/r/Learnmusic
Post links about learning to play music, instruments, and musical theory. Ask questions and share your thoughts of your musical journey. A community of experienced and new musicians, teachers, and hobbyists - all and anything to do with music learning.
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/r/Learnmusic
Sorry if this isn’t allowed but I’m a music student and my theory is abysmal idk how I’ve been passing lol but was wondering if anyone could help me understand what the assignment wants from me composition wise¿ I think I need someone to explain it to me like I’m 5. None of my lectures have made sense either ://
Hi. I’m a classical voice major in college currently and Im struggling with my vocal ear training class level 2. We do things in fixed do, my teacher doesn’t teach the solfège for the accidentals which I feel makes this harder for me because I can’t connect the accidental pitch to its own solfège. She doesn’t like it you use a different method that’s not hers. Recently we have been doing a lot of melodic dictation in minor keys and sight singing in minor keys. Even with melodic dictation and sight singing in major keys I struggle besides C major which I’m pretty good at. I did a mediocre job on my midterm. (Melodic dictation in D minor, E minor and A minor, melodic dictation in two voices, and identifying qualities of chords) My final is coming up in a month and week, if I get a atleast a B on the final, she’ll get rid of my midterm grade and let me go to the next level.
Are there any tips on how to help with learning ear training faster with the fixed do method. I’m trying to dedicate an hour a day outside of class time to like plug everything in my brain. But I need like a curriculum on what to practice everyday for my brain to stay focused and make progress. My main thing for help is definitely melodic dictation. (We never do past 2-4 measures in 4/4 and 6/8 by the way)
I’ve been playing violin for 3 years, I had a teacher but mostly practice myself now, I found a old guitar in my grandmas place and after cleaning it and tuning, want to learn. I know teachers are the best option but I can’t get one at the moment, so what is the second best in your opinion to learn guitar?
I enjoy reading the ''which instrument is most in demand'' posts on Reddit, but most of them are pretty old now. The answer always used to be drums or bass. Maybe that hasn't changed.
In my country there's one website that seems to be THE place to look for people wanting to join a band, or for bands that need a specific player. I've noticed that there are quite a few bass players available, and most posts made by bass players get maybe 30 to 40 views in total. In contrast, right now there are only a handful of posts made by keyboardists and each post has like 350+ views.
I started out on keyboard and switched to bass. I think bass is more fun to play, but I see way more possibilities for unique songwriting with synths.
I'm going to be honest. I'll probably never be anything special on bass. And I really want to do something different from everyone else. With synths, there's an extra component in sound design. I believe your playing technique can be super basic, but with proper sound design skills you can do some really unique stuff with it. Anyways, now that I see these changes in demand, I'm wondering if I should switch back to playing synths (would love to learn both, but I just don't have the time for that).
I'm curious what you all think.
Hello everyone,
I am currently a college student interested in learning an instrument. I played piano when I was a little (about 7 years old to 11 years old) but I haven't touched my piano since middle school. On the one hand, I do miss playing piano recently and want to pick it back up. However, on the other hand, I've also been interested in learning electric guitar. It's just so cool, and I like the how much you can do with it.
I think I only have time for one of them. I was wondering if y'all have any suggestions for me. Anything would be appreciated. Thanks!
A short lesson about Tobias Hume https://youtu.be/kF2Zw4WjKRg?si=b4MxIV6zQGhflKaj with English subtitles
I know there are other posts about people with small hands choosing an instrument, but I figured I'd make another post that is perhaps a bit more personalized to my musical interests and specific "issue".
I don't have small hands, but my pinkies are very strange. They're a good bit shorter than the rest of my fingers, and they're also crooked, double jointed, and "weak" if that makes sense.
They're not entirely useless, but I'd be curious to hear your recommendations to a person who theoretically had no fourth fingers.
I would certainly consider percussion, but would also like to know if there are any brass / wind or bowed instruments that could be played effectively without much pinky strength. I enjoy piano but feel that my reach would be limited, and I am not interested in guitar / electric bass / ukulele.
I am a fan of many music genres but I enjoy jazz, classical, and rock.
Thanks for the help!
Playing syncopated music has always been really hard for me. But I made a huge breakthrough today and I wanted to share with folks if it helps others.
So what I discovered is that for me to do multiple things simultaneously and in time, I had to start with some basic coordinated muscle memory and then slowly improve the timing.
This really worked well. It's still not easy but it opens up doors to being able to do this for more difficult material
If you want to read the details of what I mean, please read below...
====
I was playing a chord progression on this 4 bar phrase where the bolded text is where I need to play:
1 e + a | 2 e + a | 3 e + a | 4 e + a
1 e + a | 2 e + a | 3 e + a | 4 e + a
1 e + a | 2 e + a | 3 e + a | 4 e + a
1 e + a | 2 e + a | 3 e + a | 4 e + a
It was really weird because I discovered some things about where I struggled:
So my breakthrough came after I got home, by using this approach:
INTRODUCTION
Hello, I am a pianist in year 4.1, I joined when i was 6 years old and now im 16 so im in intermediate level still. I'm assisting a music school this is individually and in a group in the direction genre classical.
Apart from piano, I had an online class for 6 months with a guitar teacher where I learned the basics of guitar (I started with acoustic guitar and moved on to electric). I really liked it because there were a lot of different things that had the guitar and the piano didn't, but it was pretty easy for me to learn it (still beginner level). I also learned other smaller instruments like the kalimba and the harmonica.
EXCEL and NEGATIVITIES
I'm more of an intuitive player and a performer, actually my best manner to learn to play a song is by hearing it alot of times i also developed deafening sounds and only focusing on an instrument in a song around time. My negativities would be the rythmn. (i swear it's the only thing i keep failing on).
QUESTION:
I'm planning to complete my piano and get the master. After i finish it i was planning to learn one more instrument but i can't chose.
(As i learned many other instruments around the years).
In the past i always wanted to learn to play the Accordeon or the Harp.
Now i'm getting really interested in the Drums i think it would be good to learn it as it could teach me alot of the rythmn and coördination but im also very fascinated by the sound of it. But i'm also fascinated in the sound of the Eufonium it has a gentle yet soft and powerful sound into it that attracts me into it too. In the past i couldn't get any sound of any air instruments while my brother could so thats kind of funny. (this took place where we could try instruments out in the academy open-door day)
I was wondering if someone could help me choose between them? I know its impossible to learn all of them so i will have to choose wiselly.
EXTRA
English is not my main language sorry if there are some miss-types + have a hard time explaining whats on my mind. Feel free to ask if there's something u didn't quite get abt me and would be useful for the question it self! ^^
I've been learning piano on my own for a while. What I do is to look for music sheets of simplified versions of songs I like and practice them, for example I learned Zombie and Bohemian Rhapsody. I also try to play by hearing, and I'm becoming somewhat decent at it. If I can hum it, I can play it
However I have very little knowledge of music theory. I know chords and scales, but that's about it. I know that things like Lydian or Mixolydian exist, but I'm not really sure how they work. Also when people start calling chords by numbers I mentally check out
With all the skills I've acquired I was able to write this song, and this is the height of my abilities so far
I feel like I've reached the ceiling of what I can learn on my own, and I'd like to use a book, but I'm not sure which one to buy, in part because they all mention levels and I have no idea what my level is. Too low and I'm gonna get bored, too high and I'm gonna give up
Also, I'd like to have many music sheets for many popular songs that are already for piano and at my level. I don't want to keep "translating" between guitar and piano
What books do you recommend me?
Here are some requirements:-
I need a line to show where each bar or quarter note starts.
The song should be at correct tempo.
Pause and play function. Skipping back and forth few seconds is required too.
Hi All,
One of my relatives gifted me a keyboard Yamaha PSR - E473 and I would like to learn music. But, I live in a small town and do not have access to a music teacher nearby.
Can you suggest any online course/series of videos I can start learning with from the very scratch like hand positioning, finger movements etc. I tried to check YouTube but most of the videos are not structured/beginner friendly.
I would like to start with free learning material and willing to pay if I make any progress in coming days.
Thank You for response. 🙏
First of all, I apologize for my bad English, I used a translator and help from my friend.
Currently, I play two instruments: the guitar and the saxophone. (I've played saxophone since middle school and guitar since the beginning of grade 8th.) I've already learned a lot about the two instruments, so I'm thinking of learning another one, and I'm stuck between the violin and the piano. I enjoy how they both sound, and I don't care for the cost, but I'm wondering which one I should play. Please give an opinion. Thank you.
So I'm planning on getting into the music world, not really deeply I just want a way to express myself, I really like both sounds of guitar and piano. I feel like piano is easier but I really don't know what should I aim for, I'm not gonna be an official musician or smth I just want to be able to put my feelings into music. Or just play infront of my friends. I've never played an instrument my entire life so idk where to start
I would love any full courses or video series for free, any recommendation's? I want to learn specifically for making music. Things like how to change keys, etc. I really like complicated classical music, which I think is pretty theory intensive, but I like almost all music.
I'm sure there are many people around here who didn't start playing any instrument until they were 20 years old or even older.
I'm 23M. The thing is that I have more and more free time and I would like to start a hobby that requires some learning and I thought that playing an instrument could be a very good option.
The question is, what are the instruments that you recommend to start learning. I don't want to start with the most difficult of them all, I just want to start with one and give it a try.
As a reference, I love electronica (drone ambient) and shoegaze.
Hey!
So I'm learning piano for 1.5 years now, joined a Conservatory of music in my city 6 months ago, and left my job and started a full year of music training 2 month ago!
With my teacher, I started a little methodology of training, like 3-4h of work every day, split in 6-8 30 minutes sessions!
Starting with 30 minutes of scales, currently just doing the G scale, by quarters, heights, triplets and sixteenths, faster and faster until the end of the 30 minutes! Currently going from 50 bpm to ~95-100 bpm
So I'm doing that for 2 months, it's more and more fluid, I'm slowly reaching higher speed, but I can't stop noticing that I'm lacking a bit of precision, like I keep the rhythm for the whole exercise, but I feel like I often hit some notes slightly to soon or to late, and that my keys pressing are not always at the same intensity, etc... I don't want to be too fatalist but it looks like focusing doesn't help much and I'm not feeling a lot of progress on this subject... I know rhythm is a really long time work but I feel like some assistance could help a lot!
I mainly learn with sheets and chords reading, but I really love to use some softwares with my MIDI keyboard, I enjoy synthesia sometimes, and I was wondering if there were some software or tool to practice simple exercises like Scale, while monitoring precisely the hit time and the press intensity?
Anything that could show me how accurate I was, maybe with progression monitoring, and maybe with a playful aspect, could really help me a lot!
My kids age 8 and 9 want to start a family band. By family band, they just mean that we play songs together, not in front of an audience or anything, as that would be way too embarrassing for them to play with their parents lol.
8yo is just finishing first book of Bastien piano. He takes to it quite well. He's the most impatient of the bunch though. We already have an old Casio 88-key keyboard, which he loves.
9yo has been playing guitar for a few months. With practice, she can get most chords. She's been having fun looking up songs on line and just strumming less often (it takes awhile to transition still), sometimes only strumming once when the chord changes. She has a 3/4 size acoustic guitar which she loves. She also wrote her first melody last week and really likes plucking it over and over. She has the patience to keep practicing until she gets better at stuff.
Dad (me) has been learning the ukulele for past 6 months. I have a soprano uke. Certainly not a master, but I can strum most chords pretty well, and I have been helping both kids learn songs on their instruments, so I'm starting to understand the notes and a few scales. I played drums in middle school, but we don't have any drums.
Mom is a great singer. A neighbor just offered to give us their electric bass and amp, so we are thinking Mom could play bass. Mom played clarinet in middle school. :-)
Any ideas for how we can play music together with our limited experience and ages? I feel like melodies could be played on the keyboard, chords on the guitar and uke, but I have no idea how to make a bass line, and I don't really know how to make everything fit together? Both kids like to "jam," but it has worked better as solo jamming in practice, vs. when I try to play with them.
Hey all, I’ve been fascinated by the piano for quite a long time, but I’ve never had the time nor money to learn it. Recently my jobs gotten easier and I’m at a point in school where my classes are quite light aswell. I’ve now found myself with 5-7 hours of extra free time per day. That said, I ordered a es-120 with intentions of learning as efficiently as possible with my time.
I have a few questions, and any additional tips would be greatly appreciated. Note: I do plan on getting lessons.
What would be a good starting point?
Are there any online courses/books i should follow/read? (Ideally both)
Are there any youtubers I should consistently watch for educational content or even just piano related entertainment?
Any specific things I should avoid learning/bad habits?
How deep should i dive into music theory/sheet music?
Im quite an obsessive person, and I can manage burn out very well. Im just looking for the best possible way to divide and spend this time to efficiently become a well rounded piano player. Any and all help is much appreciated! :)