Guitar through Piano

[hellomello]

Hey everybody. I've been playing guitar for about 3+ years, but I learned through guitar tabs or just by ear. Strumming, chords, etc. just grew on me like a habit. Now I want to take it to the next level because I can't seem to improve anymore. So I was wondering if I learn to play piano with great interest, and learn all the required music theory, would that improve my skills with the guitar? I wanna play some good Jazz music with guitar as well as piano. Are there any books that can be recommended? How can I start?

[rc]

Hi, I came to piano after playing guitar for about 14 years.  My reason was that piano could be a self-reliant instrument in making music whereas guitar sounded best in a group, and I was sick to death of having to rely on other (unreliable) people, in case you're curious.

Music theory will definitely help your guitar playing, it will give it direction.  It's very easy to tell someone who doesn't know their theory, their improv is more or less random.  One guy I met seemed to be just be wiggling his fingers and strumming as fast as possible.  I didn't have the heart to tell him it sounded like crap.  You probably know about wankery...  It's just a case of musical maturity, the next level.  It would be better if people started out like this, but the guitar community is saturated with immaturity.

I'd like to mention that theory isn't absolutely necessary, but it's a big step in the right direction - making your notes mean something.

...and piano is a great way to learn theory!  The linear organization of the notes is easier to illustrate the concepts than on a guitar where you can play the same note in 5 different spots.  Besides being a great intrument in itself, if you start learning piano you may be surprised how absorbed you can get into it!

You're probably not interested in learning to play 'mary had a little lamb' and hundreds of little diddies, though starting from such basics is useful in learning to read notation, so it could be a good idea to pick up one of these because they explain note values, and where the pitches correlate to the keys.  They're usually graded, any will do - go find something that looks like "grade 1 adult beginner piano method".

You'll probably outgrow that quickly, so while you're at the store look for a theory book with a similar title to work through.  Consider paying a teacher to check your work (and your playing!), not to mention the guidance/direction a jazz teacher could give as well.  It may all be greek to you, but stick with it and before too long it'll become second nature, and the effect on your playing will be substantial.  Take the theoretical ideas and experiment with them in practice, people will notice your playing means more, sounds better, has a wider range of expression.

If you're interested in classical I could give you a few book recommendations and a bunch of websites.  Oscar Petersons advice was that classical music made a strong foundation for playing jazz.

[notturno]

I recently switched from from guitar to piano, though I occasionally still play the guitar.  When I played the guitar I found that it was difficult to simultaneously pay close attention to what I was doing and what the other guitarists were doing.  I took up piano so I could force my brain to be responsible for multiple melodic lines.  I found that the most difficult thing about going from guitar to piano is the independence of the left and right hands.  I'm using Bach's Inventions to train my brain and I highly recommend the Inventions for this purpose, among others.

[aaron_ginn]

I've played guitar practically my whole life.  Started playing piano last year and now I hardly ever pick up the guitar.  Personally, I'm finding piano easier to play than the guitar.  The fretboard is much harder to learn than the keyboard (multiple places you can play middle C for instance).  Also, the guitar (at least the acoustic guitar) is just a damned hard instrument to play well.  After nine months on piano, I'm already almost as good a piano player as I am a guitar player.

[rc]

I've gone further into piano than I was with guitar...  But I do miss touching the strings; bends, vibrato.

[hellomello]

Thanks for all the information! Really? Piano is better then guitar? haha. DANG, I'm excited to start playing piano! I've searched online and I found this book: "Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One". I read the reviews for it on Amazon.com and people generally found the book helpful. Are there any other recommendations that are perhaps better then the one i found?

[aaron_ginn]

Try Chang's online book.  It's dense and somewhat technical, but it contains a wealth of information.

https://members.aol.com/chang8828/contents.htm