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Post by lol on Apr 14, 2008 12:43:16 GMT -5
...so that I could have something to sing along to. Acoustic guitar that is. Problem is, I really don't want to take lessons, seeing as I already have enough music throughout the week between choirs and traditional Irish/flute. Some people I know have taught themselves guitar, and recommended that I do it. Can anyone back this up? Taught yourself guitar before? Know someone who has? Likewise with piano.
Gracias.
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Post by canedust on Apr 14, 2008 20:36:27 GMT -5
Piano is a bitch to learn, I studied it for 4 years
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Post by SimpsonsWWE316 on Apr 17, 2008 9:15:55 GMT -5
It isn't hard to self teach guitar. If you have trouble just ask someone you know for some tips.
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Post by tedthered on Sept 15, 2008 10:42:07 GMT -5
For the most part, I taught myself guitar and piano.
Guitar:
I got a guitar as a birthday present when I was 13 and signed up for some lessons at my high school. I quit after about three lessons though becaue the teacher was pointless. He didn't actually go about teaching you the craft, he just basically showed you how to play whichever song you asked him to teach you. So after that, I just taught myself. Mainly I'd just go on the internet and get some guitar tabs, learn the songs, and practise them until I could play them like clockwork. I'd also take a couple of bars of a song and try to gradually speed it up until I could play it pretty fast. By the time I left high school at 16 years old, I could play pretty much anything by Metallica and Iron Maiden. Then when I started sixth form, I did A Level music so I got taught a few techniques and given tips by other guitarists, such as sweep picking, how to tap better, and I also used the knowledge I got from the course to teach myself how to improvise a guitar solo by knowing which key I'm in. I'm now good enough to easily pass the Grade 8 guitar exam (the highest level), which goes to show that you can become a good guitarist without a teacher. So really, if you have internet access, a lot of patience, and perhaps a friend or two who are good guitarists (not necessary), it's do-able...especially if you're only looking to be a casual player and not Steve Vai or Eric Clapton.
Piano:
The sole reason I started playing piano was Ludovico Einaudi, if you haven't hear his stuff, or haven't heard of him at all, I strongly recommend that anyone who loves beautiful piano work should check this guy out. Anyway, I heard "Le Onde" and was in love with it. By this point I'd done GCSE Music and was in the middle of A Level music, so I had a pretty good grasp on sheet music/notation. A friend of mine who plays the piano sent me a .PDF file of the sheet music for the song and learnt the song, again starting slowly and getting gradually faster until I felt comfortable playing it. I also used my guitar to work out melodies, and then transferred that over to the piano. I did this with a few other pieces such as "Nuvole Bianche" (also by Einaudi) and "Fur Elise" by Beethoven. I also got myself a Grade 1 lesson book the problem there was that I was now able to play stuff at Grade 4/5 level, so I didn't have the patience to be practicising beginner scales/exercises. And the problem with THAT is that I can learn a piece by memory and play it really well, but I can't site read for toffee unless it's a pretty slow Grade 1 piece. So yeah, again, it can be done. But I'd strongly recommend that if you're going to learn piano, don't do what I did and just learn songs by memory until you have hands that can play fast. You should really teach yourself to sight-read at the same pace as you teach yourself to play the keys, because otherwise you'll have to learn songs by memory all the time instead of just putting some music in front of you and playing it straight off.
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