from - it can indeed speed up the learning process and deepen understanding of the scales.
Your method really highlights the beauty of music, showing that it is not just about memorizing notes but also about discovering and understanding the inherent patterns and structures. By doing this, you're not only improving your technical skill but also fostering a greater appreciation and intuition for the music itself.
I'd be interested to hear about some of the most unique or helpful patterns you've found. Perhaps sharing them could help other viewers in their own musical journeys. Keep up the good work, and happy playing!
Good morning Tom thanks for the piano tips it's a good lesson I saved it and even though I Play the drums and sometimes I Arranged my music with my keyboard and I got 7 albums it's never to later to learn this is very helpful thanks Mr Michael Sylvester
The first tip, already bro…..wow. Thank you
Thanks!
Thankyou very much appreciated. Reach out to me at tom@contemporaryschoolofpiano.com, we have a little treat to say thank you for your support.
Omg, I’ve been playing piano for nearly 60 years, and I learned so so much from you today in this video. Just retired as an accompanist and assistant choir director for my local school district and am now starting to teach piano. This is such insightful information that I can share with my students and benefit from myself. Thank you, thank you!!
That's fantastic to hear Susan. We work with many piano teachers around the world. Welcome to our world of Piano and finding better ways to teach 🎹 😀
I find practicing slowly harder than practicing at normal speed. Which probably means that I need to focus on practicing slowly more. That's great advice which I sort of know but still manage to forget.
Yes, that's a normal issue people experience, it's sometimes hard to hear music slow - but it's worth working on it as it has many benefits.
Among the dominant seventh arpeggios, I find the G7 is the hardest, because there are no landmarks
Hi Tom, changing my relationship with the piano right now lol. And yes I need a better plan 😉 And thanks for talking about learning difficulties. We all need to see it in way that we understand for ourselves. Great lesson again and still my favourite piano channel 😊
PS I think Schubert sounded better slowly, but that's just me haha
And tecnique just means playing it the only way you can... how it feels best for you and how you can make it work for You!
You are a GENIOUS AND A GREAT TEACHER SIR 🎉 SIMPLY AWESOME 👌 THANK YOU SIR!!!!
Wow, thanks
Thanks Tom. Stopped everything I was doing to listen all the way through. Learned HEAPS!! Now I need to take the time to experiment and practice slowly - or perhaps ‘thoughtfully’ so as to give my head and my soul time to understand and to savour the many tastes and smells that emanate from my piano and my fingers!!! Will send that email!!! Thanks. D
On guitar, they had a different approach. C mexalidian (sp?) has a flat 7. That’s one flat, which equals F major.
So we play an F major scale in the eighth position (where C lives) and it’s the same box pattern as every major scale on the guitar, but in a different place on the neck. Can that apply to piano?
Short answer, yes!
Grazie.
Many thanks for your kind donation, we have a gift for you please email us at tom@contemporaryschoolofpiano.com
Really like your learning philosophy,
Thanks!