Last weekend, I stepped a huge step closer towards my goal of playing the piano, and purchased a Yamaha PSR-225GM at a local yard sale for ten bucks. It came with the power brick and a cheap black stand, but that price couldn’t be beat!
After a though cleaning outside, I set it up and plugged it in to test it out. Worked perfectly, with the possible exception that I only know how to play the first 16 measures of Movin’ Out. So I’ve decided to do something about that.
Piano? Don’t you play drums?
It’s always been a dream of mine to learn how to play piano. As a long time drummer and percussionist, I’ve played many instruments and can read drum music, and my brother even did his best to give me the basics of piano and music theory, I just wasn’t ready. But now I have lots of incentives. My daughter loves music and loved her ‘kitty piano’ very much, but she seems to have lost interest in it recently. I can’t say that I’ll miss it, since it had quite a few ‘demo songs’ that could really get on the nerves after repeated (and repeated, and repeated) listening.
Also, while some of my hobbies take up lots of room or create a mess, hence banished into ‘the laboratory’, a small keyboard with it’s own stand can be tucked right next to the desk in the Solar, giving plenty of space to play and practice while still hanging out with the family and not hidden away in the garage.
So how to learn?
Well, I checked the sidebar of the /r/piano subreddit and read the FAQ, which lead my directly to two wonderful resources: an open source book called Fundamentals of Piano Practice. and my new favorite website on the net, MuseScore
The book has been very helpful on guiding me as to ‘how’ to practice, as well as ‘what’ to practice. While doing a few simple things like scales and arpeggios, I’m also going to learn a few simple songs as I go along. One of the first I’m choosing is the Chocobo Theme from Final Fantasy. [Hint: press the “play” button in the upper left of the screen, I really love what this website does with it] For an even better version of how amazing that website is, check out One Summer’s Day (Spirited Away), press “play’ and maybe ‘full screen’ if you wish. It’s truly a wonderful website and I can see why it’s so popular.
Anyway, off to practice!
