I'm lousy at piano but it really helps me understand music in a way that the bass doesn't. It's a worthwhile pursuit even if just a tool for seeing the relationship between notes. It really helps me understand chords, intervals, modes etc.
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Do you also play the piano?
- Thread starter nonohmic
- Start date
Yup! I started it several years ago as a "mid-life crisis" hobby, and it's actually my main passion now. I don't claim to be particularly great at it, but I do have a lot of fun with it. My main interest is blues and blues-adjacent music, but I also dabble in classical here and there. Here's me playing something neo-classical, for lack of a better term:
I do believe that it helps me with overall musicality, but I didn't take it up for that reason in particular, nor because I thought it would help me with bass. Mostly, I just wanted something I could play on my own, and not rely on anyone else!
Recently, I bought myself a Roland GP609 digital baby grand as a very belated 50th birthday present. It is now my one true love. Don't tell my spouse!
I do believe that it helps me with overall musicality, but I didn't take it up for that reason in particular, nor because I thought it would help me with bass. Mostly, I just wanted something I could play on my own, and not rely on anyone else!
Recently, I bought myself a Roland GP609 digital baby grand as a very belated 50th birthday present. It is now my one true love. Don't tell my spouse!
4 years of lessons as a kid... and I own the family piano..
And I still cant read piano music...
But I took what I did learn, and applied it with the guitar notation on most sheet music. If you don't know anything about piano playing, I can make you think I can play.
But a competent pianist will watch me and say.." what the %#$& are you doing?"
And I still cant read piano music...
But I took what I did learn, and applied it with the guitar notation on most sheet music. If you don't know anything about piano playing, I can make you think I can play.
But a competent pianist will watch me and say.." what the %#$& are you doing?"
That's me too. This is about as complicated as my piano playing ever gets. I define a bunch of unusual chords which session players sometimes miss, much to my chagrin when the rest of their playing is top notch. Too much training, not enough listening? I dunno. I've had to recut vocal parts because the session guys played incredible parts that were just wrong to the chords I wrote, and I didn't want to lose their parts. But I am able to adjust. What tends to happen is that they dumb down the chords, which annoys me, but it works ok so I let it go.4 years of lessons as a kid... and I own the family piano..
And I still cant read piano music...
But I took what I did learn, and applied it with the guitar notation on most sheet music. If you don't know anything about piano playing, I can make you think I can play.
But a competent pianist will watch me and say.." what the %#$& are you doing?"
This is not that, though.
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I taught myself piano a long time ago, got good at it, loved it... and realized years later that I really had no idea what I was doing.
Eventually I learned to play bass, which made guitar finally make sense, which made piano finally make sense. Now I just need to get back into it for real, and maybe I can finally be a decent player.
Eventually I learned to play bass, which made guitar finally make sense, which made piano finally make sense. Now I just need to get back into it for real, and maybe I can finally be a decent player.
The piano helped me to see theory, that is why I bought my first keyboard. I play (improvise) for my own enjoyment in C and use the chord tones or the C pentatonic scale to give me what I need. Use fake chord or chord charts and happy to make some noise.
Nashville numbers of chord progressions are a lot of fun.
Here is the intro and first verse of Peace piece using NN.
1-6-4-5 the first 1 is a diamond 1 - let it ring note.
1-6-4-5
1-4-1-5
6-4-1-5
Played in C
Nashville numbers of chord progressions are a lot of fun.
Here is the intro and first verse of Peace piece using NN.
1-6-4-5 the first 1 is a diamond 1 - let it ring note.
1-6-4-5
1-4-1-5
6-4-1-5
Played in C
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I’m old enough that when I was born television hadn’t yet come to Australia. We had a piano in the lounge room and I discovered its’ wonderful sounds when I was around 5 years old. I couldn’t play but I would crouch down under the keyboard to listen while reaching up to the keys to make beautiful sounds. I was enchanted by the vibrations, particularly the lower notes, and would let them ring out until they died away and then I’d make more. It was a wonderful new discovery that had me spellbound and delighted. I wanted more.
One day I arrived home from school and went to the lounge room to hear those beautiful noises again and to my horror and dismay, the piano was gone. GONE - as in, not there.
In it’s place was, you guessed it, a TV. I was crushed. I believe I would have been a pianist rather than a bass player if that tv hadn’t supplanted our piano.
In my teenage years I got a cheap acoustic guitar that I became fairly proficient with. Later an electric one that enabled me to start playing in bands. Bass came into my life when a drummer friend and I started a soul band. Bass players interested in playing soul were thin on the ground in Melbourne back then so I took it on and stayed with from there on.
I have owned some kind of keyboard instrument most of my adult life but never became a fully fledged pianist. I was too busy making a living with the bass. I believe every musician should have an understanding of chord structure and the best instrument for that is the keyboard.
One day I arrived home from school and went to the lounge room to hear those beautiful noises again and to my horror and dismay, the piano was gone. GONE - as in, not there.
In it’s place was, you guessed it, a TV. I was crushed. I believe I would have been a pianist rather than a bass player if that tv hadn’t supplanted our piano.
In my teenage years I got a cheap acoustic guitar that I became fairly proficient with. Later an electric one that enabled me to start playing in bands. Bass came into my life when a drummer friend and I started a soul band. Bass players interested in playing soul were thin on the ground in Melbourne back then so I took it on and stayed with from there on.
I have owned some kind of keyboard instrument most of my adult life but never became a fully fledged pianist. I was too busy making a living with the bass. I believe every musician should have an understanding of chord structure and the best instrument for that is the keyboard.
Took piano for a year in college. Then played light keys and rhythm guitar in a cover band about 20 years ago. I answered no to the poll....cause that's not really "playing piano". Most advanced thing I ever played was Jump....LOL.
I just never liked the instrument enough to stick with it.
I just never liked the instrument enough to stick with it.
BTW, if you think bass GAS is bad, try hanging out at piano forums ...
I mostly use it to write. It's standard for that; you've got the whole orchestra at your fingertips.
Playing piano just seems like the best all around way to learn music fundamentals, so it helps bass in that regard.
I also use it for transcribing. It's usually much easier for me to pick out parts on the piano and write them down.
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I play a little, it was my first instrument...
Why do I stick with it? because I like the sounds. Acoustic/grand is great, but if we extend it to include electric pianos (Wurlitzer), organs, and synths etc... it becomes a really sonically versatile instrument. Some synth basslines need to be done on a keyboard synth.
But also just musically, playing piano/keys opens a new world of thinking about music vs. guitar/bass. Particularly for chords.
Why do I stick with it? because I like the sounds. Acoustic/grand is great, but if we extend it to include electric pianos (Wurlitzer), organs, and synths etc... it becomes a really sonically versatile instrument. Some synth basslines need to be done on a keyboard synth.
But also just musically, playing piano/keys opens a new world of thinking about music vs. guitar/bass. Particularly for chords.
I had ten years of lessons. Wish I had kept up with it better. Plan on buying a nice electric piano when finances allow and getting back into it. I committed again to learning written notation with Jeff Berlin's "Bass Mastery" when that came out and want to expand my reading and piano skills to resume reading treble clef again as well.
Actually for me, that's what I learned the basics of playing first back in the 50's when I was a little kid. The best thing about getting a young start was that I learned how to read music at a young age. In high school I sang in the Glee Club, A Capella Choir, and Madrigals group. Reading music was a big help in that because I could quickly equate the notation with the parts I'd be singing. Found it helpful in 1965 when I started playing guitar first of all and then bass, because I had a solid knowledge of musical structure already. It wasn't hard to transfer the 1/2 step on the piano to 1 fret on the guitar and bass.
Then when I was a music major in College, it was very helpful to already know the basics as we started to dive into Harmony including chord construction, styles of classical music, counter point, and Jazz. Also sang in the the A Capella choir in college and had more piano lessons too although I was a voice major. When I started touring with a nightclub group in the early 70's, I was often the one who would work out the harmony parts and if I didn't have a grounding in Piano, that would have been much more difficult.
In 1985 went back to college to work on a computer science degree and of course I ended up singing in the vocal Jazz ensemble (small group with 4 each soprano, alto, tenor, and bass), which was not only a lot of fun but gave me a much different experience that singing in a classical manner. With classical vocals the emphasis is on clear and long vowels with diphthongs happening quickly at the end of the word. In Jazz, you sing all the way through the word so you'll sing the first sound of a diphthong at the front half and second sound of the diphthong at the end of the word and instead of being real short it will be just as long as the first part was. I probably learned more about phrasing from that than anything else and that transfers over easily to bass playing.
I think any other instrument you learn to play will help with your bass playing, but learning piano will give you a much more solid and logical understanding of the structure of music, both notes and rhythm as well as phrasing, the use of chord inversions to achieve different feelings, and the use of dynamics more so than any other instrument.
Piano was my first instrument and remains my primary instrument
Classically trained as a child and jazz as an adult
Classically trained as a child and jazz as an adult
Definitely a better musician. I started on trombone, then took up piano when I was learning music theory in high school. It is invaluable to be able to learn chords laid out chromatically in front of you. Just the simple act of playing through the chords in a song Will, over time, begin to cement your ability to hear inversions, slash chords, chord progressions, chord qualities, and extensions.
I continued with classical piano training in college, but didn’t find it nearly as valuable to my musicianship as learning and practicing chords.
