I am mostly a polyvalent musician as I can play guitar, tenor saxophone, piano, drums, and bass. However, to be able to play is very different from mastering, isn't it ? The instrument that I am currently learning and trying to master is guitar, but I must admit that I am very interested in piano playing, too. ^^ There's a problem, however; I cannot afford piano courses AND guitar courses.

Here is what I am asking : is there any of you who could give me tricks on how to teach myself piano ? Which pieces to play ? What to do ? I'd be very grateful. ^^

Thank you ~ ^_^

Well, first off....make sure you know the notes on the sheet music and which keys they correspond to on the piano. That's how I began learning. C, D,E around the two black keys, and then F, G, A, and B around the three black keys. Go up for sharps, and down for flats. That kind of stuff. Then just begin with really simple music. The first piece I tried was "The Salt Flats" from FFVIII....took me forever to master, because I didn't have the two hand coordination yet. That's another thing to what out for. Making sure that you get those two together. It's always easy for me to begin with something I've heard before, because then I know how fast to go, and know when I'm playing something wrong. Let's see...umm....since I played the flute the majority of my time before beginning to teach myself the piano about two years ago. I used mostly my right hand for trills and the like. My left hand wouldn't move as much. So I began with some anime/video game pieces with whole notes for each measure, so I would build up some skill. Don't know what piece that was though. :heh: You should have no problem with knowing bass clef (I think...), but it shouldn't be that hard. I had to learn that myself, because well the flute is played using the treble clef. And chords, well I never had to learn them when I was learning to play my flute many years ago, so I have to learn that myself. If you really want to get pass whole notes in the bass clef part...I would suggest "Memoria" or "Place of Memory" from FFIX. Took me about two months to master when I started to learn, but the vital part was to separate the treble and the bass part, and learn each separately. Then when I put them together, I got the hang of it, and felt I could do more pieces like "The Salt Flats" (by myself finally), and many other pieces...like "Kuon-Hikari to Nami no Kioku" (Eternity: Memory of Lightwaves, FFX-2)...hope that helps, and good luck!!

Thank you a lot, I'm sure that'll help ! ^_^

Yeah, that's a problem I noticed, I have no independance @_@ I cannot play the two hands at a time unless it's a very simple piece. Does anyone know exercises one can do to solve that problem ?

Thank you, once again ! ^.^

Yeah, like Milai said, get to know the notes really well. It'll speed your progress! When I'm teaching beginners, I like to make cue cards for each note.

As for developing coordination between the two hands, I'm still in the progress of figuring out the best technique. But for now, you can, um . . . well, work with each hand separately before bringing it together.

Eg. Find yourself a simple arrangement of Beethoven's Ode to Joy. The right hand should have the melody, while the left hand should have the chords. Once you've mastered both hands, you can play both of them together. This technique should hopefully work because your left hand will only play once each bar, and each bar is usually one of two chords.

I like this, because if you look at the score, you can see exactly when both hands are supposed to come in. So gradually, you'll get used to both hands . . .

The way i learned was a got a "cheat sheet", which is a sheet of paper that you put above the keys, and got some beginers music, which has the notes written inside of the notes. After a while, i didn't need the cheat sheet. :D If you want to learn how to use both hands, heres what i do. First, you need a relativly simple piece of music that has the part for two hands. You learn the first part, and get that down. Then you start to learn ONLY the second part with your left hand. After you've mastered both of them, try playing them together SLOWLY X_X . Then start to get faster, until you reach the speed you want. It's a long process :sweatdrop: but it helps a lot. Happy playing :neko:

Wow ! Thank you a lot guys, you're of great help ! :D

I have a book full of easy classical pieces for piano, so I'll try those techniques of those pieces. ^^

As for the notes, I know them quite well, since I play guitar, and I learned some years ago about the bass key just for fun. :heh:

Thank you a lot, all of you, and if you still have some tricks, please write them down ! ~ :)

hehe one day i just decided "i wanna play piano!" mainly because i found this site lol...and the first song i learned was "my will" from inuyasha. (i already knew how to read music and i knew the fingering on the piano tho) anyway whenever i play the piano i ALWAYS start with the melody (usually the right hand)...its like a ritual for me lol :D and then i work on the left hand...then VERY SLOWLY play them together. if its something thats hard to coordinate both hands with..i usually take it one measure at a time...playing each measure over and over very slowly until i get it (cuz im retarded haha) and somehow i memorize them without noticing it so at that point im not even worrying about reading the music anymore and give my full attention to getting my hands to coordinate lol :lol: