Justin has a lesson called “Learn basic piano skills” which is a short lesson with no piano or keyboard. He just sits there with a guitar on his lap explaining why we should consider learning the piano.
I finally did it and bought a very small / portable keyboard as my full size keyboard (a cheapie) was just too much trouble to get out and set up so it never got used.
I’ve been playing for about a month now and am thrilled with the decision to add keyboard to my list of instruments that I play.
I’m an intermediate guitar player that’s been playing for well over a decade and am mostly a rhythm fingerstyle player.
So far I’m only playing rhythm piano. Not doing any melody or melodic embellishments. What’s neat is how much clearer a lot of music theory is once you see it on the keyboard and there are songs that were originally done on piano that I’ve not found good guitar versions that are now within my reach.
If you’ve been tempted but never gotten around to getting a keyboard, I encourage you to do so. I’m very glad I did.
I can now play one song all the way through with only minimal mistakes and not full of mistakes every time. I’m now working out what my 2nd and 3rd songs will be. Fun Fun Fun. Oh, and I’m still playing guitar heaps too.
Seems like getting a keyboard was a great decision. I have a related question, Tony, something I’ve always been curious about. When you compare the beginning of your piano playing path with what you experienced as a beginner on the guitar, which instrument is easier to learn to a point when you could actually play something meaningful? Is such a comparison possible at all?
Right now I’d say the piano / keyboard is a LOT easier to learn. No sore fingers. The chord shapes are a lot more similar with simple Major and Minor chords. I’ve gotten to where I can play a simple song much more quickly than on guitar and my simple piano song (6 chords, 2 minor, 4 major) is a lot more complicated than my simple first guitar song (3 chords all major).
What’s not fair in this comparison is I know a LOT more about music now than when I started playing guitar. I also have been very deliberate with the piano to play only rhythm. I may start on some melody with either my 2nd or 3rd song, so advancing much more in leaps and bounds.
My fear with beginners and piano is that too many teachers may introduce theory and scales far too early and complicate the process. I don’t have that problem.
That’s great that you feel it’s been a useful addition to your “arsenal” of instruments. What kind of keyboard do you play? I tried to search for a suitable one for myself but the variety is ridiculous… the wake-up calls for me were the prices, and then the realization that, e.g. a “small” upright-style (even digital ones) by, say, Yamaha, is in fact not so small and light.
I have an old portable keyboard but I can’t play anything on it and I never bother with it.
It’s not clear from your post as to why you’re learning keyboard.
Is it in some way to help you with guitar?
Or maybe just for something different to play?
Are you following a course or just using what you already know from guitar to learn keyboard?
Hi David like Tony says having basic skills with the keyboard helps you learn theory easier than it would be on guitar I am sure Justin has a couple of lessons on the keyboard now and it really does help you along with guitar playing cheers Hec
I haven’t gone as far as learning a song but I’ve found my kids piano useful for understanding chords, chord inversions and for working out simple melodies. The “linear” arrangement of keys is a useful complement to my advancing beginner guitar abilities.
Justin has a food for thought essay that walks you through a “jump start” in playing the piano. It helped me.
Thank you, Tony. I was eager to know your opinion. I’ve never played the piano, although I can hit any chord I want simply because I know the notes on the keyboard, but without regular practice it’s never gonna be fluent.
Thanks again for an extensive reply to my inquiry.
I started learning on an old Yamaha electric piano we’ve had for ages about a year ago, I use Simply piano and have found it very good. I’m not all that good as yet but it’s coming along.
I took piano lessons as a 12 year old for a year (over a half century ago). I could run up and down scales, play fun/different/novel (to me) music such as Bartok, Scott Joplin ragtime tunes with great syncopation, stuff that sounded really good after about 6 months with about 1/10th the weekly hours of practice I put in now. I’m almost at that 6 month mark with guitar and I can barely play Go Tell Aunt Rhody with any facility .
I’d say learning guitar is, at a minimum, an order of magnitude more difficult than learning piano
(that my brain is partially ossified could well be contributing to the extended on-ramp).
Recently turned on my Roland:GO piano again and after a session or 3 I was playing a real song from meory with triads with my right hand and doing one note (or added octave) with my left hand. I know the song from playing it on guitar
Everybody who is learning theory right now would benefit of trying some triad major and major chords on a piano/keyboard to help and see the relations.
Also, very helpful with singing and ear training. When learning those on the guitar, you can often get bogged down in guitar idiosyncrasies, and lose track of what you are actually trying to learn…those skills are universal, and will be valuable no matter what instrument you play.
I took a semester of piano back in college for my art credit and it was MUCH MUCH easier than learning guitar. I’ve been trying for the past 20+ years (basically, since that piano class) to get to the same point with the guitar and I might finally be getting close after many frustrating fits and starts.
I haven’t touched a keyboard since that class, though, so I have no idea how quickly I’d be able to remember stuff. But I have thought about getting a basic keyboard to help with some of the theory side of guitar as well as having another instrument I could poke around with.
I taught myself how to sight read music a couple of years ago and purchased an arranger keyboard (yamaha Genos). I cannot play the piano but using left hand for chords and right hand for melody I can play so much. 500 odd backing tracks/styles helps. Huge fun and so much easier than guitar.
I will however persevere as guitar is fun too
I had wanted to revisit piano lessons for quite some time, but there’s always something else interfering, haha
Good luck in your continuation!
Wow! 6 months! But then you had a lot of talent! I’ve known a few persons who had piano lessons for several years (my sister who is a great singer is one of them) and never felt they could play really well.
Ok, not Tony here, but I’d like to share my feelings as well.
Tried to learn the piano from a book at the time. You can also have hurting hands and fingers! I think it was those tendons! Maybe it’s easier nowadays with video lessons than with a book and CD at the time!
I found it ok, but was too lazy in the long run!
Learned the guitar much later. I would say, once you know the basic open chords, some things are easier when beginning on guitar, like playing those chords in a nice rhythm which is easy to do strumming and then sing along.
On a piano, you have to take care which keys you hit, while on the guitar, you can just hold the chord and strum somehow in the rhythm and it sounds fine.
Or if you start fingerpicking - you can just randomly pick one of the first three strings in some nice rhythm and there will be a nice melody, because you’ll always play notes of the chord. On the piano, you have to take care which key exactly you hit.
But that’s just some details - in general, I definitely don’t want to claim that the guitar would easier!
And piano helps big time in theory, I think.
When I started the guitar, I often thought in terms of black and white keys
My older brothers (3) all got piano lessons when I was growing up, by the time that decision came around to me I guess it was easy to ignore as none of the older brothers really took to piano all that much. I certainly wish I’d been given that chance way back when.
HA! This happened to me with my older sister. She didn’t like anything my parents got her lessons for and just assumed my younger sister and I would be the same! Though I didn’t mind missing ballerina lessons at all!
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