I am a beginner on the electronic keyboard and I know just enough music to play the melody line on a tin whistle. In learning the basics there seems to be two different approaches on how the left hand is played on an electronic keyboard. - Classic piano fingering - for a regular acoustic piano or an electronic keyboard in regular piano mode. - Electronic auto accompaniment fingering - where the left hand portion of the keyboard (typically at F# to the left of the G below middle C) is in accompaniment mode (sounding somewhat like the strings section of an orchestra). In both "classic" and "auto acc" fingerings I am talking about using 3-fingered chords (not the single-finger chord feature). In classic piano fingering left hand chords played in their root position will typically cross over the F#-G boundary prompting a change to chord inversions for electronic auto acc fingering. I have been trying to do some of both - learning 3-fingered inversion chords so I can use the Auto Acc to its best advantage giving me a jump at actually playing some tunes, and in addition to getting the left hand cues from the chord letter located over the melody or treble line, also to a limited extent beginning to get used to reading the Bass Clef which is where the chord conflict occurs with using the Auto Acc. I have song books of both types - Fake books with the melody line and a chord letter; and Easy Piano books with treble clef, bass clef and a chord letter on top as well. Regular piano books with vocal and both piano clefs are rather intimidating. Many people seem to make a choice as to which path, classic piano or Auto Acc fingering, they start off on. Is learning the inversion chords for accompaniment fingering as the first/primary set of left hand chords limiting in any way? And if one starts with the Auto Acc approach do many players begin to delve into classic piano fingering at a later date? I am retired and am simply learning to play for my own pleasure.
I use whatever works for the song - i.e. minimise the movement required in that particular song The Y-man
Auto Acc is a perfectly acceptable way to play; while it restricts playing anything other then automatic chords with your left hand, it's a good tool for beginners to get motivated about improvisation.
