Relearn Piano - Challenge.. no books or sheet music but computer!

March 28, 2020 5:09 AM

Like everyone else I am trying to make the best of my time sitting at home doing nothing... I just bought a used piano keyboard and I would like to re-learn/practice the piano, but in my case I don't have any access to books / sheet music

I do have a Windows computer w/ touch screen, so i'm going to try and update my learning system into the 21st century.

Questions
- any recommend apps or programs for displaying and marking sheet music for windows? (I would like more than just a PDF).
-any recommendations for skype instructor?

Thanks!

posted by aggienfo to Technology (7 answers total)

Do you have a printer? Because if you do there are tons of free downloadable music you can print. I keep searching for downloadable music that can be sung or played on a recorder and finding piano music.

If you don't have a printer and are a beginner so the music you want to play is less complex, consider transcribing sheet music from the the screen if you do not. Transcribing music is one heck of a good way to work on understanding why the music is written the way it is, and getting a feel for the pattern in the pieces, and strengthening your ability to read music. The easiest way to improvise music with staffs is to get some line paper and add some lines with a ruler. You'll need a fine tipped pen, the ruler and the paper, of course.

You can also use very thin unlined paper overlaying a printed page of sheet music and trace that to get the staff lines. You might want to trace the staff lines in pencil and only put the notes on in ink, as then wobbly staff lines can be redone and don't have to be as visible as the notes.
posted by Jane the Brown at 5:40 AM on March 28, 2020

Does the instruction have to be sheet music-based? There are a ton of piano tutorials of varying difficulty levels on YouTube.
posted by terretu at 6:22 AM on March 28, 2020

The scan quality varies, but I recently learned that ebook subscription site Scribd has sheet music as well.
posted by libraryhead at 6:52 AM on March 28, 2020

Check out Yousician for online learning for keyboard. Also I know that many music teachers have moved to online lessons—it’s not out of the question that you could find a great teacher remotely, with a little bit of networking.
posted by Sublimity at 8:39 AM on March 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

IMSLP is where to go for sheet music; it has a ridiculous amount of out-of-copyright sheet music, which of course is most classical music. I use ForScore on my iPad for managing and marking up sheet music; when I look up "forscore windows alternative" it turns up MobileSheets, which may be promising for your situation.
posted by dfan at 8:44 AM on March 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

What a perfect question for world piano day. :)

I've seen ads for playground sessions with Harry Connick Jr and Flow Key; but don't know if those are any good. You might also see ads for Simply Piano, but I highly doubt that's any good.
posted by foxjacket at 12:53 PM on March 28, 2020

Mike teaches Skype lessons.

Mike is a friend from high school, but he's also teaching the kids of a number of friends. He was fairly early on to dropping in person lessons and does a lot of live performances online. I'm sure there are others like him, but he's who I have been recommending for Skype lessons.
posted by frumiousb at 8:06 PM on March 28, 2020