New to Forums and Piano

[carlhackman]

Hi,

I am an adult beginner(actually a bit of a fossil LOL) and my digital piano arrives this week. It is nothing special but has 88 keys and I hope it will be what I need to start my piano journey. It fits my small budget and I am looking forward to getting my hands on it. I am a British expat living in a 3rd world country so have no access to piano teachers.  I play guitar and have some sight reading and music theory experience.

As an absolute beginner at piano I would be very grateful to hear suggestions of how to get the most out of practice time.  I can dedicate 2 - 3 hrs per day to practice (retired ex-navy).

I look forward to being an active member and hope to learn a lot form the experience of pianists here

[thalbergmad]

If you are ex Navy sir, then you already have the discipline required.

Welcome.

Luv

Thal

[ahinton]

If you are ex Navy sir, then you already have the discipline required.

No discouragement intended, but for what, exactly?

Best,

Alistair

[chopinlover01]

One tip, posted many moons ago by a wise forum poster named Bernard, is the 7/20 rule.
Essentially, for any difficult passage, you should practice it (slowly) in 20 minute sessions, with breaks in between. If you aren't making significant improvement on the passage after 7 dedicated 20 minute practice sessions, you're playing too large of a passage and need to reduce the amount of material you're practicing.
If you can, order a method series. It'll give you good technical basis from which to start on grade 1 pieces.

[carlhackman]

Thank you, I'll definitely use the 7/20 method you mentioned. 

I know scales from my guitar playing and will be practicing those to gain knowledge of the note locations on the keyboard. Also chord theory, intervals etc.

I'm really looking forward to transferring that to the piano. I have access to reading material for specific techniques to help me get my fingers moving smoothly and I know that piano will bring my music reading on in leaps and bounds. I don't expect rapid results and know it will take practice to feel comfortable with using my hands differently than on a guitar.

As a beginner, should I concentrate on 'Hands Separate' initially or should I be trying to get both hands working together right from the start?

[michael_c]

As a beginner, should I concentrate on 'Hands Separate' initially or should I be trying to get both hands working together right from the start?

You should get the hands working together from the start, but also practice often with separate hands. There was an old school of thought that recommended learning each hand perfectly before putting them together, but it has been demonstrated that this is inefficient. Here's an article about hands together/separately: https://trainingthemusicalbrain.blogspot.de/2012/03/hands-together.html

What sort of music are you aiming to play? Do you have a method book (or online course) with appropriately graded pieces?

[carlhackman]

I am looking play both classical and contemporary.  I like film themes and gaming themes as well as classical pieces (which my knowledge of is very limited).  I know these will be way beyond my capabilities for a while but my goal is to be able to play Skyrim theme, Misty Mountains Cold as well as some classical repertoire down the line.  I do recognize that my age is against me being proficient at very challenging pieces (Chang says so LOL) but I do love melodic piano pieces.

I have a copy of Alfred's Adult book Vol 1 to begin with, plus some sheet music with exercises and beginner pieces I've found on the internet.

I love playing guitar so piano is going to be a very exciting journey for me.

[somberg]

You should get the hands working together from the start, but also practice often with separate hands. There was an old school of thought that recommended learning each hand perfectly before putting them together, but it has been demonstrated that this is inefficient. Here's an article about hands together/separately: https://trainingthemusicalbrain.blogspot.de/2012/03/hands-together.html

Thanks for that information.  This is a question that has interested me as well.  I do some of both (separate/together), but what seems to happen to me is that I can learn the left-hand part well and the right-hand part well, but when I try to put them together it seems that little of that learning transfers and it subjectively seems like I am not learning a (harder) third part that contains both hands.  That's pretty discouraging and has left me with an emphasis on two-hand practice.  Maybe I am doing something wrong.