Guni
03-31-2005, 05:05 PM
My Humble Piano History
While attending Berklee I found myself getting more and more interested in arranging for big ensembles. The more I got into writing for instruments other than guitar, the more I realised how limiting the guitar is in terms of mimicing a 'band sound' due to it's lack of being able to play the full blown chords someone uses within an arrangement - say voiceings for a 5 piece brass section.
Piano is the only instrument that gets you close to the 'real sound' which is why I took a course called 'Piano for the non-pianist' :p
That course title was spot on for what it was about as the goal was not to become a great piano player but to learn enough to be able to play the changes of a song or to demonstrate certain voicings.
Piano Pain
Technique wise there's one thing that really put me off and drove me nuts and today I'd express it like this:
Real piano players are from a different planet (a guitarists humble opinion:)
One's whole life as a guitarist is focused on teaching our brains to sync left and right hand in the most accurate way. On piano our biggest hurdle is to break out of this habbit, or in a very non-scientific description: split the brain into 2. I remember some exercises with a bassline played with the left hand, chords on top with the right hand, which made me think that I might have reached stage 1 of some seriouse brain damage.
Piano Gain
There are tons of advantages in getting to grips with a different instrument, be it drums which will help improve your timing and rhythmic feel or the piano, which is perhaps the most 'neutral' instrument - neutral in terms of displaying music harmony, its functionality and sound like an open book - in black and white.
Guni
While attending Berklee I found myself getting more and more interested in arranging for big ensembles. The more I got into writing for instruments other than guitar, the more I realised how limiting the guitar is in terms of mimicing a 'band sound' due to it's lack of being able to play the full blown chords someone uses within an arrangement - say voiceings for a 5 piece brass section.
Piano is the only instrument that gets you close to the 'real sound' which is why I took a course called 'Piano for the non-pianist' :p
That course title was spot on for what it was about as the goal was not to become a great piano player but to learn enough to be able to play the changes of a song or to demonstrate certain voicings.
Piano Pain
Technique wise there's one thing that really put me off and drove me nuts and today I'd express it like this:
Real piano players are from a different planet (a guitarists humble opinion:)
One's whole life as a guitarist is focused on teaching our brains to sync left and right hand in the most accurate way. On piano our biggest hurdle is to break out of this habbit, or in a very non-scientific description: split the brain into 2. I remember some exercises with a bassline played with the left hand, chords on top with the right hand, which made me think that I might have reached stage 1 of some seriouse brain damage.
Piano Gain
There are tons of advantages in getting to grips with a different instrument, be it drums which will help improve your timing and rhythmic feel or the piano, which is perhaps the most 'neutral' instrument - neutral in terms of displaying music harmony, its functionality and sound like an open book - in black and white.
Guni