Anyone tried to learn music and piano

Soldato
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My son started to learn and I'm fascinated by the whole thing, learning music and piano at the same time.

I never got the chance as a kid.

Started following my son as he practices and it's great fun learning together.

There's plenty of information out there to help but it's as always hard to separate the wheat from the chaff or to get wrong info.

Do you think it's possible to be self taught or do we need to really have a teacher?

Anyone learned recently or is still learning and can offer advice?

Cheers,

John
 
I hit ABRSM Grade 8 on Sax and Grade 6 on Piano (gave up on piano gradings as the exam pieces were not what I wanted to play). Took about 8 years to do both, with a bit of a pause in piano - always preferred the sax :p

You can be self taught with certain instruments and certainly if you have the will power to apply yourself, but its definitely beneficial to have a teacher to help with structuring and guidance.

What other kind of advice are you looking for?
 
Thanks Cookeh for replying do you think it's important to have a piano or will a synth do for the first few months.

We can rent a piano over here but it's 80€ per month....
 
I really would recommend a teacher. My dad started in his 40's - he's now in his 60's and he's a better player than me, purely because he took up lessons with good tutors, and he loves classical music.

I love classical music, but I didn't really appreciate it as a teenager. I do now, and if I took lessons I know I could improve way beyond the grade 7 I reached before.
 
I would recommend a teacher but... It is possible to teach yourself. I've known people who can play the piano very well based purely on being self taught. I'm sure there's things they're doing wrong, and maybe they couldn't play every last bit of classical music out there, but they're certainly good enough to sound impressive.

I learnt piano as a teenager and I can read music, but I'd not played in about 20 years until the fancy took me after my daughter started learning at school and I started singing in the choir at work. I'm currently teaching myself piano from this book and it's great. I've nearly finished book 1 after a few months of work and I've come on a long way.

In terms of a piano, I'd buy a digital one on ebay. We got ours for £130. You could spend maybe twice that and it'd still only be like a few months worth of renting one. The one I have isn't great, and I can hear and feel that it isn't great, but it's better than a keyboard in terms of the feel of the keys. I'll buy a better one next year if I'm still keeping up with it.
 
Thanks Cookeh for replying do you think it's important to have a piano or will a synth do for the first few months.

We can rent a piano over here but it's 80€ per month....

A digital keyboard is more than sufficient initially - and indeed throughout for many people.

I'd also like to echo Vonhelmets thoughts, his answer is pretty comprehensive and has some very good points. ABRSM has a few good books as well, designed to teach music theory and they are really very good.
 
Thanks.

will get that book.

Hopefully will be playing like a PRO in 6 months.

It's the reading music aspect that has me more interested than the actual instrument.

My son has had 5 lessons and can already play simple songs he doesn't know from sight reading which is actually pretty impressive. We're encouraging piano as he gets extra credits at high school BAC time for reading and playing so early lessons mean less time studying music when there are other important exams.
 
If you can find it, I purchased a book called "Learning to Read Music" by Peter Nickol, published by How To Books. Really helped me out with learning music theory years ago.
 
Loads of videos on youtube, information on online to get you started. If you want to get better, a teacher would be best.

I got to grade 4 as a kid and so wish I'd kept it going. Might get back to it one day.
 
My Experience:

I've always wanted to play the piano. A mate of mine could play all the Im showing off tunes (But as it turns out couldn't play jingle bells whilst reading music)

So when I got the chance to buy a Piano (Turns out I bought a Roland Fantom G8 which has waaaay more buttons than I'd ever need, But I'm a bloke so more buttons means more better...Right) I jumped at the chance.

Using YouTube I'm nearly 3/4 of the way through Clair de Lune (from scratch). Its a beautiful piece of music and My Youtube teacher Hugh Sung is ace.

However I bought my Piano in 2010. Had I gone and had lessons I'd be well past Clair de Lune now.

I wish I could go back 5 yrs and start with a teacher. I can't read music. But I can do some fairly intricate movements on the keyboard. Which all go to pot when faced with Jingle bells for 5 yr olds in sheet music form.


TL;DR Get a teacher.
 
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