How to learn piano without lessons?
Friday, July 30th, 2010 at
6:14 pm
I want to learn how to play the piano but I dont want to want to take any lessons. I have a keyboard that I can practice on. What are some good books to buy. What do I need to do in order to read music and learn proper technique. Thanks.
Tagged with: good books • how to play the piano • keyboard • music
Filed under: Uncategorized
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You won’t like this but I will give you the hard truth unlike the other "answers" on here. You can’t. You will never learn to play piano without lessons. Those books/videos teach you nothing but pressing notes on a keyboard and I use teach quite loosely. To play piano, you need to learn technique which you can not just pick up from a book. You will never pick up effective fingering techniques from a book. Shaping and phrasing is completely out of the question. I know this is not what you wanted to hear. If you truely want to learn piano then you need a teacher.
You might want to check any local music stores for music books and piano music. Then you might want to learn from the computer or by watching basic piano videos. Also, on some pianos, they have sample songs and this option to learn and practice them. My Casio keyboard has a button to practice songs that are pre-recorded onto the piano.
Start playing!
Try some adult beginner books (Faber) which will guide you step by step. They don’t really require a teacher present, since you just read what it tells you on the page.
You can also try a two-sided approach. Buy a theory book which teaches you basic rudimentary theory of music. You can probably find these online even for free. Then, after you’ve mastered the basic note-reading (which takes very little time), get a scales book, which is purely for practicing technique, with very little ‘music’ involved. Once that’s done, you will be ready to play some real music
There are three main areas to focus on: learning songs, theory, and technique. Alfred’s Adult All-In-One Course is a great series, because it teaches you all three. You can find it in many music stores or Amazon. Piano Adventures, Faber, and David Carr Glover are also good series.
One of the best free online piano courses is Zebra Keys: http://www.zebrakeys.com/
For theory and note-reading practice, this online trainer is pure gold:
http://www.musictheory.net/
Daily practice is essential for improvement. Plan to devote at least 30 min. per day for piano practice. To stay motivated, focus on what you want to achieve.
You can learn without a piano teacher, but it is usually harder and takes longer to improve. If you’re highly self-motivated, you may do just fine.
Check out these books:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref%255F%3Dnb%255Fss%255Fb%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dlearn%2520piano%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Dstripbooks&tag=clogui-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
Check out these software:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26redirect%3Dtrue%26ref%255F%3Dsr%255Fnr%255Fi%255F1%26keywords%3Dlearn%2520piano%26qid%3D1247769247%26rh%3Di%253Asoftware%252Ck%253Alearn%2520piano&tag=clogui-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957