New here, and new to keyboards

[concrete pete]

Hi folks,

I'm a fairly seasoned "semi-pro" musician. I'm 53, have been playing drums for 40 years, harp (harmonica) for 30+ years, and decided to take up keyboards recently.

I'm in 2 Classic Rock bands, one rockabilly/country band, and "sub" for a couple other local gigging bands. I can't read music (other than percussion stuff), and decided in my old age that I want to expand my musical horizons, and venture forth. I have a day job, (I'm a general building contractor) and am "almost" retired from the working world, and getting more and more into the music scene as I go. live in the NorCal, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, up in a little town called Paradise.

So here's a question I'm sure has been posted here a gazillion times before here- I bought a simple Yamaha keyboard, and am trying my best to learn it--finding out along the way that keyboards are WAY more difficult than I expected. Without the luxury of having any free time to take lessons, can you folks here help me learn learn to get halfway decent at playing the keys?

If so, I'd be eternally grateful! I've watched a few YouTube vids, have seen a few online instructional vids, and found this forum- hoping that this old dog can learn a few new tricks.

All help, advice, tips, tricks, etc., will be warmly welcomed.

Kudos on (what I've found to be) the best keyboard players forum on the net.

Cheers,
C. P.

 

[goz211]

Hi C.P. and welcome to the forum.

Sounds like you're still very active on your local gigging scene. Maybe get one of the keyboard player to show you some chords and try to play along with some simple tunes.

Good luck.

 

[Sargas]

When playing keys, mostly everything is about chords. So you could buy a book that teaches you some chords, so that you can play the very basic stuff. When you're starting to feel a bit comfortable with just striking the chords as they come, you can try and "do" something with them as well; split them up, add some rhythms to them, and such. Eventually you might even be able to recognize the song you're playing!

 

[A.Dawson]

I stumbled on two short e-books I found online in some binary newsgroups. "How to Play Popular Piano In 10 Easy Lessons" by Norman Monath, and "Play Piano in a Flash" by Scott Houston. If you are into playing by ear, these might be of great use to you. I've taken a couple semesters of piano once, but they focused on "music theory" and that was mostly a waste of my and their time. I have played 12-string guitar (35 yrs), flute, shakuhachi, and dabbled with other instruments for years, playing by ear and just from "cheat sheets" (lyrics and chord-names only).

I had thought that playing piano/keyboard was going to become some complex thing that would take years to master. And indeed it does if you want to play like an accomplished classical pianist--note by note memorization of long scores, with the right fingerings played just like everyone else who has played those same songs for centuries. But these two books opened my eyes to just how very simple it can become for all other aspects of the music world. All except for 2 classical pieces (one of which I taught the first half to myself, note by painfully memorized note, Bach's Toccata & Fugue in Dm, fantastic for Halloween parties ), I've NO other interest in classical music.

Anyway, these 2 short books show you how all the chords, no matter how complex, are just simple repeating geometric patterns. Not at all like the hundreds of individually unique patterns a person needs to muscle-memorize for each 1st, 2nd, & 3rd position guitar chord. The "Piano in a Flash" one explaining things more quickly and easily, the "10 Easy Lessons" one showing all the chord patterns that the other one doesn't. Both having good information about playing styles as well. I had no idea, for example, that Blues are just the same three chords played over and over again in the very same pattern, no matter what key they are played in. (I've never played blues songs before.) Read that short section and you can play any blues song ever written.

After reading the main parts of those books I was able to play a favorite song from just a cheat-sheet (words and chord-names alone) on my first try. Slowly and with mistakes my first time, but recognizable and really nice sounding even with the mistakes included. No standard notation required.

With your by-ear Harp playing experience for so many years, and after trying what those 2 books show you, you should have no problems at all.

See if you can find (ebooks), loan (friend or library), or buy them.

 

[Phinnin]

Pete, Jimbo here... Give me a call and I'll set you up with some basics. It isn't easy but I can at least lead you in the right direction.

 

[concrete pete]

Hey Guys,

Thanks very much for the input and advice- I need all help I can get.

JIMBO! Hey dude, I'd call ya but it's too late tonight. (11:30)
I'll give you a jingle tomorrow or tomorrow night.

Cheers,
C. P.