Any piano players about?

ThePrettyDamned

I used to be. I enjoyed, and still enjoy, classical piano music. It's so beautiful, and covers all emotions.

So I tried learning - and bought a Roland hp3 digital piano so I could practice silently and still feel like it was a real piano.

I never really took to it, I found I clicked with guitar instantly where piano was a huge challenge for me. As such, I want to sell this digital piano (if anyone is interested or knows someone who would have it, let me know!).

Anyway, I'd be interested to hear if there are any players here and what they like or dislike about it. For me, I just prefer guitar - I've recently tried to get back into piano and I just don't get it, regardless of how hard I try. I just suck at it!

VimFuego

is this the one?

http://www.roland.com/products/en/HP-3e/

mrs f did say just recently that she wanted to learn piano, though not sure she was thinking of buying one so quickly (we'd need to make space for it). Tell me more (price, location, inside leg measurement etc. etc.).

strumjoughlamps

not piano but I mess around with a usb midi keyboard, I(like my drumming and guitar playing) I am very.........unskilled. sloppy, basic... but I bloody love it, really do enjoy just messing around..

couple of examples.

https://vimeo.com/105739817

https://soundcloud.com/david-lefley/reprise-de-piano-sunday-morning-mix

ThePrettyDamned

VimFuego;421155" said:

is this the one?http://www.roland.com/products/en/HP-3e/

mrs f did say just recently that she wanted to learn piano, though not sure she was thinking of buying one so quickly (we'd need to make space for it). Tell me more (price, location, inside leg measurement etc. etc.).

Yeah that's the one, I'll pm you later. No mega hurry, and it'll be quite well priced compared to what we paid. It's great for learning on, though. And midi, if you want to program drums and stuff it works as a midi controller I think.

strumjoughlamps;421172" said:

not piano but I mess around with a usb midi keyboard, I(like my drumming and guitar playing) I am very.........unskilled. sloppy, basic... but I bloody love it, really do enjoy just messing around..

couple of examples.

My friend has a midi keyboard.

I'm equally as shite with that as I am piano! but he loves it, uses it to program drums and strings.

I loved the instrument, and the sounds, and the fact it could do heavy as balls angry music to the prettiest sounds that invoke a firework show in your mind... Without fuzz, distortion or delay.

But I can't get on with it.

VimFuego

ThePrettyDamned said:

VimFuego;421155" said:

is this the one?http://www.roland.com/products/en/HP-3e/

mrs f did say just recently that she wanted to learn piano, though not sure she was thinking of buying one so quickly (we'd need to make space for it). Tell me more (price, location, inside leg measurement etc. etc.).

Yeah that's the one, I'll pm you later. No mega hurry, and it'll be quite well priced compared to what we paid. It's great for learning on, though. And midi, if you want to program drums and stuff it works as a midi controller I think.

coolio, when I mentioned it to her just now she was interested (and it's mostly her shit in the way, so that may even motivate her to move it)

Danny1969

I play keys on a weighted Roland midi keyboard, an old A-33. I enjoy playing keys, you have more latitude to be a one man band. If I'm playing Lady Madonna for example I can do the bass line with my left hand and stab chords and pick out bits of melody with my right hand, I can't do that on guitar to the same effect.  

Paul_C

I own a piano.

Phil_aka_Pip

I have an upright piano, AFAIK built in the 1920s. I also have a Rhodes MkI 73 key stage piano. I enjoy both, although I've never had a piano lesson in my life. My mum says I use the wrong fingers. 

Nomad

I've got an acoustic upright. I'm pretty crap, but it's good fun to play. I don't really play tunes as such, mainly because my reading is pretty dire (took me ages to learn Bach's Prelude in Cmaj). I also struggle to play rhythm with the left hand while jamming a melody with the right, so I tend to use the left for simple bass lines, or just hold down chords.

Sounds great with the sustain pedal down - loads of sympathetic harmonic things going on.

stickyfiddle

I have a Yamaha P85. It's not a bad thing and I got it for cheap. But I do find it harder than guitar to play naturally, despite having loads of lessons as a kid. I understand it musically and theoretically, but I'm not at the point I can just think notes and they come out of the instrument like I can with a guitar.

ThePrettyDamned

stickyfiddle said:

I have a Yamaha P85. It's not a bad thing and I got it for cheap. But I do find it harder than guitar to play naturally, despite having loads of lessons as a kid. I understand it musically and theoretically, but I'm not at the point I can just think notes and they come out of the instrument like I can with a guitar.

Yeah, same here.

It's a much more logical instrument than the guitar - everything is the same distance away, and neatly arranged into colours.  

Yet I find it much easier to make something acceptably good on guitar...

CabbageCat

I play a bit. I had lessons as a kid and still play on my Yammy P60 sometimes.

It's difficult to say whether one instrument is "harder" than another but piano definitely has a different learning curve to a guitar. It doesn't take long to learn guitar well enough to have fun with it (C, D, G and you're away) but piano takes a long time to get the hands working independently - and then getting the eyes involved as well for sight-reading (which I've never got the hang of; I generally play from memory).

I think the piano is the best solo instrument once you've got the hang of it. Guitar isn't bad (compared with bass or clarinet or violin which I also sometimes play) but if you're going to be stuck on a desert island I'd recommend taking a piano.

Phil_aka_Pip

I've composed way more tunes on the piano than ever I did with a guitar. But the piano is not even my second instrument ...

ThePrettyDamned

CabbageCat;421588" said:

I play a bit. I had lessons as a kid and still play on my Yammy P60 sometimes.It's difficult to say whether one instrument is "harder" than another but piano definitely has a different learning curve to a guitar. It doesn't take long to learn guitar well enough to have fun with it (C, D, G and you're away) but piano takes a long time to get the hands working independently - and then getting the eyes involved as well for sight-reading (which I've never got the hang of; I generally play from memory). I think the piano is the best solo instrument once you've got the hang of it. Guitar isn't bad (compared with bass or clarinet or violin which I also sometimes play) but if you're going to be stuck on a desert island I'd recommend taking a piano.

I think I'd go with that too. Even some simple stuff is wonderfully beautiful sounding. There is a piece in a piano magazine I learnt years ago and it's, by far, one of my favourite pieces of music ever, yet it's quite simple.

Phil_aka_Pip

I concur with @CabbageCat: If I were stuck on a desert island I think I'd rather have a piano than a guitar.

bigjon

I started on piano aged 4, only took up guitar aged 15. While I much prefer playing the guitar, for listening I often prefer piano-based music, most recently the new album by Hiromi

horse

My brain still thinks in 'piano' when I hear music, even though I've played guitar for 25 years and like guitars much more... Fortunately I was taught a shoddy technique where my left hand plays mainly octave bass, and my right hand plays chords / melody combined - which helped when I moved onto guitar.

ThePrettyDamned

A big thing for me was hearing Muse - more specifically, apocalypse, please by Muse. It's heavy as all hell, but if you played the riff with guitar and bass it would be too clean and pretty sounding, or any drive and such a densely populated chord sound would mush up. Yet on a piano, it just sounds enormous!