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Learning the piano
maverickpixel
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Registered User regular
Just as the title states what is the best way to learn the piano... I feels like playing me some ben folds 
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Piano lessons are the best way to learn the piano. Really, what else can I say to this question?
I'll assume that you can't/won't get lessons for some reason. In that case, you might try finding some 'how to play' type books at your local library or music store and obsessively practice what's in them.
Make sure the piano is relatively in tune and get to work
A piano teacher is there to help you with your fingering and posture, pace your musical development, help you reliably attain perfect repetition under duress, and ultimately teach you what sounds good given a basic skeleton melody. Oh yeah, and also how to interject different playing techniques in your music to give it what I guess some people call real feeling - like accents or whatever. You should anticipate becoming advanced enough to take an age old classic or whatever and extemporize notes into it that don't sound out of place. Whether you can become advanced enough to play something by ear I guess really depends on how early you start.
But yeah, commit to practicing at least 1 hour a day every day; it's one of those 99% perspiration things
Just remember that you don't go to a piano teacher just to get regular practice, you go to a piano teacher to optimize your effort, like a gym trainer. You still have to go when the trainer is not there and apply what you've learned if you want to get your money's worth.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
i work kinda long hours
maybe a book would be the way to go... Would a keyboard work instead of a piano, dont have much room for it in the apt. also is there something along the lines of tab's for guitars?
thanks for the help
However, it is obviously good enough for many genres of music; all you need to know are how to read notes, "finger numbering," and basic harmony.
Unfortunately all the books I know are well outdated, but if you can, try and find certain books off that first have
1. a list of the chromatic scales, chords and arpeggiowhatever
2. finger exercises that may or may not be based around these scales
That is, if you know basic things like where the C key is. If not, get a cheap book that will tell you the very basics - what a scale is, how to play a one-note version of london bridge is falling down, etc to bring yourself up to speed.
The scales and the exercises will teach you several things, the most notable of which are muscle memory of the different scales, so if you want to play something in the key of F, for example, your finger will automatically go to B flat whenever you want to play that note, and also how to correctly maneuver around the keys without twisting your fingers into knots. Exercising 4th and 5th with trills is a bonus.
The most important thing it will teach you, though, is what chords and arpeggios and vocabulary words are permissible or not in a certain scale. That way, when you want to give more feeling to a certain melody you're playing that sticks to one scale, you know what keys you're allowed to hit in what order/combination, and what will make it sound rather disharmonious and contemporary.
Generally, if you're going to learn in absence of a piano teacher, there are book series that are divided by skill level that you can look into.
If you want results fast, or you feel kind of discouraged at your learning rate, get sheet music for whatever you want to play and just try to play it, or at least a segment of it, or a one handed version, or an abridged or arranged version. Figuring out fingering by yourself without learning is not recommended if you're serious about piano, but you can get away with it if you just want to get good at a few pieces. Try memorizing the piece you're learning after practicing it to completion. Listen to it in the car or at work until you can pick out the individual notes and follow them on the score.
Do you seriously work 7 days a week all day until 9pm? Even a monthly 1 hour session with a piano teacher can prove productive, especially if you do your homework and point out the places in your desired piece where you feel you've messed up on fingering. Just a few pointers and demonstrations and observation from a good piano teacher can increase your basic technique tremendously, which will improve your bottom line.
How you sit, the level of your elbows and wrists, and the movement of your fingers on the keys vastly determine the quality of the sound you produce. This is not a thing that can be demonstrated over the internet or even through pictures, as every person's hands and statures are different. If you pay attention, you can be calibrated well early enough so you don't have to suffer through half-productive practice.
You're not a kid anymore, so you don't need someone watching over your back every week (or in some cases, twice a day!) as long as you get the take home message of every lesson.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Roland is probably the most popular. Something like this is going to run you about $1500 new, but like all musical instruments there's no shortage of used pianos kicking around. You could probably find an older version for a few hundred.
I've heard rumours of 'Keyboard tab'. Why anyone would want it is beyond me. Reading music for piano isn't hard to do.
Wiki article about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_tablature
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