How to approach learning the Piano with the intent to compose?

[projectstormfury]

I know plenty about music theory and I've been told that I should develop my talents for composing, rather than signing, which is my original musical background. However, just because I have interesting musical ideas in my head doesn't mean I have a way to accurately translate the ideas to a playable piece of work and toy around with them.

My end goal is to be both a good pianist and a composer. While I do not really consider memorizing a large repertoire important, I do wish to develop superior technical dexterity (of which I currently have none), sight-reading skills, along with composing ability.

One more thing, I view music as a hobby rather than a profession. I have a bit of time in the day to develop it, and that's it. Won't be going to any schools, but I do seek on advice approach to dividing my time to pursue my interests.

...Also, how do I go about finding a good piano teacher?

[teran]

I think the recommendation of learning piano to help you compose lies in the fact that you can very easily visualise harmonies after playing piano for a while.

It's a very useful compositional aid in that you can navigate harmonies and get a good sense of what they sound like before translating the basic idea into a work with different instruments.

As for finding a good teacher, well I don't know really since my parents found my teacher a long time ago, I would say since you seem to have some connections in the music world, you just ask them if they know of any good piano teachers. It's usually the quickest way of finding them. =p

[nj61]

I would find a teacher who was happy teaching jazz and modern styles as well as classical, as if you are taught very classically/technically it can make improvisation scary..well I found that anyway and have heard others say the same.  But I agree with previous poster that the piano is the best for this altho guitar can also give a good sense of keys, harmony, how they work together and so on if you learn theory at the same time rather than just copying chords/songs.