Jerryghr

RH advanced; left hand zero. Don't need label as I'm not a piano player.

Me too. Although I did play a "mean" left handed bass on the Accordion.

Jerryghr

Right with you, Jerry ... Of course, 'back in the day' both hands moved better than they do today ...

And accordion players can play bass lines and chords in any key with the same effort

Now when I strap on the accordion, I know how a pregnant woman feels

On the up side, the best keyboard players I know are from the accordion background. There are several reasons for this.. Accordion is taught, to learn theory, chords, technique, etc, all structured around circle of fifths (fourths).

Almost every accordion student that study, say 2 years, retained what they learned.. Compare to Piano students who studied even longer then 2 years... many can't play a single note

My wife took piano for 5 years as a kid... they must have done a lot of talking... she sure didn't learn anything..

Then there are the great piano players, I mean they can play exactly what is written in front of them .. Take the music away...game over. And few can ever retain in memory what to play. Call a chord change , and they think you are speaking another language.

Accordion Rules!!!!

"EVERY GENERAL TRUTH IS A SPECIFIC LIE"



chas

Yes, but an organ player has to know how to use both hands and feet, and is way more flexible (And can be more comprehensive) then any of the above mentioned.

Bill

OK, back to OP:
Left hand good enough to play 3-4 finger chords ... right hand - proficient, but on solos only as good as my knowledge and imagination can take me ...

And I'm talking AKB, NOT piano ...

" What playing level are you at?"

Before Uncle Dave calls you out, NEVER end a sentence with a preposition.

chas

Full chords with my left hand – My right hand is fair, uses lots of the Harmony effect. AND, it IS slowing down.

Ouch, John C.

PS, Accordion players always had a great right hand when they went to keyboard.

LOL - that sounds like a Philly Thang, Chas!

JMO, but an accordion is sort of an ethnic instrument and most American pianist didn't start out on accordion. As such, it's like saying people that started out on Balalaika make better guitar players. Maybe they do but how many people does that apply to? Just sayin'.

chas

I LOVE to play balalaika!

R.

PS:Love the big hat that goes with it!

Hi ,
she’s brilliant.
Actually makes piano learning fun.
Signed up for her course, but decided to start from beginning rather than slightly more advanced. Forgotten so much in the 20 years that I didn’t play it.

Chas, that’s where I got that 1 chord song from , that I mentioned a while back. Haha

That's something I will have to look into.

Jerryghr

Now, Jerry....THAT'S REALLY FUNNY!

Man, I hope my recording clients don't look at this proficiency test.I'd probably be out of a gig!

R.

I don't care how or why or what level...
all I wanna hear is what your playing ...
it tells all simple as that..

My biggest challenge when playing piano is not the righthand or the lefthand, but both of them playing together..

yes its like rubbing your belly
and tapping your head at the same time lol..

Hi
I think that clip was done so new students can work out what level of the course they should start out at.

Not everyone starting the course is a beginner.

Simple case of , if you can do all this, you’re an intermediate.

They will discuss personal needs and send you on the right track if someone’s not sure.

Pianote has dozens of clips on the internet, some are extremely helpful.

Donny, you posted a clip late last year, can’t remember what it was about now, but , that’s what sparked my interest in pianote.

Found more and more video clips on different aspects of playing, which was great, but
I needed something that actually helped me focus, so decided to try course for 6 months, they had a discount going just before Xmas. Thought , why not.

Bit of fun. Will help me with keyboard playing too, even if my piano skills never get back to what they were 20 years ago. ( limited even then. Haha)

your - you're - your - you're
it's sooooooo simple. (if you speak English)

Good chording LH, and not wonderful but wonderfully adequate RH. I can make fast runs coming down the keyboard, but going up not so much - self-taught fingering, I guess.

Oh, and accordions (bagpipes, too), I get the urge to stab those things in the windbag.

Me, the same as Don M.

OOOOH, that HURT !!!

I agree. I come from a background in bass and guitar where the hands work together.

After playing organ for all these years, playing both finger bass and pedals (and sometimes both together/doubling), I have no problem with hand or hand/foot independence. At some point it becomes second nature. If you play solo organ gigs, it's a necessity. With age, I have become so arthritic that I can only play pedals on slow tunes; finger bass on everything else. On uptempo tunes, I can't even tap a pedal for 'attack' on finger bass notes, too exhausting. Playing two-hand solo piano is totally different from playing organ but it's not really a problem; you just go into 'piano' mode. I think my organ playing is at least three times better than my piano playing, but that's because that is where I spend all my time . At the moment, I'm trying to improve my 'Rhodes' playing (on my SEVEN) which Russ or Uncle Dave will tell you is slightly different from acoustic Piano in terms of approach and playing technique. Lots of fun though, and very rewarding.

chas

"Hey babe, you want to get it on" Oh wait that ends with a "proposition"

I began playing piano at age 5, my mom sent me up the block to a piano teacher and we had an old upright that was given to us by someone who owed my dad some money. He had it tuned and the cost was $5 back in 1945, which was a lot of money in those days. The piano lessons were .50 cents an hour and I went twice a week. After a few months, the piano teacher came to our home and said she was going to refund my mom for the lessons because I would never learn to play. She was right, when it came to piano. At age 12 I was playing an acoustic guitar, knew about a dozen chords, mostly country music and singing. The very first song I learned was Old Mountain Dew. Then I began playing and singing some mid 50s Doo Wap music on the guitar, the young girls in the neighborhood thought I would be the next Elvis, they loved my voice, but never commented on my playing skills, so I guess that piano teacher was right. When I joined the US Navy, I continued singing and playing guitar, was the singer for a small, 5 piece rock band with some shipmates, played and sang all over Europe, but never made enough money to cover the bar bill most of the time. We sure had fun, though.

When I purchased my very first arranger keyboard, I tried my hand at playing it as just a piano. The piano teacher was right - I cannot play piano while trying to read the dots - something just didn't seem to translate the information from my minuscule brain cells to my arthritic fingers. But, turn on a style and I was in Hog Heaven. Never looked back, sold my guitars for a fraction of what they were worth, and started making a good living as an entertainer and singer, which is the way it was meant to be.

So, where would I rate my playing skills, somewhere near the bottom, but I sincerely believe my entertainment skills were a lot closer to the top. Hell, I made enough to support my family, establish a good retirement account, purchase a 33-foot Morgan sailing yacht and a lot of other silly things.

All the best,

Gary

Well Fran, you can always change it to "Hey, you want to get it on, babe". There, fixed; however, with that line, I'm guessing you aren't going to get lucky either way .

chas

yea at this age your "LUCKY" top wake up in the morning..

And the corrected sentence would be: Yeah at this age, you're "LUCKY" to wake up in the morning.

Gary

Hey, if we keep at it, we can have Donny speaking (and writing) English in no time .

chas

PS: Just kidding you Buddy, we know that sometimes the fingers race ahead of the brain (or vice versa, whichever). That's why some of us hit PREVIEW before we hit SUBMIT .

Frankly I couldn't are less about spelling
hated English class in school too

... take off the mittens before you type

Walk a mile in the shoes of an accordionist and you'll see Fran is right on the money with most of what he wrote here.

In fact, I'm still using my accordion training when I'm thinking "circle of fifths."

Reference professional pianists. The top-of-the-line ARE top-of the line!. The rest of them are poorly trained and poorly educated. Every time, that's EVERY TIME, I hear a pianist play something I like and I ask them "what they did?,"I get swept under the rug with something like..."I don't have time to talk just now." I finally figured it out. Most of them don't really know what they're doing. Some don't even know what key they're playing in. Or a simple chord progression. Some are even teaching.

So Chas...tell me...why do you have this obsession with hatred towards the accordion? What fuels it? Were you dating one and she left you for another accordion? Did one try to mug you? Were you driving down the road and an accordion rear-ended you? Were you desperately trying to learn to play one and you couldn't get a handle on it and so you blamed the accordion for your failure?

I absolutely despise the saxophone (to me it sounds like an 800 lb sumo wrestler passing air) but it's a big jazz instrument and I know you're into jazz so I make it a point not to mention my "hatred" of saxophones (except for Paul's saxophonist).

I thought by now you would have gotten some kind of clue that some of us here happen to like and RESPECT accordions, not to mention it's popularity in countries like Mexico, Brazil, and most South American countries, Russia, France, the Balkan's etc. I'm sure you get the bigger picture.

I said it before and I'll say it again. I'm very much offended with your accordion remarks. What you decide to do with this statement is up to you. Personally, if I already know something I'm going to say will offend someone, I.....DON"T SAY IT.

An accordion does more than producing different musical sounds. It brings back a time, a time when music was gentile, it brings a picture of the different countries, folk music, Jazz, simplicity.

My friend had Midi installed in his accordion; plug the accordion into a keyboard and he has many of the things we have. I believe it to be one of the best midi controllers out there.

I walked into a restaurant and someone was playing some R&R. It was the time when R&R was making a big move. I had to find out what kind of keyboard he was using. He was using a midi accordion and a sound module. WOW

There is not another instrument that represents life in so many areas in this world. My friend bought a Kn7000, loves it – but there were times when I found him at the edge of his bed playing his accordion; he never stopped loving the instrument.

In my music school of over 400 students, we had accordion bands, accordion soloists, guitar and accordion – and you didn’t have to plug them in.

And yes, when an accordion moved to a keyboard he had one great right hand – and a poor left hand.

John C.
PS, Mark why your dislike about the sax??????

Gee Mark, every time I start to warm up to you, you decide to put up a post like this. Because of it's unique sound characteristics, there are probably more 'jokes' about accordions than any other instrument. Fran, and most everyone else on this forum, knows that I'm just kidding him and that I have no malice towards him (in fact, just the opposite), accordions, or accordion players. It's just another musical instrument, which some people like and some people don't. 'HATE' is way too strong a word to describe my feelings about any inanimate object and I think you're making WAY too much 'ado about nothing'. So, do I like accordions? I'm not a big fan of the classic accordion sound. Do I like accordion players? Some, has to do with who they are as a person, not what instrument they choose to play.

I don't want to get into a pissin' contest with you (and I won't) because it's such a petty and ridiculous situation. There are tons of horrific things going on in this world to be offended by; poverty, corporate greed, endless wars, environmental assaults, racism, sexism, religious fanaticism, ....and the list goes on. Be offended by those; better yet, be an activist and try to do something about it. You've got the passion, use it in a 'righteous' way.

chas

+1 Chas

I’d agree that those basic skills that were covered in the video would put someone at the intermediate level. I would add “ear training “ to those skills though. You should be able to recognize with relative ease diatonic and chromatic intervals, reproduce melodies ,rhythms and chord progressions. Music is an aural art form so I wonder why so many musicians claim they can’t play by ear at all? I guess, because most music teachers don’t teach students how to develop their most important asset; their ears!