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I've decided that I was going to start doing a piano practice sessions video series where I focus on just one practice topic, and I explain it in detail in a video. I will either talk about practicing a song, a portion of a song, a theoretical concept, an exercise, etc...

Now, I'm only at the beginner-intermediate stage of learning the piano. However, I have a solid understanding of theory from playing guitar for 20 years. However, the purpose of this video series is for other aspiring piano players to follow along and hopefully learn a thing or two. I also encourage people to comments and make suggestions about possible future videos in order to help me further the learning/practicing/teaching/sharing process.

Feel free to comment here, on the YouTube video, or directly on my website as shown in my signature.

Here is the video where I talk about the intro to a song called "Moonshield" by the metal band, In Flames. It's very melodic, and therefore translates over to piano very well.

Piano Practice Session #1 - Moonshield by In Flames (Part 1 of 3):

http://youtu.be/Yrru0M_FBYE

Hi, it sounds very nice to my untrained ears. I like that you explain which finger to use, that's very helpful. For beginners, could you use key letter stickers so that we can locate the keys easier? Or simply a card at the end of the keys against the cabinet with the names. I'm dyslexic, used to the Do-Re-Mi naming, and English is not my first language, so something like that would be really helpful if you want your videos to be used by people everywhere.

Thanks for the session!

Sure I can do that. Rather then constantly starting new threads, I'll just keep adding to this one envy time I make a new video. I'll see what I can do about having the cards too.

I'm not classically trained, so these videos are more about me just sharing with everyone what I'm practicing at the moment, and being open to suggestions.

Here is part 2 of this tutorial:

http://youtu.be/o-5ZkFGffOo

Here is part 3. The next video that I post will be me flawlessly playing the entire song so you can see how it all fits together...The "flawless" part is what's going to take some time though, so it may be a while . BTW, how do I embed a video into a post rather than just making a link?

http://youtu.be/_phobVwMMuU]

I'm far from the best piano player in the world, but I will gladly take recommendations for future videos. I don't have a day job, so I enjoy figuring stuff out on the piano in my free time!

Two thumbs up to Brian for taking the plunge and recording himself and sharing it for all to hear, regardless of whether he is still in the beginning stages of becoming a pianist! That takes a go-getter attitude, someone who genuinely is working on gaining a better understanding of music, improving their ear, improving their chops. This is truly the right attitude to have when you're learning an instrument, preparing yourself to become a performer, etc.

Flawless doesn't matter as long as you don't f*** up the rhythm.

To embed a link, surround it with two tags: a double square bracket around the word "video" and then the same thing with a forward slash to close. Or just find a post that has an embedded video, and "quote reply" the post so that you can see how it's done.

Thanks! I'll have the full video up by this week. I almost have the entire tune down. I'll get it up soon!

Nice playing - have you experimented w alternate fingering in the LH? I tried 5 3 2 1 on the Fm, which I thought was about the same for ease of playing as the cross over, but thought the 5 3 2 1 on the Eb was much easier - for me anyway - fingering is always a personal choice but that cross over on the Eb didn't feel right.

Have you played around with rotation at all? the pattern on this tune would really lend itself to that in the right hand - instead of making your right hand fingers do all the work keep your fingers more or less in the same spot and rock your wrist back and forth - there are several you tubes on using rotation. It's an interesting concept, here is a link to a good description of rotation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g-pgsSZCIY


Anyway nice job on the tune.

Nice to see someone play metal on the piano! Melodic bands like In Flames suits the piano well!

A tip on the fingering is to play the Eb arpeggio with 5 3 2 1, instead of crossing over. This is the common fingering for arpeggios with black keys if you play Chopin or Debussy for example. The Fm arpeggio I would play like you, but you could play 5 3 2 1 with a rolling of the wrist as well.

I look forward to see more! I've subscribed!

Thanks a lot guys!

Ya, I love In Flames...their music definitely does work very well for piano tunes. I attempted to do the entire thing today, but after 50 unsuccessful tries, I gave up for today. Maybe tomorrow!

Anyway, I will try to use the 5 3 2 1 style for the arpeggios and see how I do. Thanks for the link as well!

Thank you for the tutorial, I'm sure you'll get it at your 51st attempt! For me it might be more like the 1,553rd

I have to say that I'm not really into Metal, and am quite surprised at how well this song sounds played on the piano. So thank you for discovering this one for me.

I made another video. This is Hello Goodbye by the Beatles...Again, not perfect...but that's what practice is for .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtkIkKqu6yA

P.S. - I can not for the life of me figure out how to embed these videos! I tried [video] link [/video]. I tried replacing the word "video" for "youtube". I tried switching to "using HTML"....nothing!

It's [video:youtube] link [/video]

I'm going to get crackin on these again, now that I have some time...

Here is an Ostinato exercise that I made up. It's pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76SsrGc3F5c

Pay attention to this post! I was about to post the same thing.

You have good hands for playing... learn the rotation thing and the world of speed and effortlessness will begin to open up.

Forrest

Hey thanks for the suggestion! I'm self-taught, so I just kinda figure out whatever feels best for me. I haven't experimented with doing that particular arpeggio fingering. It will require me to rebuild my muscle memory all over again, but I will definitely give it a shot.

Lots more videos to come!

Awesome! This is beautiful and I will start on it.

I like the way you show the fingering for the chords, but It might be easier for viewers to follow if instead of 'first finger' etc you just called them the more standard 1,2,3,4,5, where the thumb is 1.

Either way, this def goes onto my ever growing bucket list! I suspect once I get the hang of it, it might be one of those 'sounds harder than it is' pieces. At least I hope so.


Thanks!