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Good afternoon everyone, and happy inauguration day!

(This is just my background, since it is my first post)

I'm only 16 years old, which is quite young seeing how many true "adults" there are here. I have gotten interested in playing the piano after watching countless videos of my favorite songs performed by pianists.

I bought a decent keyboard in 2008. We can't afford lessons, so I have decided to become self taught. I started with Alfred's Piano Course (which I have seen, from many threads, a good decision was made) and had to stop about halfway through since I don't have a damper pedal.

But things always seem to work themselves out. My computer programming class was canceled for the semester, so I had to take another class. What did I see? "Piano I"! And for next year, Piano II and Piano Adv. are on my list, since I lack a performing art course.

Hopefully these classes will help me.

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Anyways, that is where I am now. I still can't read notes very well, I have to count lines and all that, then still get it wrong! To the point!

1. I come here asking for any general tips you wish you knew when you started out... Any ideas?

2. Will these piano classes at school help me? I have no musical background. Has anybody taken piano classes at school before?

My inspiration right now is to play "The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby. What a beautiful song...

Hey there! I don't really know what advice to give except don't get discouraged and keep with it! Learning to play something can be very frustrating but you will get there eventually. I started out the same as you a few years ago, I never took lessons though and just slowly learned to read sheet music and such as you are doing now. It takes a lot of time and patience, I know it did for me, before I could decipher the notes without counting lines and so on.

Basically just stick with it, eventually it'll become second nature to know what notes are written on the sheet, you are basically learning a new language (music). I'm sure someone can give much better more specific advice but that's all I've got, sorry.

(I still have a hard time making my hands do what the notes on the paper tell them though, but that's another thing you just have to have the patience to push through each time you learn a new piece) :p

I guess the keyword in my message here is patience, there will be many times where you are frustrated at trying to play piano (it is a very difficult instrument to play) but in the end it's all worth it and you will ultimately get great enjoyment out of it I'm sure, just persevere! All the piano greats got there by being patient and sticking with it.

Hi and welcome to the forum
Things I wish I had known, I wish I had known how much enjoyment I could have had playing and learning piano, if only I had realised that at your age.
I am sure the lessons at school will be helpful, I can't see how you can go wrong there, it appears like it may help you if you need performing arts as a prerequisite for further education beyond school. Assuming piano would fall into that category (I am not sure)

Welcome to the forums!

Patience is definitely the key - there is SO much to learn, but it really is alot of fun, and if you keep up with it, you'll only get better Also, time is definitely on your side. Gosh, I'm about to turn 35 - if I had started when I was 16 - wow - I'd have almost 20 years of experience! I'm a little jealous now

I think the piano classes will help, though I've never taken group classes. It will give you a teacher that you can ask questions of, which will be useful, and get advice from, plus perhaps some sense of direction. I say go for it!

Re: learning notes - it can be a long, slow process. Some people find flash cards helpful (you can make your own, just draw the staff with the note on one side, and the letter name on the other.)

I learned the treble (top) clef in childhood from another instrument, but I recently had to learn bass when I started piano... one thing that helped was for me to find a few notes that I could easily remember/identify quickly.

For example... the note on the very bottom line of the bass clef is G. I always think of this as the "GROUND" (with the "G"!) - since it's the bottom!

For some reason, the C on the 2nd space from the bottom sticks in my head as "the C that looks like A" (that spot is A on the treble clef) - but that may not help you if you don't already know A on the treble clef

The line between the two dots on the bass clef is "F"...

Whatever you can do to make a few of these "automatic" associations will help get the rest in place... because then you can say, "oh, that's just one up from the G that I know, it must be A!"

Eventually it does become easier

Best of luck to you, and have fun!

Very helpful post for sure, and so true. Like Saerra said learning to read music will be the big challenge at first, and you will eventually become familiar with it and not have to keep counting lines to find out what note is what. When I started I was constantly counting lines, nearly every note, from a central point like C or A or something. What a pain! But this is how it goes at first, eventually you will just be able to look at a note on the paper and point to the key immediately and then that is when learning pieces becomes are little more manageable.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll be playing great stuff soon if you stick with it.

Welcome to the forums!

When learning to read music, the best advice I can give is to use your ears and your eyes. Don't just try to memorize what the notes look like on the staff and where they are on the keyboard. Play them and listen to the sounds they make, and their relationship with each other.

Think of it this way - when you learn to read and write in school when you're young, you start by sounding out letters. You're teaching your eyes to recognize what the marks on the page are, and your ears (and brain!) to recognize what those marks sound like. Usually, this is done by sounding out the letters vocally (with your mouth), so your brain can hear them. You start with sounds...

T = "ttttaaa"
A = "aaaaaaa"
L = "llllaaa"
K = "kkkkaaa"

And eventually, you sound out that the group of letters together spell "TALK".

As you read more, you start to do this without sounding out each individual letter - you train your brain to recognize how groups of letters sound together without thinking about it.

As you get older, you learn to read without speaking. Truthfully, you're still talking to yourself in your head, you just don't have to actually hear the words and sounds anymore, because you've repeated them over and over so many times that it becomes automatic to understand them. At the same time, though, when you see a word like:

"antidisestablishmentarianism"

and try and read it... you notice that you go right back to sounding out the word naturally!

Try taking the same approach with music. When you see a group of notes, figure out what they are (C, D, E, etc.) and then play them to learn what they sound like together. Then, sing them while you play them. As you do this, you'll train yourself to hear the sounds, and the relationships they have with one another. Do it enough, and you'll start to understand not only what the notes are, but what they sound like...

... because sound is the reason for doing this in the first place!

I'll prove this to you - sing the first few notes of your favorite song. If you're like me, you probably have no clue what those notes are on paper, but you know what they sound like. Now you just need to learn to match the marks on the paper with the sounds in your head.

Once you understand this, the next part - actually playing the piano - just becomes a matter of getting the sound out of your head. It's the same thing as learning to write.

We can usually talk before we can write, because writing is basically just training your hands to make the marks on the paper instead of using your mouth to say the words. You have to learn how to hold the pencil and paper, the right amount of pressure to put on the pencil so you can actually make a mark without ripping the paper up, and the motion and action to make with your hand to leave the marks you want to leave.

Playing piano is the same thing. You learn the proper way to hold your hands, the right pressure to put on the keys, and the right motions to make so the piano makes the sound you want to hear.

(This'll take us into a discussion on proper technique, which I'll leave for another day.)

If you learn to listen to what you're trying to read, you'll find that actually understanding those little marks on the page will come more naturally, and you'll be proficient in no time at all.

Good luck!

it's great to have an opportunity to take piano class. i wish i would have had such class when i started college then. but i never had such luck and only got to teach myself to start playing many years after school. so, enjoy your class and i'm sure it will help you greatly!

Welcome to PW and the Forums - great advice above from everybody!

But I am wondering whether or not your "12 fingers" will be a help or a hindrance in the future as your piano studies become more challenging :p

Regards, JF

My advice is find music YOU enjoy and want to learn. Don't worry about what anybody else thinks. If "The way it is" is within your capabilities, go for it. If not, learn some easier stuff and then go for it. Don't fall into the trap of thinking "if I want to be a piano player I have to learn this and play that" and miss the fun.

Hey you lucky person! Piano lessons in school!

Theory is not difficult to learn, but it helps if you have a teacher. The Alfred's method was a good choice... I use it too

The playing - maybe because it's a school course, you will get more age appropriate music. I am assuming it is a group class - if so, the teacher may not be able to really look at the details of your hands, postures etc, so do pay attention and use your eyes when you go to concerts and watch music videos.

Once you can read music, pick up some easy arrangements of songs you like. This will really motivate you and help you with your music reading. Also start listening more closely to piano performances (or parts).

One mistake people often make in music is thinking that progress will come quickly in a matter of days or weeks. But this isn't a video game like Guitar Hero.

Stick with it - perhaps the second most important bit of advice. And enjoy it (the most important!)