Piano books?

mooshoepork

I want to learn piano. I bought a Yamaha P85, and have learnt a few songs thanks to youtube.

I have done basic music theory. That's about it.

I'm not ready to get a teacher.

Are there any books, anyone would recommend for learning the piano? I'm not sure what I'm after. I guess, how to read music? Just an overall guide that isn't too dry? Proper technique all that.

I know a teacher will be far more beneficial, but this is just a hobby at the moment and I'd rather use a book if there's something worth getting.

Raern

I'm learning (slowly) to play piano, mostly using internet resources. I tried learning from a book, Alfred's Adult Piano course, but the style of teaching annoyed me. Having said that, I've still found the book I have useful for reference and easy songs.

Then I ran into music theory information online and found that it explained a lot more of what was going on in music than the step-by-step instruction in the book. The single best site I've found for music theory is http://www.musictheory.net , look over the lessons there and see what you can learn, or figure out what you want to be learning more specifically. It's all free information for what it's worth. Googling "free piano lessons" tends to produce rather poor results.

Based on my own experience, you can go a long way just learning the Major and Minor scales, learning the chords, and learning the Circle of Fifths, then taking that information and improvising just to get practice using it in music.


Reading music, at least as far as identifying notes by where they are on the grand staff is made a lot easier with a free program called Note ID, you can even use it with a midi keyboard if you have access to one. URL: http://www.musicstudy.com/FreeDn.html


The forums at Piano World are very active discussion forums for piano players, you can try asking there if you want more detailed opinions than you find here. A lot of people will just say they could never have gotten by without their teacher, but that doesn't mean it's not possible to learn piano effectively on your own.

mooshoepork

Thank you, that's exactly the kind of information I'm after.

Just something else to note, I've been playing guitar for 6 or 7 years so I have a good ear so maybe a different book is more suitable than a "Beginner beginner" book.

Thanks

KalTorak

Once you get comfortable reading music and want something a little more intermediate, the "Classics to Moderns" series is one I used a lot while I was teaching. It's not completely aimed at little kids, and it's got a nice variety of... classical and modern pieces. There are a lot of recognizable Mozart, Bach, Beethoven short pieces in there and the layout makes it easy to read even if you're still getting the hang of reading music.

oldsak

The way I learned to read music was just trying a new piece every day. Start with simple stuff. Write the notes in at first. Hymnals are great because they're collections of really simple pieces.

TheScruple

My bandmate is using Synthesia to learn to play keyboards. Not sure if it would help with learning proper techniques, but it helped him to pick up songs really fast. It's essentially Guitar Hero for piano:

http://www.synthesiagame.com/

Dark Moon

TheScruple wrote: »

My bandmate is using Synthesia to learn to play keyboards. Not sure if it would help with learning proper techniques, but it helped him to pick up songs really fast. It's essentially Guitar Hero for piano:

http://www.synthesiagame.com/

This won't really help the OP. It's only an alternative (and vastly inferior) notation, with nothing to do with technique. This will just hinder him in his attempt to learn how to read proper sheet music. If learning songs is the only intention, this is a fine way of doing it. As a method of starting up classical piano training, it's not very useful.

Oh, and the guy in the videos is incredibly lazy in his technique. Straight fingers, striking keys with his third knuckle - really sloppy, incorrect playing. Don't do what he does.

I'd advise you to start up on the Royal Conservatory of Music program with their Introductory or Grade 1 books. RCM is a Canadian conservatory that puts out a series of repetoire (performance) and study (technique-specific) books ranging from Introductory to Grade 10 with an excellent variety of pieces.