Quote:
Originally Posted by
bugger 
Being a beginning adult piano player, its frustrating trying to learn how to play. Ive always wanted to play, in fact I have a piano in my home but it isnt played much aside from guests that come over. I know how to read music and I few basic chords but not much else.
I really want to learn how to play piano improv instead of reading from sheet music. Can anyone recommend me some good books or even online lessons that focus on the chord method?
You say you know how to read music and have a piano in my home that "isnt played much aside from guests that come over."
Sounds like you have one and maybe two ingredients in learning learn how to play piano improv. The missing link is how skilled you are at parroting back what you hear. Do you ever try to sit at the piano and try to pick out the melody line to some pop song? Load up I-Pod with set for favorite songs you would like to learn, sit at piano, listen to a segment and stop, start just with melody line and try to parrot back what you just heard. If you have an ear for music and a sense of "relative pitch" (being able to closely and fairly accurately identify and locate a pitch you heard) and relate it to subsequent tones in sequential progression on the musical scale, you will probably find that you sit at the piano for hours and idly pluck out many, many familiar pieces with no music.
Understanding the patterns of cord progression and being able to undergird the melody with an appropriate supporting cord is something to work on after you first evaluating your own level of talent, and finding you: (1) can "play by ear," or (2) need to rely on a "fake book" musical cheat sheet. From what I have seen instructional books focusing on a "cord method" of playing (i.e., Piano of Dummies) introduce the concept too fast and suspect (at least after reading the book Piano Lessons: Music, Love & True Adventures by Noah Adams) get adult beginners bewildered and frustrated.
Trained piano teachers, unfortunately, often discourage students from engaging in any improvisational style playing based on sound recognition and stick to traditional classical instruction, focus on coordinating playing while simultaneously recognizing the progression of printed notes on the grand staff (i.e., the methodology in those famous John Thompson piano instruction books which more often than not will make young children hate piano lessons). Piano teachers, of course, want students to learn progressively longer selections (a full length concerto being the ultimate goal), which would take a life to learn to play by rote. However, both instructional methods should really be used, because everyone is wired differently and learning pace will vary depending upon the motivating stimuli (i.e., recognizing visual patterns of printed notes on music staff v. audibly hearing the tonal mixture and progression of sounds).
I suspect improvisational playing of a musical instrument is learned by way of osmosis, but had one older woman tell me, "Oh, it is a God given gift, if you can intuitively find the right keys and magically harmonize your melody line." She went on and explained, "I've tried over the years, but if I don't have notes written together on both base and treble clef lines, I'd have no clue what to play."
It sounds like you only want to play well enough to entertain a few people in you home, so here are a few suggestions. Christmas is coming and will be here before you know it. Sit down find "Middle C" and regularly over the next few weeks and see how many familiar Christmas carols you can pick out melody to by simply the fingers of your using right hand around in that octave. Maybe even pencil out set of notes to each of them on a blank music staff sheet (you can find and print one from any number of places on the Internet). I suggest this because Christmas carols are amazingly simple and you can probably pick out more that you thought. Next go to public library and check out a book of Christmas carols (shouldn't be in high demand right now) and see how closely what you penciled out matches the arrangement in the book. If you are lucky they will have the same sequence of notes. On the other hand they may be in different keys, which is okay. Try playing what is in the book and see how it differs from your version. Next get both hands up and moving on the keyboard and best way to "get the feel" for doing this is to simply to play melody in octaves: right hand above and left hand below Middle C. Keep doing this over and over and over. I think by doing this repeatedly over and over you will gradually begin to train your left hand to reach for and find the root note of the supporting cord for the melody line. Next January, when you are sick and tired of Christmas carols, go back to public library and check out one of the "fake book" collections of lead sheet (single treble clef line) versions of your favorite pop songs. Theses usually have proper cord noted by way of letters above the line. Pianists, whose teachers fed them a good steady diet of John Thompson piano instruction books get lots of practice working on scales and arpeggios. Series is criticized in that the degree of attention paid to cord formation and progression is minimal. One reason there are so many books around on how to play cord piano is because the "standard bearer" instructional books are vague on this topic. Anyway for what it is worth her is my suggestion. Got a buddy who plays guitar? Guitar players know cords forwards and backwards. Get him to come over, jam around, and strum cords while you pick out the melody line. Hearing another instrument might help you internalize which additional tones you need to add into musical line.
Would like to hear if you try and/or find any of these ideas helpful.
