Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Piano

What keyboard and instructional materials should I get to learn how to play a piano?

Nonce — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 09:11:24 -0800

So what keyboard and music book(s) should I purchase to teach myself how to play a piano? I'd like to get some sort of grounding in music theory along the way that will help me appreciate music more, or understand what the hell a time signature is, or whatever. I also can't afford lessons.

I don't care about having a lot of different instrument sounds. All I want to do is learn how to play a piano. A headphone jack would be necessary so I can rock out quietly. Can I just pick up a cheap keyboard for $50 at Walmart? Or is there a minimum amount of quality/features that I'll be thankful to have six months into this?

Verifying a Wurly Piano is in fact Where It's At

elektrotechnicus — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:58:13 -0800

I might be able to purchase a Wurlitzer Electric Piano (looks like a 200A, but with a speaker cabinet supporting it) today for ~$450. This strikes me as a really great deal, and therefore just a bit suspicious. I'm obviously going to try every key (for both sound and feel) and make sure the tremolo knobs are working. What else should I look out for? Are there any potential defects which might not be obvious at first glance? What degree of disrepair should I be willing to accept at this price? It seems like the biggest issue will be reeds, but based on a cursory googling they seem to be pretty easy to tune (I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron and file). Is this harder than it looks?

Bonus Question: Will I be able to remove the piano from the speaker cabinet, or were some of these made as one big inseparable console?

Recommendations for DJ samples/songs ala Fatboy Slim?

heatherfl — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:30:56 -0800

My husband mixes dance music using Fruity Loops. I want to get him some CDs for Christmas for samples -- particularly stuff that sounds like Fatboy Slim. Help? I can buy loops already sampled or I can buy songs for that he can sample himself, it doesn't matter.

This song is a good overview of what FBS sounds like and what I'm looking for:
Mad Flava

There's a lot of retro sounding piano and brass, some funky bass/guitar, syncopated percussion, a bit of synth/electronica, and non-rap but rhythmically interesting vocals. If you're familiar with Fatboy Slim, you know what I mean!

FYI, I already got him "The Ultimate DJ Sample Box" which has actual Fatboy Slim samples. Just looking for supplemental goodies now.

So what should I get for him, music experts?

Thanks so much!

Help me find piano music to play.

philokalia — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:57:32 -0800

I want to expand my (intermediate/advanced amateur) piano repertoire. Can you recommend some music? I finally have some time to play the piano again, and I'm looking for some music recommendations. I used to be pretty good, but my technique has really deteriorated since college. I'll be working on that, but becoming a virtuoso is not really a priority, so what I'm after is interesting pieces that aren't too long or technically demanding. Bonus if they're witty.

Sometimes I feel like I've exhausted everything that's available for someone with my skills, but that can't be true. I've played through most of Beethoven's sonatas and short pieces, some Haydn sonatas (but no Mozart, which I find insipid). Also already in my repertoire are Chopin's Nocturnes, Waltzes, Polonaises (most of the Etudes are too demanding, I think); lots of Schubert, some Brahms, some Schumann. Scarlatti is fun; I don't have the patience for too much Bach polyphony, though I know it's always worth the effort. I loved Gershwin's piano preludes, and a handful of Prokofiev's Visions fugitives. Ravel is a little long-winded, I think. On the other hand, Debussy's Tarantelle styrienne is my latest favorite.

Who else wrote piano music for non-virtuosi? I'd welcome suggestions about almost any style of music except atonal or Philip-Glass-minimalist.

Sheet music for Eileen Ivers' Bygone Days

jaden — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:59:00 -0800

My Mom loves the Thanksgiving: A Windham Hill Collection and would like the piano accompaniment for track 2, Bygone Days by Eileen Ivers. Her birthday is in late December and I'd like to buy it for her, if I can find it. I've searched all the sheet music sites I've found but my Google/Bing-fu has failed me. All I've located is the same song (track 3) on Crossing the Bridge and a live version of the song on YouTube.

It's possible the song was written by someone else and only performed by Ivers, but the only alternate version I've found by Rudolf Friml is a different song.

Does anyone know where I could look (or if it exists)?

SWM seeks casual encounters with Piano - you must host!

Lutoslawski — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:49:59 -0800

Where in Portland, OR might I go to practice piano...for free/cheap?? I am a pianist without a piano. I have a decent keyboard, but it's just not the same at all. I'd really like to find somewhere I could practice just a couple times a week on a real piano. Preferably, I'd like to do this for free; though I might be able to scrounge up some pocket change.

I've had access to a piano my entire life (home, college), but now that I have graduated college I find myself piano-less - and I'm poverty poor so I can't afford to buy one; nor do I want to acquire a free one on Craigslist, as most would require a lot of maintenance - and besides, I don't really have anywhere to put a piano at the moment anyway.

Any suggestions? Do universities/community colleges ever offer some sort of "practice room membership" thing? Do you know of any rehearsal spaces with good pianos that aren't too spendy??

Thanks in advance everyone!!

Not your grandma's Schumann records: give me piano bands that will rock my face off.

JaiMahodara — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:37:13 -0800

I'm looking for piano-based rock bands that rock really, really hard. I've seen this question, but I'm specifically looking for bands - not songs - that are led by a badass, hard-rocking pianist, like the Led Zeppelin of piano rock.

I love Ben Folds, Fiona Apple, Brad Mehldau...and suggestions in this genre are certainly welcome as well, but I'd love to find bands leaning more towards punk, heavy metal, hip-hop, or any hard-rocking, unconventional bands that are piano driven.

Bring me audio ecstasy, hive mind.

At what tempo should I play the Maple Leaf Rag?

Maximian — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:43:33 -0800

Suggested tempos for Joplin's piano rags? When I was about 16, I learned to play the Maple Leaf Rag, at a fairly fast tempo, about eighth note = 190 on the metronome. I played it in front of an expert organist and pianist, and he said I was playing it "much too fast". Being a teenager, I ignored the advice of my elders.

Fast-forward 12 years, during which I played little piano. Eventually, seeking to recover my piano skills, I check out a book of Joplin's rags from the local music library. The preface (written by Joplin himself, if memory serves) admonishes the student never to play fast. No tempos are given in any of my scores. Three different recordings of the Maple Leaf I've listened to have the tempo somewhat above 180. However, I play the Gladiolus rag at 116, or even a little slower, and it sounds great. This matches at least one recording I have. Another recording I've heard, of the Magnetic Rag (which I'm currently learning), is perhaps even slower than that.

So, what is the "correct" tempo for the Maple Leaf? Do pianists play this and other rags at different tempos for different effects? What did Joplin mean by "ragtime is never to be played fast"? I'm currently retraining my fingers to play the Maple Leaf at 144, but is this too slow?

As a bonus question, my score for Joseph Lamb's "Ragtime Nightingale" indicates "Slow March", but I have no idea what that translates to on the metronome. What tempo should this be?

Modern VL-Tone?

dmd — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:24:53 -0800

What's the modern equivalent of a Casio VL-Tone? I've seen suggestions like the microKORG, MINIKP, and KAOSSILATOR, but that really doesn't capture the same segment. I'm looking for something appropriate for a 5 year old.

My piano picks up the the radio

TrashyRambo — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:09:24 -0800

My new Casio digital piano picks up the radio. I think this is a bug not a feature. You can very faintly hear a music station coming out of one of the speakers (which is very distracting). Any ideas on how to fix it?

Looking for piano music

crush-onastick — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:50:41 -0800

Please help me find some sheet music. The piano is finally out of storage, tuned, ready to play and I cannot find my favorite sheet music. ARGH. The Gayaneh Ballet Suite; by Aram Khatchurian (I've tried various spellings of the last name and of the ballet name), arranged for solo piano. A friend gave me a Russian language edition in high school. it's missing and I cannot find a publisher. There's a shop in town that can order it, if I can find a publisher. I am specifically looking for the suite that includes the adagio (which was used as part of the soundtrack in 2001). It's either suite 1 or suite 3. It is NOT suite 2. I am NOT looking for the Sabre Dance. I've been able to locate full concert band scores and a score for trumpet and piano, but that's not what I need. At this point, I'd be willing to shell out for the whole damn ballet if that's what it takes to get another copy of this sheet music.

If it's completely out of print, which is more than possible, does anyone know a good source for out of print sheet music?

"I got all five senses and I slept last night..."

Inspector.Gadget — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:06:35 -0800

Soundtrackfilter: Please recommend to me mostly-instrumental, sometimes dark, contemplative soundtrack albums (or even compilations or regular albums) in the vein of Michael Andrews' work for Donnie Darko or Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd's soundtrack for Mysterious Skin. As you might imagine from me citing Donnie Darko, I'm also open to soundtracks with a considerable 80s synth cheese element - even better if the songs are tweaked a bit a la M83 to not be so cheesy. Anything on the brooding <> inspired spectrum is especially welcome. As a point of reference, I very much enjoyed the recent movie Brick and would like to find soundtrack or ambient songs that capture that sort of "pieces fall into place, and it's awesome/terrible" feeling.

Thanks in advance, hivemind! My guess is that anyone with broad exposure to ambient, modern classical, guitar-based instrumental, electronic shoegaze, post-rock, etc. albums is sitting on at least a few recommendations.

How long will it take me to learn the keyboard?

DMan — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:38:25 -0800

Is it reasonable to expect that I can develop reasonable proficiency at piano/keyboard with 30 minutes to an hour of practice each day for a few months? Longer version: I consider myself to be musically inclined; I played French Horn in high school, picked up drums when I was in eleventh grade, and play guitar with a Christian worship band now. I really, really want to learn the keyboard, but what concerns me is that it seems like people spend years and years learning to play piano and even after that time, they seem skilled but not as much as I would expect if someone had been playing drums or guitar for as long.

So do the keys have a really long learning curve? My schedule is fairly busy and I know realistically I'll only be able to spend an hour at most per day practicing it. Is it reasonable to expect to be able to play through some songs after a few months of this, or am I looking at jumping into years of study?

Bonus points for recommended learning materials, but I realize other AskMe questions exist for that purpose.

Digital piano shops in Sydney

neworder7 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:58:15 -0800

Looking for shops to buy a digital piano in Sydney (or if its online, Australia wide) I live in Sydney city area. The only piano shop I know is Allans music in CBD. I would like to check out other shops to buy a digital piano.

I am looking for the obvious things like variety of products to try out and good price :) Even if you are not sure about the prices that's ok too, I just need some guide where to look.

Can you suggest a shop or two in the Sydney area? Also if there are online shops Australia wide I would also be grateful.

Thank you

What would you focus piano practice on if you could do it all again?

HopStopDon'tShop — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:28:42 -0800

You play the piano fairly well, you've had lessons, you enjoy it and when I tell you that I'm learning the piano you tell me that looking back on all the years of lessons and practice, the one thing that helped you the most of all was ________, and the thing that you felt was a biggest waste of your time was ________. Can you fill in the blanks for me? I'm just trying to find out what things people, in their personal experience, felt helped them the most in getting to where they are as a piano player, and what helped them the least.

Very personal, I know there's no secret trick, just curious.

What are the Sydney Apartment Piano Anti-Noise Law

neworder7 — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:18:17 -0800

I am a piano student will be renting an apartment on my own soon. I was wondering what are the anti-noise laws in Australia (Sydney) regarding practicing musical instrument at home. I have heard that one should not disrupt neighbours' "quiet enjoyment". But I am trying to understand what this means.

Are there some hours that I would be allowed to play by law, for example would playing after 12pm before 9pm be ok without requiring to get a neighbours consent?

My ultimate goal is I don't want to find myself that I am not able to practice, or be kicked out of apartment due to my playing within reasonable ours.

Any comments welcome...

Where can I practice piano in DC/NoVA?

phrontist — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:01:13 -0800

Is there anywhere in the DC area I, being relatively broke, could practice on a real piano? I'm about equidistant from East and West Falls church metro, and I don't drive.

What do you do with a pig in a poke?

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:46:10 -0800

We were bequeathed a Steinway grand piano, and were initially excited but now are wondering if this is more of an albatross than a gift. What should we do? I just finished school and have 20k in school loans. I'm getting by, but have no extra money to spend. I do have a beautiful climate-controlled place for a piano to live.

I also was just bequeathed a beautiful Steinway which turns out to need some emergency fixing. The piano techs say for $10.5k, they'll fix the emergency stuff and ship it to me. In its present condition, it is worth $12k. It will be worth $35k after it is repaired. If the repairs don't happen within 2-3 months, the piano will be worthless.

The family has told me it is my instrument- I'm responsible for repairs and shipping. But I also know that if I don't get it fixed (or, horror, if I sell it) I'll never hear the end of it from the family, for whom it is one of the most cherished family heirlooms. No one has room for it to stay with them in the area, and I'm at my wits end as to what to do.

Any suggestions?

I want to rekindle the love of music!

Yasuo — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:25:45 -0800

I liked piano at first, but under the stress of preparing a huge portfolio for college, it's quickly replaced by resentment and boredom. More inside. How do I rekindle my joy of music? I'm willing to try anything. Here are more details as to why I'm in a slump:

-Frustration is my main source of my procrastination. I ABSOLUTELY DESPISE MEMORIZING. It takes up 80% of the time and effort that goes into learning a piece, and I JUST HATE IT. I would memorize a few measures, then quickly forget it as I move onto the next. I have to memorize away from the piano because I tend to depend heavily on muscle memory, which in turn leads to a very public humiliation.

-Playing other people's music is not satisfying enough especially after all the stress and work put into memorizing them. I want to get into music composition, but I'm not sure if I'm up for an unstable life and an inconsistent income.

-Goal. I lack one. Teaching is inevitable these days for piano, but I don't really want to sit in my house doing the same thing everyday.

So should I forget about music conservatories because I find playing other people's music unsatisfying, memorizing them too difficult and frustrating, and don't want to end up teaching? And what about composing music? I'd like to enroll in some classes for this, but don't know where to start as a high school student in the L.A. area.

Good cheap flexible exectric piano?

singingfish — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:02:31 -0800

What's the best value second hand electric piano I can get? My requirements are full sized weighted velicity sensitive keyboard, and midi in/out cables. Maximum budget is AUD400 (USD 325, GBP 200, EUR 230). The Yamaha DGX-300 looks good apart from the floppy disk midi interface. Are there any other options about the same price/quality?

What is this contemporary classical mozarella music?

stereo — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 07:30:11 -0800

What is the music in this video?I've had no success with Shazam, Melodyhound or Google.

Help: How to move piano from Brooklyn to Providence?

betsbillabong — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:14:08 -0800

I am moving from Brooklyn, NY to Providence, RI next month. I have a full-size upright piano which needs to be moved. The problem is, my dream apartment in Providence is on the second floor and so the piano will either need 4-5 movers or a crane (as per a quote) because of the winding stairs. Piano movers have given me crazy expensive quotes (around $2000) which I cannot afford. I do have a quote for about $500 from local movers to unload the piano into the apartment from a truck, probably less if they can bring it up the stairs (that's with a crane). Which of the following options would you choose, or do you have another solution entirely? Any piano mover recommendations for NYC-Providence accepted! (a) Hire a U-Haul and some piano movers to move my piano into the U-Haul on the NYC end, then load it up with the rest of my gear, drive to Providence, and have the local piano movers move it into the apartment on the other end?

(b) Same as (a) but try to find a few friends to move it? This makes me nervous, though there are very few stairs involved... just one stair to get into the building, one stair into the apartment, one stair into my bedroom where the piano is. Also, I'm worried about loading it in correctly.

(c) Get a regular mover to do the entire move? If I could do this under $1500, I'd probably opt for that.

(d) Use an interstate piano mover, who will be much cheaper? The only problem with this is that I don't think they'll come to the apartment to check out what is doable, and I cannot end up in a situation where I have the apartment and the piano can't be moved inside.

(e) Give up, and find another apartment. This one is sweet, though: working fireplace in the double parlor LR/DR, tons of light with big bay windows, backyard, screen porch, amazing rent, good neighborhood. It wasn't easy to find.

Thanks for your thoughts. The piano is 64" long, 28" deep, and 59" tall. It weighs a ton, almost literally (ok, maybe not, i think it weighs about 1000 lbs).

BB

Piano teacher recommendation in Washington DC?

medpt — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:35:19 -0800

Can you recommend reasonably-priced piano lessons for an adult beginner in Washington DC? Ideally centrally located or on a metro line. Thanks!

What are some books or educational DVD's for learning rock, blues and jazz piano and Hammond B-3 soloing and licks

doppler68 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:28:52 -0800

What are some good books or educational DVD's, besides Jamie Abersol, for learning rock, blues and jazz piano and Hammond B-3 soloing and licks. I am a very competent keyboardist. I can play by ear, chord chart and written music. I am a good band musician. I can comp and sound great. But I can't solo for the life of me. I have a good digital piano and Micro B mark II. I don't really have any good licks. Where can I go to learn this stuff?

A guitar book that's good for my wrists?

invitapriore — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:06:59 -0800

I suffer from a tendency to develop tendonitis in my wrists. Gyorgy Sandor's On Piano Playing has helped me learn to play piano in a way that keeps my wrists happy. What similar book exists for guitar? My wrists recently flared up again and I decided it was time for a technique reboot on the instruments I play. Sandor's advice, things like keeping the active finger(s) in line with the respective muscles in the forearm, has really helped me to play in a way that doesn't cause me pain or damage. I've been trying to apply his general principles to guitar playing (all kinds, but mostly with a pick), but the ways in which they might be applied aren't always obvious to me. Is there a similar book that you recommend for guitar, that focuses on anatomically healthy technique that allows you to get maximum effect with minimum tension?