Hey there (sorry for the delay) Overall, just playing different pieces requiring different technical skills was what I did to improve finger strength... but that was a very slow way to do it. Just go through rigorous back and forth movements between the ones you want to strengthen, but if your wrist starts to burn don't push it too hard--you can cause permanent damage that way. The heaviness of your piano's touch is a big factor too. (keyboards tend to have the lightest)
I taught myself how to play, and for four years now I have been playing it. I'm hoping to play this in a competition next week, and just started learning it. I've done four pages so far, and pianists like you are a real inspiration to me!
Thanks for all these awesome arrangements, I've been going around on RU-vid thanking all the pianist who play video game music arrangements for the sole purpose of how much it has helped me stay motivated to finish my book. So thank you a lot nathanielpiano, your efforts on playing on the piano really have made a difference in the world- even if it may seem small at first. - Matt (P.S. I noticed I was your 700th Subscriber lol, congratulations dude!)
Trying to learn this piece, but those bouncing 16th notes are so difficult for me to do (at the beginning). This was so amazingly clean and great to listen to. I am also watching to mimic your technique as I have to teacher. A huge thank you for posting this and working so hard with your playing. It's really amazing!
Awesome playing. Screw everything that you said in your description. Sometimes I wish I could play like people like you. >.< It takes me like weeks/months to learn a single piece from those piano collections from KH & FF. Like, Lightning's Theme, I've been learning it since January and I still haven't polished my playing. I think I need more hand/finger exercises. :P
@Gestriden Oh, ya I'd actually watched you before I uploaded this. You did do some things better than me :) You got the tempo right on--I was forced to play this song somewhat faster so it'd sound good on the digital piano, lacking reverb, in my attempt to try to make it sound similar to the original. Your biggest hitch is probably your piano not being a grand. Your video is SUPERBLY done, though, I really enjoyed it and it actually partially inspired me in learning this--it CAN be done haha :)
@kevin6170defiance Thanks a lot:) Oh it takes me a long time too. I haven't tried Lightning's Theme yet, but from looking at it briefly it looked challenging. But yeah part of it is indeed building up the strength in our fingers and wrists and arms, haha keep it up though, I listened to some of your music and it sounds really good :)
I was hoping you could give me few tips:P This piece made me realize how weak my 4th/5th left fingers are. Do you have any tips/exercises for strengthening 4th finger in particular? I have a hard time playing the beginning from 0:17 to 0:42, not as much as hitting the notes as in accenting them properly and you do that extremely well:D cheers
@PeronMiles Wow, dude, omg thanks a lot!!! :) I think I might re-record it on my new grand piano which comes in about 2 weeks now :) It'll sound EVEN better and more like the real thing! The song took me about a month to learn, about 30mins-1hour a day. Been playing piano 9 years, and finished taking lessons last summer, after completing my final exam :)
@IamJoeyyy Oh wow, thank you :) Well, yeah, the sad thing is, I was never trained how to improv over the years, and its never been my strength, my ear is terrible currently! I could try taking the time to train my ear, but I'm really busy atm learning Japanese and have university coming up, so I doubt I'd have time, unfortunately :( I doubt I coud improv as well as Kyle does anyways ^^ He's incredible
@PianoWheatley lol thanks! ^^ A lot of it is little things that one only can recognize when having spent time studying and attempting to emulate the sheet music--but yeah, its mostly little stuff many wouldn't notice before.
@BKandre Will do! Just working on getting my piano redone so its key-action is quick like the keyboard's was so I can play quickly on it :) So I'll just be a few more weeks!
@413ichigo np :) Just keep at them. I probably practiced learning music of this difficulty 2-3 years while working on my other main piano work before I was able to start uploading, so it takes time :(
@889michael1 Thanks, I am sure there are many factors for this,but the major issue is that the keyboard is sooo difficult/awkward to play! Hopefully we'll see an improvement once I get my grand piano ;)
@EtoGmajor Yeah, I had tried a similar idea to what you mentioned, but you're right--the electric piano just didn't make it sound right.. who knows, some day I might try recording it on the grand though :)
@LightningRanger0208 Ya, I certainly didn't start with this song. I originally worked on some of the others in the other books first, like Concert Paraphrase on Dearly Beloved, Riku, etc. I also burned through the whole FF7/FF8 piano collections XD and I was trained classically to begin with.
@iluvKH4eva Wow, good luck learning it in a week!!... four years is pretty short too! However, I've found in that learning on my own, progress with an instrument was a LOT faster than with when I went with weekly lessons. Hopefully you can do it; I could never have learned this in a week's time :) Glad to know I could be some inspiration to you :) I remember it was the same for me with people like Verdegrand and Kylelandry
@evangelinefyre Can't be perfect :P Your playing is really good too; I'm enamoured by your resolution to keep playing despite your hand troubles. Keep it up; not many would keep moving like you have :D
@LightningRanger0208 Ebay, actually : ) play-asia sells them too, though. It's also possible to get them from the japanese amazon, although I found the shipping to NA to be so expensive it wasn't worth it.
@Arrow9100kj pfft I'm hardly a professional, :P It woulda taken a week less if I wasn't trying to balance school heheh, every time I got home to practice I was preeetty brain dead! But that's okay :)
@FDroid01 Aw thanks bud! Yeah, I postponed uploading for a few years to improve my abilities more rather than uploading a long time ago. Although that gave many other pianists the time to get more recognized than I will it allows my uploads to be a little cleaner since I'm not going through such a steep learning curve now. Thanks again :)
That was great! I just have one thing to say. At the end when you are playing those staccato octaves and off beats and junk, I'd use the pedal like in the recording for a ridiculous ending even though I know that with electric pianos the pedal does not do parts like that justice. Even still, try it out!
@nathanielpiano Yeah... it would take me DEFINATELY more than a month, an hour a day to learn this piece to how you played it. And I've been playing the piano for 7 years... HORRAY to all small-handed pianists who have to put in more effort and practice to get all those stretches and jumps perfectly ;)
@VolensxAstrum Haha thanks :P It's all in the muscles, just got to work out your hands more and it doesn't burn so much :P It hurts most in the wrist until you figure out the perfect position!
@889michael1 why this song is tense thats what makes it so crazy and one part of the song is called tension rising, if your not tense it means your not feeling the music
@LightningRanger0208 For me, yeah it was, but once I figured out everything, it wasn't too hard to play afterwards. A person just needs to figure out the best way to learn the piece which works for them and then learn it : ) I find playing slowly while learning to be extremely effective. As far as timing goes, this piece is actually very easy, compared to others in the book, like Xion
@PeronMiles lol I still like the original better than me. I most certainly do intend to learn Night of Fate, i love that song lol. I've just learned Fang's Theme from the FF13 piano collections and am now considering a new song to learn next. Night of Fate might be a possibility :)
Well, I'm not him, but try Hanon's exercises 4 and 6. There may be a few more in the same book for the 4th and 5th fingers but I haven't gone past 10 yet.
@stareatthewall Riku is super hard too though :) If you can master that one, you shouldn't have too much trouble with this one. It does have it's tricky moments, but overall it's probably easier :) Thanks bro
I honestly have no idea.. it's a Roland of some kind (but that is visible even from this video).. I sold it a little over a year ago and don't have the model # anymore... Sorry :(
Tocas de una forma maravillosa, creo que me eh enamorado. Siempre quise aprender piano, por alguna razon, nunca me apropié del tiempo, y se que nunca es tarde, pero bueno concuerdo con la opinión de que, son pianistas como tu los que inspiran y motivan a aprender a tocar un instrumento musical.
Very difficult, it took me about a month of practicing everyday to get this song how you hear it here. It is still very difficult to me even now a few years later as well. But it's very fun to play :)
@nathanielpiano LOL omg. Those 3 are failures. I only had the slightest idea about chords that time and the arrangements were solely based from my ears. But thanks anyway!
