Bookwyrm’s piano music thread ^•^ 🎵

#1

…Hi! Whether you’re a full fledged musician, or a person who merely appreciates listening to music, I welcome you.

I’ve been playing piano as my main instrument for over 9 years now (though life circumstances have removed the option to consistently have access before, so on and off?), and although I’m certainly not the only one who plays in my family, I’m one of the only ones who knows how to read sheet music. My teacher was a family friend and very patient with me throughout my school years, and I credit her for teaching me a lot of what I know and keeping my passion alive!

So, I’ve played out of plenty of the books my parents bought us, and still regularly acquire sheets from one of my favorite piano music websites, NinSheetMusic (founded in 2004 and still updated at least monthly!), which partially serves as an inspiration for the point of this thread:

I decided to compose a few songs myself!

I chose to use Musescore as my template. They are all listed in the order that I created them. What I’m doing is selecting songs that don’t exist in music notation form on the internet anywhere (or don’t have good existing versions on this website), then composing them by ear! I figured it was worth sharing with you guys.

If you have any suggestions for improvement, please let me know! :blush: (Also, keep in mind that I try to avoid deviating from the original songs, so sections like the beginning of The Danube Waves or the clunky sounding Erana’s Peace are indeed intentional. :wink: )

Xaklor's Art Pile
#2

I’ve played the piano for around ten years as well and to this day, I know very little about note reading, music vocabulary, and stuff like that. The only notes I have memorized are middle G (or whatever you call it) on the left hand i told you i dont know vocab, middle C for right, middle E for right, and those little things. So I spent the most recent year printing out random pop/country song piano sheets and playing them, and then quitting each halfway through.

I also use a specific piano sheet creator for when I want to make music, but I can’t think of the name right now…
EDIT: It’s Flat. Popped into mind right after posting.

#3

i used to play the piano but recently stopped bc I wasn’t enjoying it. My teacher only gave me songs from like 70 years ago that I never heard of and was very insistent that I had to practice for like 45 minutes a day, and I just didn’t have the time for that so it got a little demoralizing after a while.

#4

Heh. As with all subjects, it takes a good teacher to motivate an otherwise ambivalent crowd, and a bad teacher to extinguish any sparks of interest a student might have had. My piano teacher persisted with a love of the instrument, but her teacher was one of those with bad trading methods, including gluing little nails to the keys to keep the student’s hands in a proper playing position. :grimacing:

I’d have probably quit with that.

#5

My second teacher put buttons/coins (I can’t remember) on my fingers so I would have steady hands, but nails are big yikes.

#6

Wow! Nails? That’s just cruel!

#7

I vaguely remember how to play the main chords of Flare, Heir of Grief, and Purple Tyrant, thanks to some online searching plus a piano in the house of my mom’s mom.
I’m not very fluent in it, since the guitar is my instrument of choice .w.

#8

My father, 3 sisters, and 1 brother like using the guitar over the piano too. There’s several people who know how, but it’s mostly just the oldest girl and myself who use the piano anymore. ;.;

We have different strengths. I can read, she pretty much can’t, she’s better at improvising songs and tweaking repetitive patterns that are so frequently found in modern music, and I’m better at playing more complicated pieces, like concertos, especially because my fingers have decent reach to “cheat” certain chords or other “proper fingering.” >v<

(Oh yeah. She loves playing around other people, and I’m shy and prefer plugging in headphones into our fancy electric keyboard -.-)

#9

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but it’d get me warned so I think I won’t =w="

#10

Only you, only you…

#11

So basically, it’s like you’ve recieved formal training, whilst she is, or closesly resembles a self taught pianist?

#12

Yeah. All the formal lessons confused her as a child, and she remembers almost nothing she learned. But she too can listen to a song by ear and play it, but she copies/improvs it way faster than I to.

Her songs are usually prettier… and honestly, usually more recognized by others than mine. I mainly play classical and video game music, and she mainly plays famous modern songs and some anime. Oh and like 5 or so songs she entirely made up, some them made nearly a decade ago.

#13

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#14

I also play piano! Might re-upload a few of the videos to another channel that isn’t connected to my irl name and share them at some point. I have not composed anything for piano (though I did arrange a bass quartet that I performed my senior year at college), but I have loved learning it.

I had lessons from when I was like 7-13, but then my teacher moved away and I didn’t play much at all until I was 18 and decided to teach myself again while I was at college. I am up to the point of playing a few of Chopin’s waltzes and preludes, and I recently learned Traumerei by Schumann. Currently searching for a decent into to jazz piano as well, though it seems super hard. I love classical music so much.

When I finally got my own house a little over a year ago, a piano was literally the top of my priority list. Like, I had a piano before I had a bed lol. Great decision.

Edit: @GammaGamer that song you picked out is actually a great starting point if you want to try to teach yourself! The hands don’t have to move too far in any direction, and you don’t have any big chords or anything. You can honestly teach yourself to play that piece even from that video, if you don’t read sheet music! I suggest working on the left hand first and learning up to 0:27, then adding in the right hand, then moving on to the rest of the piece. You really can do it! Might take you several weeks or even a couple months if you don’t have prior experience, but it looks like a good introductory piece.

#15

I’ve been playing piano for about a decade by now. I don’t have a way to play at uni aside from a rather shitty keyboard, but its something. I used to be really into jazz songs but now I mostly practise classical for exams and video game music, especially final fantasy and fire emblem, along with some other niche songs (homestuck, undertale, the like). Mostly whatever catches my eye. I used to be able to play the Entertainer to a decent level, which was really fun, and some Chopin.

#16

Heeey, I’ve done those songs! I don’t care for some of Chopin’s more famous songs, but I love a couple of his lesser known ones.

Also, one of my 3 giant binders worth of video game music is entirely dedicated to Final Fantasy! Even though I haven’t and might never play any of the games, I will forever adore the music from… almost every game in the franchise, really. And some of the official/unofficial remixes do then justice, too.
(I may or may not have used that music to soothe my baby brother to sleep on a few occasions :sweat_smile:)

#17

I loved that song so much. I wonder if it’s a common thing? Because I used to live in an apartment and the family above me would play it as well.

#18

Yes, it’s a famous song. It was one of Scott Joplin’s more notable creations, who although didn’t invent the concept of ragtime, morphed it into what it’s known as being today as a genre and is considered on of the founding fathers of that music style.

#19

give now

Perhaps, I didn’t hear it all that often but people seemed to recognise it when I played it (which to be fair wasn’t that often since I usually play for myself/piano teacher)

#20

To be fair, I don’t know how much it influenced countries outside of America, since that’s where Ragtime mostly came from.

Also, NinSheetMusic is where I got my music! One of my favorite easier songs to play/memorize is FF10’s “To Zanarkand.” It’s gorgeous!