Hi all,

As a hardcore music lover and perpetual student (that has a demanding day job), I've turned some attention toward playing piano. Having worked at guitar for many years, some things I thought I would do differently the second time around on guitar, which I am trying to do on keyboard, is:

1.) spend MUCH upfront time learning chord progressions, at least a couple of fingerings for the major progressions and scales, with MINIMAL time learning to read music (I can already hear some of your responses on this one - you know who you are : )
--> the idea hear, at least given my personality, is that ,I got lost in reading music and theory to the NEGLECT of playing the instrument, learning songs, and actually ENJOYING the instrument - it became too academic for me

2.) spend SOME (but less) daily time, learning to read music

3.) do NOT get bogged down with 2-handed, very independent playing (e.g. virtuoso classical stuff) - instead spend time on training the ear to recognize chord progressions and their accompanying scales, and applying them in songs

Toward this end, I've discovered 2 books I thought were very useful - "How to Play Piano despite years of lessons", and from the "Visual Approach Series" : 'Chord Construction, Learning to PLay through Shapes and Forms (which actually does relate all shapes to the Staff)


Finally, my questions:

1.) For anyone that moved from initially learning guitar for many years, than to piano - what books/methods/exercises did you discover most helpful and work through consistently ?

2.) Is the idea of 'position playing' on piano similar to guitar - that you have a certain set of fingers dedicated to certain keys on the keyboard for different scales, or is there much more movement from which fingers begin different chords (e.g. I guess there would have to be, but I'm not sure how to work on this).

3.) I've noticed some pictures in chord books where to hit a white key, the fingers are placed between black keys - is there any general guideline to when this is done ?

Thanks in advance,
Joe

Last edited by Joe V; 11/02/13 05:08 AM.