Why is learning piano so bloody difficult?

[CEB]

I don't know.  Key of C major is on of the hardest leys to play in.  Easiest for the hands to get lost on while not looking.

[Docbop]

2 hours ago, CEB said:

I don't know.  Key of C major is on of the hardest leys to play in.  Easiest for the hands to get lost on while not looking.

When getting into gospel I wondered why so much in keys with lots of accidentals.   Then I started playing piano and those are the keys that are easier to play in, love the black keys.    Evan as a guitar player I got into Jazz and started playing flat keys all the time and got to prefer them.   Flat keys seem to have a better vibe to them. 

[Outkaster]

C is very tough. My teacher was a concert pianist and used to talk about that.

[bill5]

On 5/13/2022 at 4:59 PM, BMD said:

I've been playing guitar and bass for years (and ukulele for a few months), and recently decided to learn to play piano. 

 

I'm an amateur songwriter and I had this mad idea to attempt to learn to play my songs on piano. Wow, the piano is a harsh mistress! I'm wondering how you guys became masters of the keyboard. Why is it so difficult? Or is it just me?

It's you. 

 

 

Everyone's different. To me piano was the easiest to learn by far and guitar one of the hardest; we got some free guitar music lessons in Jr High and I hated it. How do you play that thing without your fingers becoming permanently crooked? It's amazing to me anyone can play it..."here, to play that chord, put your fingers this way, like you have bad arthritis, there you go..." And memorizing where everything is really? Piano OTOH, all the notes and chords are right there neatly in a row; all you have to do is hit em. The only hard part IMO is playing two parts at once, basically, and that is something I never got that good at, and so try to avoid!

[bill5]

On 5/17/2022 at 2:12 PM, CEB said:

I don't know.  Key of C major is on of the hardest leys to play in.  Easiest for the hands to get lost on while not looking.

This blows my mind too. C is by far the easiest. Hon mention to F and G. More than once if I wanted something played in another key, I'd play in C and just transpose in my DAW.

[El Lobo]

I think most self-taught piano players, like me, start with the key of C because it looks most obvious and straightforward. And you can play a bunch of songs with only the white keys and don't have to worry about what all those black keys do. Then you can move to playing a blues in Am and you're still good. Oops, but if you want to play that E7, you're gonna need to find a black key. 

 

When I found out that Stevie Wonder likes to play (and compose) in Eb, I started to work my way around the black keys and learned to love them. I can chord in any key, but it's hard for me to solo in some keys, especially those sharp or flat keys. But the more I do it, the more I can do it.

 

The easiest keys on the guitar, when you're first learning, are the keys that all rock guitar players like to play in -- E, A, G, D. C comes last. Sometimes Bb comes before C for guitarists' ease of play, once they start playing up on the neck and learning patterns and get away from open chords. 

 

On sax, I'm permanently transposed and it's all muscle memory, so I don't think in sharps or flats, I just know where all the notes are that work ... and some that don't work unless I choose to make them work. They're all there under my fingers and the key I'm in doesn't matter. I wish I could do the same on keyboard or guitar. But there's not enough time left ...

[CEB]

Bach wrote for keyboards in C major but only in his pedagogical works were he systematical composed for all key signatures.  WTC WTCII, 2 and 3 part inventions ...etc ... 

 

Mozart wrote in C major and the pieces were great.  C major sounds very happy.   But most great keyboard composers avoided the key like the plague.  But that is me.  I'm just a guitar player.

[GovernorSilver]

When I first learned Invention 1 in C Major, I felt tricked when I encountered those accidentals for the first time.

 

WTH, Bach???  Ain't no black keys in C Major!!!

[CEB]

My favorite work in C major. It’s so happy. 
 

 

[The Real MC]

Hanon exercises 1-38 are in C major.

Having played piano for 50+ years, I can't say that any key is more difficult.  Probably because I was going through the drill of practicing scales during the developing years.

[Chris Towns]

Hi,

I had keyboard lessons as a young child and due to being a very slow learner ended up plodding on under my own stream. I'm now 66, not a particularly gifted keyboard player and I'm a firm believer that if you've got that natural talent you'll progress rapidly. If you don't have it, you never will have it. It wont stop you from becoming a good player, but it just takes a lot longer. I only play by sheet music and envy people who play by ear (something you can work on and enhance). I can play reasonably difficult pieces, but only by practicing section by section endlessly until I have learned it parrot fashion. I have quite a selection of nice keyboards (Viscount Legend Live organ, Korg Nautilus 88, korg PA4X arranger keyboard, etc). The main point that I wish to make here is that whatever your level is, you can get a great deal of pleasure from playing. If I'm stressed for any reason, an hour on the keyboards takes it all away. It beats watching TV by a Country mile. I also find that the longer I play for, the more engrossed I get, and it's normally only a call for meals that prises me away. I get huge satisfaction from playing keyboards despite my very limited abilities in this respect.

I used to know a young guy who had a Hammond organ & leslie who used to gig out to supplement his 9-5 wages. He was a brilliant player who had mastered drawbars and was exceptionally talented. I asked him after one of his 'gigs' where he set up his organ at home for 'pleasure' playing ? He said, 'oh no' not interested in playing at home. the organ & speaker goes into storage until my next 'gig'. All that talent but no interest in playing, he saw it as purely a method to make some extra cash. Pretty sad really.

Chris