Best beginners source?

AcidVenus

I've almost decided on my piano (thanks for everyone's input on that). After a Google search for some beginner tips, it seems to be full of everyone trying to sell a course or unnecessary lengthy paragraphs of life stories.

I'm never gone play professionally or publicly I just want to avoid some mistakes I made with the guitar. With the guitar a learned how to read a tab, then bought a guitar and just learned songs from there. As much as I enjoy playing my favourite songs, I was hindered when wanting to play something more complex due to selftaught techniques that are hard to change.

When I briefly had a piano before I was doing the same thing. I discovered HDPiano and within a week was playing some songs with both hands.

But I would like to avoid the same mistakes as guitar but also don't want an over conplex or boring tutorial. Is there a basic step by step guide for maybe best ways to change notes and chords. Just so I have a basic foundation of habits before I run off into trying to play songs i like.

I know a lot of you will say i should really learn theory, read music etc but I cant see me reading lots of books or Web pages, I'm more of a practical hands on learner.

Thanks for reading 🙂

Del Vento

Everyone will tell you something different. Getting to the piano as an adult is very hard and very different for different players.

Most people will tell you that having a teacher is best, which is true but only if the teacher is very good. COVID made that part easier (because now you can hire someone on the other side of the globe) and harder (because there's no thing like being in front of the same instrument).

In my opinion something is wrong in the way that piano is taught, causing even worse problems than the guitar. I don't know what the "right" solution is, but Phil Best claims he does, and has made an inexpensive (and admittedly very strange and very different) course around it. The course is available at https://playpianofluently.com/

I am exploring this thing (even done about 1/4 of it) and I am enjoying it very much and finding it effective and much easier than other approaches. Just FYI, I tried dozens and dozens of other things. Will it be good for you? I don't know. Will you enjoy it? Only if you are ready to "dump" everything you may expect out of a music class, such as exercises and learning music you have heard somewhere and thing you can play it. In a sense, this class is like you going to a running coach and saying "I want to run a marathon, can you teach me?" -- and he will respond: yes, but you have to become a pre-toddler again, start from crawling and relearn to walk. If you are ok with this attitude, the PPF course is a good fit, if not, don't even try.

Happy Easter to you and to all pianoclack addicts like me who cannot spare checking the site even on the very Holy Easter Sunday!!!

AcidVenus

Del Vento It's you to the rescue once again haha.

Had a look on the link you provided. Once I have my piano I'll watch the free stuff to see if it suits me.

It doesn't seem expensive either, and the fact that you pay by section is appealing rather than a bigger lump sum. It spreads the cost and if you drop out half way it hasn't cost you all the money.

I think some basic theory will help as well. When playing the guitar I got the impression the root note of a chord was 1) the name of the chord and 2) the lowest pitched note. It wasn't until I had the piano last time I learned this wasn't the case. Transferring songs I knew on guitar into piano chords didn't feel right. I bought a chords and scales poster and was surprised at the number of ways to play a chord, and saw what I believed to be true from guitar (mentioned above) was in fact wrong.

I feel I'm babbling now so will end here, but thanks for all your help so far.

Happy Easter to you too.

Drew-r

AcidVenus I think some basic theory will help as well.

While i agree some basic theory will be helpful, i add that it will be very helpful to be introduced to theory in a way that does not dump you into this potential wilderness to wander and wonder alone, that is somewhat typical of how teachers teach music theory. Learning some of the foundations of music theory is welded to learning some of the foundations of ancient history …. and from one new student to the next, may not be easy to grasp right away given the weight of what you are trying to take in, digest and, it is hoped, comprehend ….. like, what’s so important about understanding Do Re Me Fa So La Te Do for a beginner pianist ? ( loaded question 😀)

Del Vento

AcidVenus Del Vento It's you to the rescue once again haha.

And that is because I'm on a pause from using this site because I'm switching job 🤣

AcidVenus I think some basic theory will help as well.

I agree. Unfortunately, most of that theory is too "slow" (in that it requires slow thinking) to be useful when playing. Phil Best in that class does teach a weirdly adjusted, stripped-down version of theory, in a way that it should become "second nature" and useful while playing. I'm right at that point in my exploration of his class, and it feels pretty intriguing. I am not sure it works well yet, since I've not completed that section, but I wanted to mention that the course includes such things, and especially one explaining in practice exactly the issue you described with chords and inversions (Phil uses a different nomenclature he made up, because he slightly changed the definitions and wanted to avoid confusion).

Theophilus Carter

Hey, AV!

Sorry if I missed it, but is there a particular style of piano you are interested in? Classical? Rock / pop stuff? Else?

AcidVenus

Theophilus Carter I'm going to treat it like my guitar. I preferred playing punk/metal/indie. But also ventured into playing other stuff just because it was different or required more skill.

Piano will be the same, will target rock/pop type stuff. But I won't rule out anything once my skill gets there. We all love to play the songs and styles we like but it's also a good feeling taking on something just because of skill it provides.

HZPiano

Del Vento And that is because I'm on a pause from using this site because I'm switching job 🤣

Pauses are usually the times when I hop on and off the Clack 😁 😉 so that totally makes sense.

Cheers and a happy break,

MHirsch

It might sound obvious, but why not find a teacher? Saves a lot of time 😀

Theophilus Carter

AcidVenus Sounds good!

To get you started, you might try the Alfred Adult All-in-One Piano Method.

A lot of folks at That Other Piano Forum seem to like it, and I used book one myself. It's a good basis for piano n general, but I think especially if you're moving to pop / rock, since it focuses on playing melodies in the right hand and accompaniment (chords, arpeggios, etc.) in the left. I didn't care for volume two: it just seemed like more of the same but in different keys, which isn't a bad thing, but the tunes themselves got rather insipid after a while.

You should check out the lovely Alyssa's PianoTV YouTube channel, especially the beginner lessons and general Q&A videos, which will give you some good tips for posture, bench height, hand position, etc.:

https://www.youtube.com/c/PianotvNet

For pop stuff (esp. blues, but plenty of other styles as well), I really like Christian Fuchs:

https://www.youtube.com/c/ChristianFuchsBlues

Hal Leonard has some good crash-course books in various styles:

Rock n Roll Piano

Rock Keyboard

Modern Pop Keyboard

And of course, there's always something to be said for listening to your favorite tunes and playing along!

AcidVenus

Theophilus Carter Thanks, I'll have a look through the links on my next day off.

Last time I attempted piano I used HDpiano. It was good for learning songs but as I said at the start I don't really just want to be a song player with poor habits.

I didn't search out a forum last time as the guitar community put me off. Seems nice on here after reading a few threads. A lot of people in the guitar community are awful, you'd think they were born a guitar god!