IamA musician who literally owes his success to Reddit, back again and currently promoting our latest musical endeavours! I am Isaac Birchall AMA!

Can I learn to play the piano if I don't actually have musical talent?

And when I say "play" I don't mean repeating the pattern of keys on a song, I mean knowing how to put notes together that work in pleasing harmonies off of just messing with chords and keys.

Will the latter come with practice?

Can you drive a car without being a race-driver? Almost anything is achievable through hard work - nobody is a natural born pianist, but leaning to play the piano gives you the key to unlock your inner creativity.

Can you learn to sew a dress without knowing how to sew? Probably, but it'll take a lot of work and dedication, and it'll turn out crappy the first thousand times.

Especially if you basically want to compose a piece. That's like asking if you could learn to sew a dress without a pattern, just off the top of your head. Is that possible? Yes. You can google the basics, but the rest is just a shit ton of practice. Probably more practice than you've ever needed to practice at something in your entire life.

It sounds easy, but once you get into the specifics of piano technique and piano theory (major, minor, staffs, major minor scales, major minor chords, harmonics, natural, etc) it seems daunting, but don't give up if you're passionate about it, it's definitely doable.

PM if you have questions or need help starting.

Spot on. I used to practice for 6 or 7 hours a day in my teenage years, more when I wasn't in college. Being an adult has dropped that to a measly 3, maybe 4 or 5 on a weekend but it's still something you have to constantly practice and work at.

Any tips for getting the music out there?

I've thought of posting some YouTube videos but think it might be better to simply post my music on sound cloud...

What worked for you, reddit-wise?

Great question, one that I'm afraid I might not be completely qualified to answer, as I'm only really at the start of my career, but I'll try. The simple answer is one part being good at what you do (and remember, the definition of "good" is entirely subjective), and one part not being afraid of the word "No."

I can't tell you how many gigs, opportunities, radio plays, re-tweets etc I've had just by being persistent in the face of either being ignored or being told no outright. Hope this helps!

Hey there, love your music. I'm trying to write some music like that but with a bit of a Woodkid(Neoclassical) twist. Who are your inspirations?

Hey thanks! My inspirations are Glen Hansard & The frames, Metallica, Foo Fighters, Andy McKee... stuff like that

Can you introduce me to Charlotte Church? like the tunes btw

Haha just because I'm Welsh!

:D

If you could have a listen to this sometime and give an opinion I'd be very grateful :)

Good ol' Folk. I love it all :D

Where's the best place you gigged?

Two places that I can't (won't) decide between. The first was a gig in my home town, we have a festival every year and bands get to play to a crowd of maybe 3000 or so. Obviously being a local band our reaction was HUGE, so that'll stay in my memory forever.

The other is a place called the Stiwt, a theatre not far from where I live. A couple of years ago, Wales were playing in the Rugby, there was a screen set up, the place was packed out with about 400 Wales fans (I'm Welsh myself!) beer was flowing and live music had been booked, for after the game. Wales won, and I went on immediately after. I took a total chance and screamed "Oggy oggy oggy!" and got the most amazing response thereafter to the gig. Fond memories!

Hey, I'm currently in my final year of uni doing Law (in English and Scots law). For my dissertation I am covering contractual obligations in the music industry, focussing on exploitation and artists creation rights.

I was wondering if you guys have been signed by anyone yet? If you have, would there be any possibility of talking to you about your contract?

I realise this is a very sensitive question, so if there is any chance of it happening, please PM me. Thanks!

Nope were not signed to anyone I'm afraid. Here's to dreaming though & good luck with your work.

What is Nick Oliveri like? Is he a cool dude?

Totally sweet. The press has him all wrong. We exchanged CDs and talked for ages after I supported him live. He was in the crowd listening to me play which blew my mind!

What's your favorite dinosaur?

Now that's a good question! T REX because it's funny to imagine it struggling to do stuff with its little arms!

So all I want(ed) to do when I grow up (ever since I was 9, so 8 years ago) was play in a band and sing and maybe play guitar or bass to if i can learn to sing and play, and that is still all I wanna do. I'm horrible at playing music though. I can't sing, still can't play guitar (8 years of playing can barely get through easy Nirvana and Tool songs), and I don't want to do anything else. It doesn't make me happy.

I also got very depressed around the same time, and had the philosophy of if I don't make it i'll join my idols the only way I can, suicide. And at about 13 i decided to set my sights on the 27 club because I obviously wasn't any better in 4 years of practice.

Nothing else in life brings me joy besides music but i obviously can't play music, so should I stop prolonging it or should i just throw myself away into another spiral of drugs? I did a lot of psychedelics and perscription pills at around 14 and stopped last year at 16, but honestly might just go right back to them because those are the only way im happy now, not even jappy playing music because I'm not getting any better.

Ive talked to tons of professionals and they honestly have no idea what to do, I'm a lost cause to them, and honestly i dont see anything else left for me to do. The only other time i was gonna commit suicide i met my best friend, he came to me out of the blue at a mall one day because i looked lonely.

I could go on forever about my backstory and why i feel this way but it honestly isn't worth it. I need to hear an honest answer from the type of people i look up to the most, what should I do?

Play more! It's hard to do, especially as an adult, finding time but if it's your dream and passion, then you make the time. I try an play for at least 3 hours a day, which is nothing compared to my teenage years, but helps all the same.

If you're struggling with easy songs, find yourself one that's slightly more complicated and learn it at a slower speed, once you can play it slow, speed up; Learning to play an instrument is all about muscle memory and remembering the patterns, which comes with repetition.

Once you have those slightly harder songs or sections down, you'll find the easier stuff get's even easier.

I'm assuming you're in your mid 20's with a full time job, so try to borrow time from other activities. If like me you like to watch a couple hours of TV in the evening after dinner, bring an electric guitar with you and do chromatic runs over and over while watching your favourite show. You'll be increasing your pick/finger coordination, dexterity & endurance whilst zoning out on the sofa!

The other great tool to help your playing, is to get an acoustic guitar and learn songs on that. Acoustics are inherently harder to play, they tend to be less forgiving of bum notes, have a higher action, thicker strings etc. You'll find that when you nail something on an acoustic guitar, the electric becomes way easier.

And... finally, the biggy! Get your instruments to a luthier for a proper and professional setup. I don't care how many people have "friends" that claim they can do it, nothing beats the eye and ear of a trained luthier with years of experience. They don't charge much and it makes literally all the difference in the world.

Singing by the way, isn't really (most of the time) something that can be self taught or learned from YouTube videos, because you're dealing with physiology too. Go find yourself a singing teacher, they will help you develop technique & give you all kinds of cool exercises and warm ups that you can do while you're practicing guitar too.

What's the best way to learn to play the piano as a hobby?

Thanks :)

Practice practice and practice. 3 or 4 hours a day minimum. Commit, learn slowly, deliberately and don't be put off by how long it's going to take, and most importantly... enjoy it! :)

Could I get your opinion on my cousin's EP?? https://soundcloud.com/grantcowanmusic

I'll have a listen when I'm at home with my big speakers and I'll definitely let you know!

RemindMe! 6 hours "Let /u/blue_like_jazz know what you think!"

Well you are just the greatest! I sent him your Christmas tune and he loved it! Please keep making music!

Awesome, thank you!

Your cousin sounds great.

My cousin? You mean the other guys cousin?

Hey man, just thought I'd say I like it! There's a definite Scouting For Girls/Maroon 5 kinda feel to it, it's great! Your cousin is very talented.

As an independent musician, what avenues have you been using to publish and distribute your albums? Curious because I have just gone through the hassle of figuring out how to release my independent band's first album.

We settled on using CDBaby for publishing because they're basically a one stop shop for distribution to the major digital music stores and streaming services. We also purchased their sync licensing service. We'll see how that goes.

I was annoyed when I discovered the requirements necessary to publish directly to iTunes. I was initially hoping to not have to go through a third party service for that just because I wanted to maintain complete control over our submission.

Hey man, PM me some links to your stuff!

I ended up going down the route of finding a cheap CD pressing & printing company on eBay to do that side of things, then I setup the BandCamp pages & social media stuff, and used a company called TuneCore to distribute to iTunes/Amazon/Play etc. In terms of actual distribution, with our CD we approached shops in our local area and asked if they'd stock our CD's on a little stand like this that we made, about 15 did in the end. Not much but it's definitely something!

The logistics are always a nightmare, especially when you're doing it independently.

Interesting approach with the CDs. Any luck with those?

With the enormous rise of the digital format, I've been hesitant to put much effort into duplicating physical copies of the album, save for a potential run of vinyl. However, our manager has reminded me that CDs actually still do sell at gigs and that there are still people out there in the media who prefer a physical copy of the album in your press kit.

Links headed to your inbox in a few!

CD's selling at gigs is definitely a huge thing still, especially when you don't put too much of a price tag on them. The local retailers probably sell between 3 and 5 a week each, on average, so it's not too bad. It just about covers the cost of printing more CD's I guess!

Thanks for doing this AMA. Do you prefer acoustic guitar or electric guitar?

Good question! Definitely acoustic - it's my go-to instrument and I write all my songs on that first! Saying that, electric definitely has it's place which is why I use both live.

What is your favourite live concert memory?

Honestly? Motorhead at Donnington 2008. Lemmy came on, said "We are Motorhead and we play rock & roll" and that was about it... Overkill was epic and I got hit in the head with a bottle full of piss... ahh memories!

What other Sites do you use?

None really, Redditor through and through

What's your view on

            ?

Good question, I think