r/Learnmusic

What is the best way to learn piano? I don’t want to be a classical musician. I just really want to learn how to play my favorite songs and remember how to play them. I feel like I’ve tried everything to learn and understand music but it just isn’t soaking in like I think it should. I’ve tried books, apps, even the YT guitar hero for piano type methods. I want to learn so damn bad, It just makes me feel so stupid for not understanding it

I'm not exactly a musically gifted person, brought an acoustic guitar in 2019 and long story short, I only learned 2 chords and didn't start practising regularly until this year with an electric and bass guitar. Currently learning to play Hey Ya on electric, Seven Nation Army on bass and my acoustic has been collecting dust.

Anyway, with wind instruments, I'm mainly interested in the saxophone, specifically the soprano saxophone as I like this one guy on tiktok.

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Hi everyone! Pretty random question but thought y'all might know about this kinda thing. I was born deaf, I have cochlear implants so I can hear some, but I never learnt music listening and am terrible at picking up pitch/tone etc (no idea how much of this is something I wouldn't be able to do v something I could learn). I've been getting more into music over the last few years and started playing drums (which I'm pretty ok at, I have a decent sense of rhythm) and a little bit of piano/keyboard (which I basically do entirely through visually matching written notes to keys), but I've never played any other instruments and don't know how I'd go about learning one that relies more on hearing rather than seeing/feeling when the note is right.

I'd love to learn to sing (don't need to be amazing or anything, just for fun), but idk how realistic this is. I've had tons of speech therapy and have a pretty decent speaking voice so I think I could probably manage that part of it, but I have no idea where to start with knowing whether I'm singing the right note/key, what my voice quality's like etc. I'm into hard rock/indie/punk and some classic rock & metal and aiming to sing that kinda stuff. Mid-20s male with (I assume) a fairly average voice range.

If singing is worth pursuing, any ideas on how to go about it? I was thinking there might be some helpful tech out there - I find visual metronomes really helpful, is there something similar that would show me what notes I'm singing v the ones I'm aiming for? I'm assuming I'll need some coaching - any tips on what I should look for to find a teacher who can work with my needs?

Hello everyone, I’m a self-taught pianist and I’d love to get some feedback on my playing style. I’ve learned to play with the melody in my right hand and chords in my left (either as chords or arpeggios). So I read the top staff of the sheet music and write the chords in pencil over it with my hand. I’ve never tried reading both lines of a sheet music at the same time, and I don’t even see how that’s possible 😅... I’d like to know if other people play like me, or if nobody does that... I really like playing this way; it gives the left hand more freedom, and sight-reading is much easier (for me, anyway). It’s also very handy for improvising, but very few sheet music pieces online are written this way, so it takes a bit of work to add the chords. Do you know if it’s possible to improve with this playing style (new left-hand and right-hand patterns, or even if it’s possible to find the chords by ear without having to write them down)?

I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent, but thanks for reading—I look forward to your feedback!!!

I am a vocalist, and am currently getting into music production in preparation for an upcoming album. Despite always being so interested in music and having 8 consecutive years of classical voice training I’ve never picked up an instrument. I’m looking to learn piano, guitar, and drums. I have very basic guitar knowledge (some chord shapes and knowledge on strings), I know the notes on a piano and I know nothing about drumming. My buddy is a composition major and he gave me his theory I textbook which I’ve also been reading to help this process. What would be the best way to tackle this if I’m setting aside around 3 hours a week to rehearsing (my schedule is really busy). Initially I was thinking about doing one instrument each week for example
Week 1: drums
Week 2: guitar
Week 3: piano
And repeat the cycle. I was told to consider trying to do an hour a week to each instrument but then I was also told that would slow me down and I should try to dedicate myself to just learning one instrument at a time before moving to the next. If that’s the route I should take I’d there an order I should learn?

Sorry for the long winded post but I would appreciate any all feedback, thank you!

I'm learning to play hurdy gurdy, as an adult. I've taken a bunch of singing lessons in my life and I can sight read music well enough but never encountered a struggle I'm about to describe.

I have never really learned to play a musical instrument​ before. I have been practici g almost a year I love it and I'm happy to practice about an hour every day day most days. And I'd say for all intents and purposes gurdy would reseble a piano playing​ since it has keys.

I'm learning mostly simple dances (e.g. Suzato - La Mourisque, Schiarazula Marazula, Branle de Chevaux) and I love them and find them very fun. These are short melodies that tend to repeat a lot and very quickly I get to a point where my muscle memory would take over and playing would become sort of automatic.

At that point I feel as though I stop progressing. I can play through the song, but my knowledge doesnt feel very solid and any disturbance causes me to get very lost and confused. This often means that on my first play through during a practice I go without mistakes and then I either start overthinking and making mistakes or lose attention and even​ skip parts.

I have just taken my first lesson with a teacher in person and he wanted to play along a song that I was decently familiar with and could play through pretty confidently by myself and I would just keep getting lost with him so much that it looked as though I'd never practice it before.

It may be relevant that I have a mild attention deficit disorder but mostly I can conpensate pretty well.

Do you recognize elements of your practice? How do you stop playing "on autopilot" and get more mindful about the piece and actually get a solid knowledge of the piece? Can you recall notes when playing a piece you had practiced or is it meant to be saved in your muscle memory only? Would small improvised ornamentations, which are encouraged in this kind of music, perhaps help break the routine and keep one's brain more actively engaged?​

For those who do music, how do you do it—like singing and, I guess, lessons or whatever, and the production of the music you make? How do you find band members? How do you find studios? How do you create your own? What are the first few steps I should be taking if that’s what I want to do?

Bonjour à tous, je joue du piano en autodidacte et j'aimerais avoir des retours sur ma manière de jouer. En effet, j'ai appris à jouer avec la mélodie main droite et les accords à la main gauche (plaqués ou en arpège). Je lis donc la première ligne des partitions et je rajoute les accords à la main au crayon par-dessus. Je n'ai jamais essayé de lire les deux lignes d'une partition en même temps et je ne vois même pas comment c'est possible 😅... Je voudrais savoir si d'autres personnes jouent comme moi, ou si personne ne fait ça... J'aime bien jouer de la sorte, cela offre plus de liberté à la main gauche et le déchiffrage est beaucoup plus facile (pour moi en tout cas). C'est aussi très pratique pour improviser par contre très peu de partitions sur internet sont comme ça donc ça demande un peu de travail pour ajouter les accords. Savez vous s'il est possible de s'améliorer avec cette manière de jouer (nouveaux motifs main gauche, main droite ou même si c'est possible de trouver directement les accords à l'oreille sans avoir à les écrire?).

Je suis parti un peu dans tous les sens mais merci de m'avoir lu, hâte d'avoir vos retours!!!

For a while I’ve had a goal to become good at sight reading on guitar. To this end, I’ve been trying to practice sight reading music that I’ve not seen before every day. I’ve been at it for a few months now, and I’m definitely improving which was of course the point. However, I’ve discovered a great side benefit: sight reading can clear my mind of the stresses of the day.

I think the reason for this is that to sight read, you really have to focus on nothing but reading a little ahead and then translating that into the right muscle memories. However, you really need music that is at just the right difficulty level (I use an app which gives me an endless supply). If it’s too hard or too fast you mess up a lot which has the opposite effect. My experience is that if your motive is to use it as a destressing tool then it’s probably better to err on doing lots of exercises that are on the easy side of your ability. 

I’m sure this is a good example of flow-state. I’ve experienced it before when being lost in programming or even sometimes when drawing or painting. It’s that wonderful warm feeling where you forget what time it is and you’re lost in your own little world inside your head. I think this is one of the reasons gaming is so popular and I happen to know that gaming companies design for flow on purpose. 

Practically speaking, I’m only sight reading for 5-10 minutes each day which seems to be enough. It gives me a bit of a break between work meetings and all the other household chores and responsibilities. Ugh. 

I know that sight reading might not be on your list of fun activities, especially if you’re a guitar player. But unlike gaming, you’ll end up learning a really valuable musical skill. 

I am an English speaking foreigner renting a 1 bedroom high rise condominium in Bangkok. I am relearning to play the violin and have started practicing in my condo. I just bought the violin and have only seriously practiced on 1 Saturday morning. I do not intend to play past 5pm on any day especially since I sound pretty bad right now. Also because violins are very loud. I think I should go to the Juristic office and ask but I worry I am poking the bear. Whenever I go down to ask about something, it becomes a bigger deal than it originally was. This is mostly because I speak very little Thai. My belief if I was back in my home country, was to wait till I get a complaint and ask for forgiveness. However, I feel like in Thailand this could be seen as really rude and could get me in more trouble with the building. Does anyone have some insight on what I should do?

Edit - Where can I practice daily in Bangkok other than my condo?

This is an extremely broad question I know but I know of no better way of asking. I’ve been interested in composing for a while (a few years at this point) but I’ve never really started until recently. So a few months ago I decided to start talking piano lessons, learned the basics of music theory I got a MIDI keyboard for Christmas and I was kinda fiddling around with stuff.

But shortly after I stopped taking piano lessons because I just didn’t practice. I tried playing around with my MIDI a bit more but it eventually started collecting dust on my shelf as I got busy with finishing up my senior year of high school… and I was okay with it for the most part. Because something was at the forefront of my mind every time I sat at my laptop: either “I have no idea what to start making” or “This idea that was cool in my head sucks and I hate listening to it.”

I really don’t know what to do. I come from a very musical family and I don’t want to be the one who doesn’t do something with music. I feel inspired to make something but whenever I sit down to actually try to write something I stop because something isn’t clicking. I’ll maybe get a little ways in and find a few notes I like, but very quickly things devolve and I get frustrated.

I’d like some possibly solutions. Do I have a bad ear? Is a DAW just not for me? Is making music just not for me? Something hasn’t clicked and I feel very discouraged

Cuando descubrí que mi canción favorita de las últimas semanas estaba creada con inteligencia artificial, llevaba ya dos semanas escuchándola en bucle.

La primera vez que la escuché me emocioné como hacía meses que no recordaba. Lo primero que hice fue crear una lista solo con esa canción. La escuchaba a diario, hasta que un día pensé: seguro que este artista tiene más canciones que me gustan. Me puse a indagar en el perfil, tenía muchas más y también me gustaron. Me fijé en las portadas: estaban generadas con IA. No aparecía foto de perfil. Sin trayectoria hasta finales de 2025 y de repente, boom, dos álbumes. Me fui a YouTube e Instagram. Me resultó raro que todos los vídeos verticales formaran un mosaico con la misma postura en tres cuartos, la misma pose. Y esa cara de porcelana —era casi un adolescente—.

Lo siguiente fue sentirme en conflicto.

Inconscientemente empecé a quitarle mérito a la canción. Ya la veía de otra manera —supongo que la palabra que mejor lo define es «tramposa»—. Mi cerebro quería bajarla del pedestal donde la había puesto. Doble rasero, lo sé. Soy la primera que usa inteligencia artificial. Pero hasta ese momento la aplicación al sonido no había captado mi atención. Y allí estaba, en mi lista, en bucle, sin que yo lo supiera.

La única pega era que el resultado era perfecto. Y eso nunca es una pega.

Ese día había quedado a comer con José, mi mejor amigo. Es un melómano de mucho cuidado —muchos de nuestros grupos favoritos los hemos descubierto juntos— y compartir los últimos hallazgos siempre nos mete en largas sesiones donde vamos pisando las canciones del otro antes de dejarlas terminar, por pura impaciencia: «mira lo que he descubierto».

Era la oportunidad perfecta para contarle lo que me había pasado —él se reiría de mí— y, casi con toda seguridad, podría chincharle un buen rato si me dejaba meter las narices en su Spotify. Durante la comida me había dicho que había dos artistas que escuchaba mucho últimamente, así que no era difícil que estuvieran los primeros en el historial.

Play.

Era bueno. Una mezcla de soul, latino urbano y jazz. La voz era seductora: dependiendo de la estrofa recitaba como lo haría un rapero, pero en otros momentos se marcaba unos falsetes de auténtico crooner, y todo mezclado resultaba de una calidad excepcional.

En la canción diez le dije: «Creo que son canciones sintéticas.» Me respondió con ironía: «Anda ya, Skynet.» Últimamente me llama así. Intenté disimular mi satisfacción cuando empecé a descuartizar su perfil —era lo mismo que con mi canción: sin foto de perfil, toda la producción de finales de 2025, nada en redes, ni agenda de conciertos—.

La cara de José fue cambiando de escéptica y burlona a cierto desencanto, aunque muy bien disfrazado de «me la resbala». Yo le dije, divertida: «Venga, hombre, que no pasa nada. La música es chulísima y eso es lo único que importa. ¿Qué más da de dónde venga o qué porcentaje del proyecto sea sintético? Es irrelevante.» Pero ese discurso no me lo creía ni yo.

De vuelta a casa seguía dándole vueltas. Había pronunciado esa frase con total convicción —qué más da de dónde venga— y sin embargo la cara de José me había dejado algo instalado que no conseguía nombrar. No era él el desencantado. Era yo, proyectando en él lo que no quería admitir en mí misma.

Escribiendo este texto retomo una pregunta que no sé muy bien cómo responder. Si la canción es la misma, y saber cómo estaba creada había reconfigurado mi experiencia al escucharla, ¿qué mecanismo se activa?

La canción me chiflaba: la voz, la letra, la música, todo. Era como si alguien hubiera comprimido en tres minutos toda mi esencia musical. Me sentí tan reconocida. Y eso, viniendo de algo no humano, es lo más desconcertante de todo.

Me pasa algo parecido con el cine. Hay directores cuya obra he amado durante años y que, después de conocer ciertos aspectos de su vida personal, ya no puedo ver de la misma manera. La película no ha cambiado —mismos planos, mismo guión, el mismo ritmo—. Pero el dato contamina la experiencia. Lo curioso es que sé que esa contaminación es irracional, y aun así ocurre. Con la canción pasó exactamente lo mismo: el origen reconfiguró la emoción, aunque la emoción hubiera ocurrido con gran intensidad.

Tardé un poco en darme cuenta de que lo había procesado desde un lugar erróneo.

La IA no amenaza la creatividad. Amenaza el ego. El ego del creador que necesita que la autoría sea suya. El ego del oyente que necesita que lo que le emociona sea único e irrepetible. Los dos conflictos —el del artista y el del consumidor— vienen del mismo sitio.

Por un lado está el ruido exterior: el debate, las noticias, los apocalípticos, los defensores. Todo eso te contamina aunque creas que eres impermeable. Es casi inevitable —vivimos dentro de la sociedad y eso transforma nuestro micro ecosistema aunque no queramos—. Por otro lado está el interior: el ser humano quiere ser único. Quiere estar en el centro. Quiere que lo que le emociona sea especial porque él es especial. Y si lo que le emocionó lo hizo una máquina, entonces quizás no es tan especial. Tampoco tu criterio. Y tu emoción no dice tanto de ti como creías.

Pero hay otra maneras de verlo... Aquí mi opinión

La canción sigue siendo la misma. Yo he cambiado

Hey everyone, I'm trying to improve how quickly I learn saxophone pieces while keeping practice enjoyable. Rn I can pick up melodies on music sax fairly fast, but timing, articulation, and phrasing take much longer to settle. My current routine is 10 minutes long tones at 60 bpm, 5 minutes articulation drills, and 20 minutes of looping 2 to 4 bar phrases slowly before increasing tempo. I also record myself during sessions to check tone stability and timing accuracy. I even compared different setups and checked online for inexpensive reeds and basic accessories to stay consistent without overspending. What I'm struggling with most is making phrasing feel natural instead of segmented, especially when I try to match recordings. Do you break songs into small sections and master them first, or do you focus on full pieces from the start when learning music sax? And what specific exercises helped you improve phrasing speed and tone control at the same time especially during early stages of learning where consistency feels hard to maintain without losing motivation or sound quality over time. Also how do you structure weekly practice to make progress more measurable and less random so it actually sticks better?

TL;DR: Title.
Exposition below:

I have the brain worm that makes it hard to focus on things I don't find (for lack of better words) arbitrarily interesting; but all my favorite songs, the ones I "would" use to learn how to read, just because I like them; are all convoluted pieces with weird time signatures, intentionally subversive rhythms, or dense chord progressions and arpeggios.

I would sooner fall asleep if I had to play one more second of Hot-cross-buns, but it's not exactly like I can just jump into reading "On Green Dolphin Street" or "Oṃ Maṇi Padme Hūṃ, part II" or whatever Tool song of the week I'm listening to: My brain would implode! What should I do?