I am hoping you all can help me with suggestions of pianists to listen to (on youtube?) to help me improve my technique...

A little background on me...

I took piano lessons for years as a kid, and got to be fairly competent, but then only played on-and-off into adulthood. I only played classical piano and never learned anything about chord progressions, improv technique, etc.

My husband is a songwriter-singer, and a couple of years ago, we started playing together, with him on (mostly acoustic) guitar and me on keyboard (now on a Kawai ES6 digital piano that I just got!). Initially, I took a couple of lessons to learn some basic melodic accompanyment techniques, chords, etc, but the rest I've just worked out on my own, by listening to his music and figuring out what sounds good to me/us. Still, I know I could improve a LOT. Yet, I've hit a plateau and I am having trouble identifying what I could be doing differently and how to do better...

My husband's music could be categorized as indie rock...although they are more rootsy than post-modern if that makes sense. Most of his songs could, I suppose, be considered ballads, although some are faster and less "ballady." The piano and guitar are fairly "equal" in terms of accompanyment...we complement one another. The closest parallel I can think of would be Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. However, I don't sing and really, his songs are different...they are just the only duo I can think of that could be in the realm of comparison.

Can anyone suggest some pianists or other piano-guitar duos that I could listen to that might help me improve my technique in this particular style?

I should probably take more lessons...I've just had a hard time finding a piano teacher who can support my particular needs. I am not interested in learning blues, jazz, or classical...

Thanks!

Tina
Santa Rosa, CA

If you go to youtube and type in 'once falling slowly piano' what comes up is a bunch of renditions of this. i just clicked on one of the top ones which was titled 'how to play falling slowly on piano' ....Then over on the side they give some 'related videos' Not that much of a variety but coincidentally 2 which i've also learned (coincidence because i haven't really learned that many) which were 'Apologize' by One Republic and 'clocks' by coldplay. Both of these i like to play even though i am not really into either band all that much. ---So i guess that's one way which is to just poke around and often the side picks on youtube will lead you to other stuff you may like.

There's a guy on youtube that teaches via a 'whiteboard' technique sort of charting out the songs instead of using stanard notation. He bugs me a little for some reason as does his method but he's got a bunch of stuff on there and maybe you could pick and choos a few of his lessons....name is webpainoteacher....one way to come up with his stuff is to type in the name of a song he does and then the word lesson....for examole 'whole lotta shakin lesson' -and you get him. His Music box dancer lesson was pretty good too i thought.

Another guy named CalikoKat does a bunch (like about 500 so far) of tv and movie and other pop stuff. Doesn't do any teaching but is easy to watch and sometimes pick up on what he's doing as i did with his 'pan's labyrinth theme'----One way to get him is to type in "the holiday theme' and i think you should see him near the top on that search result.