Ryan Gosling and piano playing

Frankieabbott · #1 02-24-2019, 01:02 PM

I've always wanted to play a keyboard instrument....piano in particular but thought that, due to my advanced age, it wasn't viable. Stick to playing guitar rather badly.
I saw that film LaLa Land and read somewhere that the actor (think he might be a musician too) Ryan Gosling played the piano parts in the film.....and after 3 months of 'intensive' training. What? Play the piano like he did in the film within 3 months. That's amazing. Granted he may have learned by rote rather than reading music.....but it's still an amazing feat.

Which has got me thinking. Maybe I can get a keyboard and learn to play to a decent level before the good Lord takes me!

tbeltrans · #2 02-24-2019, 01:23 PM

One thing I have discovered is that if I think of doing something or am experiencing something in my life, and think I am unique, all I have to do is look around the internet to find that many, many folks are already there.

The piano/keyboard is a case in point. I have been teaching myself off and on in recent years, especially now that I am retired. Lots of long time guitar players seem to be moving over to keyboard/piano, as I have discovered over the past few years on the piano world forum.

So that means that you are in good company.

The good news is that, like the guitar, the piano/keyboard can be as easy or involved as you want to take it. At the easy end of the spectrum, you could do the equivalent of strumming chords on the guitar. At the hard end of the spectrum, you could aim for playing (sight reading) very challenging concert level classical piano pieces. In between these two extremes are a whole world of approaches to the piano, depending on what you want to do.

If your main focus is not strictly classical music, I would recommend a course called Piano For All. It gets consistently high reviews and is very affordable. You build a solid foundation and explore jazz, blues, and classical stylings. From there, you could go in any direction you want, and will have a much better sense of how you might want to go about it. This course starts assuming you are brand new to piano/keyboard, and goes well into some pretty cool stuff.

https://pianoforall.com/

The course is $39, and includes the entire course as a download. I don't think there is a better value around, especially one that is so consistently highly rated.

The course description is on the site. It consists of 10 PDF books with embedded video and audio at appropriate points on the pages in these books. Adobe Acrobat Reader works fine with these books.

There is also a udemy.com version of the course:

https://www.udemy.com/pianoforall-in...iano-keyboard/

This is the same complete version as in the download, but I prefer the layout better on udemy, though either is fine since they are really the same thing, except that the udemy course is not intended to be downloadable.

The udemy version is currently on sale for $11.99, with 4 days left on this site wide sale (i.e. not just Piano For All).

Aside from the fact that this is a good solid course, it is cheap enough that you haven't lost much if you decide that the piano/keyboard is not really the right thing for you right now.

There are a ton of course available at various price points, but I can tell you that what I have seen at this price point is usually not worth your time. Piano For All is. I have no financial interest in whether or not you go for this course. I have been a student of the course and feel that I could have done much better had I gotten this first instead of getting other more expensive courses first.

I hope this is helpful for you.

Tony

P.S. I have not given up with guitar. It will always be my first instrument, but I am enjoying learning a new instrument too.

muscmp · #3 02-24-2019, 01:27 PM

i've messed around with keyboard for a few years. still not a great player but i enjoy learning a new instrument also. i believe that many more people should start with piano and then transfer those learning skills to other instruments. wish i had.

play music!

tbeltrans · #4 02-24-2019, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muscmp

i've messed around with keyboard for a few years. still not a great player but i enjoy learning a new instrument also. i believe that many more people should start with piano and then transfer those learning skills to other instruments. wish i had.

play music!

In hindsight, I would have to agree with this ^^^^.

Tony

Frankieabbott · #5 02-25-2019, 04:30 AM

Thanks for the replies and suggestions folks. Oh, and the internet links to learning resources. I'm still chewing the fat as to what to do. I'm in the UK and dunno whether to act now and buy a keyboard.....there may be a piano/keyboard shortage post Brexit!

(For some reason I can't seem to choose a smilie/emoticon.....if I could it would be the 'rolls eyes' one).

tbeltrans · #6 02-25-2019, 06:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frankieabbott

Thanks for the replies and suggestions folks. Oh, and the internet links to learning resources. I'm still chewing the fat as to what to do. I'm in the UK and dunno whether to act now and buy a keyboard.....there may be a piano/keyboard shortage post Brexit!

(For some reason I can't seem to choose a smilie/emoticon.....if I could it would be the 'rolls eyes' one).

You could get a used keyboard so that, with the Piano For All course at $39.95 and a moderately priced used keyboard, you can get into it at a low enough cost such that you have lost very little if you decide this is not the right path for you.

By the way, one advantage of getting the Piano For All PDF book set over the udemy course is that the udemy course does leave out a fair amount of stuff that is in the books. Unfortunately, I don't think of everything for each post, so now you have a "pro" and a "con" to each type of packaging for the course.

There are a number of "reviews" about Piano For All on youtube and around the internet because the course has been around for many years and is quite mature. However, most of these reviews are basically BS to get you to use their link so they make money on each click through to the Piano For All site. I don't think the author puts anybody up to this, since his course is real and he seems to be quite honest in his dealings. However, many folks make money by hawking some product and providing a click through link to that site. To me, it can be counterproductive because it makes the site seem dishonest, and the actual Piano For All is anything but that.

So, I found this set of videos on youtube that seems quite honest. The guy was a grad student at the time he made these videos, and each subsequent video gives demonstrations of his playing at various stages going through the books.

Tony

Cabarone · #7 03-02-2019, 03:08 AM

Huh...waddya know...all this time I thought his last name was "GosliN"...oops!...sorry, wrong thread...

FrankHudson · #8 03-02-2019, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frankieabbott

I've always wanted to play a keyboard instrument....piano in particular but thought that, due to my advanced age, it wasn't viable. Stick to playing guitar rather badly.
I saw that film LaLa Land and read somewhere that the actor (think he might be a musician too) Ryan Gosling played the piano parts in the film.....and after 3 months of 'intensive' training. What? Play the piano like he did in the film within 3 months. That's amazing. Granted he may have learned by rote rather than reading music.....but it's still an amazing feat.

Which has got me thinking. Maybe I can get a keyboard and learn to play to a decent level before the good Lord takes me!

Let me comment on your question first: you won't know until you try. You want to try. Go ahead.

Next, my own late-life experience with keyboards story: I've played with a keyboard player for 40 years or so now. For most of this time that means that I have no need to dabble in keyboards. In the past year or so he's had some physical issues that are limited his ability to play (coincidently, I have some finger issues with guitar playing). So I've started to play keyboards. As mentioned above there are many many ways to play keyboards. Luckily my context is keyboards in band recordings, and one-handed parts are often all that's called for. In my youth, the typical rock combo often had a guy who played a small electric organ with one hand while waving the other hand and arm around for rock'n'roll credibility. Now-a-days there one guy in a lot of modern bands that does the same thing with a synth and maybe he hits the sample playback pads (like the hilarious scene in La La Land). I doubt this is what you're trying to do, but I mention this to say that one doesn't have to be a great player to add texture in a band situation with keyboards.

Lastly, a sidenote to your La La Land mention, which has nothing to do with your idea that you can take up keyboards: It's likely that Gosling got training so that he didn't look "fake" while miming the piano playing you hear the film. Actors as a class tend have already been self-selected for the ability to learn coordinated things fast better than the average person, it's nature of their craft which many of them are already experienced with in other ways. Similarly, you already play an instrument, so you have a leg up on the average person in learning another one.

Frankieabbott · #9 03-16-2019, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

Let me comment on your question first: you won't know until you try. You want to try. Go ahead.

Next, my own late-life experience with keyboards story: I've played with a keyboard player for 40 years or so now. For most of this time that means that I have no need to dabble in keyboards. In the past year or so he's had some physical issues that are limited his ability to play (coincidently, I have some finger issues with guitar playing). So I've started to play keyboards. As mentioned above there are many many ways to play keyboards. Luckily my context is keyboards in band recordings, and one-handed parts are often all that's called for. In my youth, the typical rock combo often had a guy who played a small electric organ with one hand while waving the other hand and arm around for rock'n'roll credibility. Now-a-days there one guy in a lot of modern bands that does the same thing with a synth and maybe he hits the sample playback pads (like the hilarious scene in La La Land). I doubt this is what you're trying to do, but I mention this to say that one doesn't have to be a great player to add texture in a band situation with keyboards.

Lastly, a sidenote to your La La Land mention, which has nothing to do with your idea that you can take up keyboards: It's likely that Gosling got training so that he didn't look "fake" while miming the piano playing you hear the film. Actors as a class tend have already been self-selected for the ability to learn coordinated things fast better than the average person, it's nature of their craft which many of them are already experienced with in other ways. Similarly, you already play an instrument, so you have a leg up on the average person in learning another one.

Yeah.....you're probably right. Learning a keyboard instrument at age 60ish may be a bit of delusion on my part. Thanks for making my mind up to stay on guitar....I can bang out a quite good Dave Edmunds song on my Tele.....so it's not all bad.

FrankHudson · #10 03-16-2019, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frankieabbott

Yeah.....you're probably right. Learning a keyboard instrument at age 60ish may be a bit of delusion on my part. Thanks for making my mind up to stay on guitar....I can bang out a quite good Dave Edmunds song on my Tele.....so it's not all bad.

Not my intent at all. You'll never know until you try.

What I meant to point out is that it's not necessary to learn everything that can be learned on keyboards to make music with keyboards--just as it's not necessary to learn everything that can be done on guitar to make music with a guitar.