Re: just had to try this one more time

Found another text, about keyboards this time:

It is easy to learn to play the piano. It is just as with computers,
it is just a matter of how much time you spend at the
keyboard.

Try my method if you like:
Play your favorite music on your stereo, loud.
Play your keyboard at the same volume level, so you can hear both the
music and your own playing equally good.
Play as many tones per second as possible, any tones.
Play rythmic or non-rythmic, anyway you like.
Try all kinds of patterns you can imagine.
This will also help you control your fingers and become faster.

If you can play ten notes per second your ears will be able to compare
all these ten tones to the current music.
After a short while you will hear a tone here and there which sounds
like it fits into the music.
Keep on playing fast and you will find more tones, you will start to
recognize patterns of tones which fit into the music.

The patterns are changing second for second in most music, so there
will be different patterns at different times.
You will find scales and chords on the keyboard.

Beside this random fast playing you can also learn chords, scales and
melodies from courses on the web.
The experiences from your practical playing will help you understand
the theory of music.

Another good method is to "fake". It means you think of a rythm or a
song, and start playing it even though you have no idea how to.
Get the rythm first, and find the notes later. Use any notes to begin
with. Or use the patterns you have found through fast playing, or from
a course on chords and scales.
Even though this will sound terrible to some people,( let the cat out
of the house before you begin), you should put as much expression as
possible into your improvised music, imagine you are the great
pianoplayer who knows exactly what he is doing. Experiment with
dynamics, weak tones and strong tones. Experiment with rythms.

....
The most important of all is that you are having fun at the keyboard.

Music is just about making noise, structured noise.

The structure can be rythmic and/or tonal.

Most people are a little afraid of making noise. In our closeliving
society we must think about our family and neighbors.
But electronic instruments have the advantage that you can use
headphones and make as much noise as you like.

When I was younger I learned to play spanish classical pieces on the
guitar, but it was a little boring.

I took music far too seriously.
It was too much work and too little fun.
I also had other interests so I did not have so much time for music.

When I started to play again a few years ago I did it in a completely
new way. Like I described in my last message in this thread I am just
having fun fooling around with sounds.

I can spend hours just making noise together with my favorite music,
which I have in a jukebox program in my computer.
I use mostly midi, but also some mp3 and wav files.

It takes a lot more time, but I learn in a different way, I feel much
safer and have more fun and now I would not hesitate getting up on a
stage even if I do not know what the others want to play.

After hundreds of hours of fooling around I now know I can play along
with anything and enjoy it.

There are a lot of music lessons and theory available on the web.
Search for "chords scales music lesson course keyboard" for example
and you will find such sites.

Some music theory:
In most music modern there is always a current chord, and against the
background of that chord we use a suitable scale for the melody.

Learn the major scale, which you will find by trying tones.
The major scale also fits minor songs, you just change what tones to
stress and which tones to avoid.

You will soon realize that the fourth and the seventh tone are
problematic, they fit in sometimes and don't fit in at other times.
If you avoid those tones you get the pentatonic scale, which is much
used in blues for example.

You can try improvising and composing new songs.
Choose which chords to use.
Try little melodies in the scale which fits to the chords.
Start every little melody sling on a tone in the current chord and end
on a tone in the same chord, or in the next chord, if it is time to
change chord.
Stress the chord tones more than the other tones in the scale.
Use the other tones as transition tones.

For example if we use A minor, which is the same scale as C major, the
white keys on the keyboard.
The tones of the A minor chord are A C E.
A little melody sling can start on E, fool around a bit on the C major
scale and end on A.
After some beats you can end a sling on E and change chord to E7.
Make some slings in the scale of E7, stress the seven just before
going back to A minor.
(remember that the 7 in a 7 chord is always lowered half a step)

And suddenly you are a composer, nice huh?

To me music is not about right or wrong, it is about making noise and
having fun.

When I was younger I thought like that too, I learned and trained to
"do it right", but I have changed my mind about music somewhere along
the way. It was boring and limiting to always be afraid to get it
"wrong".
So I started from the beginning again a few years ago.
Now I play to amuse myself and I don't give a damn what others think
about it. And I have learned a million times more about music this
way.
Instead of "learning" music I have "discovered" it through fooling
around with patterns and rythms for many hundreds of hours.

It takes a lot of time to learn music this way, and some might think
it is a waste of time. You could learn more faster with some more
structured method.
I guess those people are trying to save time making love as fast as
possible too ;-)

Time flies when you are having fun.

That is why people should be able to do what they feel like, and not
let other forces or ambitions control their lives.


--
Roger J.
.

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