Good adult beginner books

[unimaster]

Can someone give me a recommendation for a good set of adult beginner piano books? I'm far more interested in volumes that offer a decent range of playing material on a gradually increasing skill range, but skip as much music theory as possible. I've been studying theory for a long time; I'm already composing a wide range of pieces in different voices and modes, and have a pretty good handle on that end of things.

Trouble is, I can't yet play most of what I write. I need to continue to build my dexterity, not to mention my repertoire, and I really need to work on my sight reading skills. I'm an avid self-learner, so I'm looking for books that will present the music in solid, playable fashion (preferably with fingerings) that will focus more on the piano skills without wasting my time by having me piddle with a piece that'll teach me the difference between A major and A minor, y'know?

I'd also like to start working on easier classical pieces, not just contemporary stuff.

So . . . with that rather confining set of prerequisites in mind, can anyone offer any suggestions?

[pianoadvice]

So, weirdly - I think I know what you're looking for.  I found an series of e-books that kind of works backward and teaches chord progression first so that you can learn how to play by ear and then works on sight reading and that kind of stuff later.  It's definitely more focused on getting you to start playing versus learning a bunch of theory.  I think it would be worth taking a look at for you.  I hope this helps! Here's the link to the program Piano for All

[adodd81802]

Hi PianoAdvice,

You may be new, but this user has not been on for 3 years and the post is just as old.

I would also consider your comment to sound advertise-y and that certainly wont get you very far on here.

[ulven87]

So Piano For All has bots now? Sheesh. The course is alright, but best aimed at those mainly want to be rhythm players. For the price it is actually worth it. But, seeing as this is not run by a big recognisable company, but one person, all the various internet tricks of marketing are likely being used so enough money can be makre from it to make an ok living.

I have the course. Not used it much yet since I am new to piano, but I know music and have studied at college level in guitar and bass guitar and have seen the decent materal on blues, jazz, comping, adding in melody and so on. For the amount of different stuff you learn and get to play, the asking price is actually very reasonable indeed and the content is decent and legit.

But selling one product on your own in a crowded market isn't easy. People don't just turn up at your site, you have to aggressively advertise in any way possible to get your site higher in the search engine.

I'd say this course is not at all for the poster of this thread though. It is a genuinely decent course but more for the general keyboard learner or person wanting to play with others, know their chords and inversions and have everything build quite logically from what I have read of the materials which I will make use of. But for someone mainly wanting classical, no.

[plink]

I use Piano for All in addition to book courses (Alfred's, Humphries).  I think that he is really good on chords and rhythm and is very useful for beginners. He gives a good overview of chords and keys, and lots of exercises for playing chords. The rhythm training is good too--it really helps to ingrain various rhythms. I think Robin is terrific--very clear, succinct, and well organized. It is not a complete piano course, but it really helps fill out the book courses and gives an understanding of how a lot of pieces are constructed. I think that it is a great introduction to piano playing--though coming in from a direction different from the traditional approach to teaching.

[ulven87]

Sounds about right. Certainly good extra material to have and it is very reasonable. It may have the odour of dodgy advertising  about it with the presentation at times, but the package certainly doesn't stink by any means. Plenty of useful info and from what I had gone through it has been presented well, and I can see it being very accessible for anyone who finds piano and music theory scary or like a dark art they couldn't possibly do, but this will certainly get people started well enough.

For those who find some of the method books a bit heavy, this is pretty much an ideal start and it breaks thngs down simply and clearly. Then the method books will be much more useful.

Otherwise, if you find the likes of the Albert series very approachable, this is decent extra material for certain styles and for extra padding as plink put it. Definitely recommend it, but for getting into melodic playing, not the ideal start perhaps, but worthy material in its own right and perhaps exactly what some people need if they find their current method book hard to get into. Assuming it is generally considered a good one of course.