Can everyone learn to play the piano who is musical?

Question

Or is this a special skill/gift that only a few people have?

(I've tried many times to use both hands simutaneously and my brain only seems to be able to concentrate on one hand).

I can sing and play the clarinet fine though...

Is this a common problem maybe? Maybe Piano players and drummers have a special brain!

Answer 1

Try this: Pick a song with an easy or repetitive bass (left hand) part. Practice and memorize it (just the left hand) until you can do it correctly every time. Then, play both parts together but focus your conscious attention on the right hand. You'll notice that even though you're still playing the left hand part correctly you're not really paying attention to it.

What happens is that the side of your brain that controls "automatic" or motor functions is playing the part that you've memorized. Once you get used to using the two different parts of your brain to play you won't have to memorize the left hand first.

Think about this: What about playing with both hands and singing at the same time? You don't need to be Elton John or Billy Joel to do that. My main instrument is guitar but I learned piano long ago as it is the best tool for writing music.

Good luck and have fun...!

Answer 2

You need to do it one hand at a time, over and over. Veerrryyy ssllloooowwwllllyyy. Then when you get the single hands better, do it with both. Veerrryyyy sslllooowwwllllyyyyy.

You need to do this for a while, and if you take longer than a beginning student, it's because the part of your brain that interprets musical symbols is already programmed to move your fingers in a certain way, i.e on a clarinet. By doing it it slowly AND CORRECTLY many times, a new area of your brain (I tell my students it's a new file or folder) will open up for the piano movements, and it will beome steadily easier and faster.

Answer 3

I didn't start to learn piano until I was 16, after playing recorders, clarinet and singing. I found it very difficult but had a sympathetic teacher - he said that that wind players make notoriously bad piano players, as it requires a totally different way of using your brain (maybe he was just being kind, but I stick to that theory!)

You'll get there with patience and practice - I did grade 5 within 2 years, though lack of practice means I can't play at all now!

Answer 4

I'm a piano player.
No it does not require a special brain, it just require practise. If you want to play 2 hands simultaniously you have to work your way up. If it helps, do it hands seperataly first.
If you want also you can play your melody in the right hand and at the same time tap the rythm of the left hand out on your leg because the problem here is getting the rythm of both hands working.
Good luck

Answer 5

All instruments are difficult to play *well* and all require a basic ability to keep time. They also all require coordination between both hands. Of these four, piano is easiest because there is a single key for each note and the player does not have to tune it. Next easiest is drums because the tuning does not have to be so precise as with the others. Then bass because it has fewer strings (usually) than guitar and is usually required to produce a backing that has fewer notes.

Answer 6

I play the French-horn, until two years ago I was unable to play the piano, since then my piano teacher was an excellent teacher, and showed me how to practice piano. Its seems really straight forward and patronrising, but it really has helped. Now I am not worried about my piano skills and continue to practice everyday.

These are the set of how to practice the piano:
1. try to sight read through the piece to get an idea of how it sounds.
2. Practise separate hands:
set down good fingering immediately
practse the LH rhythically
3. focus on difficult bars.
4. analyse the structure
look for repetition., modulation, codas ect.
5. understand the harmony
6. tap RH and LH parts together before putting hands together
7. play LH whilst singing RH
8. hands together; slowly in short sections
9. refer to the metronome to gradually build up the tempo

Hope this helps (sorry for being patronising)

Answer 7

I'm a drummer, but i have a hard time playing piano. i enjoy noodling around, but im not very serious on the keys. even tho i can play polyrhythms on the drums the piano is whole different beast all together. playing the clarinet can be harder, becuase u have to visualize the fingerings and the notes, but at a piano u can see the notes in front of u, so its a good balance.

Answer 8

I started off playing piano and was able to learn guitar/bass very quickly. As long as you have a sense of the notes, scales, and chords, you should be fine. Take a music theory class, and it'll help a bunch!

The two-handed problem is very common in people just learning.

Answer 9

I had the same problem. I played Oboe and Drums for 9 years, but could not play the piano for the life of me. Yet, I've met a lot of people that can't even read music who can figure out the piano just by sound. I don't get it either!

Answer 10

I played trombone, baritone (main instrument) and trumpet in school, and later in life I picked up recorders and crumhorns. I play all pretty well. I took piano lessons for 4 years in high school, and drilled repeatedly in college as I got my composition degree. I could not play piano well at all, and was having problems in the mandatory "Class Piano" course. The very patient instructor for that course had me come to her studio where we tried some exercises, but got no appreciable improvement.

As we were talking, she noticed that while I wrote right-handed, I always reached for things with my left hand. As it turns out, I am "right-left" challenged. I was born naturally a leftie, but I broke my left wrist during my first year at school. Rather than fall behind, the teacher switched me to the right-hand. As a result, my handwriting looks awful and I cannot play piano or classical guitar, or type with any proficiency. The college instructor advised me to play the class assignments very slowly, and she would not penalize me for doing them down-tempo. This panned out well (at least she said I played with beautiful musicality, albeit very slowly!), and I passed with a B. So there are exceptions to the rule, but most can learn to play, though not all will excel.