How to improve skill?

[Wozner]

Hey guys, maybe Jordan. I have two synthesyzers, Korg X-50 (Not sure this one is good for learning) and Yamaha DGX - 305 which is more like an real piano. The question is. How to improve skills, from which song better to start playing DT songs? I keep them in my mind, I know even rythm of Mike but gather all in one composition is too hard. Thank you for any suggestions, I think to learn The dance of eternity under 60 tempo which is obviously should be death for my finger in Ragtime solo.

[gylfih]

Wow. This is about as broad a question as it's possible to get.

What areas are you most deficient in? Playing in odd time signatures? Speed of your fingers? Technique for playing quickly? General technique? My own problem is playing repeated notes very quickly by swapping fingers...

The easiest song to learn is definately IMHO, Vacant, from ToT. If you want to do runs try Overture 1928. Apart from that, try Dance of Eternity, and just practice loads. Or tell us in more detail about where your problems are.

Also, maybe try some exercises from Czerny, Hannon, and Jordan's books like Total Keyboard Wizardry. Also the OC may help.

[Mike Lydian]

the korg x50 is a great and the cheapest keyboard to have if you want to cover a DT song all the way through. you can go buy guitar pro, download dance of eternity, and subject yourself to weeks of torture:tongue: I cant even get through that opening synth part yet.

there are many ways to build technique > scales, arpeggios, hanon book, bach two part inventions (for left hand speed and independence)there is also "total keyboard wizardry" written by Rudess himself. This book helps you in every aspect of your playing.

[Wozner]

My issue in my fingers, they are slow, I mean they are too slow for such solo`s. I bought the Hanon exercises book today like you suggested. I think this will "free" my fingers from jail of shame. There is many excercises. I guess I should start them from tempo 60 and increase when I will do every cycle of execrcise fine. Or how you think I should do? Thank you bery much for your advices!

[Wozner]

I bought the Hannon book exercises. I think this will help me. My fingers are weak. And I cannot play so fast solos.

[Psy-Fi]

Don't be hasty, take your time, finger strength takes time. You may injure your hands if you try to play too fast too soon (I have, and seriously, but I recovered). Always stay relaxed and don't play faster than you feel comfortable. It takes patience (and months!) but it will eventually come. My humble opinion is to tackle some classical pieces that you like in parallel. In this way you practice technique and expression and you don't play something as boring as Hanon(useful,though) all the time. Oh and BE CAREFUL! I can't stretch this fact enough.

[Wozner]

Thank you. This is bad part of all musicians I think. I read in internet that some people suggest forget about Hannon because it is harmful for fingers, or maybe they play it very fast. Also I noticed when I come to play at the studio without warmup exercices, I feel pain in my right hand. Can this be because I haven`t done some warmup execrices? Thank you.

[gylfih]

Possibly, but also remember to try not to overstretch yourself. I recently tried to play the end of Liszt's 6th Hungarian Rhapsody (the ridiculous octaves part) the way Cziffra does it, and absolutely killed my arms :rolleyes:.

The way to learn this sort of technique, and to build strength, is just do a very boring exercise a few hundred times a day, every day, for years lol. After you do the hundreds of exercises, do a piece, or a new exercise that puts the technique you learnt into context. The golden rule is just practice, practice, practice. I think for strength and dexterity Hanon and Czerny are the way to go.

By the way, apparently, when you've mastered the Hanon exercises you should be able to play through the entire book in 60 seconds. I don't know how feasible this is, because I gave up on doing exercises a while ago, but that's what my teacher reckons...

[Mush]

If you do the Hannon, just do book 2.
http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/e/e2/IMSLP00875-Hanpart2.pdf


This is better because it addresses almost everything
http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/b/b1/IMSLP23169-PMLP06574-BraWV__S._520.pdf

[Ivory-Shadows]

Mm, definitely Hannon, in my opinion. Just start out learning a new exercise each week, so that by the end of the week you can do that exercise well. Then next week, learn a new one. Once you learn all of them, start doing several at a time, and relearning old exercises, etc, until you can eventually play through the entire book at a blazin pace. It's a great way to learn, grow, and to warm up.

Oh, and I'm going to assume gylfih meant 60 minutes, not 60 seconds :wink:

[gylfih]

Oh, and I'm going to assume gylfih meant 60 minutes, not 60 seconds :wink:
I dunno, my teacher definately said 60 seconds... Maybe he meant 60 minutes:confused:

[Mush]

Also it should be mentioned that you should practice technique on a real piano. Training at the piano makes your playing stronger, more deliberate and faster when you move onto the crappy synth actions.

[Wozner]

This is very bad, because I have only two synthesizers. Yamaha is more real like real piano. But Yamaha don`t have real hammer system ( This is bad for me. I have played on a real piano about 3-4 times, and it is little hard for my fingers. But I can improve my technique on the Yamaha and then with skills play on real piano? Or this will be not good?

[orphe]

It's always good.. no matter how you do it but you will lack a little bit strength when you will transfer to a real piano. But it is only adaptation for things you are already able to do.

But you can practice your exercices on your synth and it will be as good as taking it on a real hammer action or a real piano, tough the strength part will not be there but if you never play on a piano there's no problem with that. But if you can do something on a piano you can do it a little bit faster on a synth action keybed, but you have to change often if you don't want to be destabilized by the change.

[Wozner]

Ohh.. . That was too close ) My worries dissapeared now. I`m playing along the Hannon book every day. I`m starting from 60 tempo and play each exercise 10 times, then I get to next excercise and so on. On first week I play on 60 tempo, from monday I will play those exercises with 61 tempo and go to next exercises. How do you think, is this system will let know about itself in 2-3 months?

[Bigs]

Check out the free eBook Fundamentals of Piano Practice by Chuan C. Chang (http://www.pianofundamentals.com/), it has some very interesting views on piano exercise.

[Wozner]

Thank you very much! Great info!