Taking music lessons and composing.

[sakethencamenone]

Hi there. I was wondering if taking piano lessons will be benificial in making my composing better? I have very little music thereoy or piano playing knowledge . I have mostly just played by ear over the last few years. I know about basic triads, scales and a little on harmoisation, but thats it. Also would I be better off taken regular piano lessons, or maybe just electronic keyboard lessons? Thanks for your input and thoughts on my questions.

[gravehill]

I'd say go for it. It's useful to know the theory anyway and including the theory study with instrumental study will probably make it less academic and boring. I don't think the instrument itself matters in that sense, as long as it's a polyphonic one.

[sakethencamenone]

Thanks for the reply. The only difference that I see bettween the piano and electronic keyboard is the foot pedals and maybe the dynamics. But I think I will opt for the piano any way. I hope it all goes well. I was just messing around on the keys the other day and I realised that I can play almost all the major scales asending and desending. So I might be ok when the proper lessons begin. I think that the sight reading and playing with both hands will be the toughest part to pick up.

[jdtrbn]

I used to think that playing and composing were completely different fields and unrelated to each other. I have to say now, and many people have agreed, that when you play something you start to understand it. I find jazz especially hard to understand through theory only. Another thing is counterpoint techniques that may seem a bit random at first. There is a lot of stuff that you can just pick up thinking "I would never have thought of that". Although there's a lot of theory about music and composing is a creative process, a lot of things just have to be first heard and learned.

I had piano lessons for two years, then trumpet lessons for six years. After that I've just played on my own. I wish I had used the time better and actually tried to understand the music and not just learn to play technically correctly. Variation in playing is something you can easily miss if you listen too "academically".

The thing about learning to play is that it's really slow. If that's not a problem, take lessons. I don't know anybody who had said "I wish I hadn't learned to play".

[sakethencamenone]

Yeah! I have visited quite a few piano forums and the general consenious is to play slowly whilst learning. This is meant to be the best way to progress. I will bite the bullet and book my first lesson next week. I am paying £15 for a 1/2 hour lesson. I think that it will be money well spent.

[tapper mike]

Not all teachers operate the same even when they teach the same genre.

Learning jazz theory is not that hard. You can learn as much as you think you need to get by and leave it at that or you can follow your quest for knowledge to the limits perhaps even developing theories of your own.

One theory does not negate another. It is simply a matter of finding a method that works for you under a given circumstance.

There are performers/writers who's whole career can be summed up by one or two modes. and yet the songs span are easily identifiable from each other and have thier own idenity. You don't have to be all things to all people all of the time. Usually if you spend all your time working in different genre's you won't be good at any of them. Pick one and stay there for at least a year especially if you have less then 4 years experience.

A word about creativity.
All the music you have ever heard three times is stored in your collective unconcious. You may not be able to execute it ver batim but it's there.
A creative mind knows how to tap into that region yet not obsess on the original work. Mixing the known with the unknown to create something new.

As John Lennon once said.
There's nothing you can know that can't be known.

[sakethencamenone]

Hi there guys. I just got back from my first lesson tonight. I opted for a different teacher in the end. The fees are a litte more expensive. I pay £25, but I get 45 minutes worth of lesson. I felt things went well. Over the 45 minutes I manage to cover over half the exercises in the begginers book. We covered note lengths like crotchets, quavers etc as well as differnt time signutes, and I was able to sight read some pieces about %90 perfect using all of the above techiques. Considereing I have not had piano lessons I feel I did well. I hope I can have the same enthusiasum when things get harder. I also think that the teacher is a good one. She started the lesson almost immediatly getting me to play from sheet music. I am enjoying so far though.

[deastman]

Piano lessons will generally cover three different, but related topics:

1. Learning to read staff notation
2. Learning the physical act of performing written music
3. Learning music theory

If you have not done so already, be sure to discuss your objectives with your teacher. Make sure she understands your desire to learn theory for the purpose of creating original compositions.

[keyplyr]

Piano lessons will generally cover three different, but related topics:

1. Learning to read staff notation
2. Learning the physical act of performing written music
3. Learning music theory

If you have not done so already, be sure to discuss your objectives with your teacher. Make sure she understands your desire to learn theory for the purpose of creating original compositions.

Good advice

[witekr]

In my opinion learning to play for the sake of playing... getting more adept at the keyboard, learning more complex classical music and how to interpret it, learning to improvise.. these things will -greatly- help anyone who wants to compose music.

I took piano lessons with an excellent Russian concert pianist for many years and I never got into the theory side of things very much.. never did exams, scales etc. But learning and mastering complex compositions by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofiev, Joplin, and so on, let me get into the composers' heads and develop an intimate understanding of a lot of music. When you get into stuff like interpretation.. with all the subtle ways you can make a piece beautiful and emotional through your playing... it really helps with composing in my opinion.

A lot of the best classical and romantic composers were instrumental virtuosos, after all.

Learning piano technique will also make it easier to learn how to improvise, which I think is an invaluable tool that speeds up music creation. I can often scratch out 5-10 minutes of music in a day because I can record and lay down tracks so fast not having to edit much afterwards in the sequencer. If there would be any advice I could give someone looking for a good teacher, it would be to find someone of at least ARCT level, or a concert pianist or someone with a Master's degree in music. Experienced teachers will show you the proper technique to make expressive playing and learning easy.

[tee boy]

Piano lessons with a knowledgable teacher would be great... providing you are interested in piano music! This might sound obvious, but you find many people in your position becoming disillusioned with music theory as a result of studying it in an 'inappropriate' setting. Going to piano lessons and studying the keyboard rep will do you wonders, but only if you have an actual drive to learn about that kind of music. Otherwise, it will just bore the shite out of you.

Personally, I LOVE piano music. Some of my favorite composers wrote almost exclusively for piano - Liszt, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, to name a few. For me, studying piano was a joy as it enabled me to get under the skin of my favorite composer's music. Yet, I remember a day when my old childhood guitar teacher tried in vain to summone a mere ounce of enthusiasm from me towards the Baroque lute music I was required to study. I found it about as inspiring as watching paint dry... and hence learnt little of music from it.

So think hard about exactly what it is you wish to get from your lessons and select a teacher accordingly. If keyboard familiarity is what you're after, then perhaps go to a contemporary keyboard teacher who is up on the kind of music you're into. If it's study of the standard keyboard rep you desire, then perhaps contact your local conservatoire and arrange lessons.

Again, this might all sound very obvious. Yet imo, discovering exactly what it is the student wants to achieve is among the greatest hurdles in progress.

TB

[Melkor]

Lessons cant do any harm .... incentive enough in my book.

A little bit of cash for a LOT of knowledge/access to knowledge.


But playing is the greatest teacher.
Play,play and play some more .... literally practise until until your knuckles will take no more, and then keep going

[sakethencamenone]

Hi there guys. Thanks for your thoughts and responses about my piano lessons. I seem quite happy with my piano teacher so far, after around 1 month of lessons. I have also decided to take theory and composition lessons from a differenet teacher. So hopefully doing both the theory and the practical will give me the knowledge and skills that I require to make the music that I want.