Looking At Online Courses and Approaches, Thoughts?

[ryevick]

I am more rusty than I'd like to admit on my playing and there are a few questions I'd like to ask that may sound like the answers are obvious but please remember people learn differently and what sounds like an obvious choice or disastrous approach for you may be different or a great approach for someone else. People tell me I'm odd all the time so I'm use to it .

1. I want to brush up/firm up my piano and keyboard playing. As a child I took piano for a year and did well and learned to read. Since then I have played and composed almost entirely by ear which has served me pretty well but I'm looking at Playground Sessions online and it looks pretty good and I think it could help me in many areas. Thoughts?

2. I play guitar as well and went about learning it in an almost identical fashion as piano minus learning to read. 1 year lessons then self taught.

I'm considering mirroring my lessons and spending equal time on what I am learning on both instruments each day/week. Part of me thinks this would be a fantastic idea and another part of me is unsure. Thoughts?

3. I'm just wondering if there is a resource, website or a YouTube channel that features accurate tutorials & charts for some of the classic songs that feature old school vintage style keys. I'm talking the Clavinet, Wurlitzer, Rhodes Electric, Hammond B 3/4 Organ and the like.

I was just on Soniccouture's site admiring their Broken Wurli. If you open up the menu of available sound demos, it has a really nice selection of tunes featuring their Broken Wurli. I'd love to learn as many of those as I can.

Any help would be appreciated in finding sheet music or charts for those songs and songs in the same vein (Dr. John's "Right Place Wrong Time" just popped to mind!


Thank you all for your input, suggestions and support!

Randy

 

[Doctor Blue]

I play by ear as well and also play guitar and recently started playing piano again after a many years' absence. There are many approaches to playing, some traditional and some not. I suppose it all depends on how you prefer to learn (by ear, sight-reading, etc) and what your goals are. For me, though I know music theory and can sight read, I don't really need to nor want to. I have tried a few of the piano apps (Skoove, etc) and they are interesting for a few lessons but I found them quite limiting (for someone who plays by ear). I have been using Piano In 21 Days with Jacques Hopkins for a couple of years now and have a repertoire of 30 songs. It's a 5 step chord based approach that teaches how to figure out songs with the chords and then teaches you how to figure out the melody. I am now composing my own music.

 

[lmederos]

I'm also looking at Piano in 21 Days, but have not tried it. I am currently doing the free month trial for Piano Marvel, and I have found it very useful to fine tune tempo.