Best books about pianos according to redditors

Well considering you’re probably an adult. I’d recommended the Alfred Adult Level 1 book. I’ve played piano for 8 years and this is what my instructor uses for her beginning high school who have never even touched a piano. There’s 3 levels and all have pretty well rounded lessons. It teaches a lot of chords, note names, scales, and etc. good luck! Adult All-In-One Course: Lesson-Theory-Technic: Level 1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0882848186/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_.hRQAb5KQXXJC. If you ever need help shoot me a message

A Rant and Thoughts on Cross-Instrumental Pedagogy

Well, you're in a world of double suck for several reasons. First of all, most people who have previous instrumental experience have an even harder time with piano rather than any easier one. Why? Because they want to jump in the deep end immediately and ignore their fundamentals. It's like saying, "I can drive a car... so flying this plane can't be that much different... let me take over the controls mid flight!" Sure, you understand the basic concept of using transportation to get get form point A to point B and the idea of not running into obstacles, but that doesn't make you any better at knowing how to control planes, trains, and boats.

Even if you have a deep understanding of a lot of things, the technical work still has to be done for every instrument you pick up. If you end up picking up even more instruments, you can generally get better at the process by understanding it, but you just can't skip the fundamentals.

What makes this problem worse is asking for help from pianists. It seems logical, but they tend to exacerbate the problem. Most of them started as children. They have no background in music education and they take for granted so many of the skills they picked up as a kid. Their advice is about the equivalent of handing someone a guitar and telling them just to go transcribe Steve Vai solos to get better when they can't even play a single chord. It's a serious issue in the piano world. Having trouble with and independence? Can't play Mary Had a Little Lamb out of your beginner book with both hands? Just practice this and you'll be fine.

The reality is that you're just going to have to spend a lot of time on basic stuff and likely put the jazz stuff on hold for quite some time until you get more basic concepts under your fingers. I-IV-V, sure. ii-V-I, not so much. On guitar most chords have a similar difficulty. Heck, I'd argue that most of the moveable jazz chord shapes are easier than some of the triads because they require less barring and tend to cover less strings.

The other advantage on guitar is that if you learn how to play chord, or even a progression, you've pretty much learned it in every key. You don't even have to think about how to play that progression in another key. The physicality of a ii-V-I on guitar is enough that you just need to know which fret to start you ii on and the rest falls into place. Sure, you can learn several variations and voicings of various chords, but the principle still holds. If you want to do something cool like put a 13 on a G7 chord, you just learn the shape. You don't need to know that the 13 of G is E. You sure as hell don't need to know what it is for every other key. You just think, "Well, if I play this on the 7th fret I get C13."

That's probably why piano seems overwhelming. I assure you it does get better and there is a certain amount of similarity in that over time progressions feel the same in every key believe it or not. The thing is, if you learn them in every key, you realize the motion is the same. The voice leading is the same. You're just navigating white and black keys more. But if you spend time practicing scales and actually know you key signatures and such, you start to feel home and instinctively get that same feeling of same-shapeness that guitar has. Though obviously on guitar you can learn a single scale shape and play it in every key.

Although, I think guitarists often get the better deal by playing scales modally from different positions where as classically trained musicians on pretty much every other instrument think every scale begins and ends at the octave and really aren't as fluent in their use unless it fits that mold. Ask most people to play their E major scale starting on B or C# and they'll likely run into problems. Guitarists often have less trouble with that due to the physicality of the instrument.

Some Recommendations

You probably won't like all of these and might be afraid they don't fit your goals, but hear me out.

Alfred - You really should start getting used to reading music on the piano. I don't know what your reading background is and I don't care if you think you can skip this step. It really will help. Virtually every resource you use will use notation. Investing in reading now will pay off immensely in the long run just saving you time and headaches when you want to digest new material and all the resources are written in standard notation. Additionally, playing a lot of the concepts in context will help a lot. And if you don't have reading experience now, learning on piano and then maybe going back and applying it to guitar might be a fun thing for you. Spend a little time in this book daily.

• Practice slowly and accurately.
  
• When you've gotten a piece pretty much down, move on to the next, but review your previous pieces each time. Maybe when you're 10 tunes in, you can start culling the the very first exercises and just reviewing the last 5-10, but don't just complete a piece and scratch it off never to return.
  
• As you get things under your fingers and are reviewing, you can start doing things like trying to look at the page rather than your fingers and making sure you're associating what you're playing with what's on the page.
  
  Scales, etc. - This book has scales, arpeggios, and cadences in every key cleanly written out with recommended fingerings.
  
  
• Start with scales. Just learn the hands together scales in every major key first. You'll probably have to spend lots of time playing each hand individually to make sure it's under your fingers and then put them together agonizingly slowly where you're literally bouncing your brain from hand to hand trying to think which finger comes next. Do it. Eventually it will be like breathing.
  
  
• Pick a nice comfortable tempo that you feel decent at with hands together and then move on. I'd suggest getting to about 60 bpm.
  
  
• Review old scales daily at your target tempo. Do NOT waste practice time trying to speed up old scales. This likely won't be a problem for you, but the tendency of most non-guitarists is to work on the speed of something like C major trying to get it just a little faster while they can barely blunder their way through F#. I guess it's similar to being able to blaze your root position pentatonic on guitar, but not being able to play majors, minors, or other modal shapes because you spent all of you time on the velocity of the easy scale. Just get everything to 60 or so before you even think about speed.
  
  
• Continue reviewing once you have all 12 keys and maybe try to raise the tempo on review. So maybe aim for 65 with everything. Not 120 with C and 65 with everything else. If you can't play B major at 65, you shouldn't try playing C any faster. Eventually they will all be pretty solid. Over time you'll find that you'll be able to review all 12 major scales over 2 octaves in under 5 minutes. Speed will come with time and accurate repetition rather than fighting the metronome for gainz. #scalegoals
  
  
• While reviewing scales, move on to cadences. Same approach. Add a key every time you can and review all previous keys at a comfortable tempo.
  
  
• While reviewing both of the above, move on to major arpeggios. Same deal as above.
  
  
• Now you might want to dabble with minors taking the same approach. You'll find that due to your previous experience, they will move by much more quickly. Many of them share the same "shapes" the way guitar chords do, but they aren't related. For example, doing arpeggios, C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, and A minor all feel the same. So do C# major, Eb major, F# minor, and Ab major. You get the idea.
  
  
• Many of these technical concepts will be reinforced and put into practical perspective in the Alfred book.
  
  From here there are tons of directions to go for jazz stuff. My go-to recommendation is this one for getting the basics of how to think about, use and apply jazz concepts for those starting out.
  
  There are tons of other resources that might fit your goals better. A purely technical approach approach is this one, but I'd still recommend the Mark Harrison book first. There are also much deeper jazz texts, though I'm not sure it's even worth recommending them at this moment since you're likely months or years away from being able to approach any of that material.

Hi! I'm also 24, and I've been playing the piano since I was 8! I think I can help you out some. I taught my younger sister, who was 13 at the time, how to play the piano, and I started her out on a curriculum I put together myself. This consists of work in 5 main areas: Theory, Intuition, Method, Technique, and Musicianship. I'll explain this further.

Music theory is where you need to start. Without a good knowledge of theory, you're pretty much lost. It's analogous to being in the dark with no flashlight (theory), but turn the flashlight on, and you have a sense of where you're going and what to do. However, it's important that you don't become so reliant on theory that you can't play anything without reading the notes.

This is where intuition comes in. Intuition is built by listening to music. The more you listen to music and the patterns in different songs, the more you'll understand when to change chords, walk up or down bass lines, etc. This was my problem. I was never taught how to improve on my musical intuition. I had to learn this on my own, but I've got good enough now to where I can hear a song and pretty much know how to play it. This is what you're aiming for by building intuition.

Method is meant to take music theory and intuition and actually apply it. So the goal in learning method is to learn different approaches to different songs. For example, there's many ways that you can play a song like Amazing Grace. You can play it with three chords, you can include a minor to make a 4 chord progression, etc. All method does is teach you different ways of approaching songs using what you know about music theory and intuition.

Technique is also very important. Technique develops your motor skills and muscle memory. You might say technique is like exercising your fingers and your brain. It's probably the most boring part of a piano curriculum, because it seems like you're just repeating the same thing over and over and over again, and the exercises seem to hold no purpose. Still, the point here is develop your technique to where you can do things like trills, play very fast songs, and make your music sound beautiful. It takes a lot of time and practice to develop good technique, but it definitely pays off.

Finally, the last area is Musicianship. This is the final goal, and what the student has been working toward. Musicianship is combining all of the other areas and putting them into good practice to perform in front of an audience. A good musician will know their instrument and its proper usage and care, how to play it, it's role within the various genres of music, and be able to play it well. A good musician will also know proper stage etiquette and performance.

This is the philosophy I have developed over my years of playing. The whole point is to develop well rounded musicians. It seems very difficult and harsh, but it can be a whole lot of fun! My sister really enjoyed me teaching her to play, and within a few months she was doing far better than I ever was when I was that far in. My football coach always told us that we would get out of something what we put into it. If you put 30 minutes a week into it, you're not going to see good results. However, put in 30 minutes a day and you'll see results in no time.

So now for the big question... where do you start? I started my sister out in this book. That is the most comprehensive and well written book on music theory. It just goes over the bare minimum of what you need to be a good pianist, plus it's a great reference to look back on. More advanced study will come later on, but for now this is a great book to learn how to read music, how it works, and how to start writing your own pieces. I also got her this book, too, because it includes a lot of exercises in theory. As you do the exercises in this book, try playing them on your piano and getting used to associating each note on the paper with a key on the piano. While you're doing this, you might try to listen to which keys sound which way and begin associating each key and note with a particular sound. There are many different "courses" you can go through to learn the piano. I went through the Piano Adventures Series, which I thought was great. That is a link to the primer level books. There's, to my knowledge, 5 levels plus the primer. So, when you master/complete one level, you just move on to the next. I also liked the Exploring Piano Classics series. This is what I started my sister on, because it not only includes great pieces to begin playing, but it also goes through different eras in musical genres and introduces the piano from a historical standpoint. In my mind, this series is the perfect introduction to Musicianship. Here is a link to the preparatory book.

I hope this could be some help to you. The journey to becoming a great pianist and musician is a long one that needs time, hard work, and dedication to achieve, but many have made it before and so can you. I wish you well in learning to play the piano. Good luck!

Source: I play piano (3 years of lessons, 2 years self-taught) and have started picking up guitar (6mo self-taught)

Piano and violin can be rough to learn without a teacher. If you just want to play music, there are a lot of free resources available for guitar - justinguitar.com is fantastic. There is a subreddit for learning guitar which has a very helpful and supportive community.

Now, if you maintain that classical piano is really your thing, then I can certainly relate, but I will warn you that the available free video lessons are largely missing. There are tutorials on youtube around specific songs or specific topics, but nothing as structured as justin's site (at least that I've found).

My recommendation is to pick up a method book - I used Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One, which is about 10$ on Amazon - and work through it page by page. Join a forum like the adult beginner forum at pianoworld, where you can post videos of your progress and people can help you with the trickier items like posture and hand positions.

There is a subreddit for piano here as well, which is worth subscribing to as well.

I've been playing for a long time now, and have never experienced this thing which you term 'piano culture'. Of course there are competitive people in every field—from music to lawn-mowing, probably—, but do you have to associate with them? Absolutely not.

It should not be at all challenging to find a teacher who is willing to teach away from the exams. You may find that you want to take them down the line, or see how well you're progressing by practicing material from the grades. This is fine, as is staying away from them altogether.

At the end of the day, if you want to learn: learn. Self-teaching is not frowned upon at all, it's just more of a challenge and, on average, you probably won't progress anywhere near as quickly as with guided instruction. If your enjoyment motivates you to learn solo, then do that. Lots of great musicians have, and will continue to.
***

Edit**: If teaching yourself is your favourite option, I recommend the Alfred's Basic Piano Course series! Best of luck :)

There's a really great scales book out there: The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios & Cadences. It has lots of exercises and scales to do. A good thing to note is that when folks say "doing their scales" they don't just mean actual scales ( G A B C D E F# G) they also mean Arpeggios and other exercises all of which people practice for technique.

Came here to downvote any comments mentioning Hanon. So far we don't have any!

Back on topic: Everybody needs a good scale book. I use Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences, but there are many like it.

You'll hear "Get a teacher." on this sub a lot. This is great advice, but not always possible. That being said, check the FAQs for some really great resources for sheet music, online learning tools, and general tips and tricks.

I'd recommend getting a method book, such as Alfred's, a classical composer's 'beginner's' collections or notebooks, such as Bartok's Mikrokosmos or First Lessons in Bach, and then grab a book of scales such as this.

For future reference, if you do get a chance, please get a teacher, especially if you can swing it sometime in your first year, even if just for a few months. They can help prevent poor technique that may come up and can save time in the long run.

Edit: For poor hyperlinking on mobile.

I'd seriously consider taking a break from playing for a while to let yourself heal. I know it isn't your favorite option, but it is the best long-term solution to tendinitis. I had friends in the piano world who had multiple surgeries, had to take months to years off, and had constant pain/reinjury in their wrists and backs due to stress injuries. It's no laughing matter.

That being said, I understand why you won't/can't take that much time off. Seeing a medical specialist is your best bet, so I'd advise asking for a referral to physical therapy and follow the recommendations. In addition, here are some things that have helped me with my own chronic-use injuries over the years:

1. Ibuprofen regimen, as prescribed by my old doctor - 800mg, four times daily. It's the max dose and shouldn't be taken for more than a week. But a week of that plus rest/wrapping my wrists would really help.
   
   
2. Hot/Cold water baths. You can alternate between them, as it increases blood flow. So I'd usually do 5 minutes hot, then 5 minutes cold a couple of times, for about 20-30 minutes total.
   
   
3. Massage. It worked wonders for my back pain. Seriously, well worth the money. Also, my massage therapist did some myofascial release techniques around the carpal tunnel area, and it was awesome. I have been able to replicate it myself at home, though not as well, but I feel the knowledge I've gained through getting massages has helped me self-massage effectively to keep things loose between sessions.
   
   
4. Body mapping and mindfulness while playing. Learning to be aware of my body and practice safe techniques. As a teen, I was told I "move too much" at the piano, so I stiffened up. It took years to un-learn that stiffness and return to healthy playing. I'd recommend What Every Pianist Needs to Know about the Body by Thomas Mark. I met him for a couple-hours consultation once, and he's awesome. I learned so much, and it really helped my chronic pain.
   
   Hopefully some of these help! But, again, I'm not a doctor, and talking to a medical professional about these options is definitely the way to go. Good luck!

I'm not into jazz, but I had this book highly recommended to me: http://www.amazon.com/Voicings-Jazz-Keyboard-Frank-Mantooth/dp/0793534852/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1451105347&sr=8-6&keywords=jazz+comping

Full disclosure: it is for jazz and involves a lot of 9ths and 13ths you can go an entire career as a rock keyboardist and never use. However, the premise of the book is solid...what range to play in to best avoid "stepping on" other instruments.

I put this forward because it is pretty fundamental if you're going to be playing with other musicians.

Other than that, you have a massive leg up on many of the rest of us. I'm a keyboardist now but come from a piano background similar to you. I haven't gotten the whole thing solved yet, but it's important to keep an open ear at all times and listen to what sounds like is needed. Don't do a bunch of stuff when the guitarist is, when the singer is singing, etc. Keep it simple and, if you ever get lost, hump the tonic note of whatever song you're playing.

Other than that, go to local jam nights and soak in what the guys are playing. Then go home and listen to those songs, specifically what the keyboardists in those songs are doing (if there are keyboard lines).

Yes, knowing the chords and their inversions is a must. Know all the major chords, minor chords, 7ths, sus's, and all their different inversions...ie CEG, EGC, & GCE are all different ways to play a C major and all make the song sound different.

Anyway, I'm in a rock band, do some background piano music behind a singer, and do some solo piano stuff. I'm no expert, but I'll help you out. I've been where you are, though perhaps with a tenth of your talent. As always, desire and hard work will get you wherever you want to go. Cheers and good luck!(which you will make yourself ;) )

I'd advise working through a method book with him. Something like Alfred's (https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487281958&sr=8-1&keywords=alfreds+basic+adult+piano+course+level+1)

He can work through the book, and you can play the teacher (correcting posture, recommending fingering, instructing on dynamics, helping him problem solve, etc). The method starts with the assumption that the learner has no musical experience at all, so I think it (or really any other method book) will be helpful.

They're actually super useful for airy/spacious voicing of common chords. I can give a few 5 note examples with C as the root (transpose to your heart's content):

C6/9: E A D G C
Cmaj7(6/9): B E A D G (this one replaces the high C (root) from the previous with a low B (maj7th) but you can totally do both for a 6 note chord)
Cmaj7(6/9/#11): F# B E A D
C-11: G C F Bb Eb
Csus(9): D G C F Bb


Using less than 5 notes will be more ambiguous but you can totally use this to your advantage. Nothing wrong with using a quartal voicing/structure on top of a standard triad or even just a 3rd and 7th. Pretty useful for dominant chords:

C9: E Bb D G C (obviously the bottom tritone is not quartal but the top 3 notes are)
C9(13): Bb E A D G (I flipped the bottom tritone from the previous example for a more evenly spaced voicing)

Because quartal voicings can be ambiguous they're a great tool for modulating. They can be placid or intense depending on how you employ them. I first got into using them after reading Mantooth's Voicings For Jazz Keyboard. It's not a book directly about quartal voicings but they're used as a kind of basic building block for many of the voicings in the book. Also, McCoy Tyner is a quartal fiend if you're looking for inspiration.

My teacher assigned the Hanon book to me way back in the day. Works well, albeit being a tad boring.

I started 2 years ago, @25yo. This is how I progressed.

Step 1: I picked up Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One and played out of it for about a month. At the end of that month I felt confident enough to play for my grandmother, who inspired me to begin. She encouraged me to go go no further without the instruction of a teacher

Step 2: Got myself a teacher. We began mostly with scales and exercises, then moved on to Keyboard Musician. This book is made up of smaller pieces ranging in difficulty, and incorporates some theory.

Step 3: Practice, practice, practice. I have been at it for two years. I try to practice on my lunch break on every business day, typically for 45 minuted to an hour. Which usually means I get 3-4 days of good practice in a week. Its not enough but I have been able to make progress, and am definitely glad I made the commitment.

I am now choosing bigger pieces to play, typically spending a month or two on each, but I always have 3-4 things going at once. Here are some examples of what I am currently playing or have played: example 1 (1st movement only), example 2 (not me playing ;) ), example 3

Of course you could be looking to go a different route. Many people learn to play by ear and skip the whole reading music part. Learning to read music has been one of the hardest parts for me. Anyway that you do it, just do it. Good luck to you.

I don't believe there is a good quality website for that. However, this book is an industry standard for adults to learn reading. The lessons are well-organized and it is possible to go through it on your own. It's probably better than anything you'll find online. You can order it on Amazon if you want to avoid stores!

Hey there! :)

Your question is a VERY difficult one to answer, as it depends on a lot of variables concerning both yourself and the route you decide to take. However, the EASY answer is to say that you cannot achieve a masterful level of proficiency at the piano on your own. This does not hold true 100% of the time, but MOST of the time it's true.

That being said, you can certainly learn a lot on your own before being held back by your lack of a teacher. It will probably go slower, and take longer, and most importantly you won't know for sure if you're doing things correctly or not (this is the biggest thing) and also you won't have someone to ask questions. But it's of course better than nothing and I would never discourage you from it if it's your only option right now!

When I say that you can't know if you're doing things correctly or not, that really is a huge thing. That feedback which a teacher can provide is essential to knowing that you're learning things right. Teachers also can teach you things that will just be glossed over/skipped otherwise, they can guide you to various things that you'd never think of, and they can tailor your lesson plan to you and adjust it as needed.

Here's what you CAN do, right now:

1. Try learning songs by ear. Don't bother with anything except the melody, playing it with the right hand. Pop songs that you like are going to be the best place to start. This may be hard to do for awhile and will require persistence before you can pick up on it but it's a good skill to have. It's ear training :).
   
2. If you go on youtube, you can find all sorts of tutorials for songs. This will not teach you proper technique, nor will it teach you how to learn songs "in the real world", meaning sheet music, which is the preferred way to distribute music and learn it and preserve it. However, it will give you a way of learning songs which you like (again, pop songs are usually best) and it'll start working on your finger dexterity.
   
   The most important thing though, is that you need a lesson plan. Since you don't have a teacher to give you one, you need something to replace that. My suggestion would be to look up the Alfred's adult beginner lesson book. Click here for an amazon link to see it! You can just order it online, or find a local music store and look for it/ask for help finding it. Personally I shop at Evolas, I think they may be fairly local though (I'm in Michigan). A piano lesson book provides structured learning and will cover things that you need to know in an ordered way. Lesson books are not perfect; they don't take the time to explain things in TOO much detail because you're supposed to have a teacher going through it with you, and explaining things themselves. However they DO have some explanation of every lesson, and once you know what you're SUPPOSED to be learning about, you can always turn to google for more information about it.
   
   The lesson book is my single huge recommendation to you. It's probably your best bet. It's by no means perfect, but I don't know what you can do better. You will have to pace yourself; do your best to make sure you understand a concept completely and learn the associated song well before progressing to the next lesson. Again, this will be difficult without a teacher but it's doable!
   
   My source for all of this is that I've been playing piano for twelve years, and have been teaching for the past 3-4. I'm generally an observant, thoughtful person and this is the sort of thing that runs through my mind :). I would like to close by making you an offer... I will still maintain that you cannot do better than to get an actual teacher and take regular lessons. HOWEVER! Should you choose to seriously pursue this to the extent possible, I would like to help you as much as I can! So at ANY point, if you have ANY question whatsoever, you are free to PM me, and I will do my best to answer! I will teach you things that you're confused about or want to know more about, or anything at all that you can think of. So I'll essentially offer myself as a teacher over the internet. It's very limiting, but it may help you to have someone who you can ask those questions that hopefully you'll have :).
   
   Good luck, whatever happens!

If you already have the piano this is the book my piano class used.
http://www.amazon.com/Adult-All---One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458688360&sr=1-1&keywords=learning+piano

Go through it begining to end, practice each song until you have it down and be sure to look up musical examples of concepts such a syncopated notes.

(Edit)
Pawn shops will have plenty of cheap keyboards that will be good enough. A proper piano has 88 keys, but in the beginning a 64 key keyboard will work just fine.

• Bach on a lute harpsichord
  
  
• The Goldberg Variations
  
  
• Handel
  
  
• Rameau
  
  
• Couperin
  
  
• Purcell
  
  
• Domenico Scarlatti
  
  
• Bustijn
  
  There was a big variation in instruments and styles between different periods and regions.
  
  Also, the specific instrument used for a performance has a big influence on the final product. Baroque music was VERY improvisatory, and the strengths and limitations of each harpsichord has an effect on this. It's difficult to record a harpsichord. Mic placement will also have an influence in this aspect.
  
  Check ornamentation, figured bass, and take a look at what people went after in terms of articulation. The classic book by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
  
  Check this book, this other book. It might be helpful if you manage to get a copy of this other book.
  
  If you want to check modern harpsichord music:
  
  
• Górecki
  
  
• Poulenc
  
  
• Nyman (he actually studied 17th century music, but I think he wasn't much into harpsichord)
  
  
• Carter
  
  
• Xenakis
  
  
• Martin
  
  
• Ligeti (the harpsichord had never been used like this)

This one is my favorite. It has 2 pages dedicated to each key signature. The page will include a parallel motion scale, opposing motion, 6th interval scale, 3rd interval, cadences, arpeggios at the root position, arpeggios in first inversion, arpeggios in 2nd inversion, major 7th chords in root, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd inversions, and it goes over every chord that's within that key signature.


Then the pages for minor keys have the same thing, but they replace the 6th and 3rd interval parallel motion scales with the harmonic and melodic scales.


I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a book on scales.


Pics: http://imgur.com/a/Eap3Ev8

First, I would highly recommend a teacher if at all possible. Piano technique is a lot more subtle than it would seem.

Get a decent piano method (I recommend the Alfred Adult Method) and some technical studies (Hanon and/or Czerny).

I just got these - I ordered books 1, 2, & 3.

The reviews were good, so I thought I'd give them a shot. Anyone have their own reviews on them for a self-leaner?

You will find more recommendations in the FAQ on the Sidebar, but a short version would be that most people recommend getting a teacher if in any way possible. If not:

• Use method books like the Alfred's Adult Basic Piano (here's a link to Book 1 on Amazon).
  
• Use the exercises on musictheory.net to learn how to read music and identify note positions on the keyboard.
  
• Start working on basic major scales, hands together in parallel motion. (Link to a good resource).
  
• For practice, you want an 88-key, fully-weighted keyboard if you do not have an acoustic piano. Specific model recommendations in the FAQ.
  
• Some people around here recommend Hanon exercises to self-taught folks. I suggest not doing it without a teacher, as bad technique with those exercises can cause bad habits at best and injury at worst.
  
  Comments on general technique:
  
  
• Fingers should be slightly bent, you want to strike keys with your fingertips. Don't lay them flat (people do this a lot with their pinkies).
  
• Relax, relax, relax. Make sure your shoulders are down and not tense. Your wrist movement should be smooth.
  
• Never push through pain. My professor says that pain is almost always because of errors in technique, and if you feel any pain you should stop and find that error so you can correct it. If you don't, you can cause permanent injury. Of course, there are a few exceptions and sometimes you will feel a light bit from muscle exhaustion if you're new. But never anything severe.
  
  If you have any questions, you can always ask us here. Cheers!

Ok this is the path that nearly everyone recommends and (I really would too) so I'll go through the ups and downs.

Get this book

Then go through the lessons with this guy

That's the cheapest way to learn piano. He's got dozens of complete method books that he teaches through.

Downside, the alfred books aren't super inspiring pieces. However they teach you the fundamentals VERY well. For $10 you can't beat it. You'll know all your scales, key signatures, hand independence, chord theory, and most importantly you'll be able to sight read. There's three levels. It'll probably take two years to go through all 3 and that's ok! After you finish the first book start adding in some Repertoire pieces from IMSLP

I'm definitely no pro; I started playing about a year ago. But I would not recommend trying to start on either of these, they are relatively advanced, assuming you've never played before.

I would suggest starting with this book:

http://www.amazon.ca/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-All--Course/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453527118&sr=8-1&keywords=alfred+piano

It will help you to understand what you're playing, not just how to press buttons.

Best of luck learning, it's a lot of fun!

My two cents as a lapsed classical pianist: If you want to go old school and learn to read music a bit too, struggle your way through the Hanon exercises for piano, specifically the scales and octave scale progression through all keys.

The book is cheap on Amazon

It is boring, dry stuff. But I will be damned if I don't still remember every scale once I start off on the right note, even if I don't remember any of the classical pieces themselves. Because of that bastard Hanon and his exercises.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0879307277/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00 this will help out a lot.

If you want to learn piano, go to amazon and get these 4 books:

1.The Musician’s Way

2.First Lessons in Bach

3. Two and Three Part Inventions

And finally

4. The Well-Tempered Clavier

These books will teach you all you need to know about music. This is how I personally started playing piano. Work through the books in order, as each one builds on top of the other. Once you can play counterpoint excellently you can play pretty much anything else.

In the words of Brahms: “Study Bach. There you will find everything.”

As far as a keyboard goes, I have a Yamaha P-60 and it gets the job done. Just make sure you have weighted keys and 88 and you’re good. Bach’s music doesn’t require a pedal, so you don’t even really need that.

Good luck on your musical journey! To work through all these books will take a life time.

In addition to a teacher, there are:

• Mastering Piano Technique by Seymour Fink (video.) A good resource of various movements we can do to achieve our musical goals.
  
• What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body by Thomas Mark. Helps to update the conception of your whole body, not just the fingers, hands and wrists.
  
• The Craft of Piano Playing by Alan Fraser. Start with the section on Natural Hand shape first.
  
  Other technique books I haven't read or had a glance at:
  
  
• On Piano Playing by Gyorgy Sandor.
  
• Abby Whiteside on Piano Playing.
  
• The Art of Piano Playing by Heinrich Neuhaus.
  
• Chopin: Pianist and Teacher: As Seen by His Pupils. An insight to how Chopin taught.
  
• Twenty Lessons in Keyboard Choreography by Seymour Bernstein.
  
• The Physiological Mechanics of Piano Technique by Otto Ortmann.
  
• The Visible and Invisible In Pianoforte Technique by Tobias Matthay.
  
• The Art of Piano Playing by George Kochevitsky.
  
  Your mileage may vary. These books I haven't read are often very expensive or out of print, so you may need to go to a library.

In my opinion if you truly are a beginner Bach's inventions wouldn't likely suit your skill level just yet. ^(I'd call myself intermediate level and they still stump me.)

I like Burgmüller's Op. 100 that has 25 easy etudes and start from roughly (ABRMS) grade 2 level and go up to grade 4-5 level (generally regarded as the level of easiest Bach inventions). They're all short pieces but simple enough to learn in one or just a few sittings. I recommend this Edition Peters scan, it has good fingering.

If you want to go with Bach there are a plenty of easier pieces. One good starting place could be First lessons in Bach book that's been recommended in this subreddit before.

Take this and this; that's all I needed to read, play and write music.

Paying for lessons is recommended, they are a shortcut.

My advice: You have to keep your motivation alive: Watch videos of other people playing pieces you would like to play, it's as important as brushing your teeth. You require ambition but also you must acknowledge the nature of the process of learning; you will invest time, emotions and money to get there, keep that in mind.

Enjoy your journey, music is a beautiful investment.

👍

Alfred's All in One or Faber's Adult Adventures are common suggestions.

https://www.amazon.com/Scales-Chords-Arpeggios-Cadences-Complete/dp/0739003682%3FSubscriptionId%3D06KMPSHEDSXXQMQVT482%26tag%3Daskcom05-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0739003682

Hanon exercises are great for strength and independence of fingers.

The Virtuoso Pianist by Charles-Louis Hanon. It's not fun or musically interesting, but if you purely want to improve speed and technique, it's exactly what you need.

I'm pretty sure you can type without looking, and I only say that because you haphazardly used the word "whilst" in your post. Therefore, you will undoubtedly get to the point where you can play without looking at your hands. I initially learned to play by ONLY looking at my hands, through the Suzuki method, and once I started reading music, I eventually got to the point where I didn't need to look down from the music. Perhaps playing some Hanon Virtuoso Pianist exercises, which are horrendously boring but very beneficial, will get you there.

It's hard to find stuff on Jazz Theory on Google for sure, much less recommendations for music transcription. I really can't think of a good place to start with regards to the songs you should try to transcribe, but there are books I've used that have plenty of suggested reading/listening listed. Hopefully you don't already know about these...

The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine (it can be kind of pricy, here's a link to it on Amazon) which has a whole regimen of listening suggestions in its curriculum, focusing a good amount on jazz harmony, and melodic improvisation.

I learned a lot about jazz chords and voicings from Miracle Voicings by Frank Mantooth. Working through these books will help you understand better how to approach jazz chords, which should help you better conceive of what you're hearing when you try to transcribe them.

EDIT: The book has been republished as Voicings for Jazz Keyboard by Frank Mantooth

https://www.amazon.com/Library-Piano-Classics-Music-Sales/dp/0825611113/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505027332&sr=8-1&keywords=library+of+piano+classics

For 15$ this is a steal. So many well known pieces in here.

As a classical musician already, I suspect this would be a good place to start, for you more so than for non-musician beginners like me. I read a lot of recommendations for this book so I got it.

Think this is exactly what you're looking for, also aviable as an eBook.


Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences: Complete Book (Alfred's Basic Piano Library)

If you’re new to music in general this book is awesome. even for adults.

This one is another good resource for scales and chords.

a; a minor; b; b minor; c; c minor; d; d minor; e; e minor; f; f minor; g; g minor
Then there's flats and sharps.

You can buy a hannon book for $3 or $4 http://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1457979356&sr=8-3&keywords=piano+scales

Since you are just starting out, your emphasis right now needs to be on developing a solid basis of technique, . For the next 2 years I recommend you alot your practice time as follows:

• 1/3 to scales and arpeggios
  
  
• 1/3 to exercises - Hanon is the classic starter book. Czerny is a more challenging and interesting addition.
  
  
• 1/3 to pieces
  
  After 2 years, once you have built up your dexterity, then you can begin alotting a greater portion of your time to practicing pieces.
  
  Please note that this time estimate is based on my experience, playing for 3 hours/day during my formative training years. If you are practicing less, it may take longer for you to build your dexterity.

https://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446

Ask your teacher about Hanon before buying, many don't care for his exercises while many might prefer to give exercises to you individually rather than having you practice from a book. Nevertheless progress slowly through the book, play the exercises slowly and steadily over quickly and unconfidently. Vary the exercises' rhythm as an exercise(For example you can make every other tone dotted while halfing the duration of the others). Follow the fingerings written out and get help from your teacher if something hurts or feels tense/wrong rather than just powering through it and lastly remember that Hanon exercises are NOT a substitute for other content such as learning pieces you're interested in. Hanon exercises lack in musicality and other elements that you need to learn through learning actual pieces of music that you enjoy.

This + This

also

http://www.learnjazzstandards.com/

plus listen a bunch

(not a pianist, just fiddle with piano enough to help myself)

I recently read What Every Pianist Needs to Know about the Body (https://www.amazon.com/What-Every-Pianist-Needs-About/dp/1579992064) for help with proper posture and all that, and it was a really great read. Super important to get posture right to prevent injury. If it hurts after an hour I dare say you're doing something wrong, and I hope you take it serious before it starts to hurt even sooner and impacts your playing!

Even after reading the book and trying to be conscious of all its teachings, when I went to see a teacher for some help she immediately pointed out that I needed to raise my right wrist more (I'm a lefty, not sure if this is a non-dominant hand thing, since you mentioned your left wrist).

So anyway, good playing, but take from someone who's been injured (weightlifting, not piano), it's really important to take form seriously :)

I think the most important thing is to just get started.

I had a few piano lessons when I was young (7-8), but didn't really have an interest in it.

It wasn't until 4 years ago, after I really developed a passion for classical music that I found a reason to love the piano (and the violin). It was also around this time that I started watching anime.

Instead of looking for lessons, I saved up and purchased a second hand piano and Lost My Pieces was my (re)entry piece into learning seriously.

Don't worry about "lacking music knowledge", if you have a desire for it: jump in. Getting started is the hardest part, after taking the leap its just a matter of repetition.

Here is a great book, which spans from beginner to intermediate lessons. (Though I'm sure you can find a 'free' PDF online.)

Also a lot of YouTuber's transcribe anime OST's into Synthesia, watching and learning from those can help with your timing and you get to learn those pieces from your favourite anime (which is a bonus!)

Also: [Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso] (http://myanimelist.net/anime/23273/Shigatsu_wa_Kimi_no_Uso)

^ Read the manga, and am currently watching the anime. It is a god send to piano lovers and can reinvigorate your passion and drive for the instrument.

EDIT: GOLD?! Thank you kind stranger! Merry Christmas!

I am just starting to get into jazz myself, and someone on here recommended the book intro to jazz piano. I have been going through it and it seems to be a good introduction to comping, soloing, and melody treatment in jazz. https://www.amazon.ca/Intro-Jazz-Piano-Leonard-Keyboard/dp/1617803103. A lot of people on this sub also recommend the jazz theory book or jazz piano book by Mark Lavine. This book isn't very beginner friendly however. Another thing many jazz musicians seem to stress is the importance of ear training and transcribing. I have also read that you should expose your self to as much jazz music as you can as well. Finally, you will learn much quicker if some one teaches you. You can ask fellow jazz musicians for tips or simply watch how they play or practise. You will benefit a lot from a good jazz teacher! Like I said, I am a beginner so hopefully someone with more experience will chime in.

Definitely get an adjustable bench/chair. Also read this book: What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body https://www.amazon.com/dp/1579992064/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6e9uCb201PZ5C

I'm going to teach you all the mistakes I made in hopes that you won't make them yourself, if you aren't getting a teacher. A teacher is easily the best route, no comparison, without one, you're going to have to work your ass off.

1. Make use of every piano teacher on youtube, the best ones being Lypur,and Josh Wright. Their may be others, but those are essential.
   
   
2. Watch ALL Lypur's videos on the "Learn How To Play Piano (NEW) " playlist and "LEARN FREE MUSIC THEORY". I say start with watching the first 5 of each in a week, and then 1 a week as they get more complicated. And take good notes, just like in school.
   
   3)You need to buy books. I would say to start off with Josh Thompson's first grade one and then buying other ones such as Hanon, which is a MUST, and some like this one.
   
   4)Eventually after about a few months of practice, you can buy introductory books to certain composers, such as these: Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. I wouldn't recommend the Chopin one, since his most easiest pieces can be quiet hard until you have a good 2 years of practice and playing in. And eventually Schumann's or Tchaikovsky's Album for the young, I don't know which would be better.
   
   5)This site is very good, and gives a nice breakdown of how you should spend your time practicing.
   
   6)And possibly most importantly, you have to find pieces that you like outside of books that you can learn. It's nice to learn little pieces that are in books, but the most satisfying feeling is playing a piece that you love.
   
   
   

The best way I found so far is to do this guys lessons in order : https://www.youtube.com/user/Lypur

I supplement with
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167

Everyone is right about getting a teacher, particularly for the basics and more advanced concepts as well. I personally started playing through a high school class for a semester then was taught all over again by a guy from my church.

Since then however I have been playing on my own (with books) and learning by ear as well. Here are my recommendations

• get a teacher, even if its for three months
  
• get a good book. Ive used three beginner piano books and my top recommendation goes to the elder beginners piano book, which I used in high school. It is nice because it teaches at a good pace, it doesnt assume youre amazing or a genius and there is a good amount of practice before new topics
  
• second is Alfreds piano book, my current book. Which I love and personally prefer, as someone that has been instructed before. I just feel it moves at too quickly a pace for an abject beginner. there isnt as much practice as I'd like and I'd be left behind if my foundations werent already decent
  
• third, while still a good book.....I honestly can't remember the book right now. I'll update when I get it. It is a great book long term but it skips through topics really quickly. Much better as a supplement to one of the others
  
• failing to get a teacher, youtube and particularly Lypyur/Furmanzyck is a great resource for much of what you'd need to learn as far as theory. He is a great teacher and I highly recommend his stuff
  
• Have a goal, a otpic or song that you aspire to and can work towards tangibly. Thats up to you but people here can help you as far as breaking it down and being able to get there
  
• and an extra tip, a shameless plug for r/PianoNewbies, where you can learn and improve with other beginners

I'm currently using Alfred's. https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_267_bs_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TRV8VN58287JY0698CNH

I've posted this a few times but I think its well worth repeating:

I am using Alfred's Adult all in one and there is a guy on YouTube that covers each lesson with good instruction and tips.
Here is the link:
Alfred's Video

I also hired a tutor who I meet with every two weeks, just to make sure I'm not picking up bad habits.

Amazon link to Alfred book

FAQ

http://www.reddit.com//r/piano/wiki/faq

I'd skip skoove.

http://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/en/latest/chapter1/ch1_topics/

Discussion, summary of some parts here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/5mn8fi/fundamentals_of_piano_practice_some_boiled_down/

Taubman technique

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHpGYrNMpSxgcftnjYolpGrnTpNzlM8Qu

https://www.golandskyinstitute.org/blog/teaching-rotation-with-robert-durso

Plenty of beginner piano videos like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSs0dBjGpv4

All in one method books can work well too, plenty of others.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/30/1/Adult_Beginners_Forum.html

Plenty of overlap in these links. Try some out, figure out what works best for you. One important thing you can miss not having a teacher is sitting and moving the right way so you don't hurt yourself. With nobody to critique you as you go, a few different videos, careful reading beforehand, and doing your best to be mindful of any tension and discomfort that develops is advisable. That way you figure out when you're sore and need to reevaluate your style with a few days of minor discomfort instead of a couple months. Certainly possible to get by without a teacher. But with the right teacher you might be able to get a lot out of a lesson once every month or two.

Do you want to play jazz? The real book is a lead sheet book that lists chords and has single melody lines. This will not help you to read sheet music.
Start with a primer book like Alfreds. This will work you up through reading.

Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One https://www.amazon.com/dp/0882846167/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_N3cgAbNWPYG4M

In order starting with the book on the top left:

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Keyboard-Chord-Piano-Method/dp/0793551447

http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Essentials-Complete-Training-Workbook/dp/0882848976

http://www.amazon.com/MIDI-Book-Syntharts-Steve-Furia/dp/0881885142

http://www.amazon.com/The-Total-Keyboard-Performing-Electronic/dp/1586637037

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Theory-Volume-Sandy-Feldstein/dp/0882842161

http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167

http://www.amazon.com/Welshs-Synthesizer-Cookbook-Programming-Universal/dp/B000ERHA4S

http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167

If you click the Look Inside link here you can see the table of contents. On page 18, you start learning chords.

If what you really like is classical Indian music, why not learn the sitar? Although I don't know much about sitar playing, it may have all of the things you hated about the guitar. There are other Indian instruments though.

If you have a pretty low drive, I don't see how you'll get anywhere self teaching. Doesn't your low drive mean you need a teacher pushing you to practice every day, etc?

Yes.

If you can't find a teacher, I recommend the Alfred All-in-One Basic Adult course. Should get you going while you find a teacher (do this).

I've been playing for six months and it's the best decision I've made in years.

Hey I'm doing the same now, been learning and practicing for about 2 months.

SCALES. Learn your scales and chords and that's what you'll be able to immediately take into making your own original music.

I've just gotten this book, which is part one of 3 and it's been very helpful for me with technique and theory.

I'm fond of the Alfred Adult All-In-One book. It emphasizes both theory and technic. When I was in the business of helping musicians find the right resources for them, this was my go-to book for players like you, who had moderate experience back in the day, but were looking to pick it back up again. It's going to start with pretty basic theory, so you might want to supplement the theory with a more theory-centric book. There's a nice accelerated version of the Theory Time series.

You're likely to find these at popular music retail chains.

I found a version for you: https://sites.ualberta.ca/~mmlau/sheetmusic/fearnotthisnight.pdf

It's not Lara's, but it sounds convincing enough (and the chords are not really difficult). Also, I highly recommend this book for beginners: Alfred's Adult All-In-One Piano. That's what I learned with and it was a foundation for branching out on my own.

I’m going to second what another poster has said. Alfred Adult all in one is where to start. There’s a guy that teaches every lesson of it on YouTube. It should take 9 months to 1.5 years to go through depending on how much you practice and how WELL you practice.

A teacher teaches you how to practice, the learning comes from you practicing.

Hi there! I'm also a beginner. I've been using Alfred's. It's a book that's used in my piano classes, and I personally think it's good~

https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500507658&sr=8-1&keywords=alfreds+adult+all+in+one+piano+course+level+1

Alfred's All-In-One is a standard recommendation, get the spiral-bound book as it sits well on the piano.

First thing: READ THE FAQ. It covers a lot of things like how to get a good teacher, how to self-learn if needed, etc. I am going to leave this post below from before, though.

> Once again, I have to plug the FAQ's thing of at least try to get a teacher or a lesson, since the biggest challenge with self-learning is technique. That said, if you must self-learn, I would recommend getting Alfred's Adult All-in-One course and learning more into theory. The Royal Conservatory of Music has some great things, including a syllabus for piano (as well as the same syllabus for popular music) and a theory syllabus. I'll link it all below. Work through the first book until you have that material down. Also check out musictheory.net for their tutorials, as the theory can get tough very quickly. Once you have worked through those pieces, try looking at some real piano literature (e.g. Pezold: Minuet in G major) and complementing it with the scales, arpeggios, broken chords, etc. that the RCM syllabus can provide. If you are into classical music, there is a published called G. Henle Verlag that grades all of their pieces on a scale of 1 to 9 that helps a lot if needing help choosing pieces. Escalate the difficulty bit by bit. Links below!
>
>  
>
> Alfred's All-in-One course
>
> RCM's piano syllabus
>
> RCM's popular music syllabus for piano
>
> RCM's music theory syllabus
>
> musictheory.net
>
> G. Henle Verlag
>
> Some beginner/intermediate classical pieces graded by difficulty

Continuo playing is an art all its own. Tchaikovsky's book has some useful methods for four-part keyboard harmonizations. However, all that and everything you already listed is just the beginning. Back in the day, keyboardists would have learned the rule of the octave and worked out of thoroughbass manuals (or studied with a teacher). CPE Bach's Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments (Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen) is one such manual, and it is thorough. I'm finding Friedrich Niedt's Musical Guide very entertaining and informative. This is the book JS Bach studied out of and taught to his students. The English translation out of print, but you should be able to find it in a library somewhere. Or, if you can read German blackletter, the original editions are on IMSLP. Heads up, in figured bass the number of voices can change at any time to accommodate the figure. If you have a bunch of 6's, for example, it's common to drop down to 3 voices.

Also check out Early Music Sources and Vasily Byros' article on invention and realizing partimenti.

Anyway, doing figured bass realization properly takes — as /u/65TwinReverbRI indicates — a lot of time and expertise to the point that people get graduate degrees in this stuff. You won't realize something like a keyboardist from Bach's era unless you put some serious time in, but you might be able to write something convincing to the modern, untrained ear if you focus on counterpoint between the outer voices and handle your diminutions correctly.

I think Wayne Leupold has something on playing 18th century lit, and I think I own it, even. But I can't vouch for how good it is. The standard historical document -- at least to my mind -- is C.P.E. Bach's Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments.

I'm working through this book, I find it very good:
Improve Your Sight-Reading!

Still, it just takes time. I practice for a few minutes every day, maybe 5-10. I can feel myself getting slowly better. I think consistency is important....practice, practice, practice.

Piano is actually very easy. You just need to pick up the fundamentals to a functional level. Alot of the rest can be picked up if you have a decent ear. Much like anything there's a learning curve. You dedicate yourself to slog through the initial frustration of the curve and the rest comes pretty easy.

Pick up this book and work through it:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0739003682/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_U.UbAb21EDKZK

This book has helped me out tremendously and I recommend that everyone should have it.

The book "Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences: Complete Book" gets posted here a lot. Does the book contain some information not easily available somewhere else, or is its major selling point only having everything printed in a nice format? I don't see the value of having e.g. C major scale with fingerings printed out, compared to simply having "RH 1231234, LH 1432132" written on a paper/tablet screen/whatever.

It doesn't really sound like you want a theory book, but rather a book to help you identify and practice scales, chords, etc. For that, you might want to check out this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0739003682/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It has a twenty page intro explaining some theory and then goes on to list all of the major/major scales, arpeggios, etc., in an easy to practice format.

To teach transposition I have my students transpose every tune in Masterwork Classics level 1-2 into all 12 keys.

They have to harmonicaly analyze the original key and then write each new key in pencil on staff paper. They also have to perform each one at no more than quarter note = 40bpm.

This can cover a lot of things if you take the time to dig into it. Note recognition on the staff, scale visualization, transposition skills, etc...

The Palmer-Hughes accordion course is the standard for beginner accordion instruction. They start at Book 1 and go up to 8 I believe. These are the books they used at the conservatory where I started at age 5 up til I was 12 and in grade 7 accordion. At the time, I was playing in a 40 piece accordion orchestra doing classical pieces such as Rossini's Overture to Barber of Seville. Good luck!

http://www.amazon.com/Palmer-Hughes-Accordion-Course-Book-1/dp/0739012916

Second the recommendation of scales and arpeggios, in all keys, major and minor. You can start off with just a few, the easiest ones (go in order of the circle of fifths if you want), and continue to add on. Start slowly and, most importantly, EVENLY, building a good foundation for speeding it up later and applying it to technical passages. But there's no real recommendation anyone can give you for "X amount of times," because scales and arpeggios are things you'll continuously practice no matter how high of a level you get to. At a higher level once you've mastered them, you may not have to do the entire set every day, but you can then apply them to pieces by choosing from your arsenal certain exercises that practice the techniques needed in a tricky section of Rach or such.

A good resource for other technique exercises is the book of Hanon exercises. It's been used for many decades, and includes lots of scale/arpeggio-type exercises, and you can work your way through them. Be aware, though, that they're VERY tedious (literally just pattern building through each key), but it sounds like you have the ability to self-motivate yourself. Be careful not to treat these just as exercises, though, and go through them robotically and monotonously, because it's very easy to see them as such. They're just tools developed to help finger agility, speed, and recognition of patterns so you can apply them to full-blown pieces. It's like a tennis player who practices a certain type of grip for 50 serves a day. Great if she can do it through the exercise, but if she reverts to her old grip when she starts playing a game (putting it into action), the grip practice was wasted. Application of theory into pieces is sometimes the hardest thing to do.

I know this has been a giant essay, but lastly, none of us can really give you an individual recommendation. It seems like you've got the self-motivation to learn yourself, but if you are interested in really getting a structured routine, get a private teacher, if only for a few lessons, to help you develop what kinds of things you need to work on.

The Hanon book might be what you are looking for. But your best bet is to get a good, dedicated teacher and see what he/she thinks you need.

Buy a Hanon's exercise book. I'm 22, and was given my grandfather's copy (from the 1930's) when I was around 11-12, and it really makes a difference in technical sections. Even though I've been playing them forever, I still use them as a tune-up when I feel a little slow. Recently just used them to prepare for a Bach obsession I'm in

edit: Here's actually the PDF of the book

[Czerny's 30 exercises are great] (https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Method-Beginners-Pianoforte-Op/dp/0793525675/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505531391&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=czeerny)


I would also recommend playing a few pieces from Bach, his music really reinforces right/left hand independence. Every time I sat down and committed to a Bach piece I came out a much better pianist.

Aside from that it takes time and commitment. For me it too a solid 6-8 months to really start getting comfortable with the mind/muscle connection associated with hand independence when playing.

First what you want to do is probably get a decent book of beginner songs and just work your way through them.

The piano literature series is popular, but I personally have not used them. I know volume 2 has a bunch of popular songs like Sonatina that everyone plays.

Burgmuller is also very popular among intermediate beginners.

You probably also want to get Hanon because everyone uses it for warm ups no matter what level, and it has all the scales.

And you might want Czerny, which are really short decent sounding pieces that people use for warmups.

These few books will get you started. Just start working through the books. Work on something from all three or four books.

Just a note. You'll probably be very enthusiastic in the beginning and get really bored before you reach your third month. You need to persist if you want to get good. I personally did not enjoy playing piano until I got pretty good and was able to play the more virtuoso piano pieces.

This one has the first two pieces you mentioned plus lots of other famous classics. Volume 2 has many more. Plus they have a nice comb binding that lays flat.

https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Classics-Moderns-Music-Millions/dp/0825640172

Does the pain begin immediately when you start playing? Are they sharp pains? At specific points or all over?

Assuming your bones healed properly, I would guess that the pain is related to your muscles and/or nerves and not the bones themselves. If that's the case,then some combination of stretching and strength building will probably be your cure. (although you said grade 4 was just four years ago, so your bones are still growing and that may change things).

In any event, you should make sure to start slowly each time you play. Give yourself some time to warm up before you go after a demanding passage.

I would also highly recommend you pick up and read Thomas Mark's 'What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body'.

http://www.amazon.com/What-Every-Pianist-Needs-About/dp/1579992064

Just my two cents, sounds like you are practicing wrong. Grab Alfred's Piano Method, go lesson by lesson and go silly slow. You'll be reading pretty fluent in under a year I guarantee it.

EDIT: Meant to link Level 1

Just FYI too, this book series (this is level 2 but find level 1 first) is basically what your teacher would probably use. It's awesome and you could probably follow along by yourself, but having a teacher is awesome. Try find a smaller music shop and ask about lessons, mine are only $30 each (once a week). Not too bad but even if you could afford one or two a month, you'd progress better than you'd expect.

Glad to hear. This book might give some insight along the away.

What's your current general level in piano, and your current experience in jazz? There are a ton of basics you could teach yourself from youtube videos and books before needing the input that an $80 an hour teacher might give you (yet). If you can read music and understand a bit of harmony you can take it a long way yourself.

https://www.amazon.com/Intro-Jazz-Piano-Leonard-Keyboard/dp/1617803103/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491029719&sr=8-1&keywords=introduction+to+jazz+piano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNCy8K9LZ54

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1617803103/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Intro to Jazz. Published by Hal Leonard. I've maybe a quarter way through, and I've learned a lot already! It throws a ton of theory at you, though, so if you don't even know the Circle of 5ths, then it may be a bit too advanced in some regards. Nonetheless, I absolutely love this book so far, and I'd highly recommend it.

This book for learning piano is free today on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Scales-Chords-Arpeggios-Lessons-Elements-ebook/dp/B00HGB70WM?ie=UTF8&amp%253Bamp%253Bie=UTF8&amp%253Bamp%253Bkeywords=piano%2520scales&amp%253Bamp%253Bqid=1387710817&amp%253Bamp%253Bsr=1-16&ref_=sr_1_16&s=books

The first thing I’d try to impress the most on you is the practice of GOOD practice. That in itself will make this whole new process less difficult for you to overcome:

— 30 minutes to an hour, 6 days a week (your brain as well as your body needs to rest). This step is really important.
Don’t practice for like, 3 days and then a month later come back. You’ll lose all of what you practiced and basically have to start over again. You want to be as consistent as possible so that you train your brain to be efficient — not your fingers.

— Keep a journal of what you practiced and how long.
Going back and looking at your progress after a month of doing so will help you to see how far you’ve come in such a short period of time and will help you gain confidence that you don’t, in fact, suck.

— Don’t play anything above your means. If you haven’t managed something like Bach’s Minuet in G than don’t try to play Flight of the Bumblebee by Korsakov. You’ll only hurt yourself and your technique and discourage yourself in the process. The later is the most dangerous.

— Learn some of your favorite pop songs. Classical music is cool and all but, you can also learn a lot from non traditional teachings of chords, harmonies and technique. Plus, you’ll look cooler at parties if you can, in fact, play Flight of the Bumblebee and then follow it up with Bohemian Rhapsody.

Here’s some books and websites that I started out with.
They’ll help to propel you in the right direction with everything that I’ve taught you thus far:

For challenging yourself/learning new pieces: https://www.amazon.com/First-Lessons-Bach-Complete-Schirmers/dp/1423421922

For sight reading practice: https://www.amazon.com/4S01-Royal-Conservatory-Sight-Reading/dp/1554407427/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543250017&sr=1-1&keywords=Four+star+sight+reading+book+1

For free scores of almost anything classically written: https://imslp.org

Here’s also a link to one of my favorite piano channel’s that talks about technique, progressing in skill and a plethora of other details that I didn’t cover: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz0PmHG0RvQHazlEsFU-4uQ

I wish you nothing but the best in your journey.
Fight against the current and make your dream a reality.


A. B. Martin
Live Alive With A. B. Martin — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyPSSMyYUS_KT8xcg7OsbBQ

Sounds awesome, thanks for the tip. Is it this one? https://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167

As a pianist, that's so cool! I wonder if she might be cool if you gave her something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322842729&sr=8-1

this book is a good place to start and it's not too expensive.

I'm 26 and started playing piano 2 months ago! I can't stress the impact a teacher has had on my learning!

I've been going through Alfreds Basic Adult Piano Course Music and Theory and have found it a great introduction.

This has also been supplemented with additional pieces from my tutor (I've just finished learning Motzart Minuet in F K2 and am nearly finished with Bach Minuet in G minor, BWV Anh. 115 ) which I though were challenging but fun pieces to learn :)

I guess I could have picked these books up and learnt myself, but I'd say my progress would have been a lot slower. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have as I am in a similar situation?

Are you trying to work on reading music? If so, it's just like reading words. Remember when learning to read how you did it? Taking it slow, like first recognizing 26 letters and the sounds they make, then you sound out groups of them called words, then groups of words for sentences, etc. You get better the more you do it. There may be tips/tricks promising quick results, but even with them, you just have to do it over and over.

I would suggest adult beginner piano books.

Amazon Link

Example PDF

They don't go painfully slow like kids beginner books, and taking it from the beginning is nothing to be ashamed of. Having a solid foundation will make future skills more stable. Best wishes!

> courses or apps for electronic artists who want to learn how to play

To be honest, piano is piano no matter the genre. I want get really good at jazz piano, but you still gotta develop the same foundation as pianist from every other genre. I went with one of those boring old Hal Lenoard or Alfred books for adults, and grind out the absolute basics. Learn your major and minor scales and how chords are built, and you pick up the basics to how to read music on the way. It's gonna suck, and you should experiment on the side as you're grinding this out. Once you got that down, you'll be in a really good place to go on to more difficult and style-based topics.

Most piano teachers will give you this book to start:

http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167

I spent a long time learning as a child, went back to teachers a couple of times as an adult to get a refresher. If you can get through book 1 and book 2 in the series, you can pretty much play any pop song, and holiday type song and it allows you to start to gauge tracks at an intermediate level. From there it's how much you want to practice.

1 hour a day every day for 2 years will do more for your ability than any number of lessons. Teachers are a guide, it's all about your willingness to work at a new skill. If you can't do an hour, do 30 minutes, or even 15. But daily practice is the key. If you can't commit to 15 minutes a day, you should consider what else you're prioritizing if you really want to learn to play.

Also, the whole 10,000 hours to mastery is especially true for any kind of music. an hour a day means 30 years to mastery. 8 hours a day means 5 years. This is why musicians typically get really good in high school - by around 6th grade most people are crossing over from hobby to passion, and then start committing real time to their passion before real world problems get in the way ( like work, marriage, kids, etc.).

Start off with a cheaper electric keyboards with less keys at first and then move on to larger ones as you get better. I also recommend Alfred's Basic Piano Library. I started on this book here: Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One https://www.amazon.com/dp/0882846167/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_CJgpybB2GKRD4

I hope this helps.

I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope you get your accordion in top form soon!

Alfred's books are the ones my teacher recommended to me and all her students. I liked it a lot. They have multiple books for different levels, so read few pages and pick the one right for you!
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167

They also have a complete book of scales and arpeggios that I highly recommend.

I run a discord serve aimed at helping people that are new at piano, but if that doesn't work for you I also recommend these sites.

MusicTheory.Net - to give you the overall idea of what music theory should be.

PianoLessonsOnTheWeb - for overall piano lessons. Not much seen into this guy personally, but what I have seen is pretty good.

Bill Hilton - absolutely awesome youtuber that provides some good ideas and techniques on what to do

Michael New - Overall really good at describing music theory.

Alfred's - Overall one of the most highly regarded beginner series known out there. Highly recommend.

Paul Barton - Overall to be amazed by his godly voice/humbleness and his overall playing (inspiration)

Discord - Shameless plug of my very own discrod server!

https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=pd_sim_14_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0882848186&pd_rd_r=9BXKZA1HQTXDF3HP8CXM&pd_rd_w=C55rC&pd_rd_wg=sBRPd&psc=1&refRID=9BXKZA1HQTXDF3HP8CXM

Hello! This question has surely been answered before, but this is definitely the thread to ask it in again. I started learning piano at the beginning of this year by taking a class at my university, and what really kept me going was the weekly lessons. We used Alfred's all in one adult piano book 1 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0882848186/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=1944687542&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0739013335&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=13PYJQZQ6C25YD6GVMVW , which progressed at a perfect pace, and I was assigned anywhere from 20 pages a week in the beginning to 4 by the end of the semester, until the book was completed and the year was over. I guess the questions I'm asking are for good incentives to stick to a regular routine of practicing (i.e. the little gpa booster the class was for me before) and more importantly, if I should move to alfred's book 2 or if anyone knows of a piano book that picks up from the basic skills I've learned yet has slightly more intriguing music! Thank you so much in advance :D

24, started when I was young, never got beyond "Teaching Little Fingers to Play". I'm picking it up again now, and after a week am 70 pages into the first book of Alfred's adult piano course.

I'm going much faster now due to increased technical ability (played the clarinet and a few other instruments in school) and the ability to sit still. Piano practice is also a pleasure, not a chore.

My wife is my teacher, even if she has some bad habits (loves keeping both thumbs on middle C - she is mostly self-taught)

Former classical guitar student here that definitely agrees that piano is easier than guitar in many ways. Anyway, there are a number of method books for piano such as Alfred's Adult All-In-One Course: Lesson-Theory-Technic: Level 1. A search at Amazon for "piano method books" will turn up others. Good luck!

I would highly suggest investing the time and money in Lessons. You will improve much faster under the guidance of a teacher (even just once or twice a month) than by yourself. If you absolutely refuse to go this route, however, I would suggest getting "Alfred's Basic All-In-One Piano Course Book One" (https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186). Go through this book and the others in the series (I think there are 3 total) and by then you should have enough technique under your fingers to be able to learn whatever songs/tunes/pieces you want.

Speaking as a professional musician (classical trumpet player) I can't stress enough the value of practicing scales and other "boring" technical exercises. These fundamentals are the building blocks of virtually all the music you'll ever play and the more you practice them, the easier it will be to learn new music. Good luck and happy practicing!

This is not a recommendation because I haven't used any of the Alfred books myself, however I observe that if you get & use this one, you can then participate in discussions on and getting help with using it in this 8000 message forum discussion thread going back 12 years.

This is alfred's,

https://www.amazon.ca/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-All-Course/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497479297&sr=8-1&keywords=alfreds+piano

Get a beginner piano book and start working through the exercises.

It'll take a long time to learn and internalize properly but with some dedication, it will become more intuitive

I'm currently working through Alfred's adult piano, and I enjoy it so far. I'm also using Hanon's Exercises to work on technique and stamina.


That's all I've got, I'm currently in the same boat as you. All I really know, is to avoid synthesia lol.

For Alfred, that's definitely the correct one, although I'll point out that one comes with a DVD -- if you don't want the DVD, you can get it for less. Here's the one that's just the book.

Hi OP.

I'm 27. I had piano lessons for several years when I was a preteen. I stopped and started a few times in the past several years.

I recently picked up Alfred's piano books (I'm sure there are better options for this specific use), which contain far easier pieces to play than what I played when I was 8-9 years old.

But that means despite not knowing the sheet music, I know I can play the pieces themselves fairly easily. It's been AMAZING for me to get started sight reading again.

In other words, find pieces that are easy for you to play technically, so that when you're practicing the piece you're actually working on how to read the music, not play the piece. In my opinion, anyway.

Lol are you me?

Your story is scary close to mine, I took lessons from 9-12 and just started to try and get back into around 23.

I can tell you what I did, I'm still kind of figuring it out myself:


I bought a P115 (600$), I didn't have the option to use my old unweighted piano as it broke many years ago, I could have gone with the P45 (450$) but recent college grad with decent paying job so I said fuck it and dropped the extra 150$ based on this subs recommendations.


That being said playing on a decent weighted keyboard is infinitely more enjoyable than playing on an unweighted keyboard; I think if I had had something like a P45/P115 (they use the same key action so they feel the same) I would have stuck with lessons as a kid longer. It is just so much more enjoyable to sit and play at.


As for getting back up to speed I try and practice 30 mins ~ 1 hour a day in 15-20 min sessions.


I usually do a Hannon Hand Exercise then I do a scale/cords ( I'm just working my way through major and minor scales one per day).


I bought Alfred's All-in-One Adult Beginner Course and blasted through the first 3/4ths of the first book and now try and do one little chunk (lesson and associated song) a day or over the course of 2 or 3 days based on it's difficulty.

I try and sight read something new everyday and really focus on technique and dynamics, so I'm working my way through Kabalevsky's 24 Pieces for Children one piece a day, nice and slow, focusing on dynamics, technique, and tempo.


Lastly I picked two songs I wanted to work on that are just slightly above my current level and maybe a little bit below the my level when I quite all those years ago. The way I practice those songs is by picking out the hardest measure and working on it nice and slow, hands apart and together, then work on the next hardest measure, and so on and so forth.


So that's what I'm doing, maybe you can find a nugget of help in all that, I did a fair amount of research on how to practice and what to practice ( had some really boring days at work lol )

https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186

I thought this book was really good. http://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=pd_sim_b_8

I don't think you really need a teacher, these books do a good job of explaining everything. (There are three.) If you have basic understanding of rhythm and how to read music even if you can't do it perfectly, you should be fine. =) Have fun!

I'm attempting to teach myself some basic piano. I just ordered this book and some stickers, as well as made some flashcards to help me read notes on a staff. Are there any recomended books, youtube vids, drills that other self-taught players used?

You don't need 88 keys if you're just starting out, in my opinion. Songs you'll be learning to start won't go anywhere near the far ends of the piano. Weighted keys also are much more expensive.


I'd just go with something like a cheap used Yamaha 76 key (I see them on Craigslist now and again for like $100) and see if it's something that he likes. For resources, get him the Alfred Books for Adult Beginners. If it interests him and he wants to pick it up, that's when I'd consider something nicer.

> There are also people who appreciate a more conservative view towards "classical".

I've never denied that. Nor am I denying a space for that kind of view. As I've already told you several times before, my issue is not with your definition per se, but your attempt to portray that definition as synonymous with "classical music".

> pieces and composers that are routinely performed worldwide as per the standard classical piano repertoire for performances, recitals, concerts, or competitions.

Ah yes, the institutional theory of art. The trouble with this definition is that it's circular - "It's classical because it's in the standard repertoire, and the standard repertoire exists because it's made up of pieces that are classical". Even if this sort of definition was meaningful, it still wouldn't provide much evidence to back up your view. A quick look at just a partial list of upcoming performances of works by, for example, Schoenberg, shows that these composers receive plenty of performances. To suggest that they are not part of the "consensus", runs counter to the facts, and is frankly insulting to the performers I mentioned in my last post. I'm still waiting on an answer about them, by the way. There's even an entire year-long festival in London at the moment celebrating 20th century classical music, with everything from Adams to Zappa.

Now, you might come back and provide examples of other lists of performances from the same website which show that, for example, performances of works by Mozart are more frequent, or that performances of Xenakis are less frequent. Even if I set aside the complex set of historical biases, artistic prejudices and financial concerns which account for this, I can still provide counterexamples which undermine this point. Take the list of upcoming performances of the works of CPE Bach for example. This is a man who quite literally wrote the book on "classical piano". Mozart supposedly remarked that "He is the father, we are the children". Not only that, but the 300th anniversary of his birth is coming up next year. And yet his list has fewer performances on it than Schoenberg's (50 vs. 87 at the time of writing). So by the definition that you've just provided, CPE Bach shouldn't be included within the bounds of "classical piano" either. Hopefully that gives you just one small illustration of how this sort of definition quickly becomes ridiculous when actually applied to the real world. Counting performances doesn't tell us what is and isn't "classical", it mainly just shows us which composers happen to be popular with audiences at any given moment.

It doesn't matter how many times you shift your definition, I can keep coming back and showing you what's wrong with each one, because your basic premise remains the same - it's a premise which is at best misleading. Either start a new subreddit with an accurate name for the content you want, or modify the rules of the existing one to make the name accurate.

No, it really starts from the beginning. The first part is available in amazon's preview.

http://www.amazon.com/Improve-Your-Sight-Reading-Piano-Elementary/dp/0571533116/

I haven't seen a (free) scale and arpeggio manual online, but a complete training book is available for $5 at amazon. You may as well buy one because it will last a lifetime and it will give you a rock solid foundation to build your repertoire upon.

For free sheet music the best place I have found is the Petrucci Music Library at imslp.org. Best of luck on your piano journey.

Alfred in particular has a good guide with various forms of scales/cadences/arpeggios for every key. If you're interested in learning to play pop/jazz piano, learning to comfortably play inversions of every chord is very important as well.

Here you go.

Whoa, I started with those exact 3 songs when I started learning the piano almost 10 years ago! Anyway, I suggest you start with this book to learn some fundamental music theory. I like this book because it has multiple scales and lists the chords and arpeggios for each key signature and goes through the circle of 5ths. You don't necessarily have to go through this book in order, just make sure you follow the fingering patterns carefully and play the scales, chord progressions and arpeggios slowly so you can internalize them and familiarize yourself with the layout of the keyboard.

If you'd like to become a proficient sight-reader (which I highly recommend, being good at sight-reading will help you in the long run), start practicing with reading some simple pieces. Go through the Alfred's book and see how well you can read through those pieces on the first run. If you feel like you need more sight-reading practice, the Mikrokosmos books will provide you with plenty of material to sight read. I also like this book of hymns. Remember, if you can't play it nearly perfectly (at least in terms of getting the notes right) on the first run, it probably means you should work on reading through that piece. So keep practicing!

If you have the money, you might be interested in investing in this series of books. Each level contains Baroque, Classical and Romantic pieces, as well as etudes and music theory, which really helps with building up a well-rounded foundation. But then again, the best use of your money would be ideally spent on a good teacher.

If you'd like a song at a similar level to what you're currently learning, I also learned this version of Canon, Ballade Pour Adeline, A Thousand Miles (because it's a fun piece and why not :)), and Summer by Joe Hisaishi during my early piano years.

But to be honest, I don't recommend learning any of the pieces I just listed above, because they will take you too long to learn. In the same amount of time you spend learning those songs, you could be progressing much faster if you focused on learning fundamentals and picked much easier pieces. And I mean pieces as simple as Minuet in G major and Minuet in G minor, maybe even simpler.

I feel obligated to write all of this since you're starting from a similar place that I was when I first began learning piano. Jumping into pieces that sound beautiful or amazing isn't the most efficient method of learning. Take this from me who went from being fixated on learning the entire Fur Elise → River Flows in You → Canon in D → Rondo Alla Turca and other songs wayyyyy beyond my level, to dropping all of it in and just starting from the very basics because I realized I sounded like utter ****, even if I could play the notes and it sounded fine to my family/friends who didn't play piano. I also wasn't making much progress in terms of learning, since each new piece would take me foreverrrr to actually learn. Building up your fundamentals is the way to go, because once you get to the level where you can actually play those beautiful pieces, the learning process will be so much faster. I know starting from the bottom and working your way up can be a slow and sometimes even tedious process, especially when you have to go through all these pieces that seem really easy or boring, but trust me, it will be worth it and far more rewarding in the end. :)

This book helped me a lot during my first 30 days.

Who does an AMA and doesn't answer all the questions??? Too many people! ...but NOT ME :) This is the book that is a must to develop your technique: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0739003682/?coliid=IVJTCFYTABUQ9&colid=UEHNYEAL44KE&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it


...and I can't stress this point enough: You MUST employ a teacher expert in technique development if you really want to excel as a pianist. While at UMKC conservatory, I had a mean old German fraulein who would literally rap my knuckles when I kept repeating the same mistakes until fear and pain forced me to put the practice time in to remedy the problem. I can't stress the importance of how seamless your left-hand thumb under technique must be for scales and arpeggios. Funny how all scales begin with they key of C - which is actually, IMHO the MOST difficult key of all to play! People think "no sharps or flats, but be easy, right?" Wrong. Playing the black keys is easier because there's actually more physical distance between them and, given the fact that they are raised above the white keys, they are easier to strike. UNLIKE C major, which has only the narrower white keys to play making execution significantly more difficult. I'll take the key of Cb over C any day!

Did he start learning about scales and arpeggios ? If not, she will most probably start soon, so this book could be an option.

If she was my mother, I would get her a nail-clipper as she has to constantly cut her nail, so they don't make any sound when she hits the piano keys.

If she loves her nails, she hates the fact that she has to cut them to be able to practice "probably'.

Are you looking for something such as Alfred's complete book of scales, chords, arpeggios and cadences? I bought it after reading about it here and I am not disappointed.

I was in the same boat a couple of moths ago, went to musical school from ages 6-13, stopped when I moved to another country. Haven't touched piano for 6 years. Decided to get back into it, bought a digital piano 2 months ago.

For key signatures, I recommend practicing scales and arpeggios, acquiring this book can certainly help. For music theory, I highly recommend checking out Dave Conservatoire. He has made a bunch of videos about general music theory.

Sight reading is something you pick up with experience, a good exercise is to sightread absurdly easy pieces (start with grade 1). I was never much into sight reading, but I do have this PDF which might be helpful. There should be plenty of sight reading exercises on the web.

I am not sure what you mean by this, is it training relative pitch or improvising on spot and playing exactly what you have in mind you want? I seem to improve both of these things while transcribing music into a score. I guess composing could work as well. I started out painfully slowly, (took me 5 hours to transcribe first 20 seconds of Come on Eileen). But, just like any skill, you will get better at it with experience. The software I use for ranscribing is called Sybelius, but if you can not afford it (or if you do not support pirating) there are free alternatives.

Arguably, the most important thing is staying interested. Playing scales, learning music theory, listening to the same song 50 times because you can not figure out a chord or timing can be extremely boring at times. So playing a piece that truly challenges your hands will reward you much more than practicing tedious scales.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0739003682?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0739003682/


This book is the answer to your troubles.

This book has all the scales in it, with fingerings. Fairly easy to print that information out yourself but if you don't have access to a printer or want a bound copy, it might be worth getting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0739003682/

This one has a variety of classical pieces. They're all pretty easy arrangements, but unfortunately I don't think they're ordered by difficulty:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486410927/

Hanon can be helpful, but remember that technique is a means to an end. Really, if you learn to play 3-10 short pieces with musical dynamics and articulation, you're learning technique and coordination as well. Why not grab a book like the [first Masterworks Classics book] (http://www.amazon.com/Masterwork-Classics-Level-Alfred-Editions/dp/0739006770) and try to learn 5-10 pieces? I think you'll be surprised at how quickly you can improve.

Also, my biggest suggestion for technique is to keep your wrist fluid. If you make sure to keep your wrist from locking while playing quickly, you'll go far. For example, many beginners think of the first five notes of Hanon #1 as five notes/five finger motions, but it's really one wrist movement. When you start thinking of grouping notes like this, your technique can take off.

The [Masterwork Classics] (https://www.amazon.com/Masterwork-Classics-Level-1-2-Book/dp/0739006770) series is pretty good. They come in quite a range of levels that would see you through a lot of growth. There's also a decent amount of songs in each book for a relatively affordable price. The variety of classic composers in each book might also help you discover which composers you enjoy best (if you don't already know).

I've been recommended the Palmer Hughes beginner books quite a few times, and it's what my teacher uses.

Palmer-Hughes Accordion Course, Bk 1: For Group or Individual Instruction https://www.amazon.com/dp/0739012916/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_9X0GAb2ASPD9P

Depending on how much you know about music, going anywhere in this book series can help quite a lot.

Hey, if you're brand new and out of practice with sight reading, I'd recommend that you get Palmer-Hughes Book 1.

https://www.amazon.com/Palmer-Hughes-Accordion-Course-Bk-1/dp/0739012916

It starts off with the most basic of the basics, which is probably a good plan so you don't develop bad habits.

Plus, learning an instrument is a much easier process when you start by working on stuff that's at the right level.

OP - I've never taken lessons, but I highly recommend the Palmer-Hughes accordion series. http://www.amazon.com/Palmer-Hughes-Accordion-Course-Bk-1/dp/0739012916

I bought an accordion in college because it was just so beautiful, and my friends gifted me with book 1 for my birthday. Pretty easy to go through (especially if you have a piano background, but that's not needed), and slowly progresses. Don't know if you will need to start with book 1 or not, since it seems you can do some.

Anyway, worth checking out! I've enjoyed my books, and although it's kinda vintage-y, it does a good job of giving you different kinds of songs too (waltz, polka, latin, etc.)

I'm also really interested in answers in this post!

It depends on what you are trying to do.

Definitely scales, major and minor, hands together, four octaves up and back.

Definitely arpeggios, of both major and minor, triads and sevenths.

If you are trying to do improvisation, learning pentatonic scale exercises are really important. I do one like:

1235 2356 3561 5612 6123

Up the piano separately as well as hands together, major and minor.

(Going down would be: 5321 3216 2165 1653 6532)

(And those are scale degrees, not fingerings.)

And then there are classical exercises such as this and this

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446&ved=0ahUKEwiKosmdlMzNAhWLOSYKHU0YDTUQFghxMAk&usg=AFQjCNFdItV_cTSzTFwtY_uszIdXP2pM5w

That's an exercise book by Hanon. As far as I know, it's pretty well known. The begining exercises are super easy, but towards the middle and end, they are good at making your fingers do paterns and things they don't commonly do. I'll pick one out and do it as a warm up kind of thing regularly. They are good for flexibility and dexterity. I would recommend, especially if you don't have a piano teacher making you do runs, arpeggios and everything else.

Two of my three piano teachers have recommended Hanon exercises to me. The basic idea is that you play the simple patterns as evenly as possible (all notes the same volume and the rhythm constant).
I found that they really help to build muscles in your fourth and fifth fingers, which tend to be the weakest, and help to control your thumb which tends to be overly strong.
There may be other places to get the exercises without buying the full book. I never actually progressed further than the first few exercises, but they made a huge difference to controlling each finger individually.
Hope this helps!

Playing evenly requires strengthening your finger muscles. Like the other comment mentioned, each finger has different strength depending on your usage. Hanon books are usually very good for practice. Another very good book is the Hal Leonard Schirmer's Library "Scales & Finger Exercises". Each exercise tells you which fingers it's focusing on. I honestly don't believe in the tapping on table method.

I think it's pointless to keep tapping one finger to strengthen it over and over again. You need to move that finger in a context with the OTHER fingers as well because usually it's 'alternating' between fingers that demands the most control. You can develop the muscle memory for a particular finger but when you alternate/change it become even more challenging. Hanon and the book I mentioned have the same idea. They focus on strengthening your weaker fingers alongside neighboring ones.

Link to the book:

https://www.amazon.com/Scales-Finger-Exercises-Schirmer-Schirmers/dp/149500547X/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=Scales+and+Finger+Exercises%3A+Schirmer+Library+of+Classic+Volume+2107+%28Schirmer%27s+Library+of+Musical+Classics%29&qid=1557982300&s=books&sr=1-1-fkmrnull

​

https://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=Scales+and+Finger+Exercises%3A+Schirmer+Library+of+Classic+Volume+2107+%28Schirmer%27s+Library+of+Musical+Classics%29&qid=1557982300&s=books&sr=1-1-fkmr0

​

Bach pieces or Handel are usually also very good exercises :)

Goodluck!

Buy the Hanon book, it's a really good exercise/method book for 6 dollars. Every pianist has a copy of this.

Piano teacher for 5 years here. This is more or less a directly copy and paste from a previous comment of mine.

Obviously, I'm going to recommend you find a teacher as soon as is possible if you really want to advance. BUT there are a lot of things you can do on your own to learn effectively.

• First, do not practice to the point of frustration. This may sound odd, but 20-30 minutes spend at the piano at the same time each day is much more effective then an hours on end. It more about building up patterns of behavior that are conducive to learning. Set a pattern that you follow every day and be sure to set aside extra time to experience more piano music. Listen to jazz, classical, pop, broadway, film scores, anything that is mostly piano and is recorded by a professional. This ear training will be much more valuable then hours at the keyboard.
  
  
• Secondly, aim a little lower at first. There are tons of method books out there and all of them have value. At this point in your education note reading and ear training are the most important to focus on. Get books that you can easily understand (even if they are children's books!) and read, read, read! the more you read, the better you'll get! Think of how you learned to read when you where a child. At first everyone reads small books with three or four letter words and they read a hundred of them. Then they move on to pop-up books and read hundreds of those. Then short stories, also in the hundreds. This processes is not up for debate, it's how we learn. Apply that to you piano study! The pieces you have already learned are great but have obviously left a few holes to fill in your education. Don't be discouraged, it takes years to become proficient at music reading but you can do it if you put in the effort!
  
  
• Third and finally, learn your scales. There are a few books used by almost all piano teachers to teach basic technique and dexterity. I like to use Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises and start with #32, 33, and 34. Then move on to #39, which is all the major and minor scales. I start my kids on this after a year or two, and my adult students as soon as possible. You will also benefit greatly from learning the fist twenty or so. Those focus solely on the practical study of hand coordination and dexterity, rather then the more theoretical study of major and minor keys. Another is Czerny: Art of Finger Dexterity for the Piano. There are also few others I'm not super familiar with. I would NOT recommend the Czerny without a teacher! that book is an asskicker and could seriously hurt your wrist/forearm without proper guidance.
  
  I hope this helps a little. Remember that you have just started and you have to crawl before you can walk. Take it easy and make sure you understand everything before moving on to the next step. Good luck and have fun!!

That's good that you recognized it. It's always tempting to rush past tough fingerings, but you get the most out of practice when you can isolate a technique, break it down, and focus on it.

Check this video out: http://youtu.be/AoLvhHjacMw?t=56m14s
It's Valentina Lisitsa working on a brand new piece (to her).
Here she repeats a single section repeatedly until it's almost 100% before moving on. Even the top pianists have to replay sections until it's in their fingers. Hold yourself to a similar high standard when you practice. Really try to get at least get one solid pass without mistakes, even if it's at a much slower tempo. Here's a story about Rachmaninoff practicing a Chopin etude so slow it was unrecognizable: http://www.practisingthepiano.com/enjoying-ultra-slow-practice/

Also, I recommend you get Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises. Lots of good exercises. Even Rachmaninoff recommended them. Good luck.

I'd agree with all of this, I honestly can't remember how I learned the notes myself. I think it just came naturally from playing.

In terms of finger exercises a really good book I have is "The Virtuoso Pianist" by Charles-Louis Hanon. As you can see by that link it seems to have a good few criticisms but I found it really good myself. I'd say you should go over them with your piano teacher now and again just to ensure you aren't drilling them incorrectly. A possible way you could learn the notes as well could be by saying them out loud as you are doing the exercises.

You can check it out on IMSLP here anyway and decide for yourself, or if you'd prefer a hard copy of it there are plenty on amazon too.

There's a Hanon book of exercises, I used it when I was taking lessons. It will help primarily with dexterity, but it can help you learn to read music as well.

edit: http://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Exercises-Acquirement-Independence-Schirmers/dp/0793525446

cheap, worth it.

Give YouTube a shot. If she is musically inclined and puts in the time they might do the trick. I was surprised by the number of quality, free lessons out there.

I also recommend this book. Follow the directions exactly, put the time in, and the results will come. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0793525446

If you want to learn how to sightread, I suggest you check out:

• [Bartok Mikrokosmos Books on Sightreading](http://imslp.org/wiki/Mikrokosmos,_Sz.107_(Bart%C3%B3k,_B%C3%A9la) ^^Amazon
  
• Burgmuller's 25 Progressive Studies/Etudes (Sidenote: Do this if you're a medium level sight reader)
  ^^Amazon
  
  If you wish to become better at endurance, dexterity, fingering, etc., I suggest you take a look at:
  
  
• [Czerny's Practical Method for Beginners](http://imslp.org/wiki/Practical_Exercises_for_Beginners,_Op.599_(Czerny,_Carl) ^^Amazon
  
• [Liszt Technical Exercises](http://imslp.org/wiki/Technische_Studien,_S.146_(Liszt,_Franz) (Use if you're a bit advanced) ^^Amazon
  
  
  If you want to know what level you are at piano, check out ABRSM
  
  
  IMPORTANT SIDENOTE: The IMSLP links don't work due to Reddit's formatting system, so when you click them, add a ")" (without quotes) to the end of the URL link.

There is a book about piano voicing by Frank Mantooth, https://www.amazon.com/Voicings-Jazz-Keyboard-Frank-Mantooth/dp/0793534852/ref=nodl_
Invaluable. Learn blues progression and learn about the key jazz chord progression, ii-V-I

the usual recommendations are Mark Levine's 2 books, Mantooth's Voicings book, books by Jerry Coker and deGreg:

http://www.marklevine.com/books.html

http://www.amazon.com/Voicings-Jazz-Keyboard-Frank-Mantooth/dp/0793534852

http://www.phildegreg.com/ed.html

---------

lots of detailed rec's here also: http://www.reddit.com/r/piano/search?q=learn+jazz&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all

http://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/search?q=piano+jazz&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all

I just bought Voicings for Jazz Piano By Frank Mantooth. My jazz friends highly recommended it to me. I'm still waiting for it in the mail but I checked out some ideas from it from my buddy. Seemed like the good stuff to me.

There are a couple of collections of music you might want to buy, just based on the wide variety music they have, including lots of pieces for beginners. One is the library of piano classics while the other is a set of anthologies from the boroque, classical, romantic, and 20th century. Other then that you can find a lot of music on imslp.

https://www.amazon.com/Piano-Handbook-Complete-Guide-Mastering/dp/0879307277

Awesome book for beginner.

Well, besides getting a teacher, there are a number of books/resources you could get. The problem is that you have holes in your knowledge from not playing so long, and no one knows what exactly you do know and what you don't, so there's no one place to "dive in". You may want to start with the more beginner resources and just skim through the parts you think you already know.

You might want to get a piano method book, which will guide you through beginner concepts to more advanced in a logical fashion. Pianoworld Discussion

Here's a popular beginner method book which is mentioned in the above thread: Alfred's All-in-one Adult Course.

Or if you want a more comprehensive reference that covers a LOT more in one book, a lot of people like this: Piano Handbook: Complete Guide.... But read the lower-starred reviews to see why many people think it's not necessarily a good book for a beginner to use.

See our FAQ links under What to practice for the pianopractice.org link and music theory links and more (You'll want a good grounding in music theory to start learning jazz piano).

Our FAQ has lots of links on getting started with Jazz, and there's an extra link in my comment here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/1kbs7u/best_youtube_videos_for_learning_jazz_piano/

Not a website, but: I'm using The Piano Handbook by Carl Humphries. It's the best instruction book I've ever read. I recommend it highly.

I've also used Fundamentals of Piano Practice by C. C. Chang. It is a comprehensive guide to practice techniques favoured by Mr. Chang and his daughers IIRC. I'm not qualified to say if this is the "best" technique, but it certainly works.

There's more classical sheet music that you could ever want at the International Music Score Library Project.

Good luck! :)

One book that really helped me when I was learning the basics was "Practical Theory". Here's the amazon https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Theory-Complete-Spiral-Bound-Book/dp/0882842250/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487043528&sr=8-1&keywords=practical+theory

I'm not sure if this is quite what you're after, but you might find C.P.E. Bach's treatise on keyboard instruments to be instructive - from what I recall, there are segments about keyboard accompaniment in there.

Part Two of Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, by C.P.E. Bach

There’s a few ways to go for this. There’s a Sight Reading book series that has multiple levels for beginners to advanced readers. There’s also a couple of helpful websites.

Sight Reading Factory (paid)
The Sight Reading Project

There’s definitely more out there of course.

I've been using the Paul Harris "Improve Your Sight-Reading!" books and they have been great. They gradually move you from stupid simple, introduce a new technique/rhythm/key signature/something every chapter in a really logical way. I started with just basic grade 1 about 6 months ago and am now on grade 4, and the difference in my sight reading ability is pretty danged amazing.

https://www.amzn.com/0571533116

You should get a piano bench that is adjustable. I started with the one linked below, although I'd shop around as the price may have jumped up. I don't remember spending 50 dollars, but considering it's lasted 6 years I guess it was worth it. It's not 100% adjustable since it has "levels" and you might end up needing a height between levels. The acoustic piano benches that are fully adjustable cost $200+ though. A bench at the proper height will help avoid back pain after playing for a little while.

Scales are good to learn, you can do this as a warm up. I just listed two that seem to come up often and only had a single black key in them. I wouldn't recommend learning only scales as that would get boring. My teacher would have me do one scale as a warm up and when I could play it two-octave, hands together, including the 3 primary chords and inversions, and the arpeggio (the book we used had all of these on one page) then we'd move to a new one.

Now I'm going back and playing the scales of any pieces I'm working on at the time during warm-up. I do 4 octaves contrary motion. So it starts out normal then half way left hand starts going back down and right hand keeps going up. When right hand hits the 4th octave it starts going down and left hand starts going up again. Makes them feel fresh. I can learn scales faster than pieces so soon I'll have to start rotating scales in that aren't tied to pieces.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GUR8V8/ref=s9_acsd_top_hd_bw_boCu1_c_x_3_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-2&pf_rd_r=ZWXDVWB0S7AT05JJVCKX&pf_rd_r=ZWXDVWB0S7AT05JJVCKX&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=ab2b2dba-42b7-45ce-8379-d10e65c92e8d&pf_rd_p=ab2b2dba-42b7-45ce-8379-d10e65c92e8d&pf_rd_i=11966001

Edit - this is the new book I use for scales. The old one was fine but this had a little more info in it. There were some sections at the beginning that explained how scales were formed before getting into the usual big list of all of them.

https://www.amazon.com/Scales-Chords-Arpeggios-Cadences-Complete/dp/0739003682

> s

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Scales-Chords-Arpeggios-Cadences/dp/0739003682

This one?

Aw, I'm sorry you're feeling sick and bummed out. I'm in the same exact boat! I'm got super sick yesterday, and today I'm feeling no better. And this week is my Spring Break! I had plans to be outside and stuff. Sigh. I guess it's better that I got sick when I didn't have school though. =/

I saw this video last night and I couldn't help but smile! It's silly, but I like Taking Back Sunday a lot, and I thought it was really cool of them to do this. Plus, the chorus is like...genuinely awesome, haha! And they showed bunny and chinchilla puppets (I have a bunny, and I had a chinchilla that passed away two years ago).

If that doesn't put a little grin on your face, then this ought to do the trick! =D

Oh, and here's my item: piano practice book.

Please feel better and thank you so much for hosting this contest!

lol the Liszt studies are not at all appropriate for the level of the Alfred Level 1 book.

OP, get the Alfred's Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios & Cadences:

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Scales-Chords-Arpeggios-Cadences/dp/0739003682

Buy a book on chords and learn them (at least all the basics). Learn transitions from major to minor, etc. You will start to ingrain the natural progression of notes in your head, as well as what other notes would work harmoniously with your loops, samples, etc.

I took piano for a while, but I've been out of practice. This book is helping me get back into things.

Check out www.musictheory.net, maybe download an app like Functional Ear Trainer to get your relative pitch up to par and get Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences or a similar book. I would recommend going through it with your teacher, not trying to rush through it.

I do! Don't have a lot of beats so far but I'm working on it haha. You can check them out here if you want.

Also if you really want to learn music theory I recommend the book "Music Theory for Computer Musicians" by Michael Hewitt, you can also "borrow" it online if you catch my drift. It's a series of 3 books if I'm not mistaken (second covering harmony and third one composition). Then maybe you'd want a piano scales book (like this). Knowing your scales is pretty important if you want to compose music, you'll have to practice those and the book is really helpful for that. You can also find free versions online of similar books (I think r/piano has a link for one in their beginner's guide).

But again, really not that necessary for lofi hiphop unless you want to go deep. Music theory however is not wasted knowledge, so go for it if you're really motivated.

music theory on youtube

https://youtu.be/Ud9CpGOG1GE

see if you can hook up your instrument to a computer or get a modest priced/used one that can and get synthesia

https://synthesiagame.com

pickup this book; you can take the cdrom that comes with the book and load those midi files into synthesia. This will allow you to ensure you are doing the exercises in the book correctly

https://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Group-Piano-Adults-Book/dp/B0071F9BIY/ref=sr_1_26?keywords=Alfred+piano+book&qid=1572991464&sr=8-26

Learn the landmark system (instead of the typical Every Good Boy Deserves Chocolate and FACE methods of learning the Treble Clef

https://youtu.be/jSOU-J9KHbg

I also recently had this book recommended to me but it has not arrived yet

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Scales-Chords-Arpeggios-Cadences/dp/0739003682/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=chord+book&qid=1572991814&sr=8-6

I just started using this app to train my ear to identify notes

https://mdecks.com/politonus.phtml

My method so far about 8 months into learning. My best friend is a professional musician (lives far so can't help me practically) and unlike some opinions floating around he was very encouraging of using Synthesia as long as I continued to pursue actual music reading in parallel. There is a button on Synthesia to show the sheet music so you can do both. That said sitting with just the book or a piece of music that is familiar in front of you and forcing yourself to spend some time with it alone is very fulfilling and will come slowly as you work with all of these materials. Good Luck!

Well, my best advice (if possible) is just to pick up any book that has a combination of scales and basic chord progressions (like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Scales-Chords-Arpeggios-Cadences/dp/0739003682/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343850716&sr=8-1&keywords=piano+chords+scales) and spend a few months working everyday learning them on piano or a keyboard. When you're making a song if you know ahead of time what key you want to write it in and then limit yourself to the notes available in that scale you'll find that you feel a lot more in control. If that's not possible you could try to pick up a music theory textbook, but in general those tend to be geared almost exclusively towards people that are going to be composing with pencil and paper (AKA Sibelius) in the Western Classical tradition so a lot of the rules they impose early on (avoidance of parallel/hidden fifths and octaves, some of the rules dealing minor scales) won't really apply what so ever to the stuff you're trying to do, but if you're interested in doing modulations (fancy smancey word for key changes) or utilizing weird scales like the half diminished you're probably gonna want to pick up a music theory textbook eventually.

NOW if you wanna go really deep down the rabbit hole, I'd pick up this book: http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Harmony-100th-Anniversary-Edition/dp/0520266080/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1343851092&sr=8-3&keywords=schoenberg

It's partially a music theory textbook but it's more an investigation into why harmonic structures work the way they do. Schoenberg's theory relating bass notes to chords completely changed the way I make music.

Hopefully that wasn't too confusing.

I bought the Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences: Complete Book recently, and was surprised to see that the recommended ("used by most pianists") LH fingering for C, F and G arpeggios is 5 4 2 1. (Although it does mention that for some people 5 3 2 1 might be more comfortable.)

How the hell is 5 4 2 1 more efficient or comfortable than 5 3 2 1? Am I losing anything (i.e. making something else in the future more difficult for myself) by sticking with 5 3 2 1? I can do 5 4 2 1 too, but it feels a bit awkward, especially the 1-4 transitions.

Alfred's Masterwork Classics series is, in my opinion, a great resource. The pieces are pretty simple in the beginning, and you should be able to transition from something like "Alfred's Volume 1" without much difficulty. I know I found it a real joy:).

$7.16

Been learning for less than a year now... As the other posts say - make sure these things fit your instrument (before learning it all wrong), but these things worked for me!

Print out a cheat sheet of your bass ( e.g. https://i.stack.imgur.com/QrD1P.png ). Some people I heard use a mirror at first, but I find having this handy is a must at first. There is also https://www.accordionhelper.com/ if you are near a computer/tablet, amazing website.

With regards to how to go about learning, there is a great website which has subscription based videos https://accordionlove.com/ which go through all the basics, and break down some songs. The dude who does these is absolutely top. I also recommend the Palmer-Hughes Accordion Course books (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0739012916), if you feel better following something in front of you. These books help you get through learning the instrument, as well as reading music.

Last piece of advice I have is find a song you like and go for it. There's a lot of resource out there for sheet music like musescore. Some songs I hit up early in learning accordion are: Fly me to the moon, Teach the world to sing, Love me tender. I'd be happy to share the sheet music if you'd like it! Just drop me a message.

Hope you enjoy it! Get some video of your first song up on the subreddit if you feel brave enough, it's good to see other beginners!

That Hanon book of scales and exercises made me straight up quit taking lessons!

Mind you I was like 9 years old or something and I wish I kept at it as my left hand is now useless....

Hannon exercises are GREAT for finger dexterity and stamina. I've used them for years.

http://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Exercises-Acquirement-Independence-Schirmers/dp/0793525446/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321469844&sr=1-1

I've used these when I first started. Assuming you are able to sit and doing musically boring exercises these are a good way to build the muscles in your hands. However I recommend you find someone to listen to you to make sure you're timing and technique are on point.

you can try Hanon or Czerny
https://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446


https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Method-Beginners-Op-599/dp/0793525675/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0793525675&pd_rd_r=99a4ecb3-d10e-11e8-bdc5-8929d75e6129&pd_rd_w=rcva6&pd_rd_wg=2EWZ1&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=6725dbd6-9917-451d-beba-16af7874e407&pf_rd_r=X17PZ9CXNGYQ9JEAG7X0&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=X17PZ9CXNGYQ9JEAG7X0

I know it's a contentious group of pieces, but I've had incredible luck with Hanon. If you can read music and play hands together, I highly recommend it.

I took lessons for 13 years, but since I've been in college I've been self teaching. I've always really loved piano and I have decent technique, but I never really learned things in a way that wasn't sloppy. I decided I wanted to change that, and I sat down and learned all 3 parts of Hanon exactly as instructed in the book. It's not a perfect method, but I play through it every day now and honestly my technique is miles beyond what it used to be. I wish I had learned as a beginner so badly it hurts.

So my suggestion to you is this: buy this book (http://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414561983&sr=1-1&keywords=hanon), play through it every day (no matter how boring it may get) exactly as instructed. It takes a little under an hour to play the whole book at tempo, and I imagine you'll be preoccupied learning all of the etudes for quite a while.

I'm a firm believer that we can all craft ourselves into excellent pianists, and all I think you need to do that is repertoire and a will to practice and make a sound that you like. Once you have the technique from the Hanon down, you can get started on any number of pieces. Another very good method is Bela Bartok's Mikrokosmos, which my mean, Hungarian teacher made me slave away at for years. It comes in 6 volumes, the first of which is (http://www.amazon.com/Mikrokosmos-Pink-English-French-Hungarian/dp/1423493044/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414562208&sr=1-1&keywords=mikrokosmos).

If you were to learn a significant amount of the material from either of those methods, you would be a significantly better pianist. If classical piano isn't necessarily the route you want to go, you'll still be well served by either/or.

The most important thing is to play whenever the urge strikes you, in my experience. It becomes a bit of an addiction, but there's such a huge world of piano music out there that you'll never grow bored with it, and you'll certainly never run out of things to do. Best of luck.

>build functional skills for comping, figuring out lines, and soloing over backing tracks / tunes

I have this book called "Reading Lead Sheets for Keyboard". It's nice because it teaches general skills like that, as opposed to just learning how to play a given song or chords. Also teaches some theory and will leverage what you know. There are probably other books like it but that's the only one I've used.

I'm sure you'll have a blast twiddling knobs and learning the synth, but I'd recommend reserving some time for structured key practice. Set it on a simple epiano/organ/brass patch and leave the knobs alone for a bit while you practice your scales, chords, arpeggios, etc. Hanon is a classic source for good exercises, but tough (expect to spend many days on the first few pages).

I also find it's good to practice monophonic key skills separately, as it's a very different thing.

When I was younger and actually had time to practice and play, I did scales and it actually helped my left hand to gain strength and keep in tempo with the right. Especially the pinky and ring finger, which tend to be the weakest.

I actually learned from this book and it really helped.

Try arching your wrists a little more and work on your technique by playing scales, arpeggios, and exercises. I recommend this book :https://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446.

Hey man, I'm kind of the in the same boat you are. By that, I mean
I used to play for about 7 years with lessons once a week, but I never really practiced much and put effort into it. At the beginning of this October, I started to take it up again and started playing every single day, making sure to do scales, play from Hanon, trill exercises, argpeggios, etc... and then moving on to playing my pieces. I play anywhere from an hour to seven hours a day depending on how I'm feeling instead of playing video games or watching tv and average about 3-4 hours a day. The last piece I had played before quitting a while back was Chopin's Nocturne Op.9 no.2, but it was an absolute wreck. I was able to completely refine it within the month of October and I moved onto other stuff. I tried tackling some Rachmaninov and Beethoven, but they were beyond my skill level for now so I decided to table them and I'm currently in the middle of refining Claire de Lune and taking another stab at Rachmaninov waltz I tabled. Claire de lune a fairly simple piece, at least technically, and if you've learned a basic George Winston song, it should be well-within reach. You might have fingering troubles with the chords and the key is a little hard to play in, but that's about it.

Practice your major and minor scales. They are a huge part of fundamentals that people overlook way too often. They help with fingerings and memorization of the keys on the piano.

buy a copy of this http://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446
it has a ton of exercises ranging from trill exercises, scale runs, arpeggios, chord trills, etc... Play a few of the first 10 exercises every day maybe 3-4 times and it's a great warm-up. It's immensely useful in building up your hand strength and stamina so doing it everyday is a must. Use a metronome while doing this because keeping tempo and not rushing/dragging will be very important. It also helps to monitor your progress as you get faster and faster. Play the exercises as fast as you can without messing up 3 times perfectly before moving onto the next tempo.

Break the piece into multiple chunks. They are pretty clear sections of the song so work on each section individually until you get each section down perfectly. Write down fingerings on tricky chords or runs so that you can remember them and not have to fumble around the next time you come across it. Take it nice and slow. Rushing it will only take more time in the end. I wouldn't worry too much about tempo and just worry about getting the notes right for now.

In the end though, getting a teacher is probably your best bet as they can give you more detailed instruction. What I said for you is if you're looking to pursue this without any instruction similar to what I'm doing right now. My goal by the end of this year is to be able to play Chopin Etude Op. 10 no. 4 by the end of this year practicing about 3 hours a day at least a tempo of 140 (I think I can do it). I currently am not taking lessons either, but I personally am not at the level yet where previous training hasn't covered me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIKdCTmcTLs
This is my goal for the end of the year if you're interested.

For Technique I recommend either Hannon or Czerny. Czerny can get really difficult, so I'd start with Hannon first. Don't do the whole book, the end pieces are pretty much impossible.

My advice:

Buy this book to learn your scales.

Buy this book to strengthen your fingers.

Google how to read sheet music. You can learn the basics from many sources.

I recommend the PianoWorld Adult Beginner's Forum to hang out at.

Search the google, search that forum, and browse the index of quarterly recitals on the forum to find beginner level music that you enjoy listening to.

Find the sheet music for the pieces you'd like to learn on IMSLP. It is best as a beginner to find version with suggested fingerings (small numbers near the notes).

And get to work learning what you want to learn. Print the sheets, study them, take a pencil to them, write the notes in English to help you learn to read.

You'll undoubtedly come across symbols you won't recognize from your basic google search. When that happens, look the symbol up here.

Many people recommend the Alfred books and such, and though I'll admit I've never tried them, I have seen many people lose steam because the music in the Alfred books isn't appealing to them.

It won't happen overnight, but if you truly are interested you will stick with it. The method I have outlined is what I did. I took two lessons and didn't like them. It's been nearly five years but I am at the point where I can learn to play Chopin preludes and nocturnes, and sound half-decent. I don't claim to be an expert, but you can learn to play piano as a hobby with minimal resources.

a purchase Url for OP: https://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446

Worth noting that it is available free, but getting it bound is worth it in my opinion.

That falls under the same umbrella as music theory and is really helped with a teacher. Scales and exercises help you develop the muscle memory that guides your fingers when you read music. This book is the go to for many piano teachers. Work through the exercises slowly at first and slowly speed yourself up. It really works unusual finger movements that help you learn how to navigate the keyboard as you play. Will also help with your reading.

Definitely, the only other complaint i"ve seen is that the full combined set of Czerny books is big and kind of cumbersome to try and set up on many stands/pianos (especially digital ones with relatively flimsy stands) so if you just want to start out with the first volume.

You can also save a couple bucks buying this version: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Method-Beginners-Op-599/dp/0793525675/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/146-7772873-1196205?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0793525675&pd_rd_r=1ddf146f-a969-11e9-85ce-aff8187a0e51&pd_rd_w=iCFBw&pd_rd_wg=XQAFs&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=VZ57KF2TQTAH2Q8MHZVK&psc=1&refRID=VZ57KF2TQTAH2Q8MHZVK . If you need to hear demonstrations of the etudes, you can find plenty on youtube.

I'm in a similar position as you. I've been playing guitar for about 8 years now, and I'm currently focusing more on piano than anything. I took a few private lessons at my university, and they were a ton of help. I can show you the books my instructor recommended to me.

Frankly, as long as you've got some material and some diligence, you can learn just as much. A background with guitar and music theory will also help you move along quickly! :)

The first consist of these exercises by Czerny. They're a bit redundant, but going through them to a metronome and gradually increasing speed will really help with dexterity and spacial recognition.
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Method-Beginners-Op-599/dp/0793525675/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293474093&sr=1-4

The second I began with is Easy Classics to Moderns. Simple to intermediate tunes that will help with sight reading (which I can't stress enough), fingerings, and will give you a general sense of how basic harmony works and has worked for the last few centuries on the piano.
http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Classics-Moderns-Piano-Millions/dp/0825640172/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293474402&sr=8-1

This last one, also by Czerny, is my favorite. It combines the simple exercises of the first book I mentioned, with harmony and melody from the second book. So it will help with coordination and dexterity, as well as sight reading and familiarization with common chord progressions and melody.
http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Studies-Alfred-Masterwork-Editions/dp/0739015974/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293474093&sr=1-6

Also, it's interesting to convert a few exercises back to guitar, just to break down the barriers between the two instruments. Having a better understanding of both instruments from the other's perspective is pretty enlightening.

Anyway, I'm getting off to a great start with these books. Hope I've helped you out, too! The piano is a kick-ass instrument. I'm hoping to move up the ladder quickly and learn some challenging material soon. But don't slack off with guitar too much!

Cheers, dude. :)

Czerny has lots of good stuff.

As well as the popular 'school of velocity' (op 299 linked below), there is Op 599 that whilst entitled 'for beginners', actually comprehensively covers many areas of technique. They are far more 'musical' than Hanon and, of course, you can elect to play them at whatever velocity you choose (which often takes something from 'simple' to 'fairly advanced'. I've been using them as sight reading and once I get to the end I'll work backwards and learn one or two a week properly

This is not something that I'm an expert on... but this book: http://www.amazon.com/Voicings-Jazz-Keyboard-Frank-Mantooth/dp/0793534852

talks about using quartal voicings (particularly on the keyboard) within a tonal harmonic context.

I started off with the basic root position chords then memorizing inversions. After that, I got a book which explained spreading the chord voicings in fourths.

https://www.amazon.com/Voicings-Jazz-Keyboard-Frank-Mantooth/dp/0793534852/ref=sr_1_1?crid=VF7QSM6YMBC1&keywords=frank+mantooth+jazz+piano+voicings&qid=1555623986&s=gateway&sprefix=frank+mant%2Caps%2C185&sr=8-1

​

Took me awhile to memorize this, so treat it like a gym work out.

After that, I studied open chord voicings, and this is the "formula" I like to follow. Apply this to the major/minor/dominant qualities.

1 7 3 5 - 1 (melody note)

1 5 3 7 - 3

1 5 7 3 - 5

1 5 7 3 - 7

​

I practiced them chromatically, diatonically, 4ths/5ths, in intervals then I set up a flashcard app that cycles through the chromatic scale (randomly) labeled Root, 3rd, 5th, 7th then I would voice those notes accordingly. When all this becomes muscle memory you can start deciding where you want to insert additional tensions.

THEN after all these, it starts getting easier to take a jazz standard and decide what voicings you want to use.

this is popular. The quality is mediocre though. There is huge variation in difficulty. There's a library of easy piano classics too. No idea what's inside it.

At that level, you can play a lot of music from these books:

https://www.amazon.com/Library-Piano-Classics/dp/0825611113

https://www.amazon.com/Library-Piano-Classics-2/dp/0825613779/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=HDXKPFNY7086DBG2RP1P

Get a book of music that is maybe a bit above your level, and try to play as much as you can from it. Example: when I was 13, my mom gave me the classic piano library here and I just really wanted to learn a bunch of the songs. The book was way above my level at the time, but I managed to get through a few of them pretty well - I think the first one I learned was The Beautiful Blue Danube. I got really good at reading after playing around in that book.

Another thing is to learn intervals and chords. I am the pianist at my church and I began a habit of reading chords instead of reading each individual note - which was generally how I read before - and my reading has gotten twice as fast.

Edit: added link

My recommendations are Piano Pieces for Adult Beginners and The Library of Piano Classics
. The first is mostly adaptations (and some complete versions) of classical pieces and some older pop tunes at an easier difficultly level, and the second is a bigger collection of complete classical pieces. Happy playing!

I just got back into piano after years of not playing. I bought this book: The Library of Piano Classics and I have really enjoyed it so far. There's a mix of difficulty, with some really well known songs and others I wasn't familiar with, ranging from Bach to the 20th century. I am really happy with it and considering getting the sequel.

i was in the same boat as you

havent played since elementary school and just started up again at 21 last November.

i started off pretty slow in the beginning not even being able to play scales or do the most basic music for the first month

but the general plan that I've taken
i've used

http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Training-Musicians-2nd-Edition/dp/0901938165/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395538406&sr=8-1&keywords=hindemith (this might not be as necessary if you're really good with rhythms?)

http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Classics-Moderns-Music-Millions/dp/0825640172

after doing about 5 of those pieces from that i moved on to beethoven sonata 49, then i moved on to eyes on me (http://ffmusic.ffshrine.org/ff8sheet/ff8-sheet-music.php), suteki da ne (http://ffmusic.ffshrine.org/ff10sheet/ff10-sheet-music.php), and then debussy's arabesque

so if you were looking for a timeline thats how I've been progressing so far with a teacher;

what was kind of helpful for me was just to go in with the mindset that each new piece you're gonna improve on reading and technique so that the next piece will be easier and to pick pieces that helped me; for example, i really wanted to play debussy's arabesque which involves a lot of polyrhythms and arpeggios in the left hand; while i definitely couldn't play it right after playing the sonata, the two songs i played before it was really helpful; eyes on me was great for the arps in the left hand and suteki da ne was great for the polyrhythms

There are a lot of resources online - youtube etc, but I prefer books so when I decided to teach myself how to play around 2 and a half years ago I used Alfred's Adult all-in-one, progressive sight reading, and Easy classics to moderns.

Once I felt comfortable enough with sight reading, I just started buying whatever I liked. I also sit down and transcribe the music I like. Just got done learning this track from pride and prejudice, and it barely took a week to learn! It's so wonderful to see my fingers flying across the keys, I can't even describe it.

You might also like flowkey.

Good luck, and I'm sure you'll thank present you for starting - say 5 years from now, when you're sitting at your piano and feeling generally amazing after a particularly good improvisation :)

If you plan on going the self-teaching way, and want to buy one book that covers a LOT of material and different styles, I suggest getting "The Piano Handbook" by Carl Humphries. Helped me tremendously when I started, and I still refer to it and read/re-read chapters now. It can be found for ~$25 new or $7-10 used on Amazon

As far as you want to go.

If you focus and practice consistently, this is an extremely good book: The Piano Handbook


After practicing for a year, I'm only about halfway through it but already receive lots of praise on my technique and improvements from when I first started. Learning on your own is tough and that book ain't easy, but it will take you very, very far.

I've been reading this book, because it covers theory, piano, and learning to read music, which are all things I'm trying to learn

https://www.amazon.com/Piano-Handbook-Complete-Guide-Mastering/dp/0879307277

If you want a book that's focused just on theory, there's Music Theory for Dummies which I've read, it's a very easy introductory book. For more advanced books I'm not sure, I usually just look at reviews on Amazon to try to find something that looks good.

I've also tried to read "The Jazz Theory Book"

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&qid=1486656226&sr=8-28&keywords=music+theory

but it's way above my current skill level. You might be able to get something out of it though.

Also check out this page, it's actually pretty good. I had forgotten to mention it

http://www.tobyrush.com/theorypages/index.html

I have a book or two I would like to give away but I don't know anybody who would want or need them. Definitely would like to give it to somebody who wants it: one is "The Piano Handbook" and the other is a laminated, spiral-bound edition of the WTC.

Pasted from a similar thread:

I've recommended this to others in a similar situation: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Handbook-Complete-Guide-Mastering/dp/0879307277

Also here is some pretty easy stuff, most have MIDI tracks to listen to first: http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/freebies.html

Same book on Amazon.co.uk (still free).

Thanks OP.

Quite a few people can't see the links in the post (I can see them, so I'm not sure why). Anyway, I'm going to post them here. If you still have issues let me know, I can PM! Hopefully this will work so I don't have to worry about missing PM's.


Amazon: Piano Scales, Chords & Arpeggios Lessons with Elements of Basic Music Theory: Fun, Step-By-Step Guide for Beginner to Advanced Levels (Book & Videos)

Youtube Lessons

Same book on Amazon.co.uk (still free)

There are books, such as Intro to Jazz piano. On youtube, there's Michael New who has great videos about music theory and Bill Hilton who has videos about jazz and blues.

Okay the obvious question is: Does he have access to a piano?

If the answer is yes, then this is good for beginners to self teach a bit: https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-one-Course-Alfreds/dp/0882849956

alfred's all-in-one method (amazon link here) is solid. i complained about the music being too silly in another thread, and that does irritate me, but it is a solid method.

coming from guitar, piano can be intimidating. but everything about music can be learned from piano, so every musician should play it.

Wondered what anybody thought about any of these technique books. Or something else you love?

https://www.amazon.com/What-Every-Pianist-Needs-About/dp/1579992064

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Piano-Technique-Russian-McKeever/dp/1495073017

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Piano-Fingering-Traditional-Innovative/dp/1479285277

https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Piano-Technique-Students-Performers/dp/0931340462

I recommend taking a look at this book. Relatedly, you could talk to a teacher of the Taubman Approach, or as someone already mentioned, the Alexander Technique, which is a more general application of healthy motion.

This will require you to rework your approach to the keyboard, which I can attest is no easy feat. It's based on the premise that what you're currently doing is not healthy (given that you're injuring yourself) and that there are more efficient ways to produce the same, or better, musical results.

It's important to stress that unhealthy playing is not an indication of bad musicianship - many of the greatest pianists have experienced related injuries (Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Gould, Schnabel). Regarding the Taubman Approach, I think the most famous beneficiary is Leon Fleisher, who regained the use of his right hand, although there are countless pianists who never get injured in the first place because of this.

The book I mentioned has a quote I like: "Some people believe pain comes from being unlucky. Lucky pianists can play as much as they wish whereas unlucky pianists get injured. But that is also false. Musicians' injuries are not booby prizes in a lottery."

Hopefully this information nets you a better-than-expected Christmas gift!

Probably not. You should consult someone who knows something (I don't) or try this book https://www.amazon.com/What-Every-Pianist-Needs-About/dp/1579992064 which has helped me a ton.

I have a similar background, and just recently started again. I started out with some more basic songs.
There are tons of theories out there on practicing and playing. Hanon is good to get your fingers trained again, but musically it's not as much fun.
I would suggest finding some easier pieces and work on playing those well. That way you can build up your confidence, enjoy yourself, and work your way up to trickier compositions.

Personally I started with 'first lessons in Bach':
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1423421922/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And album for the young by Schumann. These pieces are really fun and quite varied as well:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0793529948/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Then for some great advice which I picked up on the pianoworld forums:

• Don't try to rush through a song and make the same mistakes every time. This way you're training yourself to play the wrong notes, and it becomes harder each time to unlearn it.
  
• Instead, start playing very slow and make sure to get the fingers and notes correct from the beginning. Once you play it right at the slow tempo, start playing faster.
  
• Instead of playing through a piece from beginning to end and glossing over the few hard sections, mark those... and then practice them until they're easy. Break down in very small sections and practice until you get it right!
  
  This has really proven beneficial for me, and allowed me to learn pieces quicker! Currently I'm working on Schubert Impromptu Op 90 No 3. It's so beautiful.
  Good luck in your learning. You'll most likely get frustrated, which is normal. Learning the piano is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be days where you can't hit a right note, but other days where you surprise yourself.

Get First lessons in Bach or The notebook for Anna Magdalena if you are feeling more adventurous.

Add this on your list:

* Bach Minuet in G Major 116

Very simple once you get the arpeggio's correct.

In fact, just buy First Lessons in Bach. OnaZ suggested it to me a while back, and I love it!

Sorry, I meant this book. The other one is just a subset. These pieces range from simple to advanced beginner. They will keep you busy for a long, long time.

You could practice just tapping out rhythms with your fingers on the desk to start with, in time to a metronome or drum beat. Accent the first beat, then practice accenting different beats. Obviously, you have to continuously listen to the metronome, and correct your tapping if you get out of time. Being able to get back into time is something you need to practice and improve.

Don't worry about forgetting pieces you've learnt - it's a fact of life. Once you have a piece as good as it'll get, make a recording for posterity and move on. You can keep pieces as part of your "repertoire" if you want, but you'll still need to work on them from time to time, and to be honest it gets boring keeping pieces you've already learnt in maintenance mode. So learn new stuff.

It's hard to recommend pieces since I don't really know your level, I started a long time ago, and I'm not a teacher. Like I mentioned, Hanon Part I is good as an exercise (kind of alternative to scales - use for warming up). Something like First Lessons in Bach seems to have good reviews. If you just want an individual piece, try "Prelude in C Major" - you should recognize it. Good luck.

Buy this book and start working through it. By the time you get to the end, you'll be at least decent! Bach is an amazing place for beginners to start.

Also, get a teacher if you can. At least for a few lessons to make sure you don't develop any bad habits. As a self-taught guitarist of many years, I understand the feeling that you can teach yourself without any help. I made this mistake of playing for about a month before seeking a teacher, and although I made a large amount of progress, I also ingrained a few very bad habits that were hard to shake.

Good luck!

Okay so for teaching yourself music theory I believe this was the book I used https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Theory-Complete-Spiral-Bound-Book/dp/0882842250 although I can't find my copy to be %100 sure. It was super cut and dry so maybe boring but I think of music theory as like a sudoku puzzle and find it fun. Basically this should teach you basic stuff like the major and minor keys and how chords are built. Learning the fundamentals is super important to really understanding theory in a meaningful way.

Once you get the fundamentals down learning roman numeral analysis will help you understand how songs are built and why chords work the way they do. For example in Casey Jones I know that the D major chord is V/V which is called a secondary dominant which means that it is acting like a dominant V chord pulling to G so I know when soloing on it that the F# in that D major chord is super important because it is the 7th or G major and especially since F# isn't in the key of C it is a note that causes a lot of tension and is just begging to be resolved up a half-step to G. Now none of that probably made sense but its just to show why learning the roman numeral analysis of Bach and Mozart can be helpful to understanding the Grateful Dead.

Learning Roman Numeral analysis on your own maybe tricky so like I said in my other comment if you can take a music theory class as an elective at your school that would be best. If you can't though, you could just buy the textbook yourself like Clendinning/Marvin's Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis or look through this thread for suggestions https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/comments/pse4l/beginners_resources_for_the_sidebar/?st=jf744ciz&sh=fe9dd4bd .
There are a lot of videos out there such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICDPWP6HUbk&list=PLw9t0oA3fHkxx1PgYpiXrMUPXaOiwh6KU but you have to poke around YouTube to find ones that work for you.

And than for applying this stuff to guitar you'll want to learn all the notes on the guitar. To do this sight reading whatever you can get your hands on (I go to my local music store and buy flute music), classical guitar music, jazz or folk tunes, or just googling sheet music for whatever songs you want to learn and playing this music in different areas of the guitar. Even sight reading a simple melody can be hard in the 9th position if you aren't used to it. If you are having trouble learning treble clef pick up one of the Mel Bay guitar books https://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bays-Modern-Guitar-Method/dp/0871663546 .
Another good way to learn the notes on the guitar is to play scales and arpeggios in all positions and than say each note out loud as you are playing it. Obviously you will first need to learn your scales and arpeggios but once you do play them on guitar or to make that work book I recommended less boring play your guitar as you go through it.

And lastly the most practical thing you are looking for is a Chord-Scale relationship book like this one https://www.amazon.com/Scale-Chord-Relationships-Knowing-Educational/dp/0634019945 I've never owned this book but it looks alright and any chord-scale theory book should help you.
Chord-Scale theory is basically like "on this chord you play this scale" and it's a terrible way to learn jazz and in general it over simplifies everything and I hate it lol buuutttt I do think it will help you with Grateful Dead stuff. It's just very surface level stuff so I'm putting it last to hopefully encourage you to still learn the more boring classical stuff, because it will pay off in the long run to learn how analyze a Mozart piece. However, if you just kinda wanna start getting into it I think a Chord-Scale Theory book will help you out the most quickly.

Also musictheory.net is a good website to check out to help with this stuff. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!

Music theory is easily the greatest thing I have ever learned as a musician. More useful than any one instrument that I play. I started with Practical Theory by Sandy Feldstein (recommended by my band teacher as I began my music journey as a drummer, and wanted to learn piano)

Practical Theory: Complete, Spiral-Bound Book https://www.amazon.com/dp/0882842250/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_h30SDbVJZGNJP

It's a workbook format with one lesson per page. Do one page a day and diddle around with each concept on your guitar after you learn it. If you have difficulty with a concept don't move on until you understand it. But yeah, excellent book for learning music theory basics.

I think when learning music theory it is important to remember this: music theory is NOT a rulebook. It ONLY describes why already-written music sounds the way it does. It does not tell you what you CAN and CAN'T do. Music has no rules. People who dont know music theory like to spew BS like "it's too limiting" which just tells people who actually know music theory that that person knows literally nothing about what they're talking about. Music theory is an explanation of how music works. Check out this video:
https://youtu.be/49alQj7c5ps

Music Theory is a vast, unending rabbit hole, but the most useful basic stuff is fairly simple and everyone should be able to figure it out. So don't get discouraged when you hear about crazy stuff that is way over your head; the stuff you NEED to know about music theory is really all in that book I linked above.

Music theory also makes learning other instruments and communicating with other musicians much easier, which are both obviously super useful. If you learn a bit of music theory as a guitarist, you could probably learn how to play basic piano stuff in an evening. I went from piano to bass guitar extremely easily because it all carries over.

So I know this is sort of unorganized but definitely work through that book (it's not very long) and watch that video if you arent convinced.

I'm self teaching myself but don't use any of those online apps since I don't have a laptop. I bought this instead:
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167

I complement it with youtube videos to see how it sounds.

You can most definitely be self-taught. Whether or not a teacher would help you learn faster is dependent on what teacher you get.

I do, though, suggest you get a "guide" of some sort. That way, you don't wander off in youtube land learning about things that... you're not really ready to learn because you haven't learned the basics.

I used the "later beginner" version of this exact course: https://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167 I'm turning back to the piano now and grabbed this adult version and liked it (oddly enough, it was a tad too easy for me -- probably because I was playing other instruments in my absence from the piano so my sight reading and theory is still good).

It's $16 physically, cheaper electronic (only get it electronic if you can print it or if you have a full sized tablet). I bet you can get the physical copy super cheap used. Let this (or some other course) guide you on what supplemental material you should be looking up on youtube. :)

Get a cheap keyboard and a beginners music book.

http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1312068291&sr=8-2

It's also way easier to compose on the piano than just about anything.

It's never too old to start. Invest in a digital piano with a weighted action and find a teacher. A Yamaha P-45 is a good starting point.

https://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486665654&sr=1-2&keywords=Beginner+piano+for+adults

A book like this is a good starting point, but a teacher would also have some great suggestions for beginner material.

There's the adult books and the kids ones. I personally use the kids books.

Kids Series 1A

Adult Series 1

http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167

I started with the Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course It teaches you how to play with the right hand first while learning how to read the sheet music (you do learn the sheet music at the same time, it's just starts out VERY basic.) I had a teacher (it only cost like $12 a lesson) and I sped through all three books in a year and I'm now grade 5 conservatory. It takes practice, practice and more practice. But the Alfred's course was really helpful and it explained everything perfectly.

Hey there!
Since you don't have any musical background, a great place to start is learning how to read sheet music and general music theory. A great website for you is http://www.musictheory.net/
Under lessons, you can learn a ton about sheet music.

To be honest, I'm not a great Piano player. I just recently picked it back up. I do, however, have a musical background and even with the information I have, it is still difficult to pick up. I don't have a teacher but I will eventually get one whenever money isn't so tight. Piano isn't something you learn how to play overnight nor is it something you can "master". You can always improve and there is always something to learn.

The last piece of advice I could give you is buy a workbook! It's especially helpful. I personally recommend:
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167

Good luck and have a blast on this new journey you're about to embark! Remember, don't give up! You got this!

would any of these be adequate?

1


2


3


4


5

6

7

8

9

I don't yet own any of her music, but one of my professors has pointed me in the direction of Dianne Goolkasian-Rahbee for this sort of music. She's published by FJH. Here's her bio page on FJH's site, which has a link to her music published there. To my understanding she writes many pieces with the goal of exposing students with less experience to 20th century compositional techniques. Looking her up in Jane Magrath's The Pianist's Guide to Standard Teaching and Performance Literature, Magrath mentions of Goolkasian-Rahbee's Pictures, Op. 3
> Contemporary writing that is imaginative and fits the hand well. Performance directions are included and creative instructions for improvisation on the given score are sometimes included. Should be better known.

Best of luck.

There are multiple sources:

• Snell's Repertoire Index
  
  
• RCM Syllabus
  
  
• Jane Magrath's guide to standard repertoire
  
  You can also pick from any of the carefully graded repertoire books - similar to the Kjos series above. Some of those even have accompanying study guides. Here's a nice example.

This

I'm using this.

I also agree lessons are very valuable. But if you are committed to learning on your own, check out Alfred's Adult Piano Course.

$10 on amazon

Adult All-In-One Course: Lesson-Theory-Technic: Level 1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0882848186/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_JU.FybXF1KYT6

I use this one: https://www.amazon.de/dp/0882848186/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_q40lDbXHNB465
But I don't know if there is any difference between the content of those two books.

Amazon sells a Kindle version: http://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-In-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic-Level/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407330259&sr=8-1&keywords=alfred%27s+adult+all+in+one

You can read Kindle books in your browser: http://read.amazon.com

I wouldn't recommend this for piano books, though! You want a spiral bound book (which Alfred's All-in-one is) that you can lay open on your music stand.

I see that this book is well reviewed on amazon. Getting through a book like that would take me long time, and it looks like the fingering info is spread out through the book.

It makes a lot of sense that I should play in a more efficient way, and not the comfortable way.

You must live somewhere quite isolated! A book I have used and one that many here like to recommend is Alfred's Adult all-in-one

https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=asc_df_0882848186/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312166025508&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4115900581850900449&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1015504&hvtargid=pla-332970365722&psc=1

Amazon URLs don't require anything after the last "/", it's all for tracking how you got to that page. All that's necessary is:

http://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-In-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic-Level/dp/0882848186

Aflred All in One - A reliable go to for the complete beginner to get them using both hands, reading music, understanding chords and keys etc.

Improvising Blues Piano - Great book for intermediate to later beginners looking at exploring contemporary styles.

Exploring Jazz Piano - Similar to the blues one but using jazz which requires a higher level of complexity.

I'm a big fan of this -
https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=9MHG9KN1JWKRC1DS1Y68


Heard amazing things about the Hanon books for technique building as well.

Adult All-In-One Course: Lesson-Theory-Technic: Level 1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0882848186/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_gBUqNe4W5SUlR

I just started myself and teacher had me buy this... so far so good

Yeah, so when they say "can read music" they probably mean "can play 'three blind mice' on the piano from a written staff with a minute to practice". They'll teach you all you need to know about chords, intervals, scales, etc.

If you have access to a piano, get yourself a basics book or the first chapter or two of a comprehensive book and you'll be golden (I like this one for basics with goofy cartoons and this one for comprehensive adult learning). Piano is definitely the best instrument for visualizing music theory and learning staff notation, because the staff notation translates very directly to the keyboard.

You mean to this one? Cz he have more versions.
https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186

I found this a great resource along with a grade 1 piano solo book.

You will of course know the theory being taught but you still need to learn how that translates to the piano. Plus it's laid out logically in that it teaches a technique then gives you a piece which utilises that technique.

This is pretty good! It's impressive you were able to work that out by ear.

If you can learn to read sheet music, that will really help you out a great deal. If one issue you have is reading rhythms, you need to use a counting system. (The system I use is described in this PDF.) An excellent resource for reading rhythms is the book Rhythmic Training, which you can get inexpensively, especially if you buy it used. (Edit: note that this book is for professional/college level musicians, so if you can't get all the way through, that is completely OK. But going through the first few chapters slowly and steadily and clapping the rhythms is probably a good idea.)

For reading notes on clefs, you kind of just have to do it. It takes a lot of practice and will be slow going at first, but will get easier. One book for piano that includes both the very basics of music theory and some things on technique is Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Course. Maybe you could ask for Book 1 for Christmas, if you celebrate Christmas?

As far as technique goes, one thing I notice is that the index finger of your left hand is collapsing at the first knuckle (screenshot). That shouldn't happen. You might find this video (by piano professor John Mortensen) helpful on what your hand should look like when you play.

Good luck as you keep playing!

I'm sort of in the same situation as you; I'm 31 and hadn't played since I was 11. For the past two weeks, I've been spending time at the music library of my university:

1. Going through my old Dozen a Day books; I'm still on the easy ones (doing the preparatory one at the moment), but they are great for exercising the fingers.
   
2. Going through the Alfred All-In-One Course; I don't know if it's the best series for self study, but it seems to have all the qualities I was looking for: mix of theory, finger exercises, simple melodies and a progression that doesn't remind you of drawing an owl.
   
   
   I haven't started playing songs quite yet, my motricity and coordination are not quite up to par, but I found my old books such as Technic Is Fun (vol. 1-3) and a book of simple Mozart songs that I'll probably be picking up in the upcoming week.
   
   Finally, there is one thing that has been absolutely essential to get me to practice an hour every night: having fun! I remember how much of a drag I found piano when I was a kid, I would try to find ways to reduce my practice time in the weirdest possible ways; it's no wonder I quit. Whatever you decide to do, just make sure it's fun for you, otherwise you'll just be miserable.
   
   Good luck buddy!

By Alfred's did you mean this one? I believe the course in university used this instead so if the first one is what you recommend my wallet will thank you.

I'll echo several comments on this thread. Take some time to learn theory yourself. Learn to read music. If all you knew how to do was speak English but never read English you would be missing out on so much beauty. I'm not saying become a proficient sight reader but at least learn about the written language of music.

Some ways to do that are to audit a music theory class at a local college, go through the lessons at musictheory.net, or pick up an easy adult piano course book like the one below which is how I got my start learning to read music before heading to college. The piano is the best instrument to learn how theory fits together on and learning theory on the piano has made me a phenomenally better guitarist.
http://www.amazon.com/Adult-All---One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452649895&sr=8-1&keywords=adult+piano wh

A great place to start with these musicians is to begin using lead sheets. I've done this with several churches I've consulted with. (I'm work with a few church consulting firms helping churches transition music styles if they need to go more contemporary or blended to be more relevant to their community.) Taking an older church lady who is used to reading the block chords in hymns and using lead sheets to transition them to chord charts has worked 100% of the time. Lead sheets help them follow the count, which is what they're used too, but only gives them the melody to read. Songselect.com and praisecharts.com has all the lead sheets you'll ever need.

As a worship leader it's your responsibility not to grow complacent and learn, learn, learn as much as you can about music. Disciple these junior-high students into great church musicians. Meet them in the middle and share a common ground with them. You learn some theory and they learn some improv. Win-Win. Also, be patient.

If you want a book to learn from, the Alfred All-In-One Course is good for adults.

If you haven't already check out Piano World Forums it is the most active piano related forum I know and the people are very helpful. Someone else recommended you try Alfred's series which is a popular way to start. I'm using Alfred's adult all in one and enjoying it so far.


If you can afford it get lessons. Half an hour a week won't cost much and you can stop yourself from making mistakes that will cause real problems later on.

Alfred's All-In-One Course is the easiest and best book I've tried. I also highly recommend getting a couple of private lessons especially at the beginning to get help with hand technique and other things that you may incorrectly teach yourself.

As of keyboards, fully weighted keys are of utmost importance to learn to play with proper dynamics. I recommend the Roland FP-4

Same boat as you. Skoove is pretty badly designed and seems to semi force you to memorize songs as you said. I'm working through this book right now and I truly believe it will answer all of your questions. Its got a little bit of everything and it will force you to read the music and play in time since the notes wont "light up".


https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504196307&sr=1-2&keywords=keyboard

I was in the same exact situation, played guitar with only tabs. The Alfred all-in-one book for piano is highly recommended on this sub and it’s what I’m using right now to learn. It covers theory, reading sheet music, and practical playing - everything you need to get started! Make sure you get the Plastic Comb version which is much easier to handle than a book that keeps trying to close itself.

https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186

Digital or paper, either way. Here's one on Amazon

Idk that I'd call it a Bible. It's just one good method that is popular among self teaching adults.

Is this the book you're referring to?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adult-All-One-Course-Technique/dp/0882848186

I was going to say "a human teacher" but if it's about money I would suggest this: http://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-In-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic-Level/dp/0882848186

I use that for my adult beginning piano lessons. It's very user friendly and has a CD with it. $20 normally in stores with a CD. Easy to understand and easy to work with solo.

Alternatively if you are disciplined to do so, you can pay the music use fee (at the student services center) for access to the instruments and teach yourself piano.

I did this a few semesters ago. It was a great stress relief and highly enjoyable. If this is something that you might be interested in, this is the book I used, Alfred Adult All-In-One Course. There are multiple other books in this series to guide your profession. Also, /r/piano is a great community to follow for additional help and inspiration.

Sorry for the late response. Regarding learning music theory, are there any books about that and other piano related topics you would recommend? For the time being, I've bought a copy of Alfred's All in One Course book, but wouldn't mind grabbing more books that I can read to improve.

I've heard good things about Alfred's All in One Course. Although I haven't used it personally, I know a lot of people who are using it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882848186/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=pia00-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0882848186&linkId=8814eedac8d512d759e2bbd57c67b75b

I started playing guitar when I was fourteen an didn't learn theory in school cause they taught it in such a fucked up way. But if I would do it again I would learn theory like the back of my hand before really venturing into playing (I've got myself this and it has helped me quite a bit but I still can't get off tabs). Play with a metronome and with other people. I've only played with other people twice and it was a whole lot more motivating for me than reading a Portrait of Tracy tab.

> Is there a similar book for violin which doesn't really focus on pieces but just reading notes?

You should specify in your post. At any rate, I recommend Alfreds All in one adult book

I'm not sure if you would be interested, but I know of a piano book that will actually be free to download tomorrow! It also comes with a lot of free video content as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Scales-Chords-Arpeggios-Lessons-Elements-ebook/dp/B00HGB70WM/ref=sr_1_16?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387710817&sr=1-16&keywords=piano+scales

I got this book: https://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446

Which is meant to do exactly that. Haven't gotten too far but it seems pretty good so far. It's a bit difficult to maintain the dedication to do the exercises in since I'd rather just be playing actual songs though.