MoleMania

After reading that thread that just popped up in AWOL, I was reminded of something - I want to learn piano properly! (and buy a smallish keyboard for casual play)

However, at the moment I'm undecided as to whether I should get a teacher. I can already read music and know a fair bit about theory, so would getting the teacher be worth it? If anyone's had piano lessons in the past it would be great if you could tell me if there are certain playing techniques or tips I'd have a hard time teaching myself. After all, having a person there to give constant feedback is something you don't get on the internet. And more importantly, would it be worth the money? I don't know how much piano lessons can cost, and when guitar lesson prices around my area vary massively nothing's clear at all.

There's an old piano in the garage the works, but like I said earlier I wouldn't mind smaller keyboard for my desk to doodle around on. Pianos aren't the most portable of instruments. -___- As a newbie to this sort of thing I have no idea what to get or what I should look out for! My budget can go up to £100, so I'm not looking for A-grade stuff here.

And yes, I know this might seem like a far-fetched request for a humble MW2 forum, but any help helps! Thanks.

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pantstofry

I'm not a piano whiz, but I took lessons from 1st grade up until my soph year in high school. As far as the value of a teacher, IMO it's kinda like most instruments, you'll be able to learn most concepts, i think, from the internet. Maybe almost all, now that I think about it. I mean, the piano teacher is just there to show you what you're doing, and the internet can do that to an extent. There may be something I'm missing, I haven't played in two years, but I think Piano can be learned somewhat easily, at least what you need to know.

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Dante

When I moved into my new house the previous owners decided they didn't wasn't to go to the trouble of taking their piano with them so they just sorta left it. A couple of years back I decided I wanted to learn to play "Mad World" (yeah I was a kool kid). After acquiring the sheet music I was able to play both hands pretty proficiently within a few hours practice, granted my technique probably wasn't perfect but then, I didn't use YouTube or anything I just went with what felt right.

Moral of the story: You ain't gonna be a concert pianist without formal tuition at some point but I reckon that with the resources around on the web now you should be able to get to a fair standard by teaching yourself.

You said you can read music, is that both bass and treble clef? When I started I had been reading treble for about 6 years but only knew 1 note in bass and had to transpose everything in my head as I went along.

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Olaf Vikingsson

Seconding everything Dante said.

Best way to go about things is to get a teacher to help you lay down the basics of your technique so that you don't develop any bad habits. After you've got the basics down, practise at your own pace until you feel that your progress has slowed down, at which point a teacher will be required to identify any weak points in your knowledge/technique. Rinse and repeat.

Just don't make the mistake of clinging to a teacher for every single moment of your learning period. Unless you're the rare type of person who flourishies under pressure, doing that while cementing your basics and progressing from being a beginner to an intermediate player normally just isn't worth the cost.

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MoleMania

@Dante:

Yeah I can read both treble and bass clef, so that won't be an issue.

@Everyone:

Cheers for the advice! I think I'll do what ViS says when it comes to the lessons. Being a beginner, I feel a lot more enthusiastic about learning than I do with guitar playing now, so practicing will be a priority. Sadly, when learning guitar I made the mistake of clinging to the teacher, and at intermediate level I stopped making nearly as much progress - I was just learning songs of the same difficulty all the time. Could've saved about £100 skipping most of those lessons lol.

Fortunately I was asking my friends about piano lessons, and it turns out that the local youth club (They specialise in music stuff) does hour long sessions at only the 30p entrance fee. I've had guitar lessons there before - they were just as good as my main lessons (bloody typical), and not much can go wrong for 30p a time I guess. I'm a bit miffed that I didn't realise this before, but regardless:

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Olaf Vikingsson

Group lessons are fucking terrible if you actually want to be efficient. For all you're gaining from them, you might as well just save yourself the social distractions and learn via the internet.

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MoleMania

They're not group lessons.

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chaR

Taking courses is defo useful.
A good teacher will help you get the hang of it alot quicker, adress details that youd never find yourself, etc..
Just so many things really.

And if i were you, id spend those 100bucks on getting that old piano fixed and in tune if still possible. It's so much better n entirely different to play on an actual piano rather than a keyboard.

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