- Home
- Author's Archive:
The best platforms to learn piano online
Learn Piano Online- Guide to the best platforms on the Internet
There are several internet platforms with online courses, some are free and others paid but they are usually not expensive, or they have a free trial version, to see if they are worth it or what you like. Of course in the paid ones, the quantity and quality of the contents are better and allow to interact with the user, although there is some free that is worth it.
Don’t miss our selection with the Best Cheapest Keyboards. A selection of BuscarInstrumentos.com that will surely be very useful to you:
The keys on online pianos
There are applications out there that have a virtual keyboard. That’s good to find out visually about what we’re seeing, but it doesn’t help us to learn piano correctly. We advise you that apart from the virtual piano in which you have to press the keys with the mouse, you have a MIDI keyboard or electronic next to it to practice at the same time.
flowkey.com: an interactive app (english and spanish version)
All the information here: Flowkey.com
Our favorite and most recommended. We were looking forward to something similar taking advantage of new technologies. The truth is that it is not a web application in itself, but an app for tablet or mobile. They have also recently released the app for Android.
It’s designed to practice with a digital piano or real piano, but the good thing is that this app is installed on a tablet or mobile and we put it on our lectern. So that the app is able to detect with the microphone of the tablet that we are playing and can interact with us as if it were a virtual teacher. It tells us if we pressed the key wrong or right.
It has a very interesting free version that will let you know if you like to play the piano. Don’t hesitate to try the free trial version by clicking here.
I’m sure you’ll be interested in…
- Ranking with the best digital pianos in quality-price ratio
- The cheapest musical keyboards for beginners
- Learn piano by yourself and for free
PlernPiano.com (english version)
Free website in English, a little old in appearance, but has great power. It’s possible to upload a MIDI file of the song we want to hear and the application plays it while we see which keys have to be pressed.
MIDI is a file format capable of storing the musical notation of a song.
As we have already said it is important that while we are in front of the application we have a MIDI or electronic keyboard to practice what we have on screen. The web is in English and it is very intuitive, so if we have a few notions of the language we can manage.
It is important to remember that English websites use American notation, simply change the name of the musical notes and the equivalence is as follows (American notation on the right):
Do=C,RE=D,MI=E,Fa=F,Sol=G,La=A,Si=B
PianoMarvel.com: Power for your MIDI keyboard (english version and promo code)
If you sign up for the free version with the code MARVELDISCOUNT then you will get a discount of 12 to 16 dollars. Which is quite interesting:
Web and APP payment but very affordable. It’s in English but we expect a Spanish version soon (they should because if they don’t lose a lot of market share). Flowkey is working harder on this and we’ve already been told that. The highlight of Piano Marvel is the amount of lessons and content it has, much more extensive than any other website because it takes more time. And above all, it allows the connection of our MIDI keyboard. Interact with us through a MIDI cable or in the same way as Flowkey with the microphone on the tables.
It is able to know the notes we are pressing and correct us if we do something wrong. They have a free version that is also worth a try.
Other free resources
Sometimes sites like Zebrakeys.com are recommended. In its day this website was quite popular, but it is many years old and has not been updated. It’s good to see the resources it has and practice with it and a keyboard in front of the site, but compared to the new interactive possibilities like Flowkeys and Piano Marvel, it’s too short. Although being free, you can always take a look at it.
Free websites are fine especially if you have time to experiment. If you’re on a tight schedule, maybe you’ll need some of the payment options such as Piano Marvel, because you’ll advance much faster and better. These are inexpensive options with which you will advance much faster, and that will have an effect on your important motivation.
If you are a complete beginner, take a walk through our free course. It will always be good for you to learn basic concepts, practice hand independence, simple chords, etc:
We hope you liked this article, if you think it can be useful to other people do not hesitate to share it on your social networks. Thank you for reading!
Vote if you liked this article 🙂
Guide to the best products for soundproofing a piano room
The piano is an instrument with enough sound power, especially if it is a grand piano. Although wall pianos are also very noisy.
It is normal for a piano student, especially if he is a conservatory student, to invest many hours in his practice. And this unfortunately often leads to problems with neighbors and sometimes quite serious. Added to this is the difficulty that renting a study room is very expensive and few can afford it.
I’m sure you’ll be interested in…
- Ranking with the best digital pianos in quality-price ratio
- The cheapest musical keyboards for beginners
- Learn piano by yourself and for free
To avoid these problems or alleviate them to a level tolerable with neighbors there are some options. Soundproofing a room professionally is also expensive but there are wall and floor panels that can suffice in several cases.
Many of us at Spain remember the bizarre case of Laia, a girl whom the prosecutor asked for 7 years in prison for a complaint about noise. Her neighbor accused her of piscological torture. It must be said that the case was filed and the judge in the final order harshly criticized that the process had been admitted for processing and that it was so lengthy in time. It was a bit of an extreme case…
The sound of the piano is transmitted through the air and through the floor. That is why it is sometimes felt in the adjoining floors and certain materials can help in the damping of these sound waves. So we’ve prepared a guide to these materials for you, and we’ll give you tips on how to place them correctly.
Acoustic Foam Plate
A classic of the local rehearsal and in the home music studio. It is one of the materials most used by individuals at very affordable prices. It’s a very effective and cheap option, it’s usually the first thing we have to try to see if we get results.
We always advise to place these panels and show them to the neighbor who is complaining, that way he will see that we are trying to alleviate the problem and his attitude towards us will probably be much more positive.
These panels are placed on the wall, a little above the floor, about 50 cm above the floor. And they can reach the ceiling but they do not put the ceiling exactly, but at most up to where it joins ceiling and wall, this improves the acoustics and partially muffles the noise.
It is important to protect the wall that is closest to the piano, in a similar way as the wall of this Home Studio is being protected from the photo with similar plates:
The sound that travels through the air will go in quantity to that wall, this way it will bounce towards us and we will also improve the acoustics of the room.
You must also protect the rear wall of the piano and the side walls. The least important is the wall farthest from the piano.You can buy small panels, but we are going to recommend you a very effective one that has a lot of surface, with one of these behind the piano you already do a lot and if you put them on the side walls better.
Foam sheets or Bass Trap
If you can afford it these plates are a perfect complement to cushion the bass, which are the sound waves that create more problems with neighbors. They’re plates that are placed right in the corners of the room. A little attached to the ceiling in a similar way to the image:
Above all they are placed in the corners formed by the wall behind the piano and the side walls.
Acoustic insulation cork – 2 mm, 5 X 1 meter
Very interesting product. As we told you before, sound waves are also transmitted through the ground and this is one of the biggest sources of annoyance for neighbors. The piano is an instrument that when in contact with the ground its basses feel a lot.
It is a product designed to be placed under the parquet. But we can use it in a variety of ways. We can put it under the piano and over it a carpet, between the piano and the cork. Being in the lower part of the piano this will help us to palliate the sound that travels on the floor. And this mixed with the previous bass traps may be enough for neighbors not to complain.
If you don’t like how the cork looks aesthetically with a carpet or similar you can always put parquet on top as you will see in the original image of the product.
We hope you found this article useful. If you liked it or think it could be useful to someone, don’t hesitate to share it. Thank you for reading it!
Vote if you liked this article 🙂
How an upright piano is made
Upright pianos are pianos that have all the mechanics placed in the vertical plane. They are relatively cheaper models than a grand piano and are intended for houses with less physical space.
The sonority of vertical pianos is somewhat lower than that of grand pianos but there are several qualities. And also various prices. But you can find grand pianos from 2000 or 3000 €, prices much more affordable than the 15,000 € that usually costs a grand piano.
Elements of an upright piano
I’m sure you’ll be interested in…
An upright piano has the same elements as a grand piano because the philosophy is the same. The main difference is that the pieces are placed in the vertical rather than the horizontal plane. The main elements of an upright piano are:
- The keyboard: Formed by weighted keys of synthetic plastic that simulate the touch of ivory.
- The hammers: Connected with the keys, when a key is pressed a hammer connected to it falls and hits one of the strings that generates the musical note with its vibration.
- The pegbox: This is the end closest to the keyboard and where the ends of the strings are “rolled up”. The pegbox is the system that tensions them at different pressures perfectly calibrated.
- Bridges: From the pegbox, the strings go tense up to the bridges, where the other end is inserted, so that they can vibrate freely. These bridges are glued to the harmonic board.
- Harmonic Table: It is a metal table, which collects the vibrations that reach the bridges through the strings and are amplified with the vibration transmitted to the harmonic table. It’s a sound amplifier.
- Pedals: serve to regulate the vibration of the strings. The most important is the sharp one that blocks the system in charge of stopping the vibration of the strings. So that the rope continues to vibrate even if the corresponding key is released.
The manufacturing process of an upright piano
The first thing is to create the main frame. Woods are used such as maple among others.
Then, the harmonic board and the bridges are placed, as well as a metal plate that helps to fix them. Putting these pieces together is a process that has to be done with absolute precision.
In this point the lateral woods are placed and the piano already begins to have the majority of its profiled structure.
The keyboard, hammers and pegbox are then placed. The pegs will give tension to the strings (similar to a guitar system). Each pin withstands an enormous strain so industrial robots are used for placing the strings.
Pins being placed with industrial robot in upright piano
After placing the pegs and inserting the other end of the strings into the bridge, the tuning begins by means of specialized operators. In addition, all the other mechanisms must be regulated, such as the clubs, so that the force with which the strings hit is adequate.
The hammer system and the keyboard are almost the last elements to be put on and regulated. The masses system requires calibration and each part has to be perfectly positioned.
So that the keys have a weight and return to their place inside they carry metallic weights. This is what is called the Hammer Action system and it is what gives the special touch when playing the piano. This sensation is what a digital piano has to simulate perfectly in order to be used as a studio or professional piano.
Calibration of the hammer system
Adjustment of the keys and the Hammer Action
With the previous steps the manufacture of a piano is finished, now only remains to polish the details such as painting and the like. Here you have the complete video of the manufacture of a upright piano. In the video we can see the rigorous controls needed to produce one of these wonderful musical instruments.
If you find this article curious and instructive, help us spread it by sharing it on your social networks. Thank you for reading it!
Vote if you liked this article 🙂