Q. I have been in choir for three years through middle and high school and I can sightread at an intermediate level. I have had a keyboard for a few years and I would like to learn how to play. However, I'm not sure what notes are what (if that makes any sense) and that's really what I think I need to learn. I would like to eventually play and sing some songs together. Any ideas? Websites, books, etc.?
A. I'm 56 now, but I can still remember pulling myself up at the age of 2 and touching my first piano keys. Knowing even then that I wanted to learn how to play that "thing" one day. A rough life prevented me from ever getting near a piano again, but I did manage to teach myself some guitar over the years. In the 80's I managed to take two semesters of piano at a community college. But they only focused on music theory with little to no time actually playing a piano. I didn't remember a thing and still can't read sheet music without a major struggle.
Last year I got a good ebay deal ($35) on a new Casio CTK-5000 keyboard, thinking, "Now, at last, I will learn how to play." I got frustrated soon and set it aside, with only having myself to teach myself, as has been my whole life. (Disabled, can't afford lessons. Buying that keyboard was even a stretch.) Last week I picked it up again and thought, maybe there's a better way. So I just tinkered around on it, picking out tunes by ear, entertaining myself with all that these new keyboards can do. Then I stumbled on two short e-books I found online in some binary newsgroups. "How to Play Popular Piano In 10 Easy Lessons" by Norman Monath, and "Play Piano in a Flash" by Scott Houston. I read the second one because I had seen him do a pledge-drive show on PBS, and lights went off. All the chords were just simple repeating geometric patterns! A thousand times easier than learning all those complex guitar chords. Then I read about half of the first one "Popular Piano In 10 Easy Lessons" and it explained the patterns to all the chords that the "Piano in a Flash" book didn't cover.
That was 2 days ago. Last night I thought I'd put what I had read to a test. I got out one of my guitar cheat-sheets (I've played guitar by ear for ages). My cheat-sheets are just chord names and words, no notes, no other notation. From that alone and what I learned from those two small books I was able to play "Vincent - Starry, Starry Night" by Don McLean on a keyboard from start to finish. Not fast, not without mistakes, but recognizable, and it still sounded really nice even when played that slow my first time. Here it is over half a century later since first wanting to play piano/keyboard and it only took TWO DAYS to figure out how to play one! If only someone would have told me so long ago what I just learned in only two days.
Get those two small books, read them.
Anyone know a good piano sheet of the following songs in the highest difficulty possible?
Q. 1.) Greensleeves
2.) Yesterday
3.) Hotel California
4.) All My Life (by KC and Jojo)
5.) A Thousand Miles
Along these lines of difficulty, or at least as difficult as possible:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hes6FYmLXmQ
Sheets don't have to be free
A. Birdgirl getting my strong seconding here.
Almost all pop and show music sheets are infamously spare and simple. The melody is always in the right hand as well as in the vocal line, the rest a simple configuration. The majority of buyers for these are self-taught or very early level piano players, and it is often enough 'tricky' for them. They are the largest demographic market for purchasing those scores.
More elaborate, i.e. more advanced and difficult arrangements would be an economic disaster for the publisher, as there would be far too few buyers to make it worthwhile.
Once in a while an intermediate or slightly more difficult arrangement will have created a large enough demand (some George Winston, 'Carol of the Bells' as an example) that a full score of that arrangement becomes commercially viable because there is a great enough demand for it.
If you have a more developed technique, I'd advise that if you cannot yet 'get' at a glance from the score the basic chords of the piece, that you learn the 'pop' nomenclature of chords, which appear in those printed sheets, labeled above the vocal line along with the Guitar tabs.
Keep the fundamental written bass note(s) in the score (they 'set' the chord inversion for you), you can then readily 'fluff it out' with what you think are appropriate configurations, easily found passing tones within the key, those very mushy-soft and 'pretty' pop style six chords (i.e. CEGA as a C chord vs. an a minor 7 in classical theory) ~ et voila! you are a semi-improvising pop pianist.
The more experienced and knowledgeable musicians work from 'cheat sheets' a minimized 'chart' of the melody in treble clef with just the pop harmony jargon notated chord symbols. From that it is quick steps to very full-sounding arrangements.
If you want to try a lovely and harmonically 'sophisticated' Pop song, beloved of Jazz players, pick up a copy of "Spring can really hang you up the most." -- by Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf. ~ It is a LOT of fun to play around with:-)
Best regards.
How to play these piano chords?
Q. it qould be better if you just told me all of them if thats possible:
Dm
G7
A7
E7
D7
B7
+ect.
i only know that ; Am = e, a,c & E = e, g(sharp), b & c= e,g,c , g = d, g, b.
thanks, i could not find it on google cause it just showed up as majors and all...;/
x
A. I'm still learning, but, this is what I know:
Do you mean d minor? And, is it just the basic chord? If so:
dm is: d, f, a. Inverted once: a, d, f, Inverted twice: f, a, d
D major: D, F#, A. Inverted once: A, D, F# Inverted twice: F#, A, D
G7 (major right?): G, B, D, F#
A7: A, C#, E, G#
E7: E, G# B, D#
D7: D, F#, A, C#
B7: B, D#, F#, A#
Your best bet is to learn the scales. A seventh chord is usually a basic chord with the seventh letter of the scale added to the end.
You can pick up some "cheat sheets" at music stores, and I would also think you can get theory books, which would help, if you're not taking lessons.
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