These are the 4 biggest mistakes to avoid (by FAR) that beginners make on piano. Especially if you’re an adult beginner, or a self taught player from UA-cam tutorials. Here's the Cheat Sheet link: bestpianoclass.com/mistakescheatsheet 00:24 Mistake #1 (this will save you TIME) 05:00 Mistake #2 (this will SMOOTH your playing) 08:04 Section 4: Mistake #3 (this will save you FRUSTRATION) 11:03 Section 5: Mistake #4 (this will SKYROCKET your progress) 13:20 Section 6: Next Steps... Make sure you stick around to the end - each practice mistake gets more and more important, and the last one is absolutely critical for success. Especially the technique mistake and the last one. Happy Practicing!! -Zach
Hi gotta question I love a lot of your teaching methods there better then a lot of others I tried I have a question do you sell dvd 📀 lesson and have a hard book with the cheat sheets ?
As a 15 year old that had been playing for 6 years i would like to say that for any one around my age learning to play.. you will regret playing by chords. Learning to read is so very helpfull and will help set a base for anything you will ever play on piano! I do not play classical, in fact i despise it most of the time. But because i can read i can learn any genre.
That completely depends on the type of music and what you want to do. In a high level professional blues band, they do not play off of exacting sheet music. You get the key and the chords, and the rest is improvised by ear and feel. Many classically trained pianists suffer improvisationally because they don’t practice in these areas enough. Learning by chords doesn’t mean “only play the chords”. The key, chords, and the rhythm represent all of the necessary components of the song in a lot of styles of music, but any good musician who works in blues or jazz has the skill to fill it out on the spot, and make it groove and sound beautiful.
@@collinsmcrae i know as a finished sending the comment i realise that this doesn’t apply to everyone… i am musically gifted and can play almost anything by ear and have an amazing sense of rythm but i struggle with lecture witch is why i think its important for me to practise on it.
@@kaotic_1077 Nice, yeah learn as much as you can and what you want to. If that includes sight reading, fantastic. You definitely won't ever regret it.
This is true!! Learning to read music does not kill your progress, like the title suggests but it can actually make things more fun. When learning piano, it’s always gonna be a challenge to learn a new piece. To understand what your playing just makes it easier!
@@aubsdoodle3048 yes! i just got a bit triggered when he said that it was a mistake to learn lecture. It completely depends on your goals and how you want to get there
As a young Pianist, I think learning how to read sheet music is a vital part to being a Pianist. Yes, its mainly to learn classical songs, but ive only ever played to classical songs with all the songs ive learned, being able to sight read is really important. Learn it, it will help.
Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson, the founders of ABBA, never learned to read and write a single note, yet are musical geniusses and composed immortal songs, by the way of considerable complexity.
Many incl myself were brought up to think that playing an instrument means reproducing notes printed on paper. The first time encountered chords in school when a teacher sang a song over guitar chords. The students all sang the melody. At the time had no concept how chords work and why certain chords would be played in certain places to accommodate the melody. Picked up piano years later learning to read both lead sheets & the bass clef. Found that many Classical pieces have chords to accompany the melody with the notes written out and played as arpeggios. A lot of beginners & intermediates reading sheet music would see a note sequence F-A-C as separate notes but don't automatically see it as an F-chord played as arpeggio. Some people learn to read lead sheets which is simplified notation with just the melody and chords on top. Need to learn the notes but only the melody line. Others don't read at all so would learn the melody by ear. Either they play the melody with 1 hand & chords with the other or just sing the melody over the chords.
@Mr. NoName Guitar players can sing the melody & play chords over it. Piano players can do the same. Some people learn to read lead sheets which is just the melody notes and do chords over it. You're limited to the right-hand notes instead of both hands. It's up to you to play off simplified notations (lead sheets) or none at all (100% by ear).
@@leximatic Regardless of that, someone still had to write down the arrangement in sheet music. It is not certain that all the accompanying musicians learned it only by ear.
Learning chords is cool and gives instant results. But… Learning to read sheet music gives you a better visual understanding of what you are doing, and an independence from any cheat sheet. Chord learning will give fast results in the short term but hold you back on the long term. Reading music will cost a little more efforts at the beginning but be soooooo rewarding on the long term. The best: learn both!! I teach both to my students.
Yes! This comes from someone who never bothered to learn sheet music when I started learning because I picked up on it very fast and played by ear. As a kid I had barley any motivation to continue playing but stayed just beacause, and now when I'm older I have actually gained a liking for the piano. Now when I wanna play harder songs, with more rythm and more complex melodies it takes so long since I have to count almost every single note before playing. And when I get the hang of it I can almost always play it very easily. If I had just learned how to read sheet music when I was younger I would be so much better than my current skill. Not knowing is definitely what is holding me back. But I've been trying to learn it now but old habits die hard.
In most modern music, it’s the other way around. Cheat sheets, improvisational technique, and a good ear free you from having any need for sheet music. And “cheat sheets” is a bit of a misnomer. They provide all of the necessary information to play in a highly technical jazz band, so long as you have the chops. Blues and jazz based music aren’t exacting. You are expected to be able to improvise an add your own flair to the groove, not play some song exactly as it was written. Millions of musicians operate this way. You will never be handed exact music notation in a blues band, and if you can’t work without it, then you aren’t any good at the blues, plain and simple.
@@Ziggneh Sure, but that’s only true if you want to play other people’s complex songs exactly as they were written. How do you think that they wrote these songs? With a pen and paper? Most typically, it was with their ears, sense of musicality, and chops. Many musicians aspire to be able to jam out creatively, and aren’t interested in learning songs note for note.
@@collinsmcrae You are right but being able to read sheet music gives you the ability to mentally visualize the notes you hear when you are playing in a band, when you improvise, compose, etc. The gain in efficiency is guaranteed. Ear and eye are not enemies in music, they are partners. 😉
@@pw6002 Sure, they are definitely not enemies, but neither one really need the other. Ear training and improvisation take time, and are different skills than what most people spend studying in classical training. People are usually stronger in one area and not the other, depending on what they’ve spent time studying for. A person who plays blues based music by ear, has no trouble visualizing the notes if they don’t read sheet music. I visualize the keys and shapes, and hear the intervals. That’s just as sharp and accurate as visualizing a symbol. The truth is, reading music isn’t really all that beneficial if you aren’t trying to learn pieces, but instead how to get in and groove with a band, or produce accompaniment in song writing on the fly. But someone who is classically trained and good at sight reading, will often generally have superior technical abilities, and better technique.
Stopped listening immediately after he said there's no need to learn sheet music. Reading notes is a part of your music progress, and does not limit only to classical pieces. You wanna learn songs that's fine but if you wanna be a proper musician you need to expand knowledge by knowing basic music theory. You're no better than a beginner if you don't learn notes. Man's just saying with people normally want to hear.
I can only agree to some extent. Yes reading sheet music benefits and enables you to do more stuff but there are enough incredibly successful musicians who can’t read sheet music and don’t need it. I say this because I’m close to a few of these people. Most important is that you love playing music and that will set you on your path for sure. If you’re a beginner, just get into the habit of playing consistently. The rest will come :)
Yeah I agree. I’m an adult learner, I immediately hired a teacher when I knew I wanted to be good at this. Sheet music is crucial. It teaches you the structure of music. Just learning chords is akin to just learning guitar tabs. You can get by on a guitar just learning tabs, but it would be completely foolish to learn the equivalent of “piano tabs” by just memorizing chords. You’ll always be a mediocre pianist if you do that. The thing he missed in this video is practice. If you want to be a good pianist, nothing beats practice. You need to practice. Every day. There’s no shortcut to learning this instrument.
As someone who knows how to read sheet music, its so much easier than just looking at the chords and the melodies like you said, sheet music is also so much better if you want to get the rythm perfectly right, same thing does not happend with the method you mentioned
I agree! I love to play piano covers, not just chords. So being able to read sheet music makes that soo much easier to get all the melodies and rhythms correct.
Sure, if you want to learn a complex piece exactly as it was written, but that’s not really what musicality is. A lot of players develop improvisational skills, and a good ear, in order to jam with people. You won’t be handed musical notation in a blues band. It’s chords, rhythm, your ear and your style. You are expected to be able to fill the rest in on the fly. How do you think people write most songs? You can’t play a song off of a sheet that hasn’t been written yet. And what happens with a lot of people is that they learn little more than how to be a sheet music computer, and don’t learn how to be a creative musician that can write and improvise.
In my experience, the best practice for beginners is to start super slow, learn a song in slow motion making you memories it for ever. Play step by step. Slow is the key
@ElBribri oh? So by repeating something that relies on your motions creating muscle memory is good?! Lol honestly it's obvious. Bit at the same time dangerous if you're not familiar with the concept of motions prior to. Just like a competitive video game you're amazing at but then being given the same game with non altered sensitivity or controls and forced to perform
It is good to learn chords, to be able to play a song. But it is no better than only ever reading a picture comic book. You are virtually musically illiterate. Go ahead lean to play songs by just playing chords but learn to READ music! Being able to read music opens up a world of colour not only on classical but with your favourite popular modern songs.
I agree and disagree.... yes, if you want to learn classical you absolutely need to learn to read music. But also, a lot of people who read music really well actually aren't very music literate - they just read and memorize individual notes, and many don't actually understand the underlying chord structure and harmony behind what they're playing. I think learning to play by chords is an excellent starting point for that.
I see value in that Zach. Just because one can read War and Peace or Hamlet doesn't me that they can comprehend what the authur wrote. The same is true with music. Being able to play using only chords does not garentee that the performer will be able to play with feeling or colour.
He already stated at the intro that being able to read music sheet is that you're being teached Classical Music, and that's fine. However, when comes to POP MUSIC, no need for musical sheet.
True the Emotional part of it is a separate skill from (playing by chords or reading while playing. And it was said in the intro thanks for the video it improved lots on me
As a pianist who has been playing the piano since I was 6 I can surely tell you that learning how to read pieces is an extremely crucial thing to do if you want to perfect your skills at piano relying on chords alone will damage your progress as a pianist severely and limit your versatility and complexity. Sure you can improvise in a band but what if you want to play an song that you like with the piano(e.g: fur Elise)? (Spoiler alert: You can’t) You won’t master one of the most basic skills as a pianist, you will become dependent on improvisation alone, you will not be able to compose an advanced song with the piano alone, or be able to play an intermediate or even a beginner piano song at all. And even if you do how will you ever remember how to play the exact same thing that you played? What tool will you use to mark down the ideas that you will put into your song and what you composed? The creator of this video who marks knowing how to read piano sheets as a beginner mistake is absolutely misleading and completely neglects the potential and versatility behind learning how to read piano sheets, learning chords is extremely great and I recommend every pianist to master this skill, but I guarantee you that relying on chords and improvisation alone will tremendously damage and limit your career as a pianist. Don’t believe me? Look at all the great pianists and composers out there, they all know how to read piano and express the complexity and emotion behind their piece I recommend mastering both skills with the eyes(sight reading) and ears(improvisation, chords and etc) if you truly want to perfect your skills in the piano like Mozart, Beethoven or Chopin did
I feel like doing the chord thing is actually slower and harder than reading sheet music. If all your wanted to do is play chords, getting sheet music with just the chords is a very easy read for beginners and you don't have to use the cheat sheet. This dude was comparing an advanced sheet with chords and saying chords are easier. Of course chords are easier. They are easier on a cheat sheet and on a regular sheet.
@@joostfloot5279This. I started with classical piano without chords knowledge, and it opened my eyes once I understood the chords theory, and sight reading became easier. So I think it’s not a bad idea to start with chords. It’s actually easier to get engaged once you can play some nice chords than just stick to beginner pieces that sound like crap.
There are more than one thing wrong with this video, besides mastering speed in note reading…. Knowing chords/reading music aren’t mutually exclusive! Proper technique requires a pinkie to play NOT rounded, or curved. Just watch videos of famous pianist. From it producing an unnatural position of the hand, to a collapse bridge, it causes unnecessary tension in the forearm… 😢😢😢😢
I've only just started my keyboard journey and the pinky was a real problem. I was really feeling a strain on my hands and wrist trying to play using all five digits. The over-under technique is a revelation to me. I can't wait to practice this in the morning.
@@valentina6429No, it’s not. He dips his wrist a bit too low on the way, but the arm absolutely must shift to the right to align with and support the pinky. Why do you feel it’s wrong?
I agree 100%, pinky exercises are a complete waste of time, so never mind suffering through Hanon or Schmidt. Consistent practice naturally builds strength, and if what you're practicing involves octaves or chords in both hands, you'll be employing your pinkies, anyway (you don't have a choice). Rock-solid technique is essential, as was pointed out here; don't ever neglect that. One other essential element is believing you can do this. It becomes unnecessarily difficult without faith in yourself and your abilities. Zach puts out these videos because he believes in you, and frankly, so do I. I'm self-taught, and he has helped me immeasurably, for which I'm forever grateful. If I can do it, I know you can, too!
Thanks for the comment! A lot of people give up at the beginning, not realizing just around the corner, once you get some of the basics down, it gets a lot easier 🔥
It's even more simple than that. As with anything else in life, if you WANT to learn you have to have internal motivation. No matter what you might think you like, you won't do it and put in the time learning and actually doing it if YOU don't WANT to. You MUST WANT to do it for yourself, not for anyone else or to impress others. That means spending your time on attaining the goal to the exclusion of other matters. If you want to pass a test that means sticking your nose in a book instead of your smartphone or hanging out with your friends. You cannot fool yourself with this. You either WANT to do it or you don't. Telling yourself you don't have all the time required for success means you don't have the internal motivation to use your time for the goal. In turn that means you do not have that specific goal. If that is the case, admit it and do something else. Once you use your time you can't get it back nor can you buy more hours to add to your life. Everyone has the same number of hours in every day. How you use them depends on YOUR internal motivation.
Consistent practice builds natural strength, yes, but Hanon, Czerny and the like help with the ability to play smoothly and evenly. If you can't play smoothly and evenly, you're not going to sound as good as you possibly can. Sometimes it take a focused effort to work on things like that, which is what the repetition in Hanon provides. If you really want to polish your sound, you have to work on your technique. There's no shortcut to success; you can't just phone it in. You're going to have to practice and play even when it is boring and it is hard.
@Become a Piano Superhuman haha yes!! I cannot read any notes, chords or letters or anything but I can play pirates of the caribean up to about 40 seconds!!
i began learning piano with chords and chord progressions. yeah no, i didn't progress after that until i began to take formal lessons. learning actual music theory is better than just looking up quick chords because learning music theory is so much more than just knowing how to read notes. it's like learning grammar, sentence structures, figures of speeches, etc etc when learning english as opposed to just knowing how to read abc and being able to communicate little bit with others. learning to read sheet music is basically just the gateway to music theory and thereby understanding music itself.
So many people winging about not reading sheet music/notation. I think people forget that for some people this is going to be a small hobby that they get two or three hours a week on and they want to press some buttons and make sound come out that they like. If you want to go down a classical pathway then please learn notation. It’s so important you’re almost completely locking yourself out if you don’t. But if you just want to learn enough to produce music and be able to play in a sequence or play a main riff or play chords under what you’re singing then learning chords is a great thing to do. But I would love to make a counter point that everyone is missing for some reason and say that THEORY (in my opinion) is important to pick up on the way even if you don’t learn notation. Theory also isn’t that scary and allows you to be more intuitive when you figure this stuff out. Knowing how to put a major and minor scale together, understanding your circle of fifths so you can quickly work out key signatures/notes and scales, understanding relative minor, knowing which chords are major minor and diminished in a major and minor, KNOWING HOW TO INVERT A CHORD, understanding what “inverted” and “diminished” mean, knowing which notes correspond to which intervals so you can work out how to string your own chords together. Don’t let dots on a sheet of paper scare you away from learning how music is put together. It’s not an “all or nothing” scenario for most people and don’t let some snob on the internet intimidate you out of finding your own way that works for your life
I completely understand having an urge to learn just the chord to quickly play one song, but it’s like memorising EACH sum of the two numbers without actually learning how to add. All chords have a very simple structure and the things is - you can learn 1 structure and play it from EVERY note.
I learned sheet music because I started in school so I had to, and I find it weird how many commenters are acting like sheet music is essential for piano. It's no more essential than it is for any other instrument. Learning to read sheet music is necessary for *1 thing:* reading sheet music. So if you want to learn a song someone else wrote with no audio or video version to learn by ear, and sheet music is the only available method for said song, you need to know how to read sheet music. That's about it. Reading sheet music has absolutely 0 bearing on how well you can play piano (or any instrument). Worst case scenario you can't learn some obscure songs that are only recorded on paper and can't sight read to play something through that you don't know (which the vast majority of players will never need to do in their entire life). Most likely outcome is you might learn certain songs slower because you might have to do it a slower way. The vast vast majority of the time people listen to someone playing piano (or other instrument) the person is playing without sheet music in front of them, including complex music like jazz etc. There's no magic in sheet music that makes us play any better, it's just a method of transcription. All it is is a way to communicate how to play a piece of music. If you learn a song by sheet music or a youtube video, you'll have the exact same result. The only difference would be how much time and effort each method took. You can learn scales, chords, improvisation, music theory, etc all without ever reading sheet music. Stevie Wonder plays piano well without sheet music! You don't even need sheet music to learn classical music. It can just be easier/faster, and allow you to sight read it, which again the vast vast majority of musicians will never need to do because most aren't going to be professional orchestra or session players that need to drop in and learn or play a song on the fly. Even professional musicians playing very complicated music like Dream Theater aren't up there on stage with sheet music, and there's nothing special about piano that makes it any more required than a guitar for example, and like 0.001% of guitar players read sheet music.
I believe in learning to read sheet music first and then learning chord symbols-it leads to a better understanding and being able to do more WITH the chords once you learn them. It’s like learning the limit definition of a derivative before the power rule… it makes you better at calculus, even if it’s harder.
It really doesn’t. It totally depends on the type of musician you want to be. Millions of musicians work off of little more than knowing what key the song is in, the progression, and the rhythm. The rest is filled in by ear and feel. If you don’t believe me, you can consult one of the thousands of incredible blues and jazz based musicians who have never read a sheet in their lives.
@@collinsmcrae oh I know there are plenty of fabulous musicians who can’t read sheet music. Especially in genres like jazz where a lot of improvisation occurs. And there is something special to knowing the rhythm and feel, but it is definitely limiting. I once played in a band with an amazing drummer who couldn’t read sheet music. We had just put together a small praise band where I was the pianist. His inability to read the music, refer back to measures, or visualize where the cues were made him incredibly difficult to work with at first. After a while of practicing, it shook out, and I mean it when I tell you he was amazing. It probably isn’t like that when the members of your band are the same ones you always play with and you know them super well, but the fact remains that it is truly limiting. So yes, depending on what kind of musician you want to be, you can get away with not learning it. But you’ll only ever be that type of musician and it seriously cuts down in your versatility. I don’t take issue with people who choose not to learn it, but the guy in this video framing learning sheet music as a beginner mistake is really objectively wrong. If you’re just starting it and aren’t sure exactly what you want to do with the instrument you are learning, start with the basics. That includes sheet music.
@@katiehelms8903 Your argument is pretty fair, so it's a shame it went ignored when you clearly cared about the conversation. I definitely agree that it's misleading to label learning sheet music as mistake; it would have been more accurate and honest if he said that focusing on just one or the other can be limiting, but that putting more focus on chords at the beginning can be beneficial. Feels like this guy exaggerates things a little too much sometimes.
@@Persun_McPersonson thank you! And yeah, I think the guy in the video is exaggerating a bit. I think the real beginner mistake is entirely neglecting theory and not understanding what chords are and how they are put together. But learning chords doesn’t mean not to learn sheet music!
It’s best to learn both. I grew up learning classically, but when I got to age 18, I learned on my own how to play by chords and feel. I am grateful to being trained classically.
You know, the first mistake you show, in my opinion, us not a mistake at all. I mean, if a person just wants to play piano without knowing anything about music it would probably work, but it's like memorizing a math formula without knowing where it comes from. I think that to play chords correctly a musician first needs to learn what is a chord, where it came from, why in the V7 minor chord the seventh pitch is raised by a half-step, etc.
I started learning few weeks ago, but I think I still have a long way to go, but I'm having issues with my fingering, but this page for like four days now have really been helpful🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
The main thing in growth is learning by sheet. This is the gate way for other musical options (major,minor,music theory etc.) outside of “what’s popular”. That’s like poking a door wanting to open it somehow.
Many people disagree with his opinion about reading notes. I kinda understand why he said that tho. This is a tip for beginners. I think especially for a self-learn since he also input his learning curiculm. So, a self-learn beginners. Why would a person want to self-learn a piano? Since i'm a self-learn, i say the reason i want to learn piano is because i want to play the songs i really like. But seeing notes is incredibly overwhelming. If you search tutorial how to read notes, there's so much information that's hard to understand by ourselves. Meanwhile, remember the chord and find the cheat sheet is incredibly easy. This way, I don't feel intimidated by how much i should learn and still excited to learn piano. Ofc, I can't go far with just chord. I also curious how to play the melody. So i recently learn how to read notes and believe me when i say, it's sooo much easier because i don't feel overwhelmed. My point is, i think he is trying to make sure beginner can start learning as comfortable as possible and not feel overwhelmed.
I agree with you. It kind of depends on why you are learning piano. If you are only playing your favorite songs and to just have fun, then I think memorizing is better. If you want to play piano at an advanced stage and/or like classical, you should learn to read; atleast a little bit. If you want to do both, keep a balanced mix of memory and sheet music
Enjoyed the video and yes the chords is a great way to easily belt out a minimalistic version of a pop tune pretty quickly. Not sure what universe exists that learning to read music would be considered a mistake though.
I bought piano on may 2022 and I'm self taught... i never really looked up at any of these mistake videos... and i learnt everything with just midi files and now I'm going to try the wall
I’ve been a pianist for more than 10 years and yes I started with learning sheet music from my teacher. I’m no slouch and I’m not too bad at the piano, but I found the first two things you taught to be interesting and a cool way for me to keep learning
As somebody who has been doing piano since 2nd grade and is now in 7th grade, but quit and now plays pop, just the base of sheet music is extremely helpful, you don’t need to know crescendos etc if your learning pop music from sheet music, the base is all you need as you can sort of feel when to soft and loud or you can just play as you go.
Very true, but the downside of learning chording is that if you can’t sing, chording will do you no good, unless you find yourself a singer to sing while you play. This is not easy to be in sync with a singer, as it takes much practice and each have to do their best in order to sound decent. Classical is definitely very difficult to learn and it takes many years, but if you can’t sing, you are stuck with learning classical!
That is simply false. You don’t just “learn chording”. You use the progression and the key as the skeleton and you fill the rest in with your ear and all of the skills you’ve managed to acquire. The ignorance around a lot of this in the piano community is absolutely staggering. Most music, in the world, is not played in a n exacting manner off of a sheet. You improvise around the basic structure of the song, and this can get as complex or simplistic as you like.
THANK YOU SO MUCH. i can't afford classes, im 37 so kinda in a rush xD... and do play by ear and compose but feel restricted you have unlocked a world. You have yourself a new hardcore follower
@@becomeapianosuperhuman6765 I disagree with learning chords from the cheat sheet. It is important to learn chords but my fear is that people that learn from the cheat sheet tend to not realize how each chord works, related chords, how many sharps or flats in each key, and only knowing one way of playing the chord. For example, in the the chord cheat sheet their, the chord D is displayed as A Fsharp and D. The beginner looking at it might not realize that the chord is also played D Fsharp and then A. I am self taught who learned how to read music and it was worth it, since I actually wasn't good playing by ear. After I played a few years looking at music sheets, I became better at playing by ear. I can still sight read, and usually prefer doing so.
I love classic piano lessons. But here I found a good connection between piano playing and rythm and it's helps me a lot, cause even in singing I have problems with the rythm❤ Thank you for this lesson!
It's cool this guy is giving a product for people who has a different approach, another perspective and goal to play piano or even more, people wanna play the piano and don't have that much time to invest from a long and dedicated process to learn, great video ; i will save this video for anytime I need/want to learn some songs for an occasion.
This video is for people like me lol. I’m always busy n have kids so I’m stuck practicing at night when they sleep.. All these ppl are saying u should/have to learn to read, if I did I’d never get to play 😅
I have been playing the guitar for 12 years and not learning to read music was the biggest blunder I ever made. If you ever hope to enjoy playing piano for the rest of your life and immerse in the endless learning process....By all means learn to read music.
Same here, i play percussive fingerstyle but can't read sheet music. This means I haven't been dabbling in other genres or songs with advanced chord progressions. But at least guitars have tabs which makes it somewhat fine to learn on. Learning piano now and will make sure not to skip sheet music
If someone tells you not to learn to read music, say thank you and move on. That person has nothing good to teach you. Reading music is not difficult and it is a gateway to the world of music. It's like someone telling you that you don't have to learn to read books, if you want to have a scientific career.
As a starter through playing piano, what i I've beendoing throghout my journey is first start with chords, triads to be exact. Then if you want your piano to "sing" next thing i need to review is the scales. Major, sharps, and flats, and if possible, do it for ALL of the notes in the piano. Now you can go through pentatonics. I'm currently in this stage and don't know whats next. I've been prioritizing learning through sheet music and sometimes play by ear. But so far, the scales help me to learn by ear by knowing what chord to play individualy.
Imagine an English teacher telling their student they don’t need to learn how to read English! Only if you’re planning to read books, but if all you wanna do is watch movies, there’s no need to learn to read!😂😂😂I guess if your musical goal stops at Taylor Swift songs (or any pop song), then you need not learn to read! Unless you wanna play the melody in your right hand and the chords in the left hand! There’s always an “unless”! Just learn to read! It’s not that hard!
0:25 already relatable, i cant do gcse music without having piano lessons for sheet music. i dont wanna learn sheet music, im not into classical. i just wanna be an edm producer
Sheet music is literally a cheat sheet for everything. The whole point of learning to read sheet music is so you don’t need to memorize things. Once you can feed sheet music you can play songs you have never even heard before just by looking at the page and playing along. What he suggests is just a worse version of sheet music.
Actually when i discovered how amazing piano is it was by following same pianists hands and copying the notes,but what ever your ideas are great too! 👏👏
As a learning pianist, having always thought myself via UA-cam I expected seeing actually helpful tips. I recently after few years of playing just by tutorials with syntesia or whatever it's called, I'm trying to actually improve my technique, learning piano sheets and proper playing, this video has not brought me any closer. It's for those who don't really care to learn piano I'd say.
Every musician pro or not should know how to read sheet. That's my point of view. And that's not only related to classical music but all styles... And above all it's certainly not a "big mistake".
I don’t think skipping on learning to read music is a waste of time. This seems like a step that will misguide a lot of people into frustration when they realize they can’t really play anything without first googling it. It’s like learning a few phrases in a language but not being able to actually understand what anyone is saying. You can’t cheat your way into being a good pianist. This seems like a gimmick to make yourself seem good, but in reality it’s more like a party trick. Maybe I’m just old. It’s like people who make designs on canva, calling themselves a graphic designer. Sure you can make something pretty but you don’t really understand the theory of design and will only really ever get so far.
I was always overwhelmed looking at the piano keys, thought would never ever learn coz my brain is more logical than musical. Thanks to your mathematical approach which instills hope that some day some way together we (me and my keyboard) will baby, I'll take and you'll take ur time....... Hoping to be "good" with the keys....... ThNx zAch
Bro everybody here needs to know that reading sheet music IS IMPORTANT. Imagine learning a new language but you cant actually read it 💀. When he says you wont need to if youre just learning your favorite pop song, he should have said that you wont need to if youre not trying to be proficient as a musician. I promise it will be worth it and youd grow fast af 💪🏿
you people need to chill...reading music isn't an easy thing for many. I used to take hours of lessons with a strict teacher...I quit because I wasn't properly reading and playing everything EXACTLY like the book. This can be overwealming and not fun, and cause many people who just want to learn and have some fun hearing themselves play. Many are not aspiring concert pianists, etc. You need to do what is FUN, not WORK sometimes. It depends on the individual. I learned music, but I have trouble looking at the notes and transmitting it to the keyboard. I have a good ear, and like to improvise. So, this method is ok if you have a basic understanding of the music theory, which is crucial...but I don't think we all have to read note for note to become Mozart. Sure, classical it's a must....but to have fun and learn a cool instrument to have fun, not really.
The chord thing is great to play a little bit of piano. But if you want to exploit the full potential of the instrument and the pianoplaying, you benefit a lot of beeing able to read sheets, no matter what kind of music you want to play.
Chords are an important part to learning to play the piano, but there is no substitute for learning to read sheet music. While you can technically play songs using just chords, it doesn't sound very dynamic if you aren't a singer. If you aren't singing the piece, your right hand has to carry the melody. Classical music or not. As far as the pinky thing, I feel it's a better idea to learn to curl your fingers more and move further into the black keys. Many people don't like this because they fear tripping over the black keys. But it allows you to avoid rolling or twisting your wrist as much as possible. This is a sure way of developing carpal tunnel syndrome one day...Additionally, tuck your thumb when you use your pinky.
I'm still glad to know how to read sheet music but i was lucky enough to participate in every music oriented class possible for over 8 years and it is a Life Skill that Never Disappears!! To be fair i only attended one class a day and as an adult I'm sure i could start from zero and learn the same amount in under a year with dedicated time for it, school spreads the time for it Waaay out what with other classes and organizations to join. But. Learn to read real music Too after the chords. It'll unlock So much for you. You'll be glad you took the time to do it. 🎉😂❤😊
My piano teacher had said that I would have been really good at piano had I practiced b/c I was good at sight reading. I recently got back into piano and have been reading the music again. I still have it. lol! I can read chords, too, but didn’t teach myself the chords till I was 18. My friend tried to teach me how to play chords in both hands when we we in HS, but it had not clicked with me. I was trained classically, which is so different from just learning the chords.
With this method, I developed a relative pitch along the way. With relative pitch I don't need cheat sheet anymore as I can feel the chord progression. I can feel where is the key, how far away the current chord from the root, in what mode I play, but still can't read sheet music 😂
I’m just a 14 yr old that learns from UA-cam tutorials. Like Ive made mad progress over the year! Yknow sheet music boss? Yeah his hard level tutorials I can play them I’m getting so good I don’t know if this doesn’t make me an expert pianist but I’ve memorized some amazing songs!
I feel like you should’ve at the very least mentioned the importance of beginners to use a metronome, and I’m salty about telling them not to learn how to read music lol but thanks
Yes! I’m not going to be a concert pianist. So why am I making myself struggle with reading in my 30’s.. thank you for saving me from guilt and saving my time! You have a new subscriber :)
I agree learning Chords and scales if you are just playing with the band. You don't need piano sheets there but Chord sheets. If you wanna play alone like classical learn sheet music.
This is a lot of great advice, especially what you said about the "weak pinky," and I'm looking foward to checking out the rest of your channel, but I honestly think it would be a mistake to not learn how to read sheet music. It's not just for classical music. If you wanna play any melody, it's always gonna be the easiest to find it through sheet music. Plus just a list of which tones or chords go into a song isn't gonna tell you if it spans across more than one octave or not, how long or short each note is, what the rhythm is (4/4, 3/4, etc), and so on. For example I'm currently trying to learn "Jingle Bells" using basically just a list of notes, and it took me days of practice before I realized that some of the G's and A's are supposed to be an octave lower. No wonder it sounded weird! If I could read sheet music, I'd have known that right away. It's also difficult to learn which notes are quarters or eights from just listening. Following extremely simple sheet music for practicing rhythm is amazingly good practice imo, so far. Yes it's helpful for me as a beginner to just see a list of the notes included in a song because I dunno yet how to read sheet music fully, but I kinda also wanna see the sheet music so that I will know all that other stuff that also is important for a song to sound correct. Sure it's difficult to learn which note is what in sheet music but it's not very hard to learn what the different symbols mean, and that dots higher up on the staff are higher notes than dots lower down on the staff. Basically, without sheet music it's kinda hard to properly find all the important information of what makes a melody be that unique melody, as just wich notes to play and in what order isn't gonna be enough info in most cases. But honestly my biggest reason for wanting to learn sight reading is so that I'll be able to write down my own songs that I'll inevitably want to create someday. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of extremely talented musicians who dunno sight reading but get by from just hearing what a song is supposed to sound like. But that seems like it would be more challenging in the long run unless you got perfect hearing. By no means do I wanna bash on them, it just seems like it would be very impractical to not know how to read sheet music once you get to a more advanced level, regardless of what genre you get invested in. (Except apparently for blues, according to other commentors.) Am I wrong for thinking that? How do these musicians even write down their own songs? Long G, short F, super short DD, etc? I mean writing it like that is kinda how I currently jot down my own interpretations of sheet music because it helps me learn, but I can't imagine doing that long term. It's kinda messy and even I sometimes struggle to understand my own interpretations. Like how long is a long G now again? I forgot! Also it looks like a cursed computer programming script gone wrong.
Starting with the top bar you see the $ looking sign. If writing on the line with your right hand. FACE (going up each line) Same hand but this time with a line going through it. From the bottom of the $ line.... Don't worry cause E...VERY G...OOD B...OY D...OES F...INE. NOTICE : FACE AND EGBDF EACH SKIP THE KEY TO THE RIGHT TO SPELL OR COMPLETE THE ACRONYM NEXT the left hand. It's the bars below € is what it looks like. Even though it looks like a C but fancy I like to think of Euros and dollars. From bottom to top just like FACE... A...LL C...OWS E...AT G...RASS FOR THE LINE THROUGH THE NOTE ITS G...REAT B...ABY D...IAPER F...ARTS just like with every lame acronym you've ever learned it's just remembering that in cohesion with the shapes you see and you'll get it faster
@@evilovesperry Yeah, I have a hard time with learning acronyms in the right order. Just repeating them doesn't seem to help. I need to have some kinda relevant context to put them in. Like for ex the middle C being the first lower ledger line on the treble clef staff and the first upper ledger line on the bass clef staff is memorable because it's logical. What cows eat or how good boys are, or even splitting up the notes by lines vs spaces is just too abstract for me to remember. Even memorizing the chords was easier for me because there are similarities between them and they're based on a logical system that doesn't feel random. I mean at this pount I can easily play each of the basic major and minor chords without thinking or looking, but I still wouldn't be able to tell you what exact notes they're made up of. So like, I appreciate your help but this acronym stuff is just not a helpful method for me to learn. The only one of those that actually has some potential to stick with me is the FACE one because at least it's memorable that it's an actual word in itself. One thing that does help me learn though, is to continuously write down simple melodies in sheet music, because then I'm engaging more of my senses than just rambling riddles. Like at this point I've memorized at least half of it (lower half of the treble clef staff (C, D, E, F, G, A) and upper half of the bass clef staff (C, B, A, G, F, E)) because I keep repeatedly writing down music using that range of notes. For that I use a free online program for writing sheet music. I'm just very strongly a tactile learner (ie touch and physical action) so it works best for me to learn by doing. Making sight reading a physical task to do is not the easiest though lol. Same with my trying to learn the scales. After weeks of practicing them daily I still struggle to remember any of them beyond the few I found an extra liking for, and used for pieces I've created myself.
I'm learning classical music, but it was fun to watch this video and hear you sing. Can you learn to play 16th notes at 120 bpm in your first 6 months? Is that realistic?
Yea you could do it in 6 months if you're diligent for sure - depending what the notes are of course haha. But if it's a simple scale as long as you're using the Rhythms Strategy and Metronome Ramp Up you could def get there
These are all really great tips! The part where you focus on hand technique is definitely the most important thing to know when starting, and you covered that really well!
Wow this was actually helpful, one of the things that ive heard from others is that you need to actually learn to memorize the sound of keys as well just by listening to them without looking.
Not learning piano sheet is worst advise for pianist. Of course you could learn pieces without it but when your level of playing is evolving as music that you learning it is difficult to navigate without piano sheet. I think nowadays you can find piano sheet on any musical piece.
This video I believe will save my life, thank you very much. Also as I want to improve my sound, do you have any videos or suggestions please. THANKS FOR THE VIDEO!
Yes...I'm sure it's a big advantage being able to read music. But it's more important having the feel and passion without the theory. ...eg..a musician called Paul Mc Cartney never learned to read music....but he did ok at writing beautiful pieces and working with orchestras.
@@becomeapianosuperhuman6765 Great UA-cam channel btw. I play guitar and bass in a band(not at the same time! Lol) and teaching myself piano. Learned a few Beatles songs (Let It Be etc) can't read a note...but the soul and passion is there as you can appreciate.
Learning to read sheet music is like learning to read a book. Then there's the interpretation which is understanding and finally learning scales and chords gets you to play this advice but to a far higher standard. Chords are easy.
I am a 15 year old pianist that has been playing for 11 years now. I have never learnt how to read sheet music,ive always been playing songs by ear and has even been invited to be a worship leader at church with the piano. So i reccoment exploring youre talent only knowing the basicsa like chords and so on, because when people learn sheet music, playing will no longer be fun for them and it will become a chore
I felt like the frustrated piano guy off of Seasame Street (don't know if he's still on there..this was from the 70's lol) when I came to a hard part, playing it over and over and over....then getting frustrated, letting my emotions get the best of me...wanting to bang my head on the piano!
I can play about 250 songs on guitar and around 50 between piano and violin heavily favoring piano and I've never learned to read sheet music. I know it's a gigantic gap in my knowledge that I need, I've even been a fill-in studio musician but for some reason no matter how hard I try I can't break it down basically enough for me to understand sheet music, but I definitely recognize how important it is, I'm just shitty at it and it kills my passion at its roots
Long time piano player, heavy classical background: #1 This seems very reasonable if all you want to do is play enough chords to accompany yourself while you sing. However, if you want to progress beyond that stage, you'll need to learn to read sheet music and learn scales, etc. I do think that the other three mistakes and how to fix are very good suggestions. I remember using #2 a lot when I got more advanced and had long runs of notes that required your fingering to be exact or else. Never thought about #3, but I suspect my early teachers kept moving my hands while I was concentrating on hitting the right keys. Btw, this technique can help your typing, too. #4 will probably be the hardest to accomplish - but learn to set aside some time every day, even if some days you can only do 10-15 minutes. Playing any instrument is like playing sports - you have to put in the time. Good luck!!!
I learned sheet music because I started in school. However to be fair, you don't need to read sheet music to learn scales or progress past simple chord accompaniment. Learning to read sheet music is necessary for *1 thing:* reading sheet music. So if you want to learn a song someone else wrote with no audio or video version to learn by ear, and sheet music is the only available method for said song, you need to know how to read sheet music. Reading sheet music has absolutely 0 bearing on how well you can play piano (or any instrument). Worst case scenario you can't learn obscure songs and can't sight read to play something through that you don't know (which the vast majority of players will never need to do in their entire life). Most likely outcome is you might learn certain songs slower because you might have to do it a slower way. The vast vast majority of the time people listen to someone playing piano (or other instrumeents) the pianist is playing without sheet music in front of them, including complex jazz etc. There's no magic in sheet music that makes us play any better, it's just a method of transcription. All it is is a way to communicate how to play a piece of music. If you learn a song by sheet music or a youtube video, you'll have the exact same result. The only difference would be how much time and effort each method took.
The weak pinkie solution is great! Also I notice I play the piano in the border of the white keys. I should pull the hands upper into the piano, but it's not so easy...
![6 Concepts Beginners Must Know To Learn Fast [CRITICAL]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HwnQ04H-YnU/mqdefault.jpg)
These are the 4 biggest mistakes to avoid (by FAR) that beginners make on piano. Especially if you’re an adult beginner, or a self taught player from UA-cam tutorials. Here's the Cheat Sheet link: bestpianoclass.com/mistakescheatsheet
00:24 Mistake #1 (this will save you TIME)
05:00 Mistake #2 (this will SMOOTH your playing)
08:04 Section 4: Mistake #3 (this will save you FRUSTRATION)
11:03 Section 5: Mistake #4 (this will SKYROCKET your progress)
13:20 Section 6: Next Steps...
Make sure you stick around to the end - each practice mistake gets more and more important, and the last one is absolutely critical for success. Especially the technique mistake and the last one.
Happy Practicing!!
-Zach
I've been hitting a wall with my head with synthesia but it looks like it's going to get easier
@@wojszach4443 Yea Synthesia can be a good tool, but note by note learning can be a lot of work
@@becomeapianosuperhuman6765 i know some basics since i had flute ages ago in school. Tho its more about tricks to make it faster
Hi gotta question I love a lot of your teaching methods there better then a lot of others I tried I have a question do you sell dvd 📀 lesson and have a hard book with the cheat sheets ?
24
As a 15 year old that had been playing for 6 years i would like to say that for any one around my age learning to play.. you will regret playing by chords. Learning to read is so very helpfull and will help set a base for anything you will ever play on piano! I do not play classical, in fact i despise it most of the time. But because i can read i can learn any genre.
That completely depends on the type of music and what you want to do. In a high level professional blues band, they do not play off of exacting sheet music. You get the key and the chords, and the rest is improvised by ear and feel. Many classically trained pianists suffer improvisationally because they don’t practice in these areas enough.
Learning by chords doesn’t mean “only play the chords”. The key, chords, and the rhythm represent all of the necessary components of the song in a lot of styles of music, but any good musician who works in blues or jazz has the skill to fill it out on the spot, and make it groove and sound beautiful.
@@collinsmcrae i know as a finished sending the comment i realise that this doesn’t apply to everyone… i am musically gifted and can play almost anything by ear and have an amazing sense of rythm but i struggle with lecture witch is why i think its important for me to practise on it.
@@kaotic_1077 Nice, yeah learn as much as you can and what you want to. If that includes sight reading, fantastic. You definitely won't ever regret it.
This is true!! Learning to read music does not kill your progress, like the title suggests but it can actually make things more fun. When learning piano, it’s always gonna be a challenge to learn a new piece. To understand what your playing just makes it easier!
@@aubsdoodle3048 yes! i just got a bit triggered when he said that it was a mistake to learn lecture. It completely depends on your goals and how you want to get there
As a young Pianist, I think learning how to read sheet music is a vital part to being a Pianist. Yes, its mainly to learn classical songs, but ive only ever played to classical songs with all the songs ive learned, being able to sight read is really important. Learn it, it will help.
Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson, the founders of ABBA, never learned to read and write a single note, yet are musical geniusses and composed immortal songs, by the way of considerable complexity.
Many incl myself were brought up to think that playing an instrument means reproducing notes printed on paper. The first time encountered chords in school when a teacher sang a song over guitar chords. The students all sang the melody. At the time had no concept how chords work and why certain chords would be played in certain places to accommodate the melody.
Picked up piano years later learning to read both lead sheets & the bass clef. Found that many Classical pieces have chords to accompany the melody with the notes written out and played as arpeggios. A lot of beginners & intermediates reading sheet music would see a note sequence F-A-C as separate notes but don't automatically see it as an F-chord played as arpeggio.
Some people learn to read lead sheets which is simplified notation with just the melody and chords on top. Need to learn the notes but only the melody line. Others don't read at all so would learn the melody by ear. Either they play the melody with 1 hand & chords with the other or just sing the melody over the chords.
Please when you read music and play, do you read tonic solfa and play or you look at the line alphabet and play the alphabet
@Mr. NoName Guitar players can sing the melody & play chords over it. Piano players can do the same. Some people learn to read lead sheets which is just the melody notes and do chords over it. You're limited to the right-hand notes instead of both hands. It's up to you to play off simplified notations (lead sheets) or none at all (100% by ear).
@@leximatic Regardless of that, someone still had to write down the arrangement in sheet music. It is not certain that all the accompanying musicians learned it only by ear.
Learning chords is cool and gives instant results.
But…
Learning to read sheet music gives you a better visual understanding of what you are doing, and an independence from any cheat sheet.
Chord learning will give fast results in the short term but hold you back on the long term.
Reading music will cost a little more efforts at the beginning but be soooooo rewarding on the long term.
The best: learn both!!
I teach both to my students.
Yes! This comes from someone who never bothered to learn sheet music when I started learning because I picked up on it very fast and played by ear. As a kid I had barley any motivation to continue playing but stayed just beacause, and now when I'm older I have actually gained a liking for the piano.
Now when I wanna play harder songs, with more rythm and more complex melodies it takes so long since I have to count almost every single note before playing. And when I get the hang of it I can almost always play it very easily. If I had just learned how to read sheet music when I was younger I would be so much better than my current skill. Not knowing is definitely what is holding me back.
But I've been trying to learn it now but old habits die hard.
In most modern music, it’s the other way around. Cheat sheets, improvisational technique, and a good ear free you from having any need for sheet music. And “cheat sheets” is a bit of a misnomer. They provide all of the necessary information to play in a highly technical jazz band, so long as you have the chops. Blues and jazz based music aren’t exacting. You are expected to be able to improvise an add your own flair to the groove, not play some song exactly as it was written. Millions of musicians operate this way. You will never be handed exact music notation in a blues band, and if you can’t work without it, then you aren’t any good at the blues, plain and simple.
@@Ziggneh Sure, but that’s only true if you want to play other people’s complex songs exactly as they were written. How do you think that they wrote these songs? With a pen and paper? Most typically, it was with their ears, sense of musicality, and chops. Many musicians aspire to be able to jam out creatively, and aren’t interested in learning songs note for note.
@@collinsmcrae
You are right but being able to read sheet music gives you the ability to mentally visualize the notes you hear when you are playing in a band, when you improvise, compose, etc.
The gain in efficiency is guaranteed.
Ear and eye are not enemies in music, they are partners. 😉
@@pw6002 Sure, they are definitely not enemies, but neither one really need the other. Ear training and improvisation take time, and are different skills than what most people spend studying in classical training. People are usually stronger in one area and not the other, depending on what they’ve spent time studying for.
A person who plays blues based music by ear, has no trouble visualizing the notes if they don’t read sheet music. I visualize the keys and shapes, and hear the intervals. That’s just as sharp and accurate as visualizing a symbol.
The truth is, reading music isn’t really all that beneficial if you aren’t trying to learn pieces, but instead how to get in and groove with a band, or produce accompaniment in song writing on the fly. But someone who is classically trained and good at sight reading, will often generally have superior technical abilities, and better technique.
Stopped listening immediately after he said there's no need to learn sheet music. Reading notes is a part of your music progress, and does not limit only to classical pieces. You wanna learn songs that's fine but if you wanna be a proper musician you need to expand knowledge by knowing basic music theory. You're no better than a beginner if you don't learn notes. Man's just saying with people normally want to hear.
I can only agree to some extent. Yes reading sheet music benefits and enables you to do more stuff but there are enough incredibly successful musicians who can’t read sheet music and don’t need it. I say this because I’m close to a few of these people. Most important is that you love playing music and that will set you on your path for sure. If you’re a beginner, just get into the habit of playing consistently. The rest will come :)
Yeah I agree. I’m an adult learner, I immediately hired a teacher when I knew I wanted to be good at this. Sheet music is crucial. It teaches you the structure of music.
Just learning chords is akin to just learning guitar tabs. You can get by on a guitar just learning tabs, but it would be completely foolish to learn the equivalent of “piano tabs” by just memorizing chords.
You’ll always be a mediocre pianist if you do that. The thing he missed in this video is practice. If you want to be a good pianist, nothing beats practice. You need to practice. Every day. There’s no shortcut to learning this instrument.
For a rabbit with small brain we only do the easiest way to play. Maybe later on, we can think of becoming a pro musician.
Same.
yeah but not every artist wants to just play sheet music i’m tryna do other stuff
As someone who knows how to read sheet music, its so much easier than just looking at the chords and the melodies like you said, sheet music is also so much better if you want to get the rythm perfectly right, same thing does not happend with the method you mentioned
I agree! I love to play piano covers, not just chords. So being able to read sheet music makes that soo much easier to get all the melodies and rhythms correct.
Sure, if you want to learn a complex piece exactly as it was written, but that’s not really what musicality is. A lot of players develop improvisational skills, and a good ear, in order to jam with people. You won’t be handed musical notation in a blues band. It’s chords, rhythm, your ear and your style. You are expected to be able to fill the rest in on the fly. How do you think people write most songs? You can’t play a song off of a sheet that hasn’t been written yet.
And what happens with a lot of people is that they learn little more than how to be a sheet music computer, and don’t learn how to be a creative musician that can write and improvise.
@Familiar Faith Technically, it is
Agreed! Imagine how much better Stevie Wonder would be with sheet music!
In my experience, the best practice for beginners is to start super slow, learn a song in slow motion making you memories it for ever. Play step by step. Slow is the key
this, best advise and "trick" possible
@ElBribri oh? So by repeating something that relies on your motions creating muscle memory is good?!
Lol honestly it's obvious. Bit at the same time dangerous if you're not familiar with the concept of motions prior to.
Just like a competitive video game you're amazing at but then being given the same game with non altered sensitivity or controls and forced to perform
Great advice. Anything to help with this
It is good to learn chords, to be able to play a song. But it is no better than only ever reading a picture comic book. You are virtually musically illiterate. Go ahead lean to play songs by just playing chords but learn to READ music! Being able to read music opens up a world of colour not only on classical but with your favourite popular modern songs.
I agree and disagree.... yes, if you want to learn classical you absolutely need to learn to read music. But also, a lot of people who read music really well actually aren't very music literate - they just read and memorize individual notes, and many don't actually understand the underlying chord structure and harmony behind what they're playing. I think learning to play by chords is an excellent starting point for that.
I see value in that Zach. Just because one can read War and Peace or Hamlet doesn't me that they can comprehend what the authur wrote. The same is true with music. Being able to play using only chords does not garentee that the performer will be able to play with feeling or colour.
@@velcroman11 Yes of course, same with sheet music. The emotional aspect of playing is a separate skill altogether
He already stated at the intro that being able to read music sheet is that you're being teached Classical Music, and that's fine.
However, when comes to POP MUSIC, no need for musical sheet.
True the Emotional part of it is a separate skill from (playing by chords or reading while playing. And it was said in the intro thanks for the video it improved lots on me
As a pianist who has been playing the piano since I was 6 I can surely tell you that learning how to read pieces is an extremely crucial thing to do if you want to perfect your skills at piano
relying on chords alone will damage your progress as a pianist severely and limit your versatility and complexity. Sure you can improvise in a band but what if you want to play an song that you like with the piano(e.g: fur Elise)? (Spoiler alert: You can’t)
You won’t master one of the most basic skills as a pianist, you will become dependent on improvisation alone, you will not be able to compose an advanced song with the piano alone, or be able to play an intermediate or even a beginner piano song at all. And even if you do how will you ever remember how to play the exact same thing that you played? What tool will you use to mark down the ideas that you will put into your song and what you composed?
The creator of this video who marks knowing how to read piano sheets as a beginner mistake is absolutely misleading and completely neglects the potential and versatility behind learning how to read piano sheets,
learning chords is extremely great and I recommend every pianist to master this skill, but I guarantee you that relying on chords and improvisation alone will tremendously damage and limit your career as a pianist. Don’t believe me? Look at all the great pianists and composers out there, they all know how to read piano and express the complexity and emotion behind their piece
I recommend mastering both skills with the eyes(sight reading) and ears(improvisation, chords and etc) if you truly want to perfect your skills in the piano like Mozart, Beethoven or Chopin did
This! Reading sheet music becomes a lot easier too if you know your cords, so I'd say both are required if you really want to master the piano.
I feel like doing the chord thing is actually slower and harder than reading sheet music. If all your wanted to do is play chords, getting sheet music with just the chords is a very easy read for beginners and you don't have to use the cheat sheet. This dude was comparing an advanced sheet with chords and saying chords are easier. Of course chords are easier. They are easier on a cheat sheet and on a regular sheet.
I was thinking the same thanks i will look into reading music today
@@joostfloot5279This. I started with classical piano without chords knowledge, and it opened my eyes once I understood the chords theory, and sight reading became easier.
So I think it’s not a bad idea to start with chords.
It’s actually easier to get engaged once you can play some nice chords than just stick to beginner pieces that sound like crap.
There are more than one thing wrong with this video, besides mastering speed in note reading….
Knowing chords/reading music aren’t mutually exclusive!
Proper technique requires a pinkie to play NOT rounded, or curved.
Just watch videos of famous pianist.
From it producing an unnatural position of the hand, to a collapse bridge, it causes unnecessary tension in the forearm…
😢😢😢😢
Learning sheet music is a lot more important than most people think even outside of classical music
I've only just started my keyboard journey and the pinky was a real problem. I was really feeling a strain on my hands and wrist trying to play using all five digits. The over-under technique is a revelation to me. I can't wait to practice this in the morning.
Great to hear! Yea it's amazing how sometimes all it takes is a small shift in your technique and you can make some really god progress
Be careful….
It’s incorrect technique!
@@valentina6429No, it’s not. He dips his wrist a bit too low on the way, but the arm absolutely must shift to the right to align with and support the pinky. Why do you feel it’s wrong?
Some of us don't want to read music and this all makes sense to me. Most keyboard artist who play by sight reading sound too regimented.
I agree 100%, pinky exercises are a complete waste of time, so never mind suffering through Hanon or Schmidt. Consistent practice naturally builds strength, and if what you're practicing involves octaves or chords in both hands, you'll be employing your pinkies, anyway (you don't have a choice). Rock-solid technique is essential, as was pointed out here; don't ever neglect that. One other essential element is believing you can do this. It becomes unnecessarily difficult without faith in yourself and your abilities. Zach puts out these videos because he believes in you, and frankly, so do I. I'm self-taught, and he has helped me immeasurably, for which I'm forever grateful. If I can do it, I know you can, too!
Thanks for the comment! A lot of people give up at the beginning, not realizing just around the corner, once you get some of the basics down, it gets a lot easier 🔥
It's even more simple than that. As with anything else in life, if you WANT to learn you have to have internal motivation. No matter what you might think you like, you won't do it and put in the time learning and actually doing it if YOU don't WANT to. You MUST WANT to do it for yourself, not for anyone else or to impress others. That means spending your time on attaining the goal to the exclusion of other matters. If you want to pass a test that means sticking your nose in a book instead of your smartphone or hanging out with your friends.
You cannot fool yourself with this. You either WANT to do it or you don't. Telling yourself you don't have all the time required for success means you don't have the internal motivation to use your time for the goal. In turn that means you do not have that specific goal. If that is the case, admit it and do something else. Once you use your time you can't get it back nor can you buy more hours to add to your life. Everyone has the same number of hours in every day. How you use them depends on YOUR internal motivation.
Consistent practice builds natural strength, yes, but Hanon, Czerny and the like help with the ability to play smoothly and evenly. If you can't play smoothly and evenly, you're not going to sound as good as you possibly can. Sometimes it take a focused effort to work on things like that, which is what the repetition in Hanon provides.
If you really want to polish your sound, you have to work on your technique. There's no shortcut to success; you can't just phone it in. You're going to have to practice and play even when it is boring and it is hard.
@Become a Piano Superhuman haha yes!! I cannot read any notes, chords or letters or anything but I can play pirates of the caribean up to about 40 seconds!!
El saber no ocupa lugar, me decían. Casi siempre exige esfuerzo. Pero
tengo claro que la ignorancia nos limita.
i began learning piano with chords and chord progressions. yeah no, i didn't progress after that until i began to take formal lessons. learning actual music theory is better than just looking up quick chords because learning music theory is so much more than just knowing how to read notes. it's like learning grammar, sentence structures, figures of speeches, etc etc when learning english as opposed to just knowing how to read abc and being able to communicate little bit with others. learning to read sheet music is basically just the gateway to music theory and thereby understanding music itself.
So many people winging about not reading sheet music/notation. I think people forget that for some people this is going to be a small hobby that they get two or three hours a week on and they want to press some buttons and make sound come out that they like.
If you want to go down a classical pathway then please learn notation. It’s so important you’re almost completely locking yourself out if you don’t.
But if you just want to learn enough to produce music and be able to play in a sequence or play a main riff or play chords under what you’re singing then learning chords is a great thing to do. But I would love to make a counter point that everyone is missing for some reason and say that THEORY (in my opinion) is important to pick up on the way even if you don’t learn notation. Theory also isn’t that scary and allows you to be more intuitive when you figure this stuff out.
Knowing how to put a major and minor scale together, understanding your circle of fifths so you can quickly work out key signatures/notes and scales, understanding relative minor, knowing which chords are major minor and diminished in a major and minor, KNOWING HOW TO INVERT A CHORD, understanding what “inverted” and “diminished” mean, knowing which notes correspond to which intervals so you can work out how to string your own chords together.
Don’t let dots on a sheet of paper scare you away from learning how music is put together. It’s not an “all or nothing” scenario for most people and don’t let some snob on the internet intimidate you out of finding your own way that works for your life
I completely understand having an urge to learn just the chord to quickly play one song, but it’s like memorising EACH sum of the two numbers without actually learning how to add. All chords have a very simple structure and the things is - you can learn 1 structure and play it from EVERY note.
Pop music also comes in music sheets!
I learned sheet music because I started in school so I had to, and I find it weird how many commenters are acting like sheet music is essential for piano. It's no more essential than it is for any other instrument. Learning to read sheet music is necessary for *1 thing:* reading sheet music. So if you want to learn a song someone else wrote with no audio or video version to learn by ear, and sheet music is the only available method for said song, you need to know how to read sheet music. That's about it. Reading sheet music has absolutely 0 bearing on how well you can play piano (or any instrument). Worst case scenario you can't learn some obscure songs that are only recorded on paper and can't sight read to play something through that you don't know (which the vast majority of players will never need to do in their entire life). Most likely outcome is you might learn certain songs slower because you might have to do it a slower way. The vast vast majority of the time people listen to someone playing piano (or other instrument) the person is playing without sheet music in front of them, including complex music like jazz etc. There's no magic in sheet music that makes us play any better, it's just a method of transcription. All it is is a way to communicate how to play a piece of music. If you learn a song by sheet music or a youtube video, you'll have the exact same result. The only difference would be how much time and effort each method took.
You can learn scales, chords, improvisation, music theory, etc all without ever reading sheet music. Stevie Wonder plays piano well without sheet music! You don't even need sheet music to learn classical music. It can just be easier/faster, and allow you to sight read it, which again the vast vast majority of musicians will never need to do because most aren't going to be professional orchestra or session players that need to drop in and learn or play a song on the fly. Even professional musicians playing very complicated music like Dream Theater aren't up there on stage with sheet music, and there's nothing special about piano that makes it any more required than a guitar for example, and like 0.001% of guitar players read sheet music.
I believe in learning to read sheet music first and then learning chord symbols-it leads to a better understanding and being able to do more WITH the chords once you learn them. It’s like learning the limit definition of a derivative before the power rule… it makes you better at calculus, even if it’s harder.
It really doesn’t. It totally depends on the type of musician you want to be. Millions of musicians work off of little more than knowing what key the song is in, the progression, and the rhythm. The rest is filled in by ear and feel. If you don’t believe me, you can consult one of the thousands of incredible blues and jazz based musicians who have never read a sheet in their lives.
@@collinsmcrae oh I know there are plenty of fabulous musicians who can’t read sheet music. Especially in genres like jazz where a lot of improvisation occurs. And there is something special to knowing the rhythm and feel, but it is definitely limiting. I once played in a band with an amazing drummer who couldn’t read sheet music. We had just put together a small praise band where I was the pianist. His inability to read the music, refer back to measures, or visualize where the cues were made him incredibly difficult to work with at first. After a while of practicing, it shook out, and I mean it when I tell you he was amazing. It probably isn’t like that when the members of your band are the same ones you always play with and you know them super well, but the fact remains that it is truly limiting. So yes, depending on what kind of musician you want to be, you can get away with not learning it. But you’ll only ever be that type of musician and it seriously cuts down in your versatility. I don’t take issue with people who choose not to learn it, but the guy in this video framing learning sheet music as a beginner mistake is really objectively wrong. If you’re just starting it and aren’t sure exactly what you want to do with the instrument you are learning, start with the basics. That includes sheet music.
@@katiehelms8903
Your argument is pretty fair, so it's a shame it went ignored when you clearly cared about the conversation. I definitely agree that it's misleading to label learning sheet music as mistake; it would have been more accurate and honest if he said that focusing on just one or the other can be limiting, but that putting more focus on chords at the beginning can be beneficial. Feels like this guy exaggerates things a little too much sometimes.
@@Persun_McPersonson thank you! And yeah, I think the guy in the video is exaggerating a bit. I think the real beginner mistake is entirely neglecting theory and not understanding what chords are and how they are put together. But learning chords doesn’t mean not to learn sheet music!
It’s best to learn both. I grew up learning classically, but when I got to age 18, I learned on my own how to play by chords and feel. I am grateful to being trained classically.
You know, the first mistake you show, in my opinion, us not a mistake at all. I mean, if a person just wants to play piano without knowing anything about music it would probably work, but it's like memorizing a math formula without knowing where it comes from. I think that to play chords correctly a musician first needs to learn what is a chord, where it came from, why in the V7 minor chord the seventh pitch is raised by a half-step, etc.
you are solid....
I started learning few weeks ago, but I think I still have a long way to go, but I'm having issues with my fingering, but this page for like four days now have really been helpful🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
The main thing in growth is learning by sheet. This is the gate way for other musical options (major,minor,music theory etc.) outside of “what’s popular”. That’s like poking a door wanting to open it somehow.
Ax. 😊😊😊
This video hurt my eyes, my ears, my brain, my musicianship and my existence…
Many people disagree with his opinion about reading notes. I kinda understand why he said that tho.
This is a tip for beginners. I think especially for a self-learn since he also input his learning curiculm. So, a self-learn beginners.
Why would a person want to self-learn a piano? Since i'm a self-learn, i say the reason i want to learn piano is because i want to play the songs i really like.
But seeing notes is incredibly overwhelming. If you search tutorial how to read notes, there's so much information that's hard to understand by ourselves.
Meanwhile, remember the chord and find the cheat sheet is incredibly easy. This way, I don't feel intimidated by how much i should learn and still excited to learn piano.
Ofc, I can't go far with just chord. I also curious how to play the melody. So i recently learn how to read notes and believe me when i say, it's sooo much easier because i don't feel overwhelmed.
My point is, i think he is trying to make sure beginner can start learning as comfortable as possible and not feel overwhelmed.
I agree with you. It kind of depends on why you are learning piano. If you are only playing your favorite songs and to just have fun, then I think memorizing is better. If you want to play piano at an advanced stage and/or like classical, you should learn to read; atleast a little bit. If you want to do both, keep a balanced mix of memory and sheet music
Enjoyed the video and yes the chords is a great way to easily belt out a minimalistic version of a pop tune pretty quickly.
Not sure what universe exists that learning to read music would be considered a mistake though.
Respect for singing the song u gained a sub!
I bought piano on may 2022 and I'm self taught... i never really looked up at any of these mistake videos... and i learnt everything with just midi files and now I'm going to try the wall
I’ve been a pianist for more than 10 years and yes I started with learning sheet music from my teacher. I’m no slouch and I’m not too bad at the piano, but I found the first two things you taught to be interesting and a cool way for me to keep learning
Thanks. Glad you liked the video! 🎹
As somebody who has been doing piano since 2nd grade and is now in 7th grade, but quit and now plays pop, just the base of sheet music is extremely helpful, you don’t need to know crescendos etc if your learning pop music from sheet music, the base is all you need as you can sort of feel when to soft and loud or you can just play as you go.
Very true, but the downside of learning chording is that if you can’t sing, chording will do you no good, unless you find yourself a singer to sing while you play. This is not easy to be in sync with a singer, as it takes much practice and each have to do their best in order to sound decent. Classical is definitely very difficult to learn and it takes many years, but if you can’t sing, you are stuck with learning classical!
Yep very true
That is simply false. You don’t just “learn chording”. You use the progression and the key as the skeleton and you fill the rest in with your ear and all of the skills you’ve managed to acquire. The ignorance around a lot of this in the piano community is absolutely staggering. Most music, in the world, is not played in a n exacting manner off of a sheet. You improvise around the basic structure of the song, and this can get as complex or simplistic as you like.
THANK YOU SO MUCH. i can't afford classes, im 37 so kinda in a rush xD... and do play by ear and compose but feel restricted you have unlocked a world. You have yourself a new hardcore follower
Thanks Nicolas. Glad you found the video helpful! 🎹
I never wanted to learn how to read to sheets and play by ear as well. Works for me and it’s fun:D
Exactly what I needed. This helps a novice not be overwhelmed with notes yet and more enjoyable thank you!
Wow, thank you! Glad you enjoyed the video
@@becomeapianosuperhuman6765 I disagree with learning chords from the cheat sheet. It is important to learn chords but my fear is that people that learn from the cheat sheet tend to not realize how each chord works, related chords, how many sharps or flats in each key, and only knowing one way of playing the chord. For example, in the the chord cheat sheet their, the chord D is displayed as A Fsharp and D. The beginner looking at it might not realize that the chord is also played D Fsharp and then A. I am self taught who learned how to read music and it was worth it, since I actually wasn't good playing by ear. After I played a few years looking at music sheets, I became better at playing by ear. I can still sight read, and usually prefer doing so.
I love classic piano lessons. But here I found a good connection between piano playing and rythm and it's helps me a lot, cause even in singing I have problems with the rythm❤ Thank you for this lesson!
I'm getting better day by day bro I really understand the way you teach 💯
Great to hear Enock, keep up the good work 😂
I wish that too.
It's cool this guy is giving a product for people who has a different approach, another perspective and goal to play piano or even more, people wanna play the piano and don't have that much time to invest from a long and dedicated process to learn, great video ; i will save this video for anytime I need/want to learn some songs for an occasion.
Thanks Nehuen. Glad you liked the video! 🎹
I'm interested in learning to use Synthesizers and feel that sheet music and classical piano skill would be overkill for what I'm interested in.
This video is for people like me lol. I’m always busy n have kids so I’m stuck practicing at night when they sleep..
All these ppl are saying u should/have to learn to read, if I did I’d never get to play 😅
The piano playing is quite ok, but those heavenly vocals, oh my gosh 😍
I have been playing the guitar for 12 years and not learning to read music was the biggest blunder I ever made. If you ever hope to enjoy playing piano for the rest of your life and immerse in the endless learning process....By all means learn to read music.
Same here, i play percussive fingerstyle but can't read sheet music. This means I haven't been dabbling in other genres or songs with advanced chord progressions. But at least guitars have tabs which makes it somewhat fine to learn on. Learning piano now and will make sure not to skip sheet music
If someone tells you not to learn to read music, say thank you and move on. That person has nothing good to teach you. Reading music is not difficult and it is a gateway to the world of music. It's like someone telling you that you don't have to learn to read books, if you want to have a scientific career.
Nah my guy shut up not my problem u suck womp womp
Every adult I’ve ever taught said: I wish I had learned to read music as a kid!
After playing guitar for decades & always hating sheet music,this is finally a cracking way to get going on a keyboard. Thanks🎉 enlightening !
Rock on! Love the attitude :)
As a starter through playing piano, what i I've beendoing throghout my journey is first start with chords, triads to be exact. Then if you want your piano to "sing" next thing i need to review is the scales. Major, sharps, and flats, and if possible, do it for ALL of the notes in the piano. Now you can go through pentatonics. I'm currently in this stage and don't know whats next. I've been prioritizing learning through sheet music and sometimes play by ear. But so far, the scales help me to learn by ear by knowing what chord to play individualy.
Imagine an English teacher telling their student they don’t need to learn how to read English! Only if you’re planning to read books, but if all you wanna do is watch movies, there’s no need to learn to read!😂😂😂I guess if your musical goal stops at Taylor Swift songs (or any pop song), then you need not learn to read! Unless you wanna play the melody in your right hand and the chords in the left hand! There’s always an “unless”! Just learn to read! It’s not that hard!
0:25 already relatable, i cant do gcse music without having piano lessons for sheet music. i dont wanna learn sheet music, im not into classical. i just wanna be an edm producer
Sheet music is literally a cheat sheet for everything. The whole point of learning to read sheet music is so you don’t need to memorize things. Once you can feed sheet music you can play songs you have never even heard before just by looking at the page and playing along. What he suggests is just a worse version of sheet music.
Sheet music is like almost the most important thing
Actually when i discovered how amazing piano is it was by following same pianists hands and copying the notes,but what ever your ideas are great too! 👏👏
Glad you liked the video! 🎹
As a learning pianist, having always thought myself via UA-cam I expected seeing actually helpful tips. I recently after few years of playing just by tutorials with syntesia or whatever it's called, I'm trying to actually improve my technique, learning piano sheets and proper playing, this video has not brought me any closer. It's for those who don't really care to learn piano I'd say.
Every musician pro or not should know how to read sheet. That's my point of view. And that's not only related to classical music but all styles...
And above all it's certainly not a "big mistake".
I don’t think skipping on learning to read music is a waste of time. This seems like a step that will misguide a lot of people into frustration when they realize they can’t really play anything without first googling it. It’s like learning a few phrases in a language but not being able to actually understand what anyone is saying. You can’t cheat your way into being a good pianist. This seems like a gimmick to make yourself seem good, but in reality it’s more like a party trick. Maybe I’m just old. It’s like people who make designs on canva, calling themselves a graphic designer. Sure you can make something pretty but you don’t really understand the theory of design and will only really ever get so far.
I switch between practicing sheet vs chords. They're both useful, of course.
I was always overwhelmed looking at the piano keys, thought would never ever learn coz my brain is more logical than musical. Thanks to your mathematical approach which instills hope that some day some way together we (me and my keyboard) will baby, I'll take and you'll take ur time....... Hoping to be "good" with the keys....... ThNx zAch
Lots to think about in this video! Great to show students how to find those chord sheets too! Such a fun way to play!
Bro everybody here needs to know that reading sheet music IS IMPORTANT. Imagine learning a new language but you cant actually read it 💀. When he says you wont need to if youre just learning your favorite pop song, he should have said that you wont need to if youre not trying to be proficient as a musician. I promise it will be worth it and youd grow fast af 💪🏿
Great video; pinky issue fixed for me. Thanks 😊😊😊😊.
Awesome Raquel. Glad you found the video helpful! 🎹
you people need to chill...reading music isn't an easy thing for many. I used to take hours of lessons with a strict teacher...I quit because I wasn't properly reading and playing everything EXACTLY like the book. This can be overwealming and not fun, and cause many people who just want to learn and have some fun hearing themselves play. Many are not aspiring concert pianists, etc. You need to do what is FUN, not WORK sometimes. It depends on the individual. I learned music, but I have trouble looking at the notes and transmitting it to the keyboard. I have a good ear, and like to improvise. So, this method is ok if you have a basic understanding of the music theory, which is crucial...but I don't think we all have to read note for note to become Mozart. Sure, classical it's a must....but to have fun and learn a cool instrument to have fun, not really.
The twelve-week plan of attack is an amazing technique. Thanks a lot, man!
When I was struggling to play a song my teacher actually taught me the 4 rhythms Strategy and it has helped me a lot
The chord thing is great to play a little bit of piano. But if you want to exploit the full potential of the instrument and the pianoplaying, you benefit a lot of beeing able to read sheets, no matter what kind of music you want to play.
Chords are an important part to learning to play the piano, but there is no substitute for learning to read sheet music. While you can technically play songs using just chords, it doesn't sound very dynamic if you aren't a singer. If you aren't singing the piece, your right hand has to carry the melody. Classical music or not.
As far as the pinky thing, I feel it's a better idea to learn to curl your fingers more and move further into the black keys. Many people don't like this because they fear tripping over the black keys. But it allows you to avoid rolling or twisting your wrist as much as possible. This is a sure way of developing carpal tunnel syndrome one day...Additionally, tuck your thumb when you use your pinky.
I'm still glad to know how to read sheet music but i was lucky enough to participate in every music oriented class possible for over 8 years and it is a Life Skill that Never Disappears!! To be fair i only attended one class a day and as an adult I'm sure i could start from zero and learn the same amount in under a year with dedicated time for it, school spreads the time for it Waaay out what with other classes and organizations to join. But. Learn to read real music Too after the chords. It'll unlock So much for you. You'll be glad you took the time to do it. 🎉😂❤😊
My piano teacher had said that I would have been really good at piano had I practiced b/c I was good at sight reading. I recently got back into piano and have been reading the music again. I still have it. lol! I can read chords, too, but didn’t teach myself the chords till I was 18. My friend tried to teach me how to play chords in both hands when we we in HS, but it had not clicked with me. I was trained classically, which is so different from just learning the chords.
With this method, I developed a relative pitch along the way. With relative pitch I don't need cheat sheet anymore as I can feel the chord progression. I can feel where is the key, how far away the current chord from the root, in what mode I play, but still can't read sheet music 😂
I’m just a 14 yr old that learns from UA-cam tutorials. Like Ive made mad progress over the year! Yknow sheet music boss? Yeah his hard level tutorials I can play them I’m getting so good I don’t know if this doesn’t make me an expert pianist but I’ve memorized some amazing songs!
I feel like you should’ve at the very least mentioned the importance of beginners to use a metronome, and I’m salty about telling them not to learn how to read music lol but thanks
Yes! I’m not going to be a concert pianist. So why am I making myself struggle with reading in my 30’s.. thank you for saving me from guilt and saving my time! You have a new subscriber :)
I agree learning Chords and scales if you are just playing with the band. You don't need piano sheets there but Chord sheets. If you wanna play alone like classical learn sheet music.
I think learning to develop your ear and interpret what your hearing is pretty important,maybe most important.
This is a lot of great advice, especially what you said about the "weak pinky," and I'm looking foward to checking out the rest of your channel, but I honestly think it would be a mistake to not learn how to read sheet music. It's not just for classical music. If you wanna play any melody, it's always gonna be the easiest to find it through sheet music. Plus just a list of which tones or chords go into a song isn't gonna tell you if it spans across more than one octave or not, how long or short each note is, what the rhythm is (4/4, 3/4, etc), and so on.
For example I'm currently trying to learn "Jingle Bells" using basically just a list of notes, and it took me days of practice before I realized that some of the G's and A's are supposed to be an octave lower. No wonder it sounded weird! If I could read sheet music, I'd have known that right away. It's also difficult to learn which notes are quarters or eights from just listening. Following extremely simple sheet music for practicing rhythm is amazingly good practice imo, so far.
Yes it's helpful for me as a beginner to just see a list of the notes included in a song because I dunno yet how to read sheet music fully, but I kinda also wanna see the sheet music so that I will know all that other stuff that also is important for a song to sound correct. Sure it's difficult to learn which note is what in sheet music but it's not very hard to learn what the different symbols mean, and that dots higher up on the staff are higher notes than dots lower down on the staff. Basically, without sheet music it's kinda hard to properly find all the important information of what makes a melody be that unique melody, as just wich notes to play and in what order isn't gonna be enough info in most cases.
But honestly my biggest reason for wanting to learn sight reading is so that I'll be able to write down my own songs that I'll inevitably want to create someday.
Don't get me wrong, there are lots of extremely talented musicians who dunno sight reading but get by from just hearing what a song is supposed to sound like. But that seems like it would be more challenging in the long run unless you got perfect hearing. By no means do I wanna bash on them, it just seems like it would be very impractical to not know how to read sheet music once you get to a more advanced level, regardless of what genre you get invested in. (Except apparently for blues, according to other commentors.)
Am I wrong for thinking that? How do these musicians even write down their own songs? Long G, short F, super short DD, etc? I mean writing it like that is kinda how I currently jot down my own interpretations of sheet music because it helps me learn, but I can't imagine doing that long term. It's kinda messy and even I sometimes struggle to understand my own interpretations. Like how long is a long G now again? I forgot! Also it looks like a cursed computer programming script gone wrong.
Starting with the top bar you see the $ looking sign.
If writing on the line with your right hand.
FACE (going up each line)
Same hand but this time with a line going through it. From the bottom of the $ line.... Don't worry cause
E...VERY
G...OOD
B...OY
D...OES
F...INE.
NOTICE : FACE AND EGBDF EACH SKIP THE KEY TO THE RIGHT TO SPELL OR COMPLETE THE ACRONYM
NEXT the left hand. It's the bars below € is what it looks like. Even though it looks like a C but fancy I like to think of Euros and dollars.
From bottom to top just like FACE...
A...LL
C...OWS
E...AT
G...RASS
FOR THE LINE THROUGH THE NOTE ITS
G...REAT
B...ABY
D...IAPER
F...ARTS
just like with every lame acronym you've ever learned it's just remembering that in cohesion with the shapes you see and you'll get it faster
@@evilovesperry Yeah, I have a hard time with learning acronyms in the right order. Just repeating them doesn't seem to help. I need to have some kinda relevant context to put them in. Like for ex the middle C being the first lower ledger line on the treble clef staff and the first upper ledger line on the bass clef staff is memorable because it's logical. What cows eat or how good boys are, or even splitting up the notes by lines vs spaces is just too abstract for me to remember.
Even memorizing the chords was easier for me because there are similarities between them and they're based on a logical system that doesn't feel random. I mean at this pount I can easily play each of the basic major and minor chords without thinking or looking, but I still wouldn't be able to tell you what exact notes they're made up of.
So like, I appreciate your help but this acronym stuff is just not a helpful method for me to learn. The only one of those that actually has some potential to stick with me is the FACE one because at least it's memorable that it's an actual word in itself.
One thing that does help me learn though, is to continuously write down simple melodies in sheet music, because then I'm engaging more of my senses than just rambling riddles. Like at this point I've memorized at least half of it (lower half of the treble clef staff (C, D, E, F, G, A) and upper half of the bass clef staff (C, B, A, G, F, E)) because I keep repeatedly writing down music using that range of notes. For that I use a free online program for writing sheet music.
I'm just very strongly a tactile learner (ie touch and physical action) so it works best for me to learn by doing. Making sight reading a physical task to do is not the easiest though lol. Same with my trying to learn the scales. After weeks of practicing them daily I still struggle to remember any of them beyond the few I found an extra liking for, and used for pieces I've created myself.
I'm learning classical music, but it was fun to watch this video and hear you sing. Can you learn to play 16th notes at 120 bpm in your first 6 months? Is that realistic?
Yea you could do it in 6 months if you're diligent for sure - depending what the notes are of course haha. But if it's a simple scale as long as you're using the Rhythms Strategy and Metronome Ramp Up you could def get there
I’m learning classical thanks bye
love you man, very grateful to have found this channel
thank you
These are all really great tips! The part where you focus on hand technique is definitely the most important thing to know when starting, and you covered that really well!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video! 🎹
I’ve always wanted to play piano, and this channel helped me so much. Im so grateful this channel exists.
Thanks man I like what you teach at 6:19, 7:55, 8:09 and 11:10
Thank you Frank :)
Imo, you should learn both chords and sight reading. I learned how to sight read, but didn't learn the chords. I'm working on that.
That's why I prefer classical music and really learning how to read music fast. To each their own..
This is really helpful. I've been wanting to learn how to play piano but finds it very daunting as I watch those people who's really good at it.
Damn. Been doing this for years. Figured out by myself. Never thought it would be a method. Lucky me
This song is beautiful❤
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the video! 🎹
Wow this was actually helpful, one of the things that ive heard from others is that you need to actually learn to memorize the sound of keys as well just by listening to them without looking.
Not learning piano sheet is worst advise for pianist. Of course you could learn pieces without it but when your level of playing is evolving as music that you learning it is difficult to navigate without piano sheet.
I think nowadays you can find piano sheet on any musical piece.
The best ever piano and keyboard tutorial. Direct to the point!! Subscribed ya!!
Love from MXM
Thanks! Glad you liked the video! 🎹
This video I believe will save my life, thank you very much.
Also as I want to improve my sound, do you have any videos or suggestions please.
THANKS FOR THE VIDEO!
I used to only use sheet music to learn songs, but now i'm trying to learn them by ears. I've made a bit progress on it :D
Yes...I'm sure it's a big advantage being able to read music. But it's more important having the feel and passion without the theory. ...eg..a musician called Paul Mc Cartney never learned to read music....but he did ok at writing beautiful pieces and working with orchestras.
Well said, Gerard! 🎹
@@becomeapianosuperhuman6765 Great UA-cam channel btw. I play guitar and bass in a band(not at the same time! Lol) and teaching myself piano. Learned a few Beatles songs (Let It Be etc) can't read a note...but the soul and passion is there as you can appreciate.
Learning to read sheet music is like learning to read a book. Then there's the interpretation which is understanding and finally learning scales and chords gets you to play this advice but to a far higher standard. Chords are easy.
I am a 15 year old pianist that has been playing for 11 years now. I have never learnt how to read sheet music,ive always been playing songs by ear and has even been invited to be a worship leader at church with the piano.
So i reccoment exploring youre talent only knowing the basicsa like chords and so on, because when people learn sheet music, playing will no longer be fun for them and it will become a chore
Thank you for the “Pinkie Technique”! ❤
Glad you like the technique, Cor! 🎹
I felt like the frustrated piano guy off of Seasame Street (don't know if he's still on there..this was from the 70's lol) when I came to a hard part, playing it over and over and over....then getting frustrated, letting my emotions get the best of me...wanting to bang my head on the piano!
Thanks for the tips.
I can play about 250 songs on guitar and around 50 between piano and violin heavily favoring piano and I've never learned to read sheet music. I know it's a gigantic gap in my knowledge that I need, I've even been a fill-in studio musician but for some reason no matter how hard I try I can't break it down basically enough for me to understand sheet music, but I definitely recognize how important it is, I'm just shitty at it and it kills my passion at its roots
look up this video called "How to play piano (the quick way)" by musicians inspired, he makes it really freaking simple for basic chord reading.
Long time piano player, heavy classical background: #1 This seems very reasonable if all you want to do is play enough chords to accompany yourself while you sing. However, if you want to progress beyond that stage, you'll need to learn to read sheet music and learn scales, etc. I do think that the other three mistakes and how to fix are very good suggestions. I remember using #2 a lot when I got more advanced and had long runs of notes that required your fingering to be exact or else. Never thought about #3, but I suspect my early teachers kept moving my hands while I was concentrating on hitting the right keys. Btw, this technique can help your typing, too. #4 will probably be the hardest to accomplish - but learn to set aside some time every day, even if some days you can only do 10-15 minutes. Playing any instrument is like playing sports - you have to put in the time. Good luck!!!
I learned sheet music because I started in school. However to be fair, you don't need to read sheet music to learn scales or progress past simple chord accompaniment. Learning to read sheet music is necessary for *1 thing:* reading sheet music. So if you want to learn a song someone else wrote with no audio or video version to learn by ear, and sheet music is the only available method for said song, you need to know how to read sheet music. Reading sheet music has absolutely 0 bearing on how well you can play piano (or any instrument). Worst case scenario you can't learn obscure songs and can't sight read to play something through that you don't know (which the vast majority of players will never need to do in their entire life). Most likely outcome is you might learn certain songs slower because you might have to do it a slower way. The vast vast majority of the time people listen to someone playing piano (or other instrumeents) the pianist is playing without sheet music in front of them, including complex jazz etc. There's no magic in sheet music that makes us play any better, it's just a method of transcription. All it is is a way to communicate how to play a piece of music. If you learn a song by sheet music or a youtube video, you'll have the exact same result. The only difference would be how much time and effort each method took.
Nicely done. First time watching your vids. Over under technique…interesting.
Tysm ill just read the cheat chord sheets u helped me soo much
Thanks so much, I appreciate it
The weak pinkie solution is great! Also I notice I play the piano in the border of the white keys. I should pull the hands upper into the piano, but it's not so easy...
I stared piano one month ago,but i really think that reading notes on paper is easier for me!😄😁
Thanks
Glad you liked the video! 🎹
You are genious!!!!!!!!!
Great video and great advice.
Thank you 😊