TheBoyEllis Blog

A post I wrote a little while ago on YouTube and its benefits when it comes to learning the piano has sparked a lot of interest. I’m not surprised; there is so much content on there for the beginner and pro alike – I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I recently purchased a Fender Squire Strat for my studio. This was partly to add a bit more flair and scope to my productions but, at the back of my mind, I’ve always harboured an ambition I’ve had since a kid to learn the thing for real.

Being an essentially lazy person, the Yamaha electric I received for Christmas when I was around 12-years-old very quickly found its place in the corner of my bedroom where it quietly gathered dust for about ten years before I eventually sold it to a builder. Poor thing. Not much of a life.

However, things are different now. Aside from being older and realising that, with the gradual ebbing away of time, I had better get on and do things sooner rather than later, YouTube, the internet and my iPhone are already making the learning process far more appealing.

Last night, having not had my guitar more than a couple of hours, I was delicately picking away at some BB King blues riffs, thanks to YouTube. At the same time, I downloaded a chord finder App for my iPhone and used it to suss out some of the chords referred to in the video.

This simply wasn’t possible when I was a lad. You had two choices: buy some books and teach yourself (unappealing, too much effort) or book lessons (cost-implications, far too school-like, too much effort). I now have pretty much everything I need to grasp a basic, playable understanding of both the guitar and piano.

I’m sure (and hope) this doesn’t spell the end for music teachers, as nothing can replace one-to-one tuition, but for someone who simply wants to feel more comfortable picking up a guitar or sitting at a piano, you can’t beat it.

So, firstly, I’ve slipped up. NaBloPoMo started off fantastically. I managed fifteen posts in as many days and most of them, I think, were not complete drivel. A couple of ‘album fillers’, maybe, but at least I kept it up.

Then, inexplicably, I failed to post anything last Thursday. I knew I hadn’t. It wasn’t a case of forgetting. It was a conscious choice. I just couldn’t be arsed.

So I tried and failed. I’m not entirely sure of the benefit of getting myself listed on NaBloPoMo’s website, as it seemed to provide very little in the way of referrals. None, in fact. The visitor numbers certainly crept up but I have a feeling that was more to do with this site suddenly becoming more active due to the increased concentration of new posts.

Anyway, onto the topic of this post. Anyone that cares to follow this blog (if you do, please let me know, I’d love to hear from you) will be aware that I am embarking on the no doubt long and frustrating journey of learning the piano proper. Having tinkered for over ten years in my home studio, I am now pretty desperate to learn the instrument properly. It’s an instrument I’m instantly familiar and comfortable with, yet completely clueless about. That ambiguous last sentence will hopefully make sense to people in a similar position to myself.

Last night I had my first piano lesson. I’d been debating about what I wanted to get out of this over the last few weeks and had come to the conclusion that I must learn to read music. Theory is, generally speaking, as dull as Eastenders, regardless of the subject. But when you think about it, it’s an essential element of anything you wish to learn properly. Sure, there are some pretty big names in music who profess to being unable to read sheet music (namely Paul McCartney) but that shouldn’t be reason for us all to declare it a pointless waste of time.

Once you can read music, you can pick up pretty much any score and play it, unhindered. And that’s where I want to get.  I’ll be better than one of the Beatles! Awesome!

I’ve already taught myself a couple of ‘real’ songs and going so far back to the basics was at first a little unnerving. Very unnerving, if I’m honest. Suddenly, I was faced with treble clefs, bass clefs, crotchets and quavers. The latter I have only ever associated with a form of crisp-based snack, so adjusting myself to this new way of playing the piano was like being thrown in at the deep end. I relished it, though, even if it did feel a little bit like my first day at school.

For any aspiring pianists reading this in the Northampton area, please feel free to get in touch by clicking the ‘Contact’ button at the top of this page and I’ll happily pass on the details of my tutor. Although I’ve only had one lesson so far, I instantly got on with him and his relaxed, no hassle approach certainly made me feel at ease. It’s a wonderful skill to have as a teacher and one I simply can’t relate to. I would end up smashing the key cover on someone’s flailing hands after their second poor attempt at Silent Night.

Well, day two of my ‘blog a day’ NaBloPoMo (that’s incredibly frustrating to type) contribution and what do I bore you with today?

Piano.  That’ll do.  It’ll give me chance to explain the title of this post, too, which isn’t a play on words.  I am indeed going back to school.  And no, I’m not referring to the ruler-flicking, head-down-toilet haven we all took for granted as kids – I’ve finally booked some piano lessons.

Having purchased a Korg SP250 a few weeks ago, I have finally summoned the energy to get my ass in front of a teacher and receive some tuition (I considered rephrasing that sentence but will leave it in its ambiguous, inuendo-strewn state).

It does feel like returning to school, though.  I’ve not really been ‘taught’ anything since I left formal education in 1998.  Admittedly, back then I was being forced to dissect awful pieces of literary dirt such as ‘Sumitra’s Story’, or being incorrectly placed in the top set for design and almost vomiting when presented with the task of designing an innovative CD rack in the final exam.  Therefore, this time around, it’s something I genuinely have an urge to learn and become proficient in so, in theory at least, it should be enjoyable.  In fact, I can’t wait.

For any aspiring musicians paying attention this, I will update occasionally on my progress.

Korg SP250 digital piano

After weeks of deliberating I finally put my hard earned down on a Korg SP250 last week.

Having spent many hours fantasising about owning a Nord Stage or one of the top of the range Rolands, I had an unsual bout of sensibleness and realised that I neither required nor could afford such extravagance.

A trip to the local music shop rammed this fact home even harder as the assistant suggested I try out the Korg which was a quarter of the price of some of the previously mentioned digital wizardry.

Suffice to say I was knocked out enough by the sound and feel of the keys to place an order.  And now it sits comfortably in my home studio.

Having spent most of the weekend learning the intro to Pink Floyd’s Great Gig in the Sky I can honestly say the £559 I paid for the piano was an absolute bargain.  If, like me, you dont possess a fantastic knowledge of pianos and their individual nuances and tonal qualities, the SP250 will do you perfectly.  If the reviews on the web are to be believed, it isn’t that far off the RD700’s of this world.

Inbuilt speakers are handy, as is the metronome and while many will be dismayed at the lack of USB connectivity, it can be hooked up to your PC or Mac via MIDI, as you’d expect, if you wish to use it as a controller keyboard for your software synths.

As previously mentioned, the piano sounds come highly recommended and the electric pianos are more than adequate offering the enevitable Rhodes clone along with a few other punchy patches to boot.  Strings ain’t half bad either and complement the piano sounds nicely when used in tandem.

The organs are probably the weakest of the lot but still perfectly useable.  If truth be told, I have little interest in the other instruments, as my studio already contains everything from full orchestra sections to burning piano samples (courtesy of Omnisphere), therefore everything is covered and it’s not really the reason I bought the piano in the first place.  Those that are expecting a wealth of general midi sounds will be disappointed.  But then, GM is so 90s, isn’t it?

On the learning side of things, I’m still engrossing myself in some of YouTube’s tutorials and, in particular, as mentioned above, The Great Gig in the Sky.  Rick Wright, god rest his soul, wasn’t Mozart which makes his pieces quite a nice way of easing yourself into piano.  He uses relatively basic albeit unusual chord structures which are a joy to play.

Next up – it’s time to book some real lessons.

Firstly, I must point out that the photo to the left has no bearing on this post.  Well, very little; please disregard the fire and storm trooper pianist.  It was in fact the fourth result in a Google Images search for ‘piano’, therefore: amusing.

After 15 years of tinkering in my home studio and the unavoidable knowledge that time is passing me by at an alarming rate, I have decided to learn the piano.  Properly this time, not keying in random four note chords into Logic and hoping quantisation will do the rest.

I very nearly didn’t bother, worried that the sudden realisation that, with a bit of time and effort, I could sit in front of those black and white keys and know what I was playing, might cause me to slip into a great depression.  Mentally torturing myself for not having started at an early age while my piano-playing dad finally admits he wished I’d done so.  In reality, however, I have never, until now, had the urge to learn, nor the passion.  And my dad certainly isn’t the pushy parent type.

So, I’ll try and keep any aspiring musicians reading this blog up to date on my progress.  I begin this journey (ouch) with some basic knowledge of the keyboard and a couple of little riffs I’ve picked up along the way.  My next step is to purchase an 88-note piano this coming weekend and book my first lessons.

One imediate recommendation I have is a chap called Andrew Furmanczyk who has some fantastic lessons on YouTube.  Check him out, I’ve been through the first six or so and he’s already got me playing some simple scales and has taught some very useful theory: http://www.youtube.com/user/Lypur.