Beginner's Question About a Piano Book I have encountered?

[redwing2024]

  hey guys!!... Just when I started hearing the piano music, I totally fell in love with it... Right now, I'm trying to learn playing keyboard by myself (I don't know if I can...  But i don't really have a choice but to do it on my own...)

Just last weekend, I went to our library and search for a piano book, then, a little pocket book caught my eye... It's written by Scott H****** (don't want to mention the whole name ).. The book says, "Play a Piano in an instant" (Just reworded it )....

Now, the introduction says, Non-Classical Piano (w/c includes pop, jazz, and some others) is totally different on ways to be learned from Classical Piano... The book says, Classical Piano Learning can take you more than 4 years to learn and that Learning Non-Classical Piano in his way will only take months to a year...

And the book covered some kind of method on learning piano... Like for example the "Half-Step" method, wherein, You can totally memorize the CHords like Major, Minor, Seventh, Major Seventh, Minor Seventh, Augmented and Dis*** (i forgot the last word  )...

The book also teaches on how to skip with the note taking mastery (I mean, you can play a piano without reading a piano sheet)....


Whew!!... The book did not mention any of the piano theories  (And i also don't have an idea on the theories)...

I want to continue on my readings but i'm afraid if it could really help me or not...

HELP!!! 

[jlh]

I'm not familiar with this book or the DVD set.  I believe you substituted "instant" for "flash"..  Not sure why you would hide the title or the author...

Anyway, read Richard N. Rust's review of this on Amazon.  He is of the opinion that this is not for people who want to play piano on the world's stage, but it would be good for learning to play at home for your own entertainment.

https://www.amazon.com/Play-Piano-Flash-Full-Video/dp/B00009A8ZX

Best,
Josh

[Bob]

I've seen that.  It's more on the jazz side I think.  Learn a couple chords and start playing music right away.  Not a bad teaching idea there. 

Has the infomercial element.  Or motivation in that way.  And some BS if I'm remembering it right.  There's no way around hard work and it's not extremely easy or something you can just purchase.

Puts the control in the hands of the learner.  Learner assuming the role of the teacher too.  I imagine that would come to an end at some point.  The learner wouldn't know what to do next.

I thought it would be useful as a supplement.  Not sure I'd pay for it though.

[redwing2024]

I'm not familiar with this book or the DVD set.  I believe you substituted "instant" for "flash"..  Not sure why you would hide the title or the author...

Anyway, read Richard N. Rust's review of this on Amazon.  He is of the opinion that this is not for people who want to play piano on the world's stage, but it would be good for learning to play at home for your own entertainment.

https://www.amazon.com/Play-Piano-Flash-Full-Video/dp/B00009A8ZX

Best,
Josh

That's the author I was pointing out..   .... I've read one:

https://www.amazon.com/Play-Piano-Flash-Favorite-Whether/dp/1401307663/ref=pd_cp_d_1

--> If you had read it... May I ask if it is really useful?

--> Well, I just wanted to play the piano as an accompaniment for my favorite songs I wanted to sing... BUt somehow, I also wanted to play some classical pieces...

[quantum]

I think where this is selling students short is the presumption of a set timeline to "learn piano."  Are jazz and popular styles learnable in a shorter amount of time then classical? I would argue that such is confusing musical style with a good music foundation on which you may build on any style you wish to play.  Realize that people study jazz, popular music, and world music at the PhD / DMA levels. 

It would be a much more reasonable goal to say that you would be able to achieve playing music at a certain difficulty / level in a couple moths to a year's time.  It may be beginner classical pieces, or maybe some standard pop chord progressions, or maybe being able to pick out chords by reading a lead sheet. 

Treat music as a life long activity that you can continually enjoy learning from.  You don't have to go in the direction of a concert pianist to get pleasure out of music. 

[redwing2024]

I think where this is selling students short is the presumption of a set timeline to "learn piano."  Are jazz and popular styles learnable in a shorter amount of time then classical? I would argue that such is confusing musical style with a good music foundation on which you may build on any style you wish to play.  Realize that people study jazz, popular music, and world music at the PhD / DMA levels. 

It would be a much more reasonable goal to say that you would be able to achieve playing music at a certain difficulty / level in a couple moths to a year's time.  It may be beginner classical pieces, or maybe some standard pop chord progressions, or maybe being able to pick out chords by reading a lead sheet. 

Treat music as a life long activity that you can continually enjoy learning from.  You don't have to go in the direction of a concert pianist to get pleasure out of music. 

  ..

So, i would probably ask myself, if what I really want to achieve in playing/learning piano...


-> I'm really confused, where do i start? Or Have I really started?
-> I know some basics about reading notes in a sheet.
-> The book taught me some techniques in playing my fingers on the keyboard (The "Half-Step" Pattern  ). But it only covered M,m,7th,M7, m7, Aug, and Dis.



I know that Learning Music is a broad spectrum, even learning how to play the piano is a big and complicated thing to study.

All I ever wanted is to play the piano at the level that I could sing with it and feel it's music inside me... I want to enjoy its music...