Piano - the guitarist's blind spot!?!

[Guni]

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'

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

[Koala]

I whole heartedly agree with ya Guni. But first of all, lemme give the piano forum a yay...YAY.
Working with Bangha, my two man band (at least in the studio), I´ve had to face the keys ( I just purchased a Yamaha Motif ES 8 last year, great synth) and have found it tough to rearrange my brain and have each one of my hands do something different.

On the other hand knowing music theory has had a great impact on my capacity to arrange on the keys, and playing the keys has helped my music theory greatly, just being able to see chords and scales, as opposed to ¨"position/shape playing" which many guitarists, including myself, rely on way too much.

Hopefully we´ll get this forum flowing real soon, with old and new members, the likes of Bob, who will hopefully help our transition into the realm of black and white, sight-reading for piano, and technique (for my thumb, index and middle fingers can only stretch so far )

That´s all I can think of now that I just woke up, but I hope this forum gets up and running fast. (Some technique tips and exercises would probablly be the best place to start off).

Go ibreathe!

[=Bob=]

I'll second that yay! You know, I came here because I really enjoy music theory. When I started reading, I noticed there seems to be quite a bit of discussion (and even reasonable discussion at that) about music theory here. And then I see it's mostly guitar-related, but I don't care. It's all theory to me and I think seeing some guitar-specific perspective is really great. Then I see a post requesting the addition of this group! And there you have it... Very cool...
=Bob=

[Benny]

Originally Posted by Guni

'Piano for the non-pianist' Guni

I saw that course but never got a chance to take it(wanted to for the same reasons). I finally got a little yamaha composer/piano thing for the Kids (9 & 6) and got the Instant Keyboard book by Berklee Press, but I was woundering what book they used for that class, and is it user friendly? The modern method books for guitar I would not consider user friendly without an instructor, at least when first getting started. I will probably get the 9yr old lessons, and then she can teach me, but would like a basic knowledge type book until then, so any advice would be muchly appreciated.
Thanx Benny

[axeman36]

Originally Posted by Benny

I saw that course but never got a chance to take it(wanted to for the same reasons). I finally got a little yamaha composer/piano thing for the Kids (9 & 6) and got the Instant Keyboard book by Berklee Press, but I was woundering what book they used for that class, and is it user friendly? The modern method books for guitar I would not consider user friendly without an instructor, at least when first getting started. I will probably get the 9yr old lessons, and then she can teach me, but would like a basic knowledge type book until then, so any advice would be muchly appreciated.
Thanx Benny

Hi Benny,
What is the Instant kyboard book like? I have studied books one and two of Modern method for guitar. Is the instant keyboard book as good. Will it help me to achiebve my goal of being able to accompany myself while singing simple songs? Anyt info will be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Axeman

[Chim_Chim]

Originally Posted by Koala

I whole heartedly agree with ya Guni. But first of all, lemme give the piano forum a yay...YAY.

Yay piano.
(I don't play it but I sure do love to listen to it)