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I would like to learn the chords (block and arpeggio) and inversions, and after almost 2 days of playing piano find to my dismay that I am still a beginner :-). I am working on getting lessons with a teacher, but don't mind putting some independent effort into what seems essential to learn initially. (I am most interested in improvisational music.)

I have started by beginning to find the triads and systematically going through the inversions, with each hand, but I am unsure of some of the fingering.

I would like to just DO this, i.e. run through the triads with inversions (and eventually the seventh chords) as an exercise with fluency, though I see some value in carefully building each of the triads for myself. On the other hand, looking for all the triads and their inversions, for all the keys, is a pretty big elephant to chew for me right now, and some sort of guide or map would be very helpful.

Is there a link or a site with the fingerings for all the scales and arpeggios in one place? I did search here for "argpeggio fingerings" and "fingering arpeggio inversion" and didn't quite find what I am imagining to exist.

Or can someone recommend a book that includes such exercises, and possibly natural extensions, like ii-V-I practice and the such? I'm not looking so much for a 400 page book with every possible chord variation with every possible mode and exotic scale, but instead imagine a book that gives some context to the chords and their fingerings, maybe with some exercises in progressions and the musical use of the chords in blues and jazz forms, that a beginner would find helpful.

Thanks.

I've always liked

Know your Scales and Arpeggios (with cadences) by Ada Richter. It's $7.95 and should be in any music store. Alternatively, if you google "ada richter scales" you'll get a bunch of websites where you can buy it online (including sheetmusic plus, a sponsor here).

It goes through all the major and minor scales, arpeggios and standard chord progressions, with fingering for each--and fingering for more than one octave. This is important, since many scale books only show fingering for 8 notes and leave you hanging with unworkable fingering should you want to continue.

I first went through it in about 9th grade or so, and it was easily one of the most useful "theory" books I've ever used.

Oh, P.S.--the arpeggios are just your standard I chord arpeggios, but you can arpeggiate (? ) any chord.

Hanon contains all of the major and minor scales and arpeggios, with fingering.

It's in the public domain, so you can download it free here:


Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist


Parts 1, 2, and 3 contain the complete 60 exercises.

Since scales are fundamental, I would definitely recommend you learn scales before arpeggios and chords.

Mel

Thank you.

For scales, modes, maj/min/dim chords and their inversions, I like Gary Marks\'s method. Within a few weeks, you'll know all of the major scales. A few more weeks will give you fluency in the above-mentioned chord and inversions as well as the modes. This is all covered in Marks's first book.

I'm still in the first book, but the second book covers, among other things, 6ths, 7ths, arpeggios, and pentatonic and blues scales.

Very cool.

My first impression was that Gary Marks's books were pricey...

But he has a PDF file of part of the first book, which I am about halfway through with, and you can tell he really has something to say about learning piano that is worth hearing.

They are more expensive than many of the single adult method books. However, as complete methods go, it's not expensive. For example, The Pop Piano Book, a highly-respected book by Mark Harrison, is $40.

It really depends what you're looking to accomplish. Realistically, whether you're learning from books or from a teacher, you'll probably have to try different ones before finding the best one for you.