Keyboard for Beginners?

[Exeson]

So yeah, today I was bored and decided to grab my sister's keyboard from the loft and just start teaching myself.

The question I put to you, the playground is do you guys have any websites that are good for tips for beginners etc.? My knowledge of music is fairly limited so anything even the most basic stuff would be useful.

And seeing as it is related who plays keyboard/piano here? How long have you been play etc.

[RS14]

I just want to say that your post left me very confused for a moment as to how you were posting.

[Tharivol123]

http://gardenofpraise.com/keybdles.htm
It is designed for kids, but free.

http://www.discoverahobby.com/learnthepiano.htm
Has links to other free ones

[RTGoodman]

Can you read music? If not, my suggestion would be to find a place that sells music and/or gives lessons, and start by learning to read music. For guitar and bass, yeah, it's not so necessary; for stuff like piano/keyboard, though, I don't know how you'd ever be able to do much without knowing how (unless you're one of those folks that can play anything by ear just by fiddling around for a minute).

After that, there are THOUSANDS of beginner's piano books out there. You can probably find cheap print ones, or if you go to Google Books I'd almost be willing ot bet there'll be a handful on there for free.

As to the last part, I've fiddled around on piano/keyboard/synthesizer for a few years. I got a cheapish Casio for Christmas several years back and kinda taught myself to play a little (I could already read music and knew some music theory and stuff because of band), and then I started picking up a books here and there with music (most of which I still can't play :smalltongue:). I played mallet percussion in high school, though, and that's kinda the same thing, and I've taught the indoor percussion group at my alma mater for the past 4 years, too, meaning I've learned a bit more about keyboard playing and teaching.

[V'icternus]

At first I thought "Begginer keyboard? Uhhhhh... what?", but now I get it.

Well, if you want to learn to play, get a teacher who is willing to teach you from scratch. Learn to read music. My grandpa can, and he says it was one of the most worthwhile things he ever learned to do.

Start out easy. For instance, I can play Chopsticks. That's about it though...
But it's where you start. If you want to learn how to play really well, you need a teacher. A one-on-one teacher.

[Perenelle]

Well first of all you should probably learn the read music, that's a good start :smallsmile: dont try to learn treble clef and bass clef at the same time though, otherwise it can get confusing. When I started playing piano I started with my right hand (treble clef) and worked from there.
okay, so here's a staff:
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________

In the treble clef, the lines are E, G, B, D, F. easy way to remember it: Every Good Boy Does Fine. The spaces are F, A, C, E. Easy way to remember that: face. Obviously :smalltongue:

so if there was a note on the first line of the treble clef, it would be an E. If there was a note on the 3rd space not counting the one below the last line, it would be a C.

Now with bass clef (you're left hand), its a bit different. The lines are G, B, D, F, A. Easy way to remember that: Good Boys Do Fine Always. The spaces are A, C, E, G. Easy way to remember that: All Cows Eat Grass.

so If there was a note on the first line of the bass clef, it would be a G. If there was a note on the 3nd space not counting the one below the 1st line, it would be an E.

Once you learn to read music within the staff, learn where the notes are on the keyboard. when you first start, ignore the black keys and just start with the white. the black keys are sharps and flats and you dont want to get into those until you get the basic notes down.
http://user1459542.sites.myregisteredsite.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/Kybd.jpg

once you learn the notes and where theu are located, you can start learning basic songs. I highly recomend "Alfred's Basic Piano Course: Lesson Book Complete 1 (1A/1B)"
By Willard A. Palmer, Morton Manus, and Amanda Vick Lethco. Its written for yound kids, but its easy to understand and you get the basic idea.

word of advice: try keeping your fingers as close to the keys as you can. when you start getting the faster songs it comes in handy. :smallsmile:

to answer the second question: I have played piano for seven years. I just recently stopped and took up flute, piccolo, and the Tenor saxophone. I never enjoyed piano much to be honest, but I good relatively good at it. I enjoy flute the most though. I originally started playing violin when i was 6, but I was too uncoordinated to hold the bow at the time :smalltongue: so I chose piano instead. It was in middle school when i started playing Flute, then later branched off to saxophone and piccolo. after a while I started focusing more on the other instruments than piano...so here I am now.

good luck! :smallbiggrin:

[Lupy]

Well, most people use QWERTY, I personally prefer it:


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Qwerty.svg/799px-Qwerty.svg.png

DVORAK is reasonably popular though, you might be able to learn that as well.

[MethosH]

Well, most people use QWERTY, I personally prefer it:


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Qwerty.svg/799px-Qwerty.svg.png

DVORAK is reasonably popular though, you might be able to learn that as well.

I hate you so much! I was gonna do that same joke :smallbiggrin:

[Mauve Shirt]

I've played the piano for 14 years at varying levels of difficulty. I changed teachers a lot.

Learning how to read music is a must, but you should learn the keyboard first.