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Re: Piano lessons advice (O.T.)
Rick Walker schrieb:
> I think that using C major (and all of it's resultant 7 Greek modes)
> as a point of departure and a way of understanding how to play in any
> key is the fastest way to get a handle on the instrument.
>
> In a very cool way, the keyboard makes you think, specifically, of
> intervallic relationships
> in a way that the guitar doesn't.
It would really be interesting to hear the opinion of someone who did
first learn the guitar and is now both an accomplished guitarist and
pianist on this "understanding piano for guitarists" topic.
And that might just be a problem - any of the people I can think of from
the top of my head (Gismonti, Towner, Keneally, van Halen) did start
with piano and then picked up guitar later...just a coincidence? Anyone
can name some counter examples?
Being an "amatuer Gismonti" myself (meaning: learning piano first, then
studying composition, then doing some guitar), I can only offer a look
at it from the other side:
(all of my statements describe my personal learning experiences here,
which might differ from those of others, and actually be
counter-intuitive or even inefficient):
Piano is very neatly organized in octaves, and how fingering stays
constant from octave to octave, which the guitar is not so much, at
least not intuitively (the major 3rd between G and B string doesn't help
here...). However, the guitar is (with the exception of the major
3rd...) more consistent with intervals, e.g. 2 frets = one tone, 1
string up 1 fret back = major 4rd etc, which the piano is not (unless
you're counting keys, which, due to the white/black logic, is not the
intuitive way to perceive it). On the piano, the step from the goal to
play a certain chord to fingering the right keys is chord -> intervals
-> notes -> fingering, i.e. from "maj7 on B" you go via "major third,
minor third, major third" to "B D# F# A#" to the actual hand position.
And this works well in all keys (and imo it actually helps if you start
doing so early on). And btw, you'll have a hard time even playing
standard pop/rock/blues chords when sticking with white keys.
Let's say you want a blues - do it in A (because its similar to
Aeolian), so you have the chords Am (works fine), Dm (works fine), Am
(works fine), E7 - buggers. Same if you play major (in C), and then want
to emphasise the tonic's double role as the subdominant's dominant by
adding a 7...
That being said - I'm mostly curious about the "guitarists who later
picked up piano and are famous for both" suggestions!
Rainer
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