 YouTube Me! Dear Visitors, Especially those coming from YouTube,
Wassup!?
Just a little thank you note for those who have emailed me, texted me, Facebook messaged me, and even called me, to show me their versions of Piano Covers learnt from watching my tutorials. I didn't expect such high success rates.
I'm glad you guys are playing so much better than me with your own personal improvisations. I get a little jealous too sometimes, because you guys are able to combine your classical music skills and pop skills from my tutorials. At times, your songs are my inspiration too. Great job!! God Bless you all and I know you'll all rise on top of YouTube.
Ray Mak
This morning was an eventful morning. My piano tuner, Ms. Yee, came to tune my really out of tune piano. Every time she comes, she reminds me of how important it is to get a good quality piano and how blessed I am to own a handmade limited edition Knight piano which appreciates in value every single year.
I would really love to take this opportunity to share with you the importance of getting a good piano, especially if you really intend to learn or have your kids, learn how to play by ear. This is equivalent to getting by the day with a simple snack in comparison to appreciating every single moment of the day with a wholesome full of nutrition meal. It is that important!
Let me share with you about
Electric piano / keyboards:
Pros :
1. Small ones are portable
2. Lots of different instruments playable
3. Workstations can even record your music directly into a CD, SACD, mp3, or DVD-A
4. If you intend to video shoot for YouTube, it gives you full stereo sound without any external interference using a direct analog or digital connection to your camera
5. You can connect it to whatever speakers you wish, I connect mine to the THX Certified Logitech Z-5500 via a Toslink Fiber Optics Monster Digital Cable
6. Never needs to be tuned
Cons :
1. Sound will never be natural no matter how expensive your speakers are, they are simply pre-recorded or synthesized sound (Imagine recording a song with a pre-recorded voice of yours, or to make things simple, just listen to your own recorded voice) Simply, reproduced!
2. Sustain effects will never be natural (if you know what I mean)
3. Touch will never be the same, please do not expect the natural hammer touch even though the keyboard companies claims that it gives the same natural touch with "weighted action" and "touch sensitivity". From my experience, the closests to an acoustic piano is the digital piano from Roland, year 2009 onwards
Acoustic Piano
Pros :
1. Sounds from digital piano are no match for the actual ones. The notes are actually produced with complex harmonics mixing and resonating flexible wooden soundboard. Upper notes are produced with 2 to 3 strings sounding together, while lower notes are from 1 or 2 high quality thick strings, really, really natural. Well, it's real
2. Sustain / Damper pedal allows all notes to resonate after the keys have been lifted, forcing all notes to echo and overlap, for as long as the pedal is depressed. It is the most used pedal on the piano. Digital piano can never produce the same effect
3. Touch, the unique touch of the acoustic piano is actually produced from the hammer hitting the piano strings, you can actually feel it when you play
Cons :
1. Requires tuning, pretty often if you play pretty often
2. A good digital piano will sound a lot better than a bad acoustic piano
3. Not very portable, unless you own a truck. Every time you move your piano, there is a 50% probability of it going out of tune, quite severely, if you are pitch perfect
4. The Acoustic Piano is like a glass, once you drop it, it will never be the same anymore. Once damaged, it will never be the same
Good Piano
Well, I always mention about good piano. What do I actually mean by that? Do you notice that on the cons of Acoustic Piano above, I wrote that "A good digital piano will sound a lot better than a bad acoustic piano"?
Piano, is an investment. Albeit, not necessary the higher the price the better, the better the piano, the higher your "ROI", Return on Investment. I am really sad with the fact that many people nowadays actually owns really, really, bad piano. Most parents, when it comes to providing music education to their kids, will say things like "I'll just buy a cheap piano or a small digital keyboard for now, and when they get better, I'll get them a slightly better piano, let me just get them a second hand piano, let's go to a piano shop and simply pick a cheap one". As a result, most kids give up halfway from really bad sounding piano, out of tune piano, piano with poor quality sound, and they are blamed and punished for being lazy. And the parents say "sigh, my kids are not interested, so I stopped them". Isn't that a negative ROI? Sunk Cost? The damage : Your kids will never wanna touch the piano again and you've just lost a few square foot of your house.
If you really want your kids to excel in music, get them a good piano. If you really want them to excel in studies, get them a good book, a good school, etc. Like I mentioned above "This is equivalent to getting by the day with a simple snack in comparison to appreciating every single moment of the day with a wholesome full of nutrition meal. It is that important!" Never say things like "I cannot afford". Instead, you can tweak your mindset a little to saying things like "How can I afford it?" - Ask Robert Kiyosaki
There are many ways to find out if a piano is good. An in-tune piano is not necessary a good piano. Most piano in piano stores are a little out of tune because it is not cost effective for the sellers to keep tuning their piano every now and then. Make sure you try the piano before you buy. If you're buying a piano in a really noisy shopping mall, forget it.
First of all, the touch. Try and see if the touch fits you, some prefer a stronger touch, some would like the touch to be soft. Secondly, play the middle C note, hold it right there, listen whether the sound is clear or really mellow. The sound should make you feel really comfortable. Third, step of the sustain / damper pedal and play the lower F major chord with your left hand followed by the upper F major chord with your right hand and continuously going upwards all play the same F major chords all the way to the highest F major chords you can play, still holding the sustain pedal. For a good piano, the sound will flow really clearly from left, to the back of your hears, to your right, in circles, enveloping and caressing your ears, you'll feel really comfortable. For a bad piano, the sound will be right in front of you, produced from the sound board in front of you, dies in front of you, really uncomfortable. It will take some time before you truly understand what I mean. Go try it!
Note : A good Upright Piano will sound a lot better than a bad Grand Piano. Most piano out there are made for PROFITS, not PASSION. Choose really carefully.
Ray Mak
Now that you've learned about the natural notes (white notes), it's time for the black notes. Different songs are played in different keys, some keys require the black notes, they are called Sharps or Flats. For instance C Sharp (C#) is the note on the Right side of the natural C. The Same note is also known as D Flat (D♭), which is on the Left side of the natural D. You can say that Sharp is upwards and Flat is downwards of a note in layman's term. On the other hand, you may also use, on the right of, and, on the left of, note. Just refer to the illustration below: When playing the piano, the way you position your hands on the piano and your fingering, is crucial. Try your best not to position your hands and fingers on the piano like I do, mine's simply freestyle, it's not that good when you need to go faster, as in playing fast classical songs. Anyway, you need to learn how to relax your wrist, place your fingers like arms and legs of spiders on the keys with a slight bend. Relax your fingers, palm, wrist, hands, shoulders, and ultimately, whole body.  Not my hand Another very important practice that I want to share with you is that you do not have to limit yourself to think that you must play the middle C note with your thumb, D with index finger and so on. Though you need to maintain certain rules to follow to allow maximum control and comfort, you can have some flexibility on your finger on the piano keys. I'm saying this because I notice that some people who are beginning to learn music have extremely closed mindset on fingering. Anyway, you can do it! Peace out!
Ray Mak
First and foremost, I would like to share with you some good news. Playing piano by ear even if you do not have any music background, is absolutely possible. I believe in this as I have trained one of my friends, Jhonatan Medina, who has zero knowledge in music to play Canon in D. After a few days of training, about an hour a day, he could play the complete song, though simple, but filled with awe and emotions. However, playing the piano, by ear or by sheets, is not easy. Though you can learn and play in a single day, it takes time to build your skills and be familiar with the piano.
The piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. In comparison to the violin, saxophone, flute, and many other instruments, the piano is capable of producing both the melody and the accompaniment. If you wish to play modern hip hop, R&B, rap, club, techno, and other non-classical songs, the piano is capable of producing the bass-like effect as well, it's all in your mind. Basically, the piano is capable of producing any sound, from the honk of trucks on the road, noise from the vacuum cleaner, rap, and much more. Just use your imagination. That is the most important skill to learn if you wish to play by ear, your imagination.
Think of the piano as a tool for you to express yourself. Like a sword if you're a warrior, like a gun if you're a shooter, like a pen if you're a scholar. There are 88 keys on a typical full-sized piano. Do not limit your imagination by thinking that the lower part has to be the accompaniment and upper should be melody. You can use it both ways, reverse, opposite, mixed, matched, crazy stuffs, anything! Before you play, you first need to recognize the keys. If you look at the piano, you see both black and white keys, am I right? The white keys are called natural notes, whereas the black ones are known as sharp or flats. We usually start with the note middle C, almost in the middle, the 40th key of a 88 keys full sized keyboard / piano. If you notice, the black keys comes in two group and three group, which simply means two black notes and three black notes. The middle C is located in the middle of the piano, on the left of the first black note of two black notes. Just refer to the illustration below: From the middle C, we have D followed by E, F, G, and later A, B (No H, I, J, K), alright? So it's C, D, E, F, G, A, B, & C again, which makes one complete Octave. The middle C, lower C, upper C, even upper C, even lower C, and all the other Cs are the same notes in higher or lower frequencies. Same goes to other notes.
Now just use your ears to slowly identify and recognize these notes. Compare it to your favorite song, find the bass or the melody. Personally, I do the bass first because it's easier to follow, just follow the beat with your heart. C'mon, I know you can do it! Just believe in your ability. You need to learn this in order to learn how to play by ear.
Let's stop here for now before I confuse you even further. This is already slightly technical. You can do it!
Ray Mak
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