is it as simple as teaching yourself the guitar or bass? do those "how to" books at music stores work well at teaching oneself the piano? and are those electronic keyboards good for beginners?
To acquire a perfectly decent home instrument for a reasonable price, visit estate sales or moving sales. You can find a serviceable, real piano for a few hundred dollars. Pianos are mechanical instruments; keyboards are electronic, and there is no way that a keyboard can sufficiently act like a piano for classical music. Most of the students I know that quit do so because they have a keyboard at home and are frustrated because they cannot master the subtleties of the different key attacks on a piano without a piano to practice on!
Since you asked this question in classical music, I assume you want to play classical music. Please get a teacher. The reputable ones often have partial or full scholarships or work-study programs if finances are a problem.
I start my students off with a basic theory book of their choice which you may download free at www.archive.org (go to printed materials and search piano). For their beginning pieces I start them off with Hanon for technical work and Bartok’s First Term at the Piano for repertoire.
Let me caution you. I’ve known many pianists who have tried to teach themselves or gone to an inexperienced teacher and given themselves RSI. Do yourself a favour and find a qualified teacher in your area. You’ll save years of time and thousands of dollars in the long run.
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I think it depends how good you want to play piano and how much do you know about music already. Every instrument has their own technique to learn and most of them you will need a teacher to help you and correct you. And when you play a piece, it will help when a teacher is there to help you to correct your technique and expressions. And if you want to play classical music, it is definitely harder than guitar. those "how to" books might help you to know certain things, but will not point it out for you when you played it wrong. Keyboards are not the same as a proper piano, they have much less octaves, the sound quality and the touching are all totally different from an acoustic piano. You can ask someone who knows music to help you choose a second hand(which i think usually is better than new ones, because they are seasoned) acoustic piano.
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I’ve been teaching myself the piano for about two or three years now. I find that the piano is one of the easiest instruments to learn. If you have a knowledge of an instrument already, it will be even easier. Guitar and bass are a bit different from the piano, so it’s a bit hard to compare them, but I would say piano is easier.
The "How To" books do work, but only to an extent. Get a level 1 and 2 book, but no father than that. These books will help you learn the basic keys, measures, how to read music, etc. After that, don’t go by the book too much.
Although it’s highly recommended to learn on a real piano, an electronic one isn’t bad. It doesn’t give you as good of an ear for the notes, but it still works. =)
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Piano is a lot harder than it looks. Being good at it is harder than a whole heap of other instruments. It is not like the guitar or the bass but I guess it depends where you want to head. if you are going to be a professional, teaching yourself comes WELL out of the equation. if it is just a small hobby and you don’t want to go to far, start with a teacher for a few years (5 or 6) then go off. piano books teach you nothing. you need someone to actually monitor you whilst your learning/ playing because it’s not just about pressing notes down, it is so much more than that. i honestly believe a teacher will be worth while. they might be expensive but if you are going to get those books that teach you, you are just wasting your time. Electronic keyboards are not good, they might be cheaper than an upright or grand but the diference you are actually producing your own sound by a piano whilst a keyboard produces a generic boring recorded sound. By the way electronic keyboards can’t articulate well and the dynamic range unless you adjust the volume and play at the same time which is stupid. i know a good piano costs min $10,000 but it is so worth it. well it is up to you. getting the good stuff costs heaps but if you want it small and don’t want to go to far the cheap stuff will probably get you at a grade 2 standard in 6 years.
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A piano student who has learnt for 12 years
The piano is whole different instrument, compared to the stringed instruments, but if you have clever fingers, I find the piano easier. The only real difficulty i find is singing and playing both hands at the same time. I mean, three different melodies at once takes practice.
I suggest you learn all of your scales and keys, once you memorize those, it gets really easy. You can start to listen and hear, "Oh, that’s a B# chord," and then you think, "Well a BLANK chord would make sense next" for learning songs and stuff.
Electric keyboards are definitely fine. Real pianos have more weight, so if you start out just on the keyboard and then try a real piano, it seems odd at first, but it’s the same thing.
Best wishes!
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Played the piano for several years now, self taught for many.
Piano is harder than it looks. The piano takes years to get good at. Get a teacher. Play with other people. From my experience, books are good along with a good teacher but trying to play the piano by a book only is no good. You have to know how you compare to other people and get other people’s (including professionals’) input to be good at piano.
The piano plays plain, simple, unenriched notes. While you can play two notes on a guitar or one on a bass and it could sound moving, you would have to play five or six piano notes to get the same effect because the piano has a less moving quality at it’s core.
The number one thing that happens to beginning piano players: the quit because they think piano is boring. They think its boring because they picked up a cool riff on the guitar in one week and the second-week piano song isn’t cool. Why? Piano takes great mental practice and a long time to develop the necessary skills because piano varies a lot more than guitar and bass and you find yourself playing five different notes one second and three more the next. Your mind has to learn to separate your left hand from your right and each of your fingers form each other.
Piano is not as easy as it looks but can evoke great emotion and dynamics if used properly. The piano was originally called the *pianoforte* (loud-soft) for it’s great variety in range. For this to happen, however, the player must supply the effects of sad, happy, dangerous, mysterious, angry, etc. through body movement (not a pedal like distortion or wah as sometimes used on guitar).
Another thing about piano: your gonna wanna learn sheet music even if you think sheet music is stupid or gay or whatever. Yes, improv on the piano can be very good but you won’t be considered a piano player by 90% of players unless you can read music. This is not so on guitar.
When it comes to chords, while you can learn the position of the hand on the guitar, you actually got to learn the individual notes on the keys of the piano if you wanna really get anywhere with chords on the guitar.
GET LESSONS! You just can’t by yourself. The songs can be to complicated and the opinions and training of others is vital, not optional, to be a good piano player.
ABOUT THE KEYBOARDS — they are expensive. Don’t listen to the piano/keyboard salesmen as he will try to sell you whatever isn’t needs to be sold in the store. I would recommend a good $200 – $300 (don’t pass out) keyboard if your serious about learning piano. Don’t listen to the salesman’s pitch about this one have grand piano pure la-la-la song. You probably not gonna need a 88 keyboard but I would get one with a least 60. Full size keys aren’t necessary although those really thin ones can get annoying. Listen to the keyboard before you buy it and find the one that has the best real piano sound and feel for the best deal.
ONE LAST WORD OF ADVISE — While learning piano, you will want to quit because you get bored or annoyed and it’s not as cool as guitar. Stay with it even when you hate it. It happens to everyone. This is where getting a good teacher comes in, you gotta practice or you gotta stop wasting your money and quit lessons. Get a teacher. Oh, and one last thing. Practice is the ONLY way to get good.
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Seeking a degree in Music (Specializing in Piano) at University of Missouri — St. Louis.
Been taking classical piano lessons for 10 years with four different teachers.
Three years ear/improv training.
Been on a church worship team and in a band.
My own experience.
To acquire a perfectly decent home instrument for a reasonable price, visit estate sales or moving sales. You can find a serviceable, real piano for a few hundred dollars. Pianos are mechanical instruments; keyboards are electronic, and there is no way that a keyboard can sufficiently act like a piano for classical music. Most of the students I know that quit do so because they have a keyboard at home and are frustrated because they cannot master the subtleties of the different key attacks on a piano without a piano to practice on!
Since you asked this question in classical music, I assume you want to play classical music. Please get a teacher. The reputable ones often have partial or full scholarships or work-study programs if finances are a problem.
I start my students off with a basic theory book of their choice which you may download free at http://www.archive.org (go to printed materials and search piano). For their beginning pieces I start them off with Hanon for technical work and Bartok’s First Term at the Piano for repertoire.
Let me caution you. I’ve known many pianists who have tried to teach themselves or gone to an inexperienced teacher and given themselves RSI. Do yourself a favour and find a qualified teacher in your area. You’ll save years of time and thousands of dollars in the long run.
References :
M.M., piano teacher for over twenty years, now in D/FW.