Sab learns music (Guitar and Piano)

[sabotai]

I figured this might make a mildly interesting real life dynasty.

For the last several years, in my attempt to become...not "the most interesting man alive", but more of a "the most somewhat well rounded man alive", I have attempted to learn a few musical instruments (guitar and piano).

For the piano, I have spent maybe...10 days a year on it over the last several years. The guitar...about 10 days total in that same time span. So, I haven't really gotten far with either. I can't play anything on the guitar, and the best I can do on the piano is a few "(Very) Easy Piano" versions of a few songs (Sleeping Beauty Waltz and March Slav by Tchaikovsky are 2 of them...and when I say "(Very) Easy Piano" versions, they are from a book called "My First Book of Tchaikovsky"...so yeah. The most basic version of the songs that you can possibly imagine).

Well, enough talk about how I suck. I just bought an electric guitar and Rocksmith 2014, so I thought I figured I'd make journal of my progress in both guitar and piano. Hopefully it keeps me on track. My history with trying to learn these is that I spend 2-3 days on them, and then don't touch them for 6 months before I start to think about possibly trying learning to play them again.

So here's my progress on Day 1 of Rocksmith 2014.

My Path: Rhythm Guitar - I figured this would be easier than Lead Guitar, but I'm probably wrong and they are probably equally as hard. In fact, it sounds like it's going to be very chord heavy, and just thinking about that makes my left hand hurt.

Lessons: Attaching Your Strap, Holding Your Guitar (while standing up), Holding Your Guitar (while sitting down), Picking 101 - 100% complete. Shifting 101 - 41.2% complete

Songs: Love That's Gone by La Sera - 24.1%

And now my fingers hurt (the joys of starting to learn the guitar)


I also have "Learn and Master Guitar" with Steve Krenz. A DVD course that I bought a long time ago when it was on sale. I'll be going through that as well.

For Piano, I have the "Learn and Master Piano" DVD course that I bought a long time ago on sale. I got pretty far into it a few years ago. I also have the first few levels of "Masterwork Classics" from Alfred Music, and the first few levels of "Technical Skills" from the same company. And I have a whole bunch of music books for the piano filled with songs I have no idea how to play. Songs from The Godfather, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Doors, Elton John, the real versions of lots of music from Tchaikovsky ....some day.

[timmae]

Rock on dude! I will be following along!

[sabotai]

Thanks timmae!

April 29th, 2015

Guitar - what I said above

Edit: A few more songs in Rocksmith before I head to bed: You Really Got Me by the Kinks (11.9%), Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones (7.7%)

Piano - spent ~20 minutes on it tonight. Warmed up by playing the easy piano versions of Sleeping Beauty Waltz and March Slav, playing them right about 1 out 5 times. Practiced the first half of The Nutcracker March (EP (Easy Piano) version, the first 8 (of 16) measures). Also played the first song in the Masterwork Classics Levels 1-2 book, Carefree by Daniel Gottlob Türk (very EP version - let's just assume unless otherwise noted that every song I mention from now on is a very easy piano version).

[britrock88]

So I take it you have some ability in reading music, and are essentially training your hands? How about your music theory knowledge?

I'm in the position as a piano player where my theory knowledge is best, and my hands and reading struggle to keep up.

[sabotai]

I was a band geek in elementary school and junior high and remember the basics of reading music. I played percussion instruments, and spent more time on the bass drum than any other instrument, but I'd also usually be the one who played an instrument that was only needed for a song or two, like the xylophone. But that was some time ago. Before starting a new song on the piano, I sit with the sheet music for a few minutes and work out what the notes are. It doesn't take me long, but it's still a bit of a chore.

As for music theory, I have very limited knowledge of it. Nothing beyond the very basics, but I would like to learn more. I have a "for dummies"-like book on music theory that I've been meaning to read through.

[sabotai]

4/30/2015

Guitar

Rocksmith 2014
Lessons: Shifting 101 (76.4%), Chords 101 (78.2%)
Songs: Love That's Gone by La Sera (41.2%), Brand New Kind of Blue by Gold Motel (12.3%)

At the end of that Gold Motel song, it starting throwing chords at me left and right. I, of course, missed all of them. Also starting using Riff Repeater, a mode that lets you practice a section of a song repeatedly.

Tomorrow I'm going to crack open the M&L Guitar course and start that again.

Piano

Warmed up with Sleeping Beauty Watz and March Slav, did the Carefree song again, made a bit more progress on The Nutcracker March and finished by practicing Forever Rachel (a song from Final Fantasy 6 (3 on the SNES))

Tomorrow, I'm going to open the M&L Piano book, start playing everything from page 1 and where I run into trouble is the lesson I'll pick it up from. There are 28 lessons and I think I made it up to about lesson 17 or 18 the last time I used it which was at least 3 years ago.

[sabotai]

5/1/2015

Guitar

Learn & Master Guitar: Watched the video for the first lesson and did some of the exercises.

Rocksmith 2014
Lessons: Shifting 101 (88.1%), Chords 101 (86.9%), Sustains 101 (58.0%)
Songs: My Generation by The Who (6.4%), R U Mine? by Arctic Monkeys (11.8%), Thunderkiss 65 by White Zombie (22.0%)

Piano

Learn & Master Piano: Just started from lesson 1. There's a bunch of stuff about chords I forgot so I'll just start over from the beginning.

[sabotai]

5/2/2015

Guitar

L&M Guitar: Did the exercises from lesson 1 (picking the strings on the first 4 frets using all 4 fingers).

Rockmsith 2014
Lessons: Shifting 101 (94%), Sustains 101 (90%), Slides 101 (50%)
Songs: Losing My Religion by REM (8.5%)

Can't wait for my fingers to toughen up cause this fucking hurts.

Piano

L&M Piano: Did the exercises from lesson 1 (switching between C Chord, Fmaj7 Chord and F6 Chord)
Masterwork Classics Levels 1-2: Practiced Carefree and Determination (2nd song).

[sabotai]

5/3/2015

Guitar

L&M Guitar: Exercises from Lesson 1
Rocksmith 2014: Slides 101 (78%), The Trooper by Iron Maiden (11.1%)

[sabotai]

5/4/2015

Guitar

L&M Guitar: Exercises from Lesson 1
Rocksmith 2014: Everlong by Foo Fighters (8.1%) (Song mission: learn a song using Drop D). Also did some of SLides 101 but did not advance my score.

One of the next missions I have for Rocksmith is to get a song up to 85%. That's going to take awhile.

Piano

L&M Piano: Lesson 1
MC Levels 1-2: Practiced Carefree and Determination

[Vince, Pt. II]

As a musician, bravo! I'll be reading along to see how you're doing. There really isn't much that is more rewarding than learning how to play a song properly on a musical instrument. If you have any questions, I'm happy to help if I can - I learned piano as a child and have decent-to-good theory knowledge (that I still apply today), and I taught myself to play the bass a few years ago, so I'm mildly familiar with tab and chords on guitar.

[sabotai]

Thanks Vince!

There really isn't much that is more rewarding than learning how to play a song properly on a musical instrument

Yeah, there's always a moment of slight euphoria every time I make it through a song without screwing up, especially the first time through. Even if it is an "easy piano" song meant for a 5 year old...

5/5/2015

Off day. After the gym I was exhausted the rest of the day and did nothing but watch season 2 of The Wire.

5/6/2015

Guitar

L&M Guitar: Exercises from Lesson 1. Going to move on to lesson 2 tomorrow, but I'm still going to keep doing these exercises for another week. I can see the skin on the tips of my fingers begin to toughen up. It can't happen soon enough.

Rocksmith 2014: Shifting 101 (got it to 100%). Did the practice track for Sustains 101 and Slides 101 a few times, but didn't up their percentages. Songs: My Own Summer by Deftones (17.1%)

Piano

L&M Piano: Did the practice chord progressions for lessons 1 and 2.
MC Levels 1-2: Carefree and Determination. I've got Carefree down now, Determination still trips up my left hand in a spot. The third song is Melody by Louis Köhler. I'll begin on that one tomorrow as well as starting up the Technical Skills book.

[sabotai]

5/7/2015

Guitar

L&M Guitar: Most of the second lesson was about reading music, so I skipped most of it. Did some of the exercises as well as those from lesson 1
Rocksmith 2014: Sustains 101 100%, Chords 101 100%

[sabotai]

5/8/2015

Guitar

L&M Guitar: Did some of the exercises from lessons 1 and 2

Piano

MC Levels 1-2: Practiced Determination and Melody

[Alf]

Best way to succeed in learning a new instrument is practicing "DAILY" even if only 15 minutes rather than an hour once a week. So, it looks you have the right method.

Happy learning.

[sabotai]

Merci Alf!

5/9/2015

Guitar

L&M Guitar: The exercises from lessons 1 and 2

I also started watching the videos on Justin Guitar | Free Guitar Lessons

Piano

MC Levels 1-2: Determination and Melody
L&M Piano: Went over lesson 3 (C, F and G chords)


5/10/2015

Guitar

L&M Guitar: Exercises from lessons 1 and 2.
More of the beginner videos (Getting Started...) from JustinGuitar.

Piano

MC Levels 1-2: Practiced Determination and Melody. I have Determination down now and Melody is just about good.
Technical Skills Level 1: The first Warm-Up

[sabotai]

This is what usually happens. A good first week followed by a crappy 2nd week and then typically I'd stop for 6 months. If I hadn't started this thread, I might have done the same thing all over again. But this afternoon, feeling great shame for not sticking with it, I got up and practiced both instead of putting them off until tonight when I inevitably would put it off until tomorrow.

5/11/2015 and 5/12/2015

Did a bit in Rocksmith 2014. Did improved Losing My Religion a bit and did Blitzkrieg Bop (Rhythm Guitar)

5/13/2015 and 5/14/2015

Finished off my yearly binge watching of The Wire. So no practice.

5/15/2015

"Put it off until tonight...oh, it's 1:30AM? Uhh, tomorrow I guess"

5/16/2015

Guitar

Followed the justinguitar.comvideos for forming the D, A and E chords
L&M Guitar: Did the lesson 2 exercises
Rocksmith 2015: Gave Lead Guitar a try on Blitzkreig Bop, because I read it was really easy. Got it up to 45% mastery in 2 tries. But once it started going from single notes to chords, I had trouble keeping up, even with it reduced to 20% time. Going to practice that more tomorrow. And get back to doing some of the lessons.

Piano

MC Levels 1&2: Played Determination without a problem. It did take me several tries to get through Melody without a problem.
L&M Piano: Reviewed lesson 4

[sabotai]

5/17/2015

Guitar

Did a bit on Rocksmith 2014. Tried the Chords 102 lesson and it was too difficult. Played some R U Mine by the Arctic Monkeys and Blitzkrieg Bop.

Piano

MC Levels 1-2: Melody and the 4th song, March by Türk

5/18/2015

Felt like poop. Didn't do much.

5/19/2015

Guitar

Watched more of the beginner lessons from justinguitar.com and will start on the practice schedule he made, which totals about 20 minutes. 5 minutes of practicing forming chords, 3 x 1 minute changes (described in his BC-115 lesson), 5 minutes of practicing chord changes (and songs) and then 5 minutes of practicing ear training.

I also did the exercises in lesson 2 of L&M Guitar.

[sabotai]

Off and on week followed by Memorial Day weekend where I had a ton of time to practice...and didn't. At all. Got caught back up with Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley.

Well, today I got back on the wagon and practiced the D, A and E chords on guitar and practiced Meloy and March from MC L1-2 book for piano.

[Vince, Pt. II]

The trick isn't to make sure that you practice all the time - but to make sure that when you DO take those unexpected breaks that you don't let that become the excuse to keep on missing practice. As long as you get back to it, you'll keep getting better

Edit to add that if you DO manage to practice all the time, you will obviously get better. But know that you're going to miss practicing here and there, and it's not the end of the world.

[sabotai]

Still grinding away. I'm getting a lot better at forming chords on the guitar. When I started weeks back, my chords were a mess of buzzing and muted strings. Now, I'd say I'm a good 80% getting it to sound nice on the first strum.

My issue is that the skin on my fingers is being incredibly stubborn. No calluses. I get about 10 minutes in, maybe 15, before they hurt too much.

I've also stopped Rocksmith for the time being. The problem with it is that it only has one difficulty slider. So I start learning a song, playing mostly whole notes, maybe a few half and quarter notes here and there. I get those down well, then suddenly, chords flying at me as eighth and sixteenth notes. I read some reviews awhile back saying that Rocksmith wasn't that good for absolute beginners, and that a learner should go through a course (one of them cited justinguitar, which is how I found that) first. I can see why.

No "progress" on piano, in that I haven't used any of the courses. Been mostly messing around with Easy Piano Star Wars music, some Final Fantasy songs. Learned the first several measures to Karma Police by Radiohead.

[Radii]

Well this has turned into one of the more expensive dynasties for me

I'm a mediocre-at-best guitar player - self taught, I know enough chords, know how to read tab, and know how to look up songs online to find ones that I like that I can play, but I've never really improved past that. I haven't played in about 3 years. Reading this and looking up Rocksmith got the itch going, I caught Rocksmith 2014 + cable on sale on Amazon a few weeks ago and went out yesterday and bought an acoustic-electric guitar. I played for a couple hours last night, I think I need to tweak some settings, but it looks like something fun and something I can improve with.

Keep updating if you're still sticking with it, I am enjoying following along, obviously!

[sabotai]

Still grinding, my fingers still a bit stubborn. I can definitely feel a difference on my finger tips but my limit is still ~15 minutes, if that. Haven't made much progress, a bit better at making those chords, a bit better at playing without looking at the strings.

Those chords where the 1 and 3 fingers are two frets apart (for example, 1 on the 5th, 3 on the 7th). They look easy to make...but when I go to do it...my fingers just don't bend that way. At least that's how it feels.

[sabotai]

I suppose this is a bit of a milestone. Big fan of the White Stripes, so I riff repeater'ed the opening riff from Seven Nation Army. Started off at 100% speed, but 0% difficultly. Got it up to 70% difficulty before it became a mess, so I pushed it to 100% difficulty at 50% speed and let the speed progress up.

I ain't saying it sounded pretty, but at 100% difficulty at 100% speed, I (eventually) hit all of the notes at the right time (0 Notes Missed) and did so a few times through....it sounded like shit on my end, but I'll take it.

[Radii]

Grats sab!

I really, really like the riff repeater. I was doing a similar thing with Don't Fear The Reaper yesterday, not at max difficulty, but starting at 50% speed and slowly working my way up. I'm finding the Arcade games to be really helpful too. I've really only been comfortable with chords in the past when I'd screw around, finding a specific fret on a specific string quickly if its not on the low E string is a huge weakness for me, but I can definitely feel that slowly improving by playing a few arcade games before I start playing songs whenever I play.

[sabotai]

My near week without power threw me off and I spent the last week messing around in Rocksmith. It's been problematic. Sometimes it says I'm on the wrong fret when I know I'm not (sometimes tightening or loosening the string a tiny bit fixes it) but sometimes it tells me that I flat out missed the note when I didn't. After some googling, I think the issue is mainly that I have a cheap guitar with (most likely) cheap strings.

Not that big of a deal. Don't really care about my score and I can manually push the difficulty up in riff repeater when I get comfortable with it. It does stink when it comes to the games and lessons though. I'll just have to make due. I plan to get back to justinguitar.com and the Learn &Master lessons this week.

The piano has sat mostly unused over the past few weeks. Need to get back to that. At some point, I'm going to record myself playing to make a video journal of my progress.

[sabotai]

Several weeks ago, I did a massive clean up and unfortunately the only place I could put my mountain of cardboard and have it be out of the way was in the same corner of my bedroom where my keyboard sits. And only being able to throw so much out per week, it took time to whittle it down. Finally, I have access to my keyboard (and guitar as it was in the same corner) again.

Got acquainted with the F, D and A chords on the guitar from the first week of justinguitar.com's lessons and have fired Rocksmith back up. Decided to start over (again) as it's been a few months.

The first time through, I mostly ignored the games and session mode, but after reading Radii's log and Umbrella's posts in it, I'm going to spend a good deal of time on both.

As for piano/keyboard, I messed around with a few songs from the beginner's books last night.