Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Began playing piano again and confused about notation..

Much thanks for the offer,, but now I know to let go and not stick to it 100% I'll know to just leae those notes go and just play the higher melody notes. So going through all the bother of learning and recording for me isn't needed, although the offer is much appreciated.

I'll practise this song with this and try to record it to post on here to show what I actually managed with all this help lol.

The english wikipedia page which I read first didnt help much, but the dutch one specifically mentioned that for piano a arpeggio chord is one which cant be played as written down and therefor just played in quick sucsession as you explained here..

Honestly this is a relief. But the play along cd didnt help much with the midi music still playing the chord notes along other notes..

Funny to see that both Maechre and jotur were right lol. But the sheet music didnt include the arpeggio line when you need to hit both a low E and a high Bb but it is there later.

A quick note about pedal. You mention that you play it when it is written in the music. It would be helpful to get a feel for what it does so that you can choose to use it deliberately. I'll risk writing what you probably already know.

The strings have a "damper" on them. When you press a piano key, then the damper lifts, the hammer strikes, and the string can vibrate. When you release the key, then the damper falls down again, stopping the vibrations. Think of plucking a guitar string, and then putting your hand on the string - the sound will stop. The pedal's job is to lift the damper so that the string can continue vibrating even after you release the piano key. (I have a silly picture of two tiny people living in my piano who take turns holding the damper off the strings.) A digital piano has this behaviour programmed in.

Right now you are following instructions and getting the results. When the music says "pedal" then you press the pedal and get the musical result. You can also work the other way around. Experiment with the pedal and holding notes and releasing notes, so that you can get a feel for how it all functions. Then try deliberately for different effects. If you do that, then when you come to a piece like this, you can say "I want that note to keep ringing while playing these other notes. Can I do that by having the damper hold the note? Will other things get blurred that I don't want?" Then experiment.

Exactly Cathy!

Most times, including the melody in the piano part to accommodate those wanting to play it solo style is a matter of "copy and paste" into the piano part. If you or someone is singing, ignore the copied melody. If you're playing it solo style, you'll have to ignore some of the long sustains where it doesn't make sense. Like Cathy said, non-classical arrangements are far less strict.

Ok, I think I just played that first page fairly acceptable. My piano is getting tuned for the first time in 13 years tomorrow so I'll hold off recording it till after .

I got one decent voice chat mic for my computer that is very clear and should be good for recording it with. I'll confirm that the recording is good before posting it here though. But all the help has been really appreciated!

Btw, I couldn't access the inspiration thread on the stickied post, personally Proffesor Longhair is a inspiration. As he only seriously began playing in his 30s and is now the most famous player of new orleans style blues. (I got another book with sheetmusic of his songs, but I'm going for some slower jazz first lol. But I got no clue if he is mentioned in that thread or not).