I like the music on here, but have NO IDEA where to start. I have this old Casio keyboard sitting in front of me, looking all kinds of sad and lonely and in need of someone to play it. And I have no idea where to begin. So I guess my REAL question is : Where would an unskilled guy like me begin?

The basics :D

Start with doing scales, and then rhythms at different dynamics, and then start working on traversing the board with both your hands.

After this, find a Piano Methods book to eat off of and you should be set to start playing some music after that.

I know it's boring, but it's the tried and true method to getting started and succeeding.

Well, that helps, better than trying to play a song and failing till I quit. Is there a book or download or something I could grab to get the scales? Something to actually start with would be...well, it would be freakin awesome, than blindly stumbling about here.

You can look at this sites:

http://www.musictheory.net/

http://www.teoria.com/ (This one is from the Conservatory where I studied piano performance) I just found out that, lol.

I hope it help. :)

They both are wicked awesome! Thanks! Maybe eventually I can play those lovely piano pieces I hear and love.

hmm when i first started playing i just found a really easy piano score and learned it without knowing any of that theory stuff. if your looking for a first song try will of the heart from bleach. real easy and it was my first song i learn. then from that i just youtube easy anime songs and found the scores for them

Thanks. I'll try that song, seeing as how those other links taught me how to READ sheet music. Oh, and if you recommend some more easy songs, you'd rock a hellvalot harder

Well, you can try Solitude from Full metal alchemist. It's not very hard until about halfway through, but even then it's still pretty playable. :)

Yeah, what the others said. But some of my own tips/opinions:

Reading notes: good. Though these days people are putting up more of those vids where you can see what notes are being played on a keyboard instead (search "piano tutorial"). Might get some tips from those but they'll probably be specific to the song.

If you're working on coordination between hands - I hear this griped about from people who can read notes but don't play the piano, e.g. if they're coming from a different instrument - try one hand first. Then the other hand. And then put them together once you've gotten a feel of the songs.

Write in fingering if you need to.

Listen to a mp3/midi/whatever of it. Really helps.

Er, I don't know about the importance of scales. I learned 'em before I was at the age where I questioned everything. But I hear they're good stuff? Hahah. If you're up to it, I think arpeggios are more helpful.

Pick a song you like. Most important is to keep your motivation high. Try something that doesn't have a lot of sharps/flats. But once you start playing those, IMO play both. Don't just play stuff with sharps for instance. Thinking of F# as Gb gives a new perspective of the keyboard hahah.

I'd started making a list of easy anime/game songs (http://snomits.net/articles/difficulty.php) but it's still super small and ierno how much time I'll have to be adding to it.

Best of luck!