So I'm taking a seminar course on skill acquisition (I'll be documenting my learning & progress) and I've chosen to learn to play the keyboard. Having no previous musical experience, I'm looking to TWW for any kind of advice. Books? DVDs? Private lessons? I don't necessarily need to become an expert by any means, but need to progress somewhat. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it! Thanks in advance.

1/25/2010 5:57:11 PM

If you have no music experience teaching yourself to play the piano will be hard. Most people view playing the piano as a basic way to learn how to read music and understand a lot of musical concepts.

I would say that you should for sure start off with lessons. If you pick it up quickly I'm sure you could branch off on your own. But just so you know, it's a lot harder to learn a new instrument as an adult than as a child, especially when you have no musical background.

Do not get frustrated with yourself fast, because it will be frustrating at first to learn how to play the piano. Also, don't try to skip ahead and try to get to the harder stuff too soon. Yeah it will be cool that you can play tunes that people have heard and you won't feel dorking playing a song with both thumbs on middle C but you must must must learn the basics of reading music and how to play before you will be able to play the cool music.

1/25/2010 6:29:05 PM

Watch that cat video a bunch

1/25/2010 6:46:52 PM

I would suggest learning some theory before you even lay a hand on the keyboard. It makes learning chord structure and hand placement much easier from the beginning.

1/25/2010 7:26:03 PM

Yeah the biggest thing is to learn how to read music. Once you do that it's then moving onto the knowing which notes are what on the piano and then it's practicing the technique in playing it.

It's been a while since I've actually played the piano, but since I can read music and I know which notes are which it wouldn't take me that long to get back into it and play well again.

I can still sight read music and play memorized songs. I think learning to play the piano is something that can really help you out in a lot of things.

1/26/2010 5:47:22 PM

Quote :

"I would suggest learning some theory before you even lay a hand on the keyboard. It makes learning chord structure and hand placement much easier from the beginning."

Good advice from sawahash, also. LEARN THE FUNDAMENTALS! Practice them until you don't think you need to practice them any longer, then practice them for several more hours.

Seriously. Fundamentals and theory. They aren't the most exciting or fun things to play/practice, but you're cheating yourself if you half ass it.

1/26/2010 6:08:07 PM

Thanks to all for the advice so far!

1/26/2010 6:49:59 PM

Quote :

""I would suggest learning some theory before you even lay a hand on the keyboard. It makes learning chord structure and hand placement much easier from the beginning.""

i respectfully disagree. while theory and fundamentals are certainly key, so is hearing the notes/chords relative to each other. you can read about minor scale or I-IV-V progression until you are blue in the face, but won't have a clue what it means until you've actually heard it.

learning theory without application is much like the junior year of engineering school.

1/26/2010 8:30:10 PM

Quote :

"while theory and fundamentals are certainly key,"

I see what you did there

1/26/2010 8:42:48 PM

I know this doesn't apply for you, but for any undergraduates at NC State, take MUS101 / MUS102 if interested in learning fundamentals of keyboard + reading sheet music.

1/26/2010 9:55:31 PM

*Go to http://ultimate-guitar.com
*Pick out a song you like.
*Go to http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/piano/

*Learn the chords. Generally speaking, if it's a C major chord(which would be written as: "C"), you'll put your right thumb on C, middle finger on E, and pinky on G. If it's a minor(written as: "Cm") chord, move your middle finger down one key to Eb. Duplicate this with your left hand. If that's too complicated, just play a C note with your left hand.

*Play the piano. Start by simply pressing the chord and singing along. Then you can add some rhythm...press the same chord four times, then the next chord. Then add more complicated rhythms, just keep the sound going. The sustain pedal is your friend, lift it briefly every time you change chords.

*When you get better, hold the chord with your left hand and start playing melody with your right hand. Melody can simply be you playing any note in the key the song is in. For the key of C or Am, this would be all of the white notes. So press any white note, in any order. Tada.

Here are simple chords to start with: Am, G, F, Dm, C None of these require black notes, and you can play thousands of songs with them.

By all means learn theory and how to read music, but this is how to have fun with it. If you're not having fun and constantly applying what you learn, you'll never stick with it.

[Edited on January 26, 2010 at 11:20 PM. Reason : .]

1/26/2010 11:08:25 PM