Day 6/365: Keyboard

[nanila]

I asked for a keyboard for Christmas, and the bloke responded with a Yamaha P-45. Gosh.

The reasoning behind the request for this present was as follows:

• The children should probably be starting music lessons soon. I started when I was five.
  
• I cannot face the prospect of driving the children to another activity.
  
• I had classical piano training up to approximately Grade 7, which is the point at which I got bored and stopped practising/having lessons.
  
• With the assistance of the appropriate books, I can probably teach the children how to play. Not to Grade 7 probably, but if they show enough interest then they can have lessons.
  
• I wanted to play pop music once I became a teenager and was discouraged from doing so. See point 3) re: loss of interest.

Here’s what has happened since the piano arrived three weeks ago. It was too big to conceal or bring in the car to Norfolk so the bloke gave it to me straightaway.

• I taught myself to play Hurt (Nine Inch Nails) from the sheet music the bloke bought me. I can now play it from memory.
  
• I started teaching Humuhumu how to play scales.
  
• I started teaching the bloke how to play scales and read music from the basic books.
  
• The bloke and I are now competing for practice time.
  
• I bought the sheet music for Faded (Alan Walker) and started teaching myself that.
  
• I have been practising for at least half an hour a day, sometimes longer. Last night I practised for an hour and a half. I can't recall ever doing that of my own free will as a child.
  
• I have decided I am allowed to play as much non-classical music as I like. I'm not being graded or required to perform. I am doing this because I like playing music, and being enabled to rediscover that was one of the best gifts I've ever received.
  
• If I keep this up, I might start taking voice lessons, because I never had those. I used to love singing and playing. I don’t know why I stopped.

Recommendations for good online sheet music providers and/or good piano-based tunes (there’s an Evanescence/Amy Lee book on Amazon, DO WANT) are welcome. I don’t mind paying for decent arrangements.

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

I don't know if it's your kind of music, but Andrew's mom also got a keyboard for Christmas and we got her Dr. John Teaches New Orleans Piano and she is really loving it.

[sfred]

*takes note*

[nanila]

I've never played blues piano before! That would absolutely be up my street. I will put it on my Amazon list.

[angelofthenorth]

Sheet Music Direct is a good resource for all sorts of stuff. There are also a lot of free music score sites for classical music.

One of my things this year is to get lessons and Do Grade VIII!

[nanila]

Great, thank you for the recommendation.

And good luck with your goal!

[lurkingcat]

I have decided I am allowed to play as much non-classical music as I like.

Yes, yes you are :) It sounds like you're having a fantastic time with this and I'm glad you've found something that makes you so happy.

[nanila]

\o/ The nice thing is that I'm enjoyed playing the classical pieces from the graded books more because I don't have to. :P

[st_aurafina]

Yay, music!

lilacsigil got a keyboard last year - her background sounds similar to yours, in that she played for a long time then stopped, and is now picking it up again. (I asked her where she gets her sheet music from online, and she says she mostly just googles what she wants? Not sure if this is helpful.)

I have decided I am allowed to play as much non-classical music as I like.

Omg, yes. I know LS has a book of Beatles songs sitting on the keyboard. She obviously has similar ideas.

[nanila]

Yes, yay! And it is helpful, thank you. I haven't played for twenty years and it's astonishing to me how much of it has come back so readily.

[mysterysquid]

Ooh, awesome! I never learnt an instrument, and I wish I had. I've toyed with the idea of getting a cheap keyboard, or maybe some computer-based method of music making.

[nanila]

I never learnt an instrument, and I wish I had.

My sympathies. The bloke is the same. He was actively discouraged from learning as well. I'm very glad that the concept of "tone-deafness"*/inability to sing in children seems to be dying out as it is a load of old rubbish.

* I realise there is an actual medical condition that a very small percentage of people suffer from that causes an inability to recognise differences in pitch. But that is not how most people use the term "tone deaf".

[liseuse]

I was made to learn the piano but not allowed to take any exams - because of the necessity of singing and that not being a thing I can do. I probably don't count as actually tone deaf but I cannot, in any way, replicate a sound I can hear. I can tell the sounds are different! But the sounds that come out of my mouth are nowhere near the sound I'm trying to replicate!

I didn't particularly enjoy learning the piano which is probably because I was a results orientated child and it felt a bit pointless, and it was mostly fulfilling a social-climbing 'I wish my childhood had contained this' desire for my mother.

[wohali]

cool! fantastic idea. pianos are great fun and lovely learning tools!

[nanila]

I so enjoy playing. I keep sneaking off to get a little practice in during the day. :)

[sfred]

I am so enjoying piano playing - I'm glad you are too.

[nanila]

\o/ Go us, for rediscovering a thing that is so pleasing! :)

[sfred]

Yes!

[angrboda]

A friend of ours teaches singing. Just a shame you don't live near York, I would have totally recced. :)

[nanila]

Aw, too bad. Sadly, York is probably a bit of a way to go for a weekly lesson!

[silveradept]

I hope it's the same across the pond, but I know for a fact that the public libraries here are stocked with both "learn" and "the catalogue of popular artist X" books on piano and guitar, most definitely.

[nanila]

Ooh, I hadn't thought of that! I hope you're right. I shall check.

[nanila]

Yep, they do, although it is a limited selection and none in my local library. But I can reserve things and they'll be brought over. :)

[roarofsilence]

I just got my piano tuned after it was delivered from my parents' storage in Brussels - good timing. I really want to play more but Keanu wants to 'join in' which makes it slighly trickier.

I had a similar thing growing up where pop / anything 20thC+ was discouraged so it's weird now thinking I'm free to play ANYTHING.

[nanila]

Yay for re-tuned piano!

The children joining in is not always ideal. Keiki loves bonging the lowest notes at the most inopportune moments.

It's excellent having no restrictions on playing!

[castiron]

Sounds like great fun!

We're lucky to have an excellent piano teacher very close to our house, and Middle is progressing slowly. I figure that if he learns how to practice and carries that over into other subjects, I'll have gotten my money's worth.

And we now have a family game where I play a tune on the piano and the kids try to name it.

[nanila]

Oh, excellent! Well done, Middle. Also your memory game is a great idea, thanks.