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Hi folks!
Thought I'd introduce myself.
I am new to both the forum and playing!
I am 51 yrs old and just recently bought a Yamaha keyboard (E223).
I have always wanted to play just never took lessons. Recently, a friend of mine taught himself to play harmonica and it was just the kick in the pants I needed to finally take the plunge.
He mainly plays 12 bar blues stuff and I would like to get to where we can play during family get togethers.
I am open to any and all suggestions!
I look forward to reading through the forum and all the info!
Mike

Welcome Mike. You will love it here!! It is a very supportive and knowledgeable community!
I am a very new beginner (7 months) and have been using Alfred's all-in-one, level 1 during that time. There are corresponding threads for each of the Alfred books (3 total). I have had a lot of fun discussing struggles and accomplishments with my fellow Alfred students. I am sure that others will offer additional suggestions too.
Are you playing anything right now? Do you have a teacher or will you be self-taught?

Welcome to the forum, Cobra1365, and to the wonderful world of piano. You will make better progress more quickly with formal lessons (but finding a good teacher who is compatible with your goals for piano and will help you learn the kind of material you want to play is crucial). If you decide to go the self-teaching crowd, you'll find lots of help and support here, too. You may want to check out the Chang book (free online), which describes a philosophy toward practicing the piano and specific tips for technique. Skip the overblown preface and concentrate on the concrete advice:

http://www.pianofundamentals.com/book

Glass,
I am not playing any other instrument. I tried Guitar once when I was much younger but that didn't last long.
Right now, I am using Alfred's Max book 1 with DVD. A little disappointed with it. It started off great and the DVD was showing as the book explained. Then the DVD went straight to just playing examples rather than explaining examples. So, now I am at the poitn where it starts discussing chords and playing G7, but very little explanation!

Monica,
Thanks for the tips and I will definitely check out the Chang book!

Hi Again Cobra,
I actually meant...what piano pieces are you playing right now?" Sorry to be less than clear.
I remember thinking that chords were very confusing in the beginning. Stick with it, it will get easier.

Oh, sorry Glass! Misunderstood.
I am really not working on a specific piece yet. Though I have worked through "When The Saints Go Marching In" pretty well . The book I have right now is a pretty basic book with just portions of songs to ge the fundamentals down.

Yes, Chords seem a bit daunting right now! But I understand the concept and I can see where it makes playing easier down the road.

Been a little crazy around our house right now (son & family with new grandbaby moved in with us temporarily) so finding time to sit and have some concentrated practice has been difficult.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Welcome! I'm like you - always wanted to play but never did..... and finally started a few months ago. What fun and what satisfaction!

I think learning the chords and theory is great - and interesting - but why not combine that with some full simple pieces rather than "just" exercises and parts of songs?

I studied theory in highschool but that was -ahem- a few years ago!

Today I had the great satisfaction of figuring out that a series of leading notes matched the chords of the key scale. I suppose to a more experienced reader of music it would have been obvious but for me it was a new discovery!

Cas,
I think I am at that point! The exercises are getting a little stale and I feel like I need to see some result (ie: hear a song come out of this contraption!).

One thing I did the other day to help myself get used to moving both hands at the same time was to play the Melody with both left and right hands. I did that several times as a warm up exercise and it seemd to help me.

I know!! I want to hear more "music" coming out of the piano. I feel so limited. There is so much music in my head and I just can't get it out yet!

Lots of my simple duets have the same part played with 2 hands -so do some from my exercise books (let me clarify - I have the duets, and I've played ONE with my teacher so far!).

I downloaded a lot of music from various websites - see the first sticky post in this forum for some good links. They really got me rolling!

Hi, Mike! Welcome to the forum. You'll love it here, and you'll love the piano, I'll bet. If I were looking to play blues or 12 bar based styles, I'd go to http://www.playpianotoday.com/
and look at the free blues lessons there. Much of it will be over your head right now, but you'll learn some left hand patterns and other things that'll help with that style. Good luck and again, welcome!