Self-Teaching

[bassmanjoe]

im currently trying to self-teach myself the piano, and im doing allright with triads and different patterns and such but i feel i can only make up so much im not expecting to become amazing in it, just proficient. i play the acoustic and electric bass as well with lessons, so additional piano lessons would be too much $. im curious what songs/workbooks are good for a person attempting to teach themselves? thanks in advance for replies.

[allthumbs]

Greetings

Well, first of all welcome to Piano Street.

Before anyone can give you any suggestions, how long have you been playing the piano?

What king of pieces are you currently playing and like?

Are you learning any kind of theory with the lessons you are taking at present?

Cheers

allthumbs

[leahcim]

I'd say the forum is a good start.

Read through some of the old posts, you'll soon see which.

At which point you'll decide to get a teacher - I'll put money on it

[bassmanjoe]

thanks for the welcome ... as for what im playing, really basic stuff since im still trying to learn treble clef, but its progressing gradually (ive been doing bass clef all my life... i can only wonder why ) i feel the biggest problem i have is my uncoordination of my hands for one to do something, and the other to do another thing thats different. also, my ring fingers are possessed and lazy, which either never move (cant lift it up with the others down) or as when im trying to just play in general (scales), they smack down quickly getting a louder noise from the keys. i can pretty much play the keys without looking down much though. i'd say my only real accomplishment so far was listening to and figuring out the 30 second keyboard solo in led zeppelin's "all my love"

i have been taking theory with my private teacher, but i just started a few months ago so i'm still in the basics of it all... but im planning/hoping on learning at a faster pace soon. i know about triads, inversions and such so ive been experimenting with that, and ive been working on scales and stuff also.

so thats pretty much it that i can think of for now. if you need to know anything else just say. thanks again

[mound]

Are you also new at the bass?

I too play bass. I was a bass player for a good 10 years prior to beginning the piano. In the last few years I'd call myself more a classical pianist than a bass player, though I'm going to be changing my focus to jazz piano as that is where my real goals lie.

Anyway - I would suggest that if the money dictates only one type of lessons, you switch to piano lessons, for the time being. It's important that you get the physical technique working properly in the beginning so that you don't develop bad habits. Assuming you're already fairly versed in playing the bass, those lessons could be put off for the time being.

You'll get alot more out of piano lessons at this stage of the game than you will bass lessons.

Then again, that's making assumptions about the roll being a bass player plays in your life right now.

good luck!
-Paul

[abell88]

Bassmanjoe, what are your goals in learning piano? What kind of music do you want to play, how well do you want to play it, and how much time/effort can you give it?

[stormx]

I understand economic limitations, but i beleive that having a teacher is a MUST, at least at the first stages (i am a beginner myself).

There are plenty of things (besides pressing the right key at the right time), where you can go wrong. And bad habits are difficult to correct, once etablished, so you should avoid them from the very beginning.

If you cannot afford weekly lessons, i suggest you to have at least a couple of lessons where posture, hand position, hand movements, etc, can be checked.

Hope this helps.