Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Rachmaninoff Prelude 32 no 12... 1 chord too big!

So don't start at level one. Start a bit further up. Sorry, I'm just being honest regarding laziness. Deny it if you will, but what you need to know is how easy it is to read music. It's VERY easy. Here goes:

Memorise the letters for the spaces for each clef and the location of middle C.

That's it. Four letters for each clef. Both contain ACE and one is the word FACE (the otehr ACEG). Okay, there's rhythm as well, but the abovereally is all you need to know to learn how to read pitches. Then every other note is never more than one away from something you already know. Start comparing and you'll be reading in no time.

If you can't do that you are DEFINITELY lazy!

you're essentially asking me to take the time out to make a recording just for you .... no. I may post one on youtube once i have some equipment though. I'll keep you posted.

Give up until you can read music, both of you.

Funky that's just .... the stupidiest thing I've ever heard.

As stupid as hoping to play a Rachmaninoff prelude, but being too lazy to learn to read music? It's as easy as I described. Unless you are unbelievably stupid, you could learn it very quickly.

*sigh* If you were actually able to read music, you'd understand the nuances you were missing. You can't properly learn music as complex as this with a MIDI.

jesus, you're like broken records. It captures every note perfectly, you set it to as slow or as fast as you want. I am not returning to this forum of stuck records. At the end of the day, I can play piano and I did it without the the aid of a teacher or sheet music and yes I can play it well. Nothing you can say will change this fact. Debate over.

I'd like to believe you can play it well. But if Rachmaninoff were alive, I wouldn't be in a hurry to show him the results.

Are you lazy or are you just stupid? I think it's the former. You won't know just how easy it is to read music unless you try it. Unless you are just too stupid to be able to do the simple process I described? If not, then please do yourself a favour and go and prove me wrong.

Suit yourself. Maybe if you keep telling yourself 'I do not need to learn to read music to play the piano well' enough for long enough, it'll be true. Oh, and I'm aware of how accurate MIDI files can be. That's not the point, and if you had a clue about written music you'd realise that.

What's interesting is that you say you don't have the time for lessons, nor the time to learn to read, yet you have the time to yap about it (for roughly an hour and a half now). Given that you seem fairly familiar with the piano and you claim to play well, then I would think you could, perhaps, swallow quite a lot in regard to reading in that hour and a half. Unfortunately, your attitude sucks and whether you like it, or not, yes, as Nyiregyhazi said, you're lazy. How do I know? Because you'd rather take the easy way than doing the work. If following the bouncing ball, or the pretty colors works for you, then go for it. In the meantime, keep in mind that all you're really doing is playing notes, which is not making music. Have fun. =)
p.s. If you really don't care who enjoys your playing, or who agrees with you, then why so defensive?

Anyway, general rule for playing chords beyond your hand's reach is just roll the chord, or break it by playing the lowest note alone first and the rest of the notes together quickly after. The opening of Rach's 2nd Concerto is a great example of either technique as played by a variety of pros.

How are you guys giving people a hard time for learning music the way they want to? Maybe it isn't up to performance standards, and could be better if learned the normal way; however, why should any of you care? They are doing it for their own enjoyment... It is moronic to get on their backs for this. If they like this method, all the power to them

Inb4lock.

I don't want to rag on you too much if you're just doing it for the fun of it.

As for the chord for the original poster, just roll it quickly. Start with the bottom note just before the beat, then either play the next two notes together on the beat or play the second then third note really quickly after the first, with the last note landing on the beat.

As I said in my post, if you want to chase the bouncing ball, or follow the pretty colors, then go for it. I could care less. If you want to take the easy road to mediocrity, it makes no difference to me. The guy's attitude after someone said that there's a lot they'd be missing that way was fairly aggressive and he immediately came off sounding like an a$$ (and it only continued). As for it being moronic, you should just be thankful that your parents (or whoever is responsible for your musical tuition) weren't moronic enough to set you on your way in this fashion.

Thank you H. This thread is blowing my mind but I guess everyone has their own set of standards and if it makes him happy, there's no harm done.

It's just annoying to see someone have such a superficial attitude toward something that the rest of us love so much. Music, even music made by amateurs, is too important to be reduced to play-by-numbers.

Learn reading music from a notation learning from sythesia doesnt mean anything if you are too lazy person then stop playing piano.

So essentially what you're saying is you can't play music nor have a love for it simply because one cannot read sheet music? Sorry have we regressed back into segregation or something? You cannot use these toilets, it's whites only. Grow up. If it were up to some of you guys you'd go around enforcing "You cant play music until you learn to read" Why dont you go harrass the thousands upon thousands of self taught pianists around the world who play just fine. I'm sure they'd have a thing or two to say about your opinion. How many of you are full fledged concert pianists? I should think very few. At the end of the day it's a love for music, that's why we play. Noone on this forum has the right to critize anyones methods of learning. The only two people in this forum who didn't descend into outrage at the fact that I can play/learn rachmaninoff without sheet music are orange and xtraheat. What made me laugh further was the fact that a few of you actually said you'll never be able to play it or play it well. Well heck I think we have a few gifted psychics in the room. I know what I can and cannot do because I DO it.

What most people are trying to say is to urge you to take the time to learn to play from a score rather than being so defensive. It's worth the journey and definitely will ONLY benefit you in the long run. People are obviously peeved by your defensive responses that went on to neglect the essence what life long classical pianists (Rach prelude is considered classical) aim to achieve, and is utmost respect for the score.

I'm sure you hold the same passion for the piano as many of us do here, and in order to progress it's good to first distinguish when others are only trying to help from personal, malicious attacks.