I’ve played a little piano for a long time, but only self-taught and have lots of bad habits (I think). I’m right-handed and so my right hand is definitely more accomplished and more “connected” with my brain than my left hand.
I want to see if I can start piano technique more or less from scratch, to try to undo/fix my bad habits. I read music fluently. I’d prefer to study on my own, but it this doesn’t work I’ll consider lessons. I’ve looked at the John Thompson’s Modern Course and those books (Vol. 1, anyway) look very straightforward, if a bit dated. Alfred’s Adult course looks OK, but also seems really focused on teaching how to read music a bit too much for what I’m looking for.
So I’m asking for suggestions for a good:
Adult piano method book (or series)
For an adult who already reads and understands music
For an adult who already is familiar with the keyboard, but is self-taught with bad habits
and who isn’t good at sight-reading piano music (this is important, actually!)
Any suggestions or recommendations are appreciated!
I do not match your description, and you may opt to dismiss it as irrelevant.
I learned piano as a child and got the John Thompson treatment and hated it, and I recommend against it.
I recommend instead learning how to pick out stuff by ear. If you want to compose, if you want to be able to play tunes that you’ve heard, if you want to jam with other musicians, then you want to acquire the ability to make the sound you hear in your head come out of the piano, and that’s playing by ear.
The John Thompson / read sheet music and reproduce it approach turns you into a typist. Or a replica of a player piano. It may serve you well if your goal is to play established classics someday by gaining technique until the level of sheet music you can read and play is up in the Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff zone, but the methodology limits you to reproducing with your fingers what’s written on the paper in front of you. It’s a much steeper learning curve and doesn’t facilitate you being able to improvise.
Reading music is a great skill to have. I can’t play by ear, but I can play a huge variety of music, and I can play music I’ve never heard. I did John Thompson (with a teacher), but I was older when I started lessons, so I had more control over what I played.
hostility, it would be good to start with a teacher if you can, so you don’t have to un-learn any poor technique later. It depends a lot on what kind of music you want to play.
Thank you for your insightful reply. I understand where you’re coming from. However, (and I apologize if I didn’t emphasize the point enough initially) I play several other instruments, many different styles and genres, and both play from music and ALSO improvise quite freely on those instruments: jazz, pop, country, funk, etc.
But it’s not my goal necessarily to learn to improvise on the keyboard, but it is my goal to develop my technique enough to be able to be able to sight-read piano music to the point where I can use my other overall knowledge of theory, harmony, rhythm, etc., to apply it to the keyboard. Yes, including being able to improvise on piano is something I eventually want to be able to do. But I also want to be able to pick up sheet music, band arrangements, etc., and learn to play the written music easily, as I can do on my other instruments.
All the great jazz piano improvisors I listen to are very well-trained “classically,” can read and write music notation in their sleep…they just use their technique as a means to their creative ends. To sum up, I want to be able to “reproduce with my fingers what’s written on the paper” with the same facility I have with my other instruments. I think that skill (“turning me into a typist”) is what I’m missing when it comes to the keyboard. I’m a hunt-and-peck equivalent of an accomplished typist/pianist.
hostility, it would be good to start with a teacher if you can, so you don’t have to un-learn any poor technique later. And of course, a good teacher will also know what to supplement my lesson material with (Hanon studies?) to help overcome my bad habits.
Thank you. Yes, I may be leaning in this direction. If a good teacher watches (and listens to) me play the John Thompson stuff, they may identify bad things I’m doing that will frustrate me later on if I don’t correct them.
It depends a lot on what kind of music you want to play.
Eventually, just about everything (as I do on other instruments). But near-term, I need to build solid, reliable hand/finger technique. Based on my knowledge and experience on other instruments, once I can rely on my keyboard technique, I feel I will be able to apply it to either sight-reading written notes AND/OR improvisation.
I’m trying to teach myself as well, though I don’t have the music background you do. It’s coming along slowly. I don’t think much slower than with a teacher, but having one would certainly have cleared up a few areas where I would get stuck on one song for a few weeks. And, like you, I’m afraid I’m learning some bad habits.
I suggest taking a look at the various piano teachers on YouTube to supplement whatever you do. I’ve also learned by watching a few too many of these that the teachers seem to prefer the Faber Adult Adventure books (2 of them) but that students do like I do and buy the Alfred Basic Adult books (3 of those, I’m still in the 1st). But all method books I’ve seen have a strong emphasis on reading music – they seem to assume this is the students first exposure to reading music, which wasn’t correct with me, but likely is with most students.
That being said, a teacher is probably the best way for you. Me, too, but you didn’t ask that, and I probably should pry open my wallet and find a teacher. A good teacher should be able to adapt their lessons to what you need to learn so you don’t waste time learning all about things you either know backwards and forwards or have no interest in learning.
I could play a lot better when I did Hanon exercises regularly. I got out of the habit and haven’t been doing them often, but I think it would help a lot. Dover Publications has a simplified version (The Virtuoso Pianist). That might be a good place to start.
Ages ago I used the Modern Method for Guitar.
I found it very good. Much better than a few others that I tried. I progressed much quicker. And gained a bit more basic theory knowledge.
I think there is a keyboard version. But cannot personally vouch for it’s effectiveness.
You might consider taking a few lessons from a real teacher. The teacher should start you with ergonomics, hand positions, etc. After that, they are just going to help with interpretation and motivation.
I’ve seen some of those Thompson-Hanon exercises. They definitely look like they really concentrate on developing facile finger dexterity, which, you’re right, would probably help my technique. How exactly does Dover simplify these?
I’m definitely considering contacting a teacher, if not for regular, weekly lessons, but possibly more like monthly “progress report” evaluations with them. But weekly would do a lot for sure, but the $$$ will add up quickly.
Sight reading is just a disaster for me. If I just play right hand only (or left hand only), I have a fighting chance, but only if reading a single note/voice. I’m just lacking fundamental development; sure I can play multi-octave scales with both hands, but I have no idea how to “connect” those skills to on-the-fly technique required for sight reading.
Do you want the ability to pick up a sheet of classical (or other fully scored) music and play it, or do you want the ability to play out of a fake book? They’re two very different skills, and it sounds like what you’re really after is the latter.
Having a teacher would be helpful for this, because they can pick pieces that are at the right level of difficulty. It is really hard to make your hands do different things, and you just have to keep working on it until it clicks.
LOL, both, eventually. But first, I want to acquire the former (reading from sheet music). I can play other instruments both ways (sheet music or fake book), but on the piano I’m lacking the technical facility in my fingers do do either one in real time.
Yes, they are two very different skills, but (in my experience with other instruments and from working with other musicians…including pianists) they both require fundamental technique to be well-developed.
There are rare exceptions (I know of a double bassist who holds the bass neck/fingerboard like it’s a club, but he can play awe-inspiring, virtuosic jazz improvisations), but developing sound fundamental finger technique is an important part of either reading written scores or improvising. Of course, playing from a fake book requires additional skills (knowing the language, harmony, left hand voicing, left/right hand independence, etc.), in addition to having at least a decent command of the keyboard, IMO.
And of course, there’s more to making music than just reading the notes off the sheet music page. Again, I have those “other” skills/knowledge. I’m looking for the best way to develop the hard keyboard technique.
For technique, I really liked working through Bach, like the two-part inventions and We’ll-Tempered Clavier. At least for finger independence. Not so much chordal stuff there. Much more pleasant than Hanon and more musical, but Hanon is a nice warm-up exercise.
Hanon is good because it strengthens both of your hands.
The Virtuoso Pianist is the first 25 or so exercises from Hanon. The first few exercises have a longer pause after every two measures, and after that I think it’s the same. The Hanon exercises are played faster and they go farther up and down the keyboard, so they’re about twice as long. It’s the same fingering pattern, but you play it more times.
You do need to use the fingerings that are given, and you will get better results if you use a metronome.
You’ve already gotten good advice on books (I spent a lot of time with Hanon myself), and you’re a more accomplished musician than I am, but I will offer this:
Don’t place too much weight on your ability to read music. I have seen musicians struggle when trying to learn the piano because reading and playing two staffs at the same time seems so utterly wild. You can read piano music in the same way I can read Hebrew. I know what the letters are and can make the right sounds, but that doesn’t mean I can do anything useful with it.
So when you’re looking at the exercises in a method book, don’t necessarily feel like the sections on learning to read are wasted on you. You still need to build brand new neural pathways and going through the easier practices will help with that. If you can play a particular exercise perfectly the first time, great! Move on to the next one. But your fingers and reflexes will fail you way before your intrinsic knowledge does, and that’s where you should start.
Try this instead—