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Book for learning piano.

A

Andy Kev.

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As I mentioned on another thread, I have recently bought myself a piano and would ultimately like to learn to play jazz.

However, one has to be able to walk before one can run. Therefore I wonder if anyone can make a couple of recommendations for books. The first thing I want is a book which deals with the universal basics; chords, scales etc. and which probably has a few simple pieces in it. Then I was thinking of something which would have a few familiar pieces that I would recognise by Bach e.g. O Jesu joy of man's desiring, Air on a G String etc. (I've specified Bach because the structure of his work sounds like something I can get on with.)

As I've had a guitar for some years, I've got a rough idea of the absolute basics of music but the guitar was more of a toy and I intend to go about the piano in a more serious way.

I'd rather get a couple of books and get a few things right rather than half a dozen and dabble a bit here and there. Once I've got a few things in my fingers, I'll probably take lessons.

Any suggestions?
 
I'm not sure if it applies to the piano, but for many skills I feel it's important to take lessons from the outset. Personally, I spent ages unsuccessfully trying to unlearn my bad habits that came from teaching myself to ski or play tennis. Are there no online courses or tutorials? There are thousands for guitar.
 
I was having an almost identical discussion with my saxophone teacher this morning...
He said that when he is asked to teach someone jazz he says no - but what he does is teach them the instrument (very quick) - teaches them to become a musician (takes much longer) then teaches them how to break the rules - or more accurately look at the rules from different angles (Jazz) - can only happen after the first bits...

So your concept of learning the scales etc. is really important - ideally find a teacher if you can - if not, pop over to youtube and there will be a dozen+ channels which will deliver what you want...
 
I am a beginner as well, and recommend taking lessons first, for the same reasons John identified. I first took lessons when I was ten years old and living in New Jersey. Frau Jaeger was a chain smoking retired music teacher from Germany with a very thick accent. She had smoldering ashtrays strategically placed around her studio, including one at each end of the keyboard. Since we didn't have a piano at home, the only time I was able to touch a keyboard was during her weekly half-hour lessons. It was a horrible experience and fortunately didn't last long.

I recently bought a hybrid piano to complement my wife's cello lessons...maybe. I am again taking weekly lessons with a younger German teacher and am enjoying every minute. While I could manage to pound out something that passes for a melody on my own given enough time, in my opinion there is no substitute for face-to-face instruction.

As for books, I am using the following to augment my weekly lessons:

Adult Piano Adventures 1 by Nancy and Randall Faber (I also have Book 2)
This book assumes you could not identify a piano in the middle of an empty football pitch in broad daylight and progresses from there. Each lesson is augmented by a basic melody, such as Ode to Joy. Most lessons also include a QR code that links to a video for the lesson's song.

The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios & Cadences by Willard A. Palmer, Morton Manus, and Amanda Vick Lethco
Fingerkraft Fingerpower by John W. Schaum (German and English)

I also downloaded and printed the 16-page Schmitt Preparatory Exercises by Aloys Schmitt. These very short exercises look simple at first, but they are progressively more difficult (at least for me). Of the 213 exercises, I am comfortably at number 11.

As an added bonus, I also subscribed to the Premium version of Piano Marvel and use to augment my lessons.

Piano Marvel - Piano Learning Software

Piano Marvel is a piano learning software designed by professional piano teachers to improve the way that we learn music. Change the way you learn piano!
pianomarvel.com pianomarvel.com
This is a self-paced app that I loaded on my iPad Air. The iPad is linked via Bluetooth to my piano, but can also be used with acoustic pianos. Every keystroke on the piano shows up in the app and the feedback is immediate.

I hope this helps.
 
Mike and I discussed this at some length before he bought his piano. I limit myself to ten students and only teach intermediate to advanced classical so I can't claim to be an expert on absolute beginners.

If you can find a good teacher then you will progress immeasurably more quickly than with any other method. Four of my students had less than ideal teachers in their early stages and I spent a year getting rid of their bad habits and massive knowledge gaps that were holding them back. An advantage of a teacher is that they will stop you from bad posture and mistakes that become habitual, and prevent injury such as carpal tunnel. But they will also show you how to do stuff, explain why we are doing it that way, and watch you like a hawk. We can talk it over if you want to give me a call (PM me).

Learn some music theory. Learn to read music using flash cards for note recognition (cheap off river shop). Use your ears (you would be amazed how many people can't recognise pitches above and below a given note). Don't practice your mistakes - go slow and get it right. Having to work out notes from notation as you go along slows people down ever such a lot - and you can practice reading music any time and anywhere without a piano at all.

This lady's channel on you tube is good for beginners. She will get you going quickly and has shed loads of free content.

Personally although my students all have scale books, I MUCH prefer to teach my lot how to construct all scales in all keys from basic music theory. Likewise all chords, broken chords and arpeggios. It's very easy once you get your head around the basics. PM me and I will send you some stuff I use as teaching aids if you want. Entirely up to you.

Playing guitar doesn't help much with piano. I play guitar and to a lesser extent violin to advanced level and I don't think they translate much really. Sorry.
 
Adrian's advice prior to my purchase was priceless, and he patiently steered me away from making what would certainly have been colossal mistakes. I spent nearly all day in the piano section of the largest music store in Germany before leaving with my new piano and I doubt I could be happier with it. Additionally, Adrian introduced me to major chords and arpeggios, which my first teacher failed to do.
 
Thank you for the replies.

Mike, I think I'll get the two books you recommend. They sound like the sort of thing I'm after. BTW, what part of Germany are you in? I live near Mannheim.

Adrian, I understand what you wrote in your penultimate paragraph about learning principles and applying them. The idea has a natural appeal for me.

I feared that the sensible advice would be to start with a teacher from the off. Fortunately a friend has recommended an allegedly good one. The only reason I mentioned the guitar was to show that I have a sketchy idea of some music basics but I came to realise that I will never be any good. It got to the point where listening to my favourite guitarists was just dispiriting.

I bought a Roland FP-10 and it seems to meet all my expectations. What amazes me about the piano compared to the guitar is how easy it is to pick out a tune. This of course proves nothing (a tune ain't no good if you can't do the chords as well) but it does make me optimistic about potentially being able to make progress.

I shall therefore make contact with the teacher, probably with a view to starting after Christmas.

Thanks again.
 
Andy Kev. said:
This of course proves nothing (a tune ain't no good if you can't do the chords as well) but it does make me optimistic about potentially being able to make progress.
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That reminded me of the Eric Morecambe line to Andre Previn … “I’m playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order” 😉
 
Andy Kev. said:
Thank you for the replies.

Mike, I think I'll get the two books you recommend. They sound like the sort of thing I'm after. BTW, what part of Germany are you in? I live near Mannheim.
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I bought my books from the German Amazon. I live about 20KM north of you and sent you a PM with my contact information.

Andy Kev. said:
I bought a Roland FP-10 and it seems to meet all my expectations.
Click to expand...
I looked at similar keyboards, but did not have any relevant experience of what I really wanted. Initially, I wanted to surprise my wife with my piano skills and needed a portable keyboard that could be stored vertically in the corner of my shop (she never goes there) and brought out for practice when she was at work or sleeping.

Adrian quickly talked me out of this for all the right reasons. After more research, I narrowed my choice between the Yamaha and Kawai hybrids, but wanted to try them out before buying. I spent nearly all day at Thomann Music, near Bamberg, trying out acoustic grand pianos, as well as the digital and hybrids.

While I was there, an older man was playing all of the grand pianos because he wanted to buy one for his son. I asked him to try out the Yamaha and Kawai versions that were in a separate room. After he played a few passages on each, he told me both were good, but the Kawai was better and the key action felt identical to the acoustic pianos in the concert grand room. I bought the Kawai NV-10S and am very happy with it.
 
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OK. AJB will give you the best advice. But, for what it is worth:

You can’t learn jazz from a book. Or indeed any instrument. Trite, but true. I play sax (alto for preference, but I might be getting a new soprano for Christmas). TBH I prefer pop/rock sax, but as a child of the 80s I would do, wouldn’t I? Still play some jazz though. But not the noodly noodly stuff. A good teacher is the best way to learn.

You don’t need books. Work out your own scales/arps and chords. It ain’t difficult. If I can do it anyone can. Sax is a transposing instrument, which just adds to the fun.

When the convention of a sax solo in every song faded I took up the (electric) bass. Bored waiting for my solo. But then you had to talk to drummers. Humm. Swings and roundabouts I suppose.

Do not underestimate the amount of practice you will need to do. Polyphony baffled me for ages – you can play chords on a bass, and, even, with a bit of contrivance, on a sax, and yet…. But keyboards, mmmm. Still when you learn on monophonic keyboards (Roland SH101 anyone? DX7 out of my league, particularly in Africa) only to be expected. But you get there in the end. Bach is a good choice though.
 
it honestly depends how serious you are, I can recommend the jazz theory book by mark levine, that's a good starting point, read it and get back to me.
 
Mark Levine's book is good, but for a beginner? For me if I was dealing with an adult student, apart from learning to read simple notation and understanding time signatures and note values, I would teach basic music theory first including how to construct major and minor scales from intervals, chords from intervals and the circle of fourths and fifths.
 
that's why you shouldn't study jazz until you are already pretty good and you also need a good ear as well because there's a lot of improvisation, solid chord substitution and modal interchange knowledge is vital as well as advanced knowledge of scales, this can't be learnt overnight or without solid foundations. It's even better to do it with other people in a band ideally with better than average musicians, soloing with other people is the best way to learn.
 
Oh dear, this thread is re-awakening some things best forgotten. At grammar school, I fancied learning to play the cello. Well, Eleanor Rigby was all the rage. And I had a bit of a crush on the teacher. That didn't last very long...can't quite remember why. Lazy ? Impatient?

Then for some long-forgotten reason had a bash at the trumpet. Yuk...opening those wee levers to let out the vile-smelling green liquid condensed from the air exiting my lungs and being blown inexpertly down it. One benefit was that knowing a bit about lip control, I was the only one able to blow the conch at the ViewStar President's Club in Maui. So not all bad.

The trumpet teacher gave us some of that funny lined paper and told us to take it home and put down some scales? quavers...aren't they crisps? I did not have a clue but being a teenage eejit simply took it home and then proceeded to put random black dots to make a pretty pattern. I don't think he was amused although he did have tears running down his cheeks. The trumpet didn't last very long either.

So here we are and I too have this vague and overly ambitious aim to learn to play the piano again. Actually I'd be happy just to be able to play Clair de Lune well.
 
Andy Kev. said:
As I mentioned on another thread, I have recently bought myself a piano and would ultimately like to learn to play jazz.

However, one has to be able to walk before one can run. Therefore I wonder if anyone can make a couple of recommendations for books. The first thing I want is a book which deals with the universal basics; chords, scales etc. and which probably has a few simple pieces in it. Then I was thinking of something which would have a few familiar pieces that I would recognise by Bach e.g. O Jesu joy of man's desiring, Air on a G String etc. (I've specified Bach because the structure of his work sounds like something I can get on with.)

As I've had a guitar for some years, I've got a rough idea of the absolute basics of music but the guitar was more of a toy and I intend to go about the piano in a more serious way.

I'd rather get a couple of books and get a few things right rather than half a dozen and dabble a bit here and there. Once I've got a few things in my fingers, I'll probably take lessons.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Andy Kev. said:
As I mentioned on another thread, I have recently bought myself a piano and would ultimately like to learn to play jazz.

However, one has to be able to walk before one can run. Therefore I wonder if anyone can make a couple of recommendations for books. The first thing I want is a book which deals with the universal basics; chords, scales etc. and which probably has a few simple pieces in it. Then I was thinking of something which would have a few familiar pieces that I would recognise by Bach e.g. O Jesu joy of man's desiring, Air on a G String etc. (I've specified Bach because the structure of his work sounds like something I can get on with.)

As I've had a guitar for some years, I've got a rough idea of the absolute basics of music but the guitar was more of a toy and I intend to go about the piano in a more serious way.

I'd rather get a couple of books and get a few things right rather than half a dozen and dabble a bit here and there. Once I've got a few things in my fingers, I'll probably take lessons.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Andy , I treated myself to a Yamaha CP88 stage piano about 4 years ago , having always wanted a piano . I have always mucked about but never taken it seriously and so I can amuse myself in a limited fashion . A couple of years ago I bought several Easy Play books so I could at least check whether my attempts at " play it by ear " were correct . I also bought a book called Piano and Keyboard Chords by Jake Jackson / Flame Tree Publishing . which clearly show left and right hand in a simple pictorial manner . It hasn,t cured me of my bad habits but when I see a particular chord mentioned in Easy Play I can at least see the outline . Bought on Amazon .
Steve
 
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