Learning to Play Piano/ Keyboard

[Redjeep!]

At the grand old age of 53 I've suddenly decided to learn to play the piano. 

I bought a second hand keyboard (Casio CTK 3400 SK) a couple of weeks ago and have been trying to teach myself to play. I've been using the 'Alfred Complete Adult Method' (that's a book...on learning piano....) and Skoove and so far progress has been steady, but I'm looking for any other recommendations on good resources.

I would especially like to concentrate on learning to read music for a while and learn the keys on the keyboard and am trying to find an app that will give me a constant stream of notes and judge my playing via the midi. Does anything like this exist ?

For the record, I did use to be able to read fairly fluently, especially in bass clef as I used to play bass guitar and took lessons from a very skilled jazz bassist for a long time so it was all improvisation, scales,chords and theory, theory, theory...

I only really stopped the bass as I got to a level that I couldn't really go any further. I didn't want to get into serious gigging and couldn't find anybody that only wanted to do it for the fun. My instructor actually told me he couldn't teach me any more and I just needed to go out and do it. Shame really as I was really hankering after an electric upright bass for a long time....

Does anybody have any recommendations on any relevant learning resources for piano? I will probably find a teacher fairly soon, but wanted to get more confidence in some of the basics sorted first.

[PaulF]

I would recommend getting a teacher sooner rather than later so that you don’t teach yourself too many bad habits.

[Wowbagger]

I would recommend getting a teacher sooner rather than later so that you don’t teach yourself too many bad habits.

As a piano teacher, I absolutely agree with this...

[Redjeep!]

I would recommend getting a teacher sooner rather than later so that you don’t teach yourself too many bad habits.

As a piano teacher, I absolutely agree with this...

I am looking for a teacher near where I work during the week. I used several teachers when I learned bass and understand the value. I just felt that I could do the 'hard skill' of learning the notes before I did.

[Redjeep!]

Another point is that I can't find many teachers near me and they all seem focused on getting everybody through the ABRSM grades and I'm not really sure that's what I want as I'm not really interested in playing classical piano.

I'd be much more interested in contemporary music and jazz.

[Wowbagger]

I think you can do jazz grades.

One of my friends from choir sat her Grade 5 last week. Her 3rd piece wis this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy5phNSqthw

There were instructions in there that I didn't understand. The "straight quavers" was the one that got me. Apparently for jazz, when it's written down, the quavers aren't all given the same value. "Straight quavers" means they are. Otherwise, it's "swing quavers". Why they can't just write out the note values is beyond me.

http://shop.abrsm.org/shop/dept/Jazz-graded-music-exams/100030

There are such things as "jazz standards" which I think mean that the piece of music has been played by other people and is a well-known jazz piece.

It wasn't like that in my day...

[Redjeep!]

Thanks wow.

Jazz grades would be pretty cool (no pun intended). I could just see me sat in my conservatoire playing that once I've upgraded the Casio to the baby grand. I'd never heard of the swung quavers before either, but obviously there's always been a different emphasis on timing in jazz. My dad was a pro level jazz drummer for a long time, but unfortunately I never got to play with him.

I used to play a lot of jazz standards on the bass, 'The Girl from Ipanema'. From the top. Again......

I've just spent some time online looking for lessons and can't find anything within a reasonable drive. I'll drop down the local music shop on Monday and see what they can do, failing that it may have to be online (Skype) classes.

[Jakob W]

I remember the ABRSM Jazz book being pretty good, though I never looked at the syllabus in any great detail, and I don't know what actual jazz players make of it.

Swung quavers are not normally notated because they're somewhere inbetween triplets and dotted quavers; creating/following a groove is more important than slavishly following notation. Jazz standards are simply pieces that have entered the canon as a basis for interpretation and improvisation.

[Wowbagger]

Ereyergo:

https://gb.abrsm.org/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/jazzPianoFull.pdf

[Redjeep!]

I just thought that I'd check back in after a year. Thanks for the help so far.

I'm still playing nearly every day (work and travel makes it hard every day). I'm probably doing around 9 or 10 hours per week on average over 5 or 6 days and am happy with my progress. I found a tutor about three months ago and do 30 minutes per week and it's definitely helping. As I couldn't find anybody locally who seemed flexible enough and didn't want to push me through the Classical grades, I've gone the Skype route and am very happy with my tutor. After a few technical issues in the first couple of lessons they've gone pretty smoothly recently. I also like that I don't have to drive for over half an hour or so for a lesson (just walk into the spare bedroom), so it's a better use of time.

We've been using the Rockschool books for guidance and I'd say I'm somewhere between G1 or G2. The songs are pretty cool (Hallelujah, Let It Be etc) I'll probably sit an exam sometime, but am not too fussed. The next session over here in Ireland isn't until the end of the summer.

I'm currently learning a very easy version of Bohemian Rhapsody (because you just have to don't you !), which isn't in the book but meets all the requirements for at least a G2 piece, possibly higher.

I'm beginning to realise that n+1 seems to apply to pianos as well.