it's a piano thing https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8507501/steinway-sons-future-pianos-spirio-recording-playing
if you've come this far, come one more step and read about the challenges for online music education https://sntimes.wordpress.com/2019/04/17/the-challenges-to-online-music-education/
A player piano is a player piano. Yawn. No, YouTube is NOT the best/fastest/sexiest/whateverist way to learn to play an instrument. Cheapest, I'll give you but you get what you pay for. The best way to learn an instrument is still regular, frequent one-on-one lessons with a qualified teacher with whom the student is able to work well. I cannot COUNT the number of corrections, tips, suggestions, encouragements, nudges, demands, and even warnings I get from my piano teacher. There is absolutely zero possibility of receiving that sort of training through a series of videos. Nope. No chance. Worse, if you go that route, you may well have to UNlearn many bad habits you picked up in your YouTube journey. Better to learn it right the FIRST time. Returning to the player piano business, though...forty-odd years ago I worked in a record store (remember those?) and we sold a very popular album of Scott Joplin playing with a suitable ensemble. The recordings were quite new but Joplin had been dead for years. Seems as though someone found a collection of (for want of a better word) piano rolls Joplin had cut himself. These weren't the usual saloon style rinkity tink rolls, they did allow for some levels of expression. So the producers found a piano that could play these unusual rolls and the ensemble played with "Joplin" in the room. I remember the cover; it showed a group of musicians playing next to an upright with a dotted line drawing of Joplin playing away. The album was a lot of fun.
A lot of people don't care about what's best. They just want to play for fun. If they wanted to become professionals, then they would pay for professional training. But, this mostly applies to classical and jazz musicians or people looking to become studio musicians of various genres. A lot of producers and music artists of non-classical genres are self-taught. One of the reasons why early hip hop producers depended on sampling was because they grew up not being able to afford lessons and instruments. I was receiving free lessons in school, but I had to stop because my family couldn't afford all the equipment. YouTube did not exist when I was a child; if it had, I would have used it.
True, both. I'm thankful for Youtube. Excellent instruction out there. Where else can I see real experts in Blind Lemon Jefferson's extraordinary technique - or get up-close instruction from luminaries like the late Charlie Byrd (jazz guitar) or famous Gypsy jazz-player Stochelo Rosenberg? As far as bad habits go - when I see a real talent, I call them idiosyncrasies. I'm fault-tolerant. If I were a music teacher, I wouldn't have dared tell blues great T-Bone Walker that he was holding his guitar wrong. What works, works.
I think it pays to be careful about criticizing talented self-taught players. In a recording session in the 50's, famous blues guitarist/singer Lightnin' Hopkins heard the professional bassist and drummer complaining that he (Lightnin') was all over the map in the timing of his chord changes - not the expected regular 12-bar pattern. His reply: "Lightnin' change when Lightnin' want to change." I like that. I guess you told 'em, Lightnin'!
Another self-taught success: When B.B. King came to Memphis, he looked up his cousin, Bukka White (Booker T. Washington White), a seasoned performer. He indeed picked up some tips, but went on to be an international success with a much-different style of playing than Bukka. For starters, B.B. crafted himself the most developed vibrato technique around, because he was unable to get the sound he wanted from his cousin's bottleneck technique. Bukka's remark on those days teaching B.B.: "His timing was apeshit." Maybe so, Bukka, but he sure made it work for him. Anyway, both of you were the greatest! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukka_White
Couple more self-taught musician stories, closer to home. (1) My eldest grandson is a pretty darn good rock guitarist - his chosen genre. He can't read music (as was the case with many of my heroes - particularly the blind ones) but he reads guitar tab just fine. He plays with the kind of feeling that can't be bought or copied. He's 19 now and has a Les Paul that I bought him for his 18th birthday. His teachers? Primarily Rocksmith and Youtube. (2) This story from a friend who works in a music store - also a great jazz keyboard guy. A well-known local guitarist brought his 13-year old son into the store, to get his first good guitar. The kid was playing some really good licks and my friend asked if his Dad had taught him those? The boy replied "Not really - not much of it, anyway. Most of what I know so far I got from YouTube." I'm glad to see such a constructive use for YouTube. Will there ever be one for Facebook?
I remember watching a behind-the-scenes video of a hip hop producer/rapper who is self-taught on keyboard. He was co-producing a song with a trained musician. He said that the rapper's basslines and tuned 808s didn't always follow music theory, but if it sounds good, it sounds good. This rapper/producer has sold millions of records. Some things aren't as obvious to laymen. A lot of producers have complained about songs on the radio having 808 kick drums out of key, but the average listener doesn't notice these things.
