fatpaul
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Post by fatpaul on Nov 21, 2018 17:51:09 GMT
Anything with strings or keys I can usually knock out some sort of tune but percussive instruments seem to be beyond me.
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fatpaul
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Post by fatpaul on Nov 21, 2018 18:05:51 GMT
[The theremin] looks like a joke. I had never heard of it before. You may have not heard of it before but if you have watched 50s/60s scifi movies/tv shows you have definitely heard one before. And if I'm not mistaken, Jimmy Paige plays one during the instrumental bit in Whole Lotta Love.The weirdest instrument I've heard is the apprehension engine. It was invented solely for the purpose of unsettling, disturbing or scaring the listener. If you have seen The Witch, then you've heard one.
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Post by Admin on Nov 22, 2018 2:50:54 GMT
[The theremin] looks like a joke. I had never heard of it before. You may have not heard of it before but if you have watched 50s/60s scifi movies/tv shows you have definitely heard one before. And if I'm not mistaken, Jimmy Paige plays one during the instrumental bit in Whole Lotta Love.You are not mistaken:
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fatpaul
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Post by fatpaul on Nov 23, 2018 13:14:33 GMT
Yeah now that you’ve shown it, it was actually The Song Remains the Same video that I remember. If I hadn’t seen that video, I would probably never have guessed it was a theremin but rather a synth maybe.
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thornberry
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Post by thornberry on Nov 28, 2018 0:09:26 GMT
Anything with strings or keys I can usually knock out some sort of tune but percussive instruments seem to be beyond me. People make all kinds of jokes about drummers as if they have less musical ability. But percussion is difficult, too. Look at that guy who has to crash the cymbals at exactly the right moment and with the right tone and loudness in that Strauss orchestral piece. If he's off, it's a disaster and one mistake will probably get him fired. Musicians have to have such discipline and consistency.
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thornberry
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Post by thornberry on Nov 28, 2018 0:14:07 GMT
I think violin would be one of the hardest. Being fretless you really need to work on your intonation and because its small, there isn't a lot of room for error. OK, I played a stringed instrument related to the violin. Sure, it's hard to get your fingers in exactly the right place, but it's doable. You look at the proportions of the neck of the instrument your fingers divide it into, at least I did. It's still usually only one tone at a time that's being produced. A pianist has to get many fingers in the right places and produce many tones at once. More chances for error.
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thornberry
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Post by thornberry on Nov 28, 2018 2:08:36 GMT
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thornberry
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Post by thornberry on Nov 30, 2018 22:39:24 GMT
Yeah I’ve always wondered how pianists/keyboardists find the right keys, how they know how to start a song without even counting the keys or anything like that. The black keys tell all. If you were being silly, never mind. What do you mean, the black keys tell all? That's another mysterious thing about the piano, that some keys are positioned and colored differently. Please enlighten us about the black keys.
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Post by Admin on Nov 30, 2018 23:24:13 GMT
The black keys tell all. If you were being silly, never mind. What do you mean, the black keys tell all? That's another mysterious thing about the piano, that some keys are positioned and colored differently. Please enlighten us about the black keys. The black keys are in alternating sets of 2 and 3. Like so:
The highlighted key is C, as is every white key to the immediate left of the 2 black keys along the entire board. From there, it's easy to find the rest. After a while, it's just second nature to know what's what and where.
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Post by petrolino on Dec 1, 2018 1:47:13 GMT
Harp? Looks difficult to me, or at least to play well.
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TheSowIsMine
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Post by TheSowIsMine on Dec 1, 2018 13:04:06 GMT
Harp? Looks difficult to me, or at least to play well. Yeah, unlike the piano, you have to use pedals to get sharp/flat notes. You do have red and blue string for guidance.
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Post by Terrapin Station on Dec 2, 2018 13:01:57 GMT
Re the keyboard comments, keyboard is actually the easiest instrument with respect to knowing where the notes are and with respect to sounding notes--re the latter since you just depress a key.
Keyboards are arranged in a simple 12-key, very logical, repeating pattern, with the sharps and flats as black keys, the naturals as white keys. You just learn the pattern, and the rest of the keyboard is like it's copy-pasted on. The one set of two black keys then three black keys plus the white keys in between (including the one white key below the two black keys and the one white key above the three black keys) is all there is to a keyboard. You learn that little chunk and you know the whole keyboard. Lots of tuned percussion instruments use the same pattern, by the way.
For most other instruments it's more difficult to learn where the notes are, because there are asymmetries in the way the notes are laid out on them.
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Post by Terrapin Station on Dec 2, 2018 13:18:59 GMT
Speaking of logically arranging things, here's a good question that I don't know if anyone knows the answer to: why didn't we make A the scale with no sharps or flats? (So that we either (i) named the note now known as "C" "A" instead (and then now-"D" would be "B" etc.), or (ii) named the note now known as "C#" "C", "F#" "F" and "G#" "G", and so there would instead be a half-step between C and D as well as G and A)
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TheSowIsMine
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Post by TheSowIsMine on Dec 2, 2018 17:15:58 GMT
Speaking of logically arranging things, here's a good question that I don't know if anyone knows the answer to: why didn't we make A the scale with no sharps or flats? (So that we either (i) named the note now known as "C" "A" instead (and then now-"D" would be "B" etc.), or (ii) named the note now known as "C#" "C", "F#" "F" and "G#" "G", and so there would instead be a half-step between C and D as well as G and A) There are scales and there are modes. In the aeolian mode, the scale is A B C D E F G, in the ionian mode(with is the major scale) its C D E F G A B. Every mode has its origin and I don't know which one came first. Eventually its all about the steps in between, and it just so happens that the major scale(ionian) starts with a C if you want all natural notes. But I can play the major scale and start with a D and then its D E F# G A B C#. Its still the major scale.
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thornberry
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Post by thornberry on Dec 4, 2018 3:49:21 GMT
Re the keyboard comments, keyboard is actually the easiest instrument with respect to knowing where the notes are and with respect to sounding notes--re the latter since you just depress a key. Keyboards are arranged in a simple 12-key, very logical, repeating pattern, with the sharps and flats as black keys, the naturals as white keys. You just learn the pattern, and the rest of the keyboard is like it's copy-pasted on. The one set of two black keys then three black keys plus the white keys in between (including the one white key below the two black keys and the one white key above the three black keys) is all there is to a keyboard. You learn that little chunk and you know the whole keyboard. Lots of tuned percussion instruments use the same pattern, by the way. For most other instruments it's more difficult to learn where the notes are, because there are asymmetries in the way the notes are laid out on them. You don't depress one key, though, you depress multiple keys. I don't think my fingers could find all he keys. I can barely type. I would find it hard moving my arms, hands, and fingers to the right places in three dimensions. Plus there are so many keys on a piano that it looks blinding to me. There are only 4-6 strings on stringed instruments. A stringed instrument, you can slide your hand and fingers up and down the neck so there's more support for the hand. You're just moving in one dimension. I'm sure people differ in what they would find difficult. And some things that look impossible one actually can learn, much to one's surprise.
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Post by Admin on Dec 4, 2018 5:22:52 GMT
A stringed instrument, you can slide your hand and fingers up and down the neck so there's more support for the hand. You're just moving in two dimensions. There are stringed instruments with no frets, like violins and cellos. Same question you asked about pianos: How do you know where to put your fingers on the board? Similar issue with trombones...
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thornberry
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Post by thornberry on Dec 4, 2018 17:51:51 GMT
A stringed instrument, you can slide your hand and fingers up and down the neck so there's more support for the hand. You're just moving in two dimensions. There are stringed instruments with no frets, like violins and cellos. Same question you asked about pianos: How do you know where to put your fingers on the board? Similar issue with trombones... Yeah, the violin family is what I'm familiar with. You have to judge where the fingers go like you have to know how much to slide a trombone. It's seems easier to me to move the hand up and down the neck with support than to reach through the air and hit piano keys that could be widely separated. If I can't even do the Vulcan split finger thing Spock does, how am I going to finger multiple keys on a piano?
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Post by Terrapin Station on Dec 4, 2018 20:41:41 GMT
Re the keyboard comments, keyboard is actually the easiest instrument with respect to knowing where the notes are and with respect to sounding notes--re the latter since you just depress a key. Keyboards are arranged in a simple 12-key, very logical, repeating pattern, with the sharps and flats as black keys, the naturals as white keys. You just learn the pattern, and the rest of the keyboard is like it's copy-pasted on. The one set of two black keys then three black keys plus the white keys in between (including the one white key below the two black keys and the one white key above the three black keys) is all there is to a keyboard. You learn that little chunk and you know the whole keyboard. Lots of tuned percussion instruments use the same pattern, by the way. For most other instruments it's more difficult to learn where the notes are, because there are asymmetries in the way the notes are laid out on them. You don't depress one key, though You only depress one key if you're only playing a single note, or you only depress one at a time if you're playing a monophonic line.
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thornberry
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Post by thornberry on Dec 7, 2018 17:42:02 GMT
You don't depress one key, though You only depress one key if you're only playing a single note, or you only depress one at a time if you're playing a monophonic line. Of course, but who ever does that? The idea of a piano is that you play chords so you can be a one-person band or orchestra.
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Post by Admin on Dec 9, 2018 1:54:47 GMT
There are stringed instruments with no frets, like violins and cellos. Same question you asked about pianos: How do you know where to put your fingers on the board? Similar issue with trombones... Yeah, the violin family is what I'm familiar with. You have to judge where the fingers go like you have to know how much to slide a trombone. It's seems easier to me to move the hand up and down the neck with support than to reach through the air and hit piano keys that could be widely separated. If I can't even do the Vulcan split finger thing Spock does, how am I going to finger multiple keys on a piano? For me, the hardest thing about playing a piano isn't finding the right keys; it's getting both of my hands to play nice with each other. Even Heart and Soul is difficult in this respect... ...so I cheat by just playing chords with my left hand and the melody with my right.
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