How do I improve at reading sheet music?

I can slowly figure out notes one by one, but I consistently forget there's a key signature involved and then get frustrated when I can't tell what's wrong. Does anybody have any advice on how to improve without driving myself mad?

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 1 day ago

My music feels dull, and I was wondering if anybody has any advice on what they do to make their songs more interesting, find new chords to use, and stick to the key signature.

The other day, I finally decided to start writing music after a year and a half of learning music theory up to grade 3. I've gotten stuck immediately, which is to be expected, but I'm too frustrated to unstick myself alone.

  1. I've got basic chord bashing, but I'm stuck on the same five-ish chords and can't come up with any new ones.
  2. I find it incredibly difficult to stick to key signatures or to even remember to take them into account.
  3. I can't come up with all the little single notes and such to put between chords. I don't really know how to explain it, but it's just all of the little things pianists do that aren't chords.
  4. I find it hard to come up with a melody that really sticks. One that even sounds like a melody. It just has no zest.

Please be patient with me! I'm still very new to taking this whole music thing seriously or doing any songwriting! I'm sure there's someone out there eager to publicly execute me for making this post, but if the answer is obvious and logic simply failed me, just know I Tried My Best.

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 1 day ago

I want to get an affordable keyboard which supports MIDI and headphones. Is the Yamaha P-115 any good?

I've had an old, beaten up Yamaha keyboard of legal drinking age for the last ten years of my life, and it's served me well, but it's a nightmare to play. The keys have no weight, no resistance, they're plasticky and uncomfortable. I was thinking about investing in a Yamaha P-115, but I was wondering if there is a cheaper alternative that is equally as good as I've heard, or if there are any drawbacks to the particular model I should be aware of. I'm willing to spend the money on the P-115 if nothing else tickles my fancy, but I wanted to check it's worth my money before I make a stupid, impulsive decision.

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 5 days ago
▲ 3 r/piano

I want to get an affordable keyboard which supports MIDI and headphones. Is the Yamaha P-115 any good?

I've had an old, beaten up Yamaha keyboard of legal drinking age for the last ten years of my life, and it's served me well, but it's a nightmare to play. The keys have no weight, no resistance, they're plasticky and uncomfortable. I was thinking about investing in a Yamaha P-115, but I was wondering if there is a cheaper alternative that is equally as good as I've heard, or if there are any drawbacks to the particular model I should be aware of. I'm willing to spend the money on the P-115 if nothing else tickles my fancy, but I wanted to check it's worth my money before I make a stupid, impulsive decision.

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 5 days ago

I want to get an affordable keyboard which supports MIDI and headphones. Is the Yamaha P-115 any good?

I've had an old, beaten up Yamaha keyboard of legal drinking age for the last ten years of my life, and it's served me well, but it's a nightmare to play. The keys have no weight, no resistance, they're plasticky and uncomfortable. I was thinking about investing in a Yamaha P-115, but I was wondering if there is a cheaper alternative that is equally as good as I've heard, or if there are any drawbacks to the particular model I should be aware of. I'm willing to spend the money on the P-115 if nothing else tickles my fancy, but I wanted to check it's worth my money before I make a stupid, impulsive decision.

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 5 days ago

Is there a mod I can use to disable certain blocks from spawning? Specifically powder snow.

I. Bloody. HATE. Powder snow. I hate it. I hate it so much. It enrages me. I was wondering if anybody knows the way to remove it? I've already tried countless mods, like item obliterator, block swap, begone powder snow, etc, but they're all a pain to get working or don't work at all. I'm using Fabric 1.20.1.

I know block swap is probably easy to use but I just can't wrap my head around it. Is somebody even willing to just write out the bit of code I need to use to swap powder snow to regular snow?

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 18 days ago

Good resources for learning about nature.

I really love nature, always have, never didn't, and I used to know so much about it as a kid. I don't know how I accumulated the knowledge, where I was looking, or if half of it was even true, but I really enjoyed it.

I want to look into biology and all with a slightly more 'professional' approach. Not that I want to be a biologist, but that I want to actually self-study and gather relevant, correct knowledge on it.

I really want to find resources which compile as much as they possibly can about what there is to know, or where to start learning it. Obviously, it's a bit of a can of worms because science comes into it a lot, so it was an already huge, now huger can of worms, but I'm still willing.

Any and all resources and advice are appreciated!

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 1 month ago

Where do I find good resources to learn about Dinosaurs?

I love Dinosaurs, and I have since I was little. I loved Dinosaurs as an 8 year old, they were definitely my special interest. Now, I've continued to love them of course, but I don't know anything about them anymore, or where to find out about them.

Are there any resources where I can read up? Courses I can do? Documentaries, articles, scientific papers, the list goes on. I just want to know anything I can about Dinosaurs because I have such a strong love for them but I have no idea where or how to start. I want to know all the science about them with their anatomy and evolution, I want to know how they behaved, all the different types of them, the wildlife/world that surrounded them, anything and everything I can get my grubby mitts on.

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 1 month ago

Affordable baritone guitarlele?

I've yet to check exactly, but I've got a budget of up to £160 I'd think.

Any recommendations are much appreciated!

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 2 months ago

Guitalele or a baritone?

I've been debating getting a baritone for a while so I can play things with ecgb tuning, having given up on guitar because my fingers struggled to reach the frets and practicing wasn't helping too much, and then I was suggested a guitalele.

I was thinking a guitalele might be nice because then I can play guitar tabs (I think?) without having to do any transposing. Correct me if I'm wrong! It's much appreciated. I did wonder if transposing will be necessary because there's different tuning, but some sources said that guitaleles are like a guitar with a capo 5 semitones up. Of course, I don't know if that means that when I try to play guitar tabs on the guitalele it'll sound off.

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 2 months ago

Get a baritone or transpose?

Hey hey hey! I recently got a lovely Ortega concert ukulele I'm very happy with, but I've found some dgbe songs I obviously can't play on a gcea. Does anybody know any websites I can use to translate tabs? I've been having the same issue with not being able to play songs I like that only have guitar tabs up on the Internet.

Edit: Does anybody know a website which can convert, (as an example,) dgbe tabs to gcea?

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 2 months ago

Which albums do you associate with which seasons?

I'll start!

​

The Normal Album reminds me of Spring.

Everything Is A Lot reminds me of Summer.

Ealu reminds me of Autumn and Winter.

Self-ish reminds me of Summer.

Slouching Towards Branson reminds me of both Summer and Winter at the same time for some reason.

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 2 months ago

My L13 Yoga Gen 2 won't turn on unless plugged in. Please help.

I got it second hand in perfect condition, and everything about it is absolutely fine except for the fact it won't turn on unless connected to power.

​

It has this problem about 70% of the time and I don't know what to do because I can't be without a laptop. I'm homeschooled, and without a laptop I'm done for, so I can't just send it back willy nilly. Does anybody have any advice? Literally any advice is appreciated, even if that advice is that it's unfixable and I have to just deal with being behind. The fan is constantly running at over 3000 when it's turned on too, if anybody has any help for that.

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 2 months ago

A few months ago, I got a bunch of really old records (27+ years type of old), which hold a lot of sentimental value because they belonged to my father when he was younger. I'm looking at getting myself a turntable, but my budget probably lies at around £150 and I don't want to get any old rubbish that may damage my vinyls. My father wanted to see if he could find a decent table he could also connect a Bluetooth speaker so that he could have decent sound without having to buy any more speakers. Bluetooth probably isn't the way to go for audiophile sound quality but lucky for us, we aren't. An aux cord is also an option after some convincing!

Main points are-

\- Able to connect to a Bluetooth speaker or connect to one with an aux cord.

\- Up to £150.

\- Doesn't damage records.

\- He wanted a suitcase player, but I'm personally willing to dispute it for a regular turntable.

Thank you in advance!

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 4 months ago

A few months ago, I got a bunch of really old records (27+ years type of old), which hold a lot of sentimental value because they belonged to my father when he was younger. I'm looking at getting myself a turntable, but my budget probably lies at around £150 and I don't want to get any old rubbish that may damage my vinyls. My father wanted to see if he could find a decent table he could also connect a Bluetooth speaker so that he could have decent sound without having to buy any more speakers. Bluetooth probably isn't the way to go for audiophile sound quality but lucky for us, we aren't. An aux cord is also an option after some convincing!

Main points are-

- Able to connect to a Bluetooth speaker or connect to one with an aux cord.

- Up to £150.

- Doesn't damage records.

- He wanted a suitcase player, but I'm personally willing to dispute it for a regular turntable.

Thank you in advance!

reddit.com
u/AnxiousTruffles — 4 months ago