Starting piano studies again

March 13, 2019 5:05 AM

We took delivery of a digital piano this morning. Our household has different levels of musical ability and experience. I’ve asked before about my 5-yo, but today I’d like some help identifying resources for me and my wife (eg, apps, but whatever’s clever).

Me: took piano for maybe three years as a kid. I’ve played the guitar for 25+ years, though plateaued a while ago. Have plonked away with MIDI keyboards in recent years. I have a decent ear for figuring out melodies, but am unburdened by technique. Can’t sight read.

Wife: took piano all her childhood and got rather good. Still knows her way around the keyboard. I don’t know how well she sight reads.

At some point, everyone in the family will get lessons. And there will be a honeymoon period where we all love just sitting down to play. But I’d like to help my wife and me actually tighten up some skills in this interim period when we find our own teachers.

Can you recommend any apps, sites, YouTube channels etc. that are particularly helpful for adult learners of piano who have some musicality/familiarity with the instrument? To the extent it matters, I think my wife would like to both return to her classical roots and be able to play holiday singalongs for Christmas; I’m really more interested in popular music (ultimately recording with my guitar/bass).

Music theory, sight reading, ear training, chords dictionaries—all would be welcome.

Thanks!

posted by Admiral Haddock to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

Not elementary material, but the inestimable Nahre Sol should provide some inspiration.
posted by thelonius at 5:12 AM on March 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yousician is an app available on many platforms, I use it on iPad. It listens to your playing and can tell how you’re doing, and will play demos and light accompaniement while you practice your songs and drills.

It customizes your lessons based on an initial test, and then you pick from a zillion different types of exercises and training you want to do each day. It goes from ultra beginner up to, I don’t know, far beyond me, maybe high intermediate or low level expert? It separates out several areas eg theory, rhythm, ear training, etc.

There is currently a free/ad supported model along with several paid options, so it’s easy and no-risk to try out.

In a totally different vein, get this crazy old book of drills by Hanon, it’s worth the $6 on Amazon just to read the preface and gawk at the exercises, but it also is a classic (first printed 1873) that will reward time spent with it.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:14 AM on March 13, 2019 [3 favorites]

Another book recommendation: Berklee Press Piano Essentials: Scales, Chords, Arpeggios, and Cadences for the Contemporary Pianist. It seemed a little light on the cadences, but there are correct fingerings for major scales in all 12 keys and that will do you great good.
posted by thelonius at 5:19 AM on March 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

There's a free, beginner music theory class from Berklee on EdX.
posted by missmary6 at 5:46 AM on March 13, 2019 [3 favorites]

I like the app "Simply Piano" - app best used in an iOs or Android tablet. It takes you through a number of progressively more tricky popular, jazz and classical standards. The app will listen to what you play on a microphone - and react accordingly - or you can link it with bluetooth midi. The emphasis is on currently popular hits - which are fun to play. But the real beauty of the app is a tool for gradually teaching sight reading: on each attempt you get one go at reading and playing the piece from start to finish. There are variants of the tool which are designed to work with your own piano teacher.

Piano teacher, Tim Topham, has a bunch of other Ipad app recommendations for learners - there is a range of stuff like sheet music tools. metronones, chord teachers and so on - that can be helpful and which did not exist a short while ago.
posted by rongorongo at 5:47 AM on March 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

Your wife sounds similar to me - I was a good classical pianist as a child and young adult but quit when I was in my early 20s (I'm 42 now). I started again last October and have found it really useful to play the songs I used to play, in order to build strength and control and refresh my memory on reading music. If she still has her old music books - or can get copies of them - that might be a good way to go. After a couple months of just playing through old stuff I started picking other pieces in the books to teach myself and have been really pleasantly surprised at how quickly my skill has come back.
posted by something something at 6:26 AM on March 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Heavily but not exclusively jazz oriented is Aimee Nolte's channel; there should be some relevant music theory and chord information there.
posted by thelonius at 6:32 AM on March 13, 2019

Oh one other cool thing about Yousician is it has an option to display music in a sort of ‘easy mode’ that will allow you to practice playing without having to sight read traditional music notation.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:42 AM on March 13, 2019

With regard to your wife and her prior experience: We acquired a nice piano recently, and it inspired me to pick it up again. I've gotten a lot out of exploring my local library's sheet music collection, after I played through my old repertoire enough to get bored and want more. They have instructional books as well as just books and books of music. Maybe your library does as well?
posted by linettasky at 10:38 AM on March 13, 2019

Instructional books ('documents') on scribd.com - there is a vast collection and you can learn a lot.
posted by saul wright at 10:01 PM on March 13, 2019

Not a technique suggestion, but repertoire - my spouse and I play 4-hands piano music together, and it is loads of fun. You can find pop and classical, easy to virtuoso, music arranged/composed for 4 hands, 1 piano. As you both (re)gain comfort with the instrument, I hope you'll keep an eye out for this genre of sheet music.
posted by cdefgfeadgagfe at 12:20 AM on March 15, 2019