Piano Class Progress and Ear Training

I haven't been posting about the piano class much because...well it just isn't very impressive. But I think it is good for beginners (though possibly moves too fast for a TRUE beginner with no music background).

I get panic attacks about finding notes on the keyboard and about reading the notes on the staff (getting my brain to read both treble and bass clef at same time and not mix them up)...and yesterday the instructor asked us to play 2nd or 3rd intervals and say by ear which was which. When I was playing them and could look at the keys while I listened this seemed easy. They sounded different. But as soon as someone else played them and I couldn't look at the keys I was afloat. Like no idea.

This, of course, is not shocking because I have had a hard time with vocal harmonies in the past. I can't hear them and I can't sing them (unless someone shows me what to sing, I practice it, and then I ignore the other person singing).  I've also never been great at tuning by ear. Only recently have I begun to hear the "warble" of an out-of-tune note...but I still can't tell if the note is sharp or flat.  I even struggle, if you play two notes, to tell you which one is the higher note and which one is the lower note...I have to play them several times and think about it pretty hard.

I'm sure this is a skill that can be learned, but that some people take to it more naturally than others. I'd be on the end of the spectrum that really struggles and would need to work REALLY hard at it and still might never be great at it. I haven't ever really worked at it...and I don't know if I have the patience and interest to work at it.

It frustrates me that people seem to think this is a natural skill and are confused when you can't do it though. It's like they think I'm lying or just not trying hard enough. It pisses me off and makes me feel really insecure.

Everyone isn't good at everything.

I was noticing in class that I'm way better at playing than many of the others. I keep the tempo and play accurately. I can play faster than many.  I also was noticing that while I was bored and noodling around because I couldn't get the interval ear training thing...that I would accidentally happen upon melodies that I recognized and could pick them out by ear. It happened like 10 times.

So it isn't that I'm tone deaf...because I can pick out melodies from memory by ear. I can match pitches by trial and error. And to some extent I know when notes are close to each other or far apart. I just can't tell the intervals. I might know that note one is low and note two needs to be a lot higher...but even though I can hear the melody in my head...I'll have to make a guess to match the second pitch. If I guess wrong I'll quickly guess again until I get it.

Learning the keyboard is definitely helpful for learning the relative position of notes. It took me forever to start to learn that on bass/guitar. On the keyboard it is right there in black and white. It's interesting.

I think the class will be useful, but not earth shattering. I don't think I care about being able to play piano...but it does present one with useful basic skill sets.

Piano

So starting group piano lessons tonight. I have no idea what to expect and I have no goals or agendas for the experience. I'm not sure that I've ever taken a class or lesson on an instrument when I really didn't care if I ever actually learned to play it...it was just for fun and basic background info. It's kinda weird.

I admit, though, that it has crossed my mind that if it goes well I might whip out the Casio and steal the "Motorway to Roswell" outro (at 4:07 in video below) from RS after my bass line ends. Or play the organ breakdown in Bam Thwok (at 1:23 in video below...though I kinda love CT playing it on tap guitar).

Piano

So I just signed up for 10 weeks of adult beginner group piano lessons.

O.o

It's in line with 1) looking for more stuff to do (yes it feels necessary) and 2) being impulsive. Luckily, this is the kind of impulsive that only puts me out $150 and makes my Thursdays a little hectic this spring. Which is a-ok.

When I was little I wanted to learn to play piano and acoustic guitar. I loved the way that both sounded. My dad had an old chord organ (later he bought a second, more modern version) and sometime between ages 5 and 10 I taught myself to play it. Basically you played the right hand like normal and the left hand you played chords with a single button, kind of like an accordion. I don't think that I taught myself to read music, so the note names must have been written above the notes for the right hand.

Anyway, that was the extent of my experience with keyboard until I was about 25 (despite having been bought an electric keyboard in my teen years, which I still have). At that point I was living in a house with a piano and feeling ambitious, so I tried to teach myself to play. I actually did okay. At the time I was also teaching myself finger-style guitar in two lines (bass played with thumb, melody with fingers), so I kind of had the hang of reading music in two lines. I didn't advance very far by the time I moved out of that house, but it was at least a start.

Since then I've sort of lost interest in keys. I don't really like the sound of the piano anymore...or the acoustic guitar either really. I've moved on to harder rock. But I still think that keys provide a fantastic theoretical foundation for writing music. And it is a great mental exercise in limb independence. And I've always wondered what the pedals were for and how they worked.

So, ya know, what the hell? I hestitated at first thinking "oh maybe I'll do that SOME DAY but now doesn't seem like the time." Then I noted that the 10 week class goes until May...and that's a long time from now. If I wait for the next round of classes, it'll be next fall. Now is as good a time as any, and honestly, now is probably a good time to have more things to do. And, having taken classes from this particular program before I know, they aren't very high pressure. If I bail on some or don't do so great...it isn't a big deal.  So...like I said...what the hell?