Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum I have finally got it!

This week something clicked and I think I've got it. I have a list of songs the length of my arm that I know I can play and all I have to do is take them one at a time, spend a few hours working on them and I've got it - a repetoire of all my favourite songs.

I now know how music works, how the great contemporary songwriters make music work, how The Beates and in particular Paul used simple chord progressions to make some great tunes come alive on the piano. Now I can do it!

That's wonderful, Gilbert. Do you have any insight as to what caused everything to click? Did you try anything new and different in practicing? Or do you think it was just a matter of everything finally falling into place?

Whatever the reason, it doesn't matter... just revel in your progress!

Wow! That's awesome!!! I'm with Monica....what happened? Can ya bottle it and sell it?

I've had insight breakthroughs in other areas, but none so profound as what you're describing.

If you can explain what clicked, I'm sure we'd all love to hear (literally and figuratively) it.

Again, echoing what Monica said, enjoy, revel, frolic and play your heart out.

Monica, I came to realise that I was trying to play too many styles all at once and this was hindering my progress. I have sampled many types of playing and various learning styles. From each of those I have probably taken a small piece of each to build the player that I feel I can be now.

I have tried weekly lessons (they were with a superb teacher), Alfreds books, Improvising Blues Piano book and Easy Piano Lessons (Shawn Cheek) and Piano Magic. As far as practice goes, I normally practice at least 1-2 hours per day. All excellent resources but the one single thing that really made me see the potential in me were the youTube tutorials of Piano John http://uk.youtube.com/user/pianojohn113

What Piano John is doing in his tutorials is play the songs as they were recorded by the original artist, in many cases The Beatles, Elton John etc. That is the playing style that I have always worked to achieve and although I had the basics of it mastered at the back of my brain, I was lead to believe that I was missing out on something because I simply hadn't enough belief in myself.

Yesterday, I sat through one of his tutorials and I was able to play note for note the one of his arrangments BEFORE I actually watched it. Therefore, I am not only playing like the artist but THINKING like the artist.

I hope this makes sense.

Hiya Tony!


YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!

Great News!!




Lee

Those videos are great you mention - I'm going to spend some time with 'em myself - super find thanks

Gilbert,
Thanks for the youtube site - piano John makes it simple!!! Great teacher!! Looks like I'll spending a bunch of time on the web with my roll-up keyboard!
Woody

I have downloaded all the PianoJohn video's that I want onto my laptop. This then sits by my side at the piano. I use a notebook to take down the entire chord progression only (not the lyrics - I know all the songs anyway) and then I play through with the video running - pausing as I need to. When I've run through a few times, I'm on my own. It's so easy!

His stuff is outstanding and he plays songs I also really love, but for me trying to copy his fingering and stuff is just as difficult as trying to read sheet music.

And Gilbert, I'm sure all your hard work up to now allows you to take advantage of John's instruction. Good luck and record us some Elton and Billy!!

Mark, take one song at a time and buy yourself an A5 notebook. Play through the tutorial and make note of the left hand/right hand prompts that come up on the screen. Use your notes to follow them if you're not sure. I can identify his fingering instantly - its as easy as recognising guitar chords your favourite pop star is playing!

I'ii have to take closer look. Tiny Dancer and Pianoman are sweet...

A good understanding of chords and inversions of the chords is vital.

I remember a gigging pianist telling me to learn as many chords off as I could and I could play anything.

Hi Gilbert!

I wonder how did you download the youtube videos. Is there a program or something like that?

The only success I have had is by installing Mozilla Fiefox onto your system. There is an add-on that you can download that installs an icon on the browser page. Everytime you load up a youTube or similar video you simply click on the 'SAVE' icon and it downloads to your chosen destination. It is easy to install and you can use it WITH internet explorer or an ALTERNATIVE to IE.

I found the firefox addon didn't work too well. I use this site to download:
http://www.videodownloadx.com/
You need a flash video player that plays .flv files.

By the way, congratulations Gilbert!

Keyboardklutz, thanks for the link. Firefox has always worked for me though there are occassions when some video on sites other that youTube do not come down. This is a useful addition.

Good to hear from you again.

Mark & Gilbert,
Sounds too complicated for me. At 61 I'm beginning to learn that you really can't teach an old dog new tricks unless you spend a lot of time at it!!!! My roll-up keyboard was a Christmas present but I think they go for about $60.00. I roll it out in front of the Monitor and learn whatever is being taught. After a few reps, I can then ttansfer waht I learned to my acoustic. It works for this old dog.

Gilbert thanks again for the youtube site!!!

Hi Gilbert ----- I was going to ask the same question about how you are downloading his videos. As far as I can see, it can't be done because all you...make that me...can do is to download and save the link and if the video is removed from YouTube so does your link. If anyone has specifics on how to permanently save a copy of one of those videos I sure would like to know how.

btcomm - believe me, I have a pen drive with all of pianoJohn's wonderful video's on it. I sit at my Roland FP-7 and have my laptop running with the video on full screen. The mouse pointer is sitting on the play/pause button and I run through the tutorials - I also have a notebook to write down the chord progressions. When the tutorials ends, with most of them at least, I can play the song start to finish. These are tunes that I spent my whole teenage and adult life singing. It takes a bit of practice, as with any new tunes but its a great resource.

Gilbert:

Congrats on finding your way to where you want to go musically. With all the possible ways to learn piano, finding a way that really suits you is quite an accomplishment.

Thanks for the tip on YouTube lessons. I checked those lessons out, and really went crazy this weekend, downloading TONS of lessons. I found those you were referring to, as well as a great set of lessons on funk piano styles, blues/boogie piano, gospel, and latin stylings. I downloaded these as .flv files and converted them to mpg (mpeg 4) files, which I then burned to CD and am able to play on my Radio Shack portable DVD player. This player is no longer made, but its form factor (clam shell with the DVD inside and the screen on one side, sits perfectly on a music stand and even has a remote control. Perfect for music learning right at the piano to be viewed just like sheet music.

I used Firefox (I see some people asking about this) and a site called keepvid.com, where you can drag their icon to your browser toolbar and simply click on it when you have the video you want to download. Then I use a program called ffmpeg to do the conversion. I am also able to convert wmv files to mpeg4 via a combination of other pieces of software, also in the Linux environment.

These lessons on YouTube are great, but are not a substitute for those of us using more formal courses. I would say these YouTube lessons are really like a friend showing you a lick, rather than teaching you all the foundational stuff so you can udnerstand all the contexts in which that lick can be used. I think these YouTube lessons are a great addition to whatever course of study a person is using, so I am merely putting them in context, rather than denigrating their value.

Tony

Tony, of course! I have had over a year of lessons. Theory, technique, scales, sightreading, rhythm, key signatures etc. The youTube tutorials are an addition to what I have learned already and certainly not a substitute.