Hello Piano World Forum members! Not sure if this is the right place to post this but I'm an adult(I think) and I'm a beginner. I've always wanted to play the piano but I was under the impression that you could never be a great piano player unless you started playing as an infant After reading several threads on this forum I realized how wrong I was; I'm not going to grow old and regret not learning to play the piano when I had the opportunity. I just purchased a Yamaha Clavinova CLP 280 (it will be delivered next week friday) and I was hoping you could recommend some good books to help me get started. I'm a twenty-four year old male living in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and I have never played a Piano or any other musical instrument. I'm trying to find a teacher around here (that is willing to teach in English since I don't speak Dutch) but until I find one I wouldn't want to stare at my new piano without knowing what to do (lol). I need a book that starts with the very basics of piano playing and is quite detailed.
Thank you very much. Hope to post here more often

Michael.

Welcome to the forums. If you are truly starting at the beginning, I would look into some of the piano methods out there. Personally I'm only familiar with the John Thompson series, which I think is good, but the Michael Aaron series is good as well. They may be simplistic, but they might help you getting started.

Welcome! I haven't heard or played the CLP280, but it looks like a great digital piano!

Michael, you will know how complely false that original impression was if you listen to our latest recital and look at how long the participants have been playing.

Here's some online stuff to start with while waiting...
http://www.notationmachine.com/how_to_read_sheetmusic/readingmusic.htm
http://ccrma.stanford.edu/software/cmn/cmn/cmn.html

http://icking-music-archive.org/

http://www.dolmetsch.com/musicalsymbols.htm

http://members.aol.com/chang8828/contents.htm

http://www.pianoinstructors.com/musicterms/term.html

Mike White

CLP280, i'm jealous, but congrats on your new piano!

getting a teacher is a easy way to start. just remember it's going to take long time to be able to play well. so be patient with yourself. good luck!

Hi Slykal!

Bob Muir already said what I was going to: Listen to our recitals, and you will see what can be done with even just a couple of years of training.

But since he already said that, I'll just say welcome to the forum!

Hello. The Piano Handbook by Carl Humphires seems to be a good book. It starts with the basics. I am about half way through it. I am twenty five and have been playing piano for about 5 months. Hope that helps. Good luck.

Hi and Welcome!

These would do nicely:
http://www.allegromusiconline.com/Mercha...egory_Code=abap

Have a "fab" time on your new digital.
When you get it, tell it I said 1011010010111010100101001011101001010

Thanks for the warm welcome and thanks for the recommendations and the links. I'm already in love with the forum (lol)

Welcome and enjoy learning the piano.

Someone mentioned The Piano Handbook above and while I like that book, I personally don't think it would be a good one to start with for someone who is completely new to the piano and musical instruments. Of course, that is my personal opinion and I don't usually know what I'm talking about!

Welcome Slykal.

Pease check your Private Messages.

I sent you a couple of links.

Mel

Welcome aboard slykal


Seems you are still only relatively young to many of us older ones...you'll be fine

Enjoy your lovely new piano when it arrives, I own a CLP170 and luuuurve it


regards


Lee

Hi Slykal,
nice to see someone from Amsterdam ! Ive started to play the piano only at 35, so you'll do just fine. Worked a year without lessons and now searching for a teacher as well as you.

Out of curiosity where did you get your yamaha from ?

What would you recommend?

Just got them....thanks

I got it from Clavis Piano's in Amsterdam . I wanted the ebony CLP-280 but they didn't have one in stock; the lady who worked there called Yamaha and said I wouldn't get it till November if I ordered it now (she said it had to be imported from Japan) I wasn't going to wait that long so I went for the dark rosewood CLP-280 instead I also saw the CLP-F01 (ebony) Soooo beautiful (too expensive for me though)


Thanks for the warm welcome!

Okay, now I'm really jealous, because a newbie knows how to do something I haven't figured out how to do yet. Slykal, how do you reply to three different posts in a single post of your own? When I hit on the quote marks, it only lets me reply to the post in question.

[is feeling really inadequate right about now]

You just type it in yourself. So if I were quoting you I would do this but without the spaces.

[qu ote]Originally Posted by Monica Kern
[q b]Okay, now I'm really jealous[/q b][/qu ote]

Slykal, I personally like the Alfred series. If you are brand new to the piano and reading music I think the approach is a bit slower and spends more time on the basics than "The Piano Handbook". Again, though I have "The Piano Handbook" and do like it, even though after a year I haven't used it that much. I'm sure others might disagree and highly recommend The Piano Handbook as a first book.

You could go check it out some of the different method books from a music store and bookstore.

Good Luck and enjoy!!!

I cheat and open another session of PW/@ the same spot, [right click the location idicator and select "open in a new window", go to who you want to qoute, select the ""'s and then highlight all the text, do a copy, go back to the first one and paste ...ta da...then close out the second one and continue...or...you could do as C.P. just havin fun...OK? lol

Okay, now I feel better. Either approach is too much work for me, so I'll stick to just doing multiple reply posts.