Where to start?

[PianoManWannaBe]

I bought Yamaha P120 Digital Piano today. I bought this piano for my son. He started playing piano at the age of 4 and he has been learning how to play piano for about 3 years now.

I had bought him a $99 keyboard. His hands were not strong enought to play some real-piano-touch keyboard and they were quite expensive at that time. Nowadays, the digital pianos are amazing at quite reasonable price. As my son is quite used to playing keyboard, I decided to buy him real-touch one.

I'm quite impressed with the sound and its quality. I'm very happy for my son.

Now that we have a real nice piano at home, it makes me want to learn how to play piano too, but I'm not sure where I should start. I know some music, and pretty much know how to read notes as I used to be in a marching band. I also play some guitar.

Where would you guys recommend me to start? Is there any good website or any book that you would recommend for beginners?

[Shagdac]

Congratulations on your new instrument and wanting to play the piano. Although there are many many good books, and videos and even websites dedicated to one learning how to play the piano, personally I don't think anything can replace having a teacher. Even if you aren't that serious and just want to play for personal enjoyment, it is so easy to develop bad habits (once developed, they are so hard to break) and by having an actual instructor to guide you, it makes it so much easier. Also, you will most likely have questions which they can answer. With your background you may not require that much instruction to be able to play at the level you wish to play, but I think I would save my $$$ on the books, tapes, etc and invest in some lessons. You can discuss your goals with the instructor, letting them know your background, and should be able to find someone who can not only work with you, but may even be able to give you an idea of how long your looking at....of course we all learn at a different rate. You may take for a month or so and feel like you have gained the knowledge necessary for you to practice on your own and take it from there.

Again, thats fantastic that you want to start playing, but I cannot stress how invaluable having an actual "teacher" can be, especially in the beginning.

Best of Luck to you, let us know how you are doing!

S

[faulty_damper]

BUT!  If you are a genius of the highly analytic kind - very very rare - you'll be able to teach yourself how to play at the level of the virtuosos.  You'll make so many mistakes that don't seem like mistakes to begin with over the years but you'll analyze every correction to arrive at the "final" technique that seems to work the best for certain things.  But this requires critical analyzation at every step and lots and lots of expiramenting - most people, almost all, will never do so much expiramenting on anything and will settle with just being adequate.

---***?

So having a teacher is a very good tool for your goals as he will have the collective knowledge of three centuries worth of keyboard playing.

This is not to say you need one, though.  There is this one pianist who has composed pieces for popular movies and other things and has never taken one lesson.  She can play jazz and classical on the piano and can improvise like crazy.  Her technique is horrible, though, and she will never play classical music in any aurally pleasing manner but she can improvise like crazy.  I have her video on how to play the piano.  No notes to read and her style of teaching seems to work!  You'll be able to improvise something on your own almost immediately after a day or so of practicing what she tells you to do.  What's great about her style is that you will learn the notes on the keyboard, as in you'll know the sound of the keys on the board after consistent practice.

Mind you, her playing sucks but this is my highly critical opinion comparing her to the virtuosos of our time.  One of the reason she sucks?  She improvises everything.  Is this a good thing that she sucks?  I'm comparing apples to oranges here.  She can definitely play and she knows the piano keys much more than I know them and can pull a jazzy improv out of her... fingers... or a classical run.

In fact, you'll be able to improvise classical music and jazz if you follow her method! She provides the basics of music structure (harmonic chord progressions, mainly) and does not focus on technique at all.  If you have the fingers, you can play.  I should have continued practicing her methodoly 3 years ago because I know I would be able to pull a complete sonata out of my butt today.  I made significant gains in just the first hour of following her method.  I was actualy improvising!  I gotta pull that video out of the book case and watch it again.

She has curly dark brown hair and was wearing a blue blouse sitting at the piano in the cover of teh video cassette.

...

[faulty_damper]

I'm wrong.  She isn't wearing a blue blouse on the cover but on the back cover of the video cassette.

It's Play the Piano Overnight, Xebec Productions, Inc., 1987. Patty Carlson "shows you how".

This video won the best musical instructional video by the America Film Institute.

It works!  Forget the teacher.  For your goals, it's a much better tool.  The key, like many of us classical pianists, is consistent practice.  Actually, if you follow her method, you'll end up sitting at the piano for hours at a time because the music that you create doesn't stop, as in it can go on and on.  You decide when to stop, not a famous dead composer like Bach or Beethoven.  It's virtually frustration free, the main reason why most students who take up piano, quit.

[Shagdac]

Faulty...I would be interested in knowing the pianists name and title of the video if you have it. Also, I do agree with what you wrote as well. In fact, this woman I heard playing at a church I thought played fabulously...after attending for awhile, I got to know her and she had never had a single lesson in her life! She could read the top line of any written piece and along with chording, runs, trills, you name it go from one end of the keyboard to the other. I could not believe how she played...that she had NEVER had a lesson, yet at that time was probably the best I had EVER heard or seen play in person.  She wanted to play like me, so she could play classical music, and I just wanted to be able to play like her. She could take "Mary had a little Lamb" and make it so jazzy, you wouldn't believe it. She was so talented. She finally agreed to "teach" me her style or at least how she played, and after several months and over a year of practicing I finally got to where I could improvise, jazz things up and pretty much play anything pretty neat by using just the top line and going all over the keyboard. She also taught me how to follow someone who is singing in any key with no music which I can finally do (almost all the time, haha). But it IS truly amazing. I mean it took me over a year or so of practice to be able to play like someone who had never had a lesson! Ironic isn't it.

And...this is not the norm. There are SOME who can teach themselves, and yes learn without the help of a teacher, but for most of us (unfortunately I'm one of them), we need the help and guidence of someone who knows what their doing!

s

[faulty_damper]

Faulty...I would be interested in knowing the pianists name and title of the video if you have it.

I guess I made my supplemental reply and submitted it while you were still typing up your reply.

One word of advice.  Type faster.

Scroll uppy so I don't have to repeat myself because that would be redundant for me to repeat myself.

[Shagdac]

Thanks Faulty...will type faster...(but I am at work, and get interrupted frequently)! LOL

Appreciate the info, am interested in seeing the video.

S

[Hmoll]

If you decide to get a teacher - which I would recommend - find one who is experienced at teaching beginner to intermediate adults.

[Bob]

PianoManWannaBe,

What are your goals?  I've had a few adult students so I'm curious.


Make sure you have some time to set aside for regular practicing.  It can be a waste of money if you take lessons but don't have time to practice.   Some students take lessons every other week instead of the traditional weekly lesson.

[donjuan]

Hi pianomanwannabe,
I think your guitar and music reading history will help you learn the piano quite easily and quickly.  I started playing guitar only last year.  Ive been playing Piano for countless years before, and what I found is, you will learn chords and theory easier on the guitar than Piano.  now I apply new knowledge of the guitar to my piano.
donjuan

[PianoManWannaBe]

Thank you everyone for replying to my question.

My initial goal is to be able to play Canon in D just because I like the piece. I want to be able to play by ear eventually, but I'm sure it's a long way down the road.

I would like to know if there are some commonly used pieces for finger practices. I would like to spend some time everyday to do basic finger excercise.

Another question is whether there is software out there to create sheet music. I did some research and downloaded some programs, but didn't find anything I liked.

On the side note, I've been practicing piano quite intensively for the last three days. I guess I spent like a few hours per day. I don't think I will be able to spend this much for a long time, but I intend to practice at least 30 mins or so.

Again, thank you everyone for your advice. I will check this forum from time to time.

[faulty_damper]

I remember Canon in D by yours truly.  Not me truly, but Pachelbel.

I bought the sheet music digitally online at that music site.  Anyway, I never bothered to learn the entire piece, just the first few pages.

But one of the important technical ability that you would need to play it well is the ability to play argegios - broken chords.  That's basically the melody as well as the bass section - left hand part.  The piece itself is good practice for arpegios for the left hand.

[PianoManWannaBe]

Yes, left hand is the hardest part and I spend a lot of time getting my hand used to the broken chords. It's actually good for me because I get to learn how to move my left hand from key to key thinking about the sequences of fingers. I'm loving it!

[donjuan]

Dont rush..these things develop over years.  Many hours of practice over the last three days will only make you tired physically and emotionally.  However, I think it is great you are motivated to learn.  Many parents make the mistake of forcing their kids to take piano lessons, even though the kids themselves aren't too keen.  It sounds like you are on the right track. keep it up!!
best wishes,
donjuan

[faulty_damper]

I have the Shultz transcription of the piece.  The left hand arpegios require an octave skip to play the arpegio.  I don't know what your version says but all the arpegios are just chords.  If you just practice playing the chords in succession, you'll be able to see the progression.

The first chord is D, then A, B, F#, G, 8vb D, then G, and finally A, then repeat the chord succession.  Once you are able to play the chord succesion, then you can break the chords up.  It may be easier this way for you.

[PianoManWannaBe]

I gotta tell you guys that I'm already 31 years old and started piano. I don't expect myself to be a pianist, but I just want to enjoy music. This forum really gives me directions.

Thanks all!