Keyboard questions

[Appfro]

I pretty much learned the guitar with Guitar for Dummies and a bunch of tabs. Now, as soon as i get home, i'm getting a decent keyboard and i'm going to teach myself how to play. I played piano many many years ago and i remember enough to show off to someone with no musical knowledge at all, but i want to be able to jam w/ it.

anyway, i'm probably going to get piano for dummies or keyboard for dummies and go w/ what's working, but my problem is i have no ear for learning music. i have to learn tabs because even easy I IV V songs mess me up and i can't learn them by ear. i also can't read music. there isn't the equivilant to tabs for the piano are there? and if not, what do you all suggest?

[Beauford33]

I pretty much learned the guitar with Guitar for Dummies and a bunch of tabs. Now, as soon as i get home, i'm getting a decent keyboard and i'm going to teach myself how to play. I played piano many many years ago and i remember enough to show off to someone with no musical knowledge at all, but i want to be able to jam w/ it.

anyway, i'm probably going to get piano for dummies or keyboard for dummies and go w/ what's working, but my problem is i have no ear for learning music. i have to learn tabs because even easy I IV V songs mess me up and i can't learn them by ear. i also can't read music. there isn't the equivilant to tabs for the piano are there? and if not, what do you all suggest?

Learning to read a bar staff isnt too difficult. As far where the sharps and flats fall are pretty self explanitory. What part of reading music do you not understand?

[Appfro]

i understand it. but you can't play affectivly learning one or the other. you have to learn both. plus, single notes are too easy, it's chords and stuff that i ahve a hard time w/. you have to be able to recognize them while playing and i think i'm too old to start that crap, especially when you start talking about chords that aren't your everyday major minor chords.

i can learn scales and jam all day, i just want to be able to learn other songs too

[DMBFan63]

i understand it. but you can't play affectivly learning one or the other. you have to learn both. plus, single notes are too easy, it's chords and stuff that i ahve a hard time w/. you have to be able to recognize them while playing and i think i'm too old to start that crap, especially when you start talking about chords that aren't your everyday major minor chords.

i can learn scales and jam all day, i just want to be able to learn other songs too

You should take a theory course or two and learn how to build chords. Without knowing how to build chords, learning the piano is gonna be a bitch

I just say you take some time out and learn everything there is to learn, then tackle keyboard/piano, it'll make you a better musician

[MahlerGrooves]

Don't even worry about the reading music part. In most lead sheets and tab pages there is a chord list. Just get a book of piano chords (I think Alfred music makes one, otherwise just check in a local university that offers a beginner piano class) and play from that.

I have been playing piano almost as long as bass (around 8 years), and I have almost never needed my note reading unless I am playing classical or some real modern jazz tunes.

Good luck!

By the way, my guitar skills need MAD improvement. Is the Guitar for Dummies book any good??

[Pizzle]

http://www.pianotabs.net/rwinfo.html

[MahlerGrooves]

the keyboard tabs seem more complicated than reading the actual music.

[Pizzle]

There's a forum in there somewheres, but yeah, it looks complicated. I can play piano so I learned how to read music. Let me know if you guys need some help...

[i like tictacs]

all the pop piano you could ever want, for free, actual sheet music

http://mrpiano.bestmusicpages.com/popular.html