need advice for learning the piano

[SOSmusic]

hi all,

I am in my 30s and would like to learn an instrument like the piano or guitarre.

I found that there are 2 websites that always show up on google : jamorama for the guitarre and rocketpiano for the piano.

I 'd like to know if the above online learning sites are any good .If not what are the other alternative ways to do it w/o hiring a private teacher?

thx

[ragingrob]

I'd say cyberfret.net for the guitar, and i'm not sure about the piano, I had a teacher for 5 years lol.

[Roses_and_Ribbons]

I had a teacher too, but there are a lot of "teach yourself piano" books out in music stores.

[kevbud187]

Ya there are some great teach yourself programs, but you will need a lot of motivation. I highly recommend a teaher of some sort. Also the word is spelled "g-u-i-t-a-r"

[SOSmusic]

how do you select a good teacher ?

[Firecracker]

You can read my piano lesson series in pop-punk in which the first lesson will be up tomorrow, if you want?

[aznrocker]

Cyberfret.com really helps. I learned all my music theory there. Plus it's FREE. So take advantage of that.

And I'm not really sure about any site for piano, because I was taught by a teacher.

[Little Android Man]

you really just gotta do reserch around your hometown or close towns to find good teachers

[Little Android Man]

guitarre........

haha

[cylai]

I 'd like to know if the above online learning sites are any good .If not what are the other alternative ways to do it w/o hiring a private teacher?

thx

hi SOSmusic:
There are some good online course on guitar and piano. They are good options for beginner like you. However, as you progress later you might want to attend piano class to track your performance.

Jamorama is good course. for online piano course I recommend hearandplay.com . If you are interested please email me at chiayee.lai@gmail.com to get the samples lesson of these two courses. I have special relationship with the founders. I've managed to get their permission to reprint some contents of their course for my website visitors.

Good luck!

[naymornings]

I have been playing piano for years, and i have gone through the online stuff for learning and i'm going to have to say, if you can afford a teacher- go for it.

How serious you are with piano depends on how long you might want to have those lessons, but i reccomend buying a beginner book, and going with a teacher.

IF you don't want to pay for it, as long as you have some general knowledge about music, you will be fine buying a book and reading through it slowly.

[Keyboard Geek]

I've been learning piano for about five years and guitar for one.
I don't know much about online stuff but when it comes to teachers it doesn't really matter how good thay are because once they've shown you what you're doing wrong it's all about practice. Also, it's a hard instrument to learn on your own.
Guitar is a lot easier to self-teach and you'll probably be able to learn more well-known stuff. I suggest you just buy a guitar book learn the basic chords and then start getting some music to play off the internet.

Hope I was a help.

[Fakquea]

Hi there.

I'm new to this forum, and I apologise for posting on this thread, but I wasn;t able to start a thread of my own for my topic. Please any moderators feel free to move my post.

I've got some Piano MP3's that I would like to learn how to play, but I'm not sure where to go once I've got the MP3. I was told to get a MP3 to MIDI convertor, but after it's converted, half of the notes are gone, or wrong.

Does anyone here have any suggestions on how I can deciper a Piano MP3 without being able to do it by ear? Any program suggestions would be appreciated and any additional advice in general would be very handy.

Once again, sorry for barging in and disrupting the thread.

Fakquea

VIC, Australia

[theykilledkenny!]

Hmm. I've been playing for ten years, and definitely lessons helped me a LOT.
I don't know much about good teaching websites, but there's a good learning book called "Alfred's Adult Course Level One". First I would recommend learning basic sightreading, then basic scales (basic meaning major and minor scales). If you're planning to play primarily jazz/improv or compose, then learn your chords, definitely; otherwise, move on to sightreading pieces. Starting with easier pieces like "Fur Elise" will help you improve. Good luck, be persistent, and you'll reap the benefits...I can honestly say that piano's one of the best things that happened to me and I'm sure you'll love it.

[Lifes A Bath Sex Is Water]

Ya there are some great teach yourself programs, but you will need a lot of motivation. I highly recommend a teaher of some sort. Also the word is spelled "g-u-i-t-a-r"
You like correcting people? Cool. I like correcting people too. The word is spelled t-e-a-c-h-e-r.

[evaworcim]

i have never found a decent online piano course that was free, for guitar just use cyberfret though, for piano it depends on how ye learn, i taught myself piano, with only minimal advice from frunds, (i've been teaching myself since january) and i can play the first six bars of chopin's fantaisie impromptu, i thought that was pretty impressive, i got a teacher just recently, and nothing has made me hate the instrument more then lessons, i practiced much more before, and enjoyed playing alot more, so yeah, maybe your all nazi's who cares

[Glimmer]

I started learning modern piano from a tutor in March. I also have some musical experience from playing guitar in bands some years ago so I'm not a complete novice, however to lay correct foundations I am relearning Grade 1 theory through piano. My tutor also has some cooking jazz licks and he throws me a couple of nice tidbits when I do the practice on the essentials

To compliment my piano lessons from a tutor, I also ordered a rhythmic pattern course from David Sprungers Piano Lessons Unlimited Online.

Now nothing that is quality in this life is absolultely free so for the cost of a few "real" lessons the package includes Rythmic Patterns, blues, chord voicings, salsa & few other bits & pieces. There may well be totally free piano lessons online but to get to some real juicy sounds into your playing a.s.a.p. its definitely worth shelling out some hard earned cash.

The initial course introduces rythmic patterns to chords not to dissimilar to what guitarists learn very early on which is why we seems to work things out by ear while some novice pianists at the same musical "level" still need sheet music to tell them how to play.

I also have quite a few Hal Leonard Piano Style Books in the background to launch me into Blues, Jazz & Rock styles as I get better.

I am also in my 30's so I don't want to muck about too long overlearning piano before actually playing half decent chops,etc. Thats my experience so far, hope that helps. Daily Practice does work.