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Hey guys,

I am 24. I just finished Alfred's Adult Vol 1. book. I can do some sightreading.

I found a piano course but all tutors are specialized in classic music. But what i wanna do is to be able to play some contemporary songs(Queen, Guns n Roses) in the future, maybe get involved in a Rock band. Switching to keyboard one day might be an option too. What i know is that i am not interested in Mozart or Bach. I want to play contemporary stuff.

I guess i should grab a book(method) for my needs and tell my tutor that i want to go with this book. Any suggestions here? Alfred Adult Vol.2 maybe?

Actually i have 123123 questions in my mind but i don't know which one to ask. I just don't know what kind of an education i should be getting and what i must be focusing on.

Any advices are very much appreciated.

Thanks.

I know when I do an online search for music teachers in my area, Several are listed as pop or jazz etc, are you saying you can't find a teacher like this in your area?

I guess when it comes to pop rock there are really two types of sheet music - harmony/melody combined and pure accompaniment (much harder to find). If you want to develop your pure accompaniment skills for future band play you could do a lot worse than checking out http://eltonscafe.net/ This kind of playing becomes a lot less about learning pieces and more about stealing specific techniques and developing a range of styles in which to play chords.

Eventually you might want to do what the website creator has done and transcribe your favourite rock/piano playing, remembering of course that the artist probably plays it slightly differently each time.

As I implied before, there is so much combined melody/harmony music (I'm sure there is a better way to describe that) out there. If you want the other side of things, apart from Elton's cafe I would recommend books like "The Billy Joel Keyboard Book: Note-for-Note Keyboard Transcriptions".

If I'm barking up the wrong tree with all of this I apologise.

Is it just these two, or all classical you are not interested in? Of the pianists I have encountered throughout my life that play contemporary stuff very well, none started off by playing only contemporary. All were classically trained. Sir Elton, Tony Banks (Genesis), Bill Joel and there are many others ... were all classically trained.

The classical training route will provide ample material available progressively. It provides an excellent training environment. Most non-classical sheet music on the other hand is at best, poor. If you are going to go strictly this route you will need good practice material and it is not that easy to find. I would therefore strongly suggest a good teacher for it. They are not so easy to find either, but they do exist. Hopefully you are able to find one that can score decent arrangements for you. Learning chords and lead sheets will be high on the list.

My advice; Learn and play everything. Do not exclude anything. Especially Bach .

Faith, It seems you could use a teacher. Call around and find someone who is actively gigging and will teach you how to play off chord charts and make your own arrangements.


Enjoy

I might be mad but I hear the classical masters influence in modern music all the time.

The advice by Greener is I think very sound and learning one style or another should not be mutually exclusive, rather it can be prohibitive.

This artist is a more modern example of the classical to modern route: here

You won't get a teacher to teach what you want to play. A classical or preferrably jazz background will help you to formulate your own style. Youll need to play by ear for general popular stuff, the music to much popular music becomes complex due to the rhythms involved and invariably leaves out much that is in the original recording. So you'll need to do a lot of listening.

The good news is, there are plenty of people who play your stuff on piano and you'll find them on YouTube. Makes for a good listen, and you get good ideas for future.

Go for it! There's folk out there and here that'll support you in this.

Rock on, man!

- that eltonscafe has made some impressive material available at no cost but I think it's going to be hard work at your level.

Overreaching yourself and/or tackling music you don't like could put you at risk of losing interest entirely so dig as deeply as you can into the wealth of free resources while at the same time trying to identify your questions.

This might seem like a dumb suggestion but I would look for a song you like, something slow, maybe a rock ballad of some sort? This could introduce you to some basic playing ideas that might already be within your scope. The music to most popular songs can be found in the nooks and crannies, in the form of either piano score or chord chart. If you pick something out it could lead you very quickly to formulating some initial questions. The more incisive your questions the quicker you can progress.

MountainAsh, Greener, Dave_B, earlofmar, Peterws and Diretonic, i thank you all guys.

I am from Turkey and i am pretty sure that we don't have any Jazz or Rock players(piano) in my region. So i gotta push my instructor to teach me these stuff. Since i am just a beginner yet, i don't think it must be very hard to teach some basic stuff of contemporary music. After some level i guess i can learn the rest by myself. I am not trying to be a master. It is too late for this .

I was hoping to hear some piano method names that could lead me to somewhere. I understand that Elton'sCafe is a great source for contemporary examples but as you would agree these songs are too high for my level yet.

Greener, yeah. This is an option. I keep going with the classical and when i get a level where i can at least sightread harder rock materials, i will try to play those.


Guys what today's music mostly consists of ? Can you name me a couple things that is VERY important in classical music and isn't really worth to work hard for contemporary music? And the opposite of this?


This way i will know what to focus on.


For example , i guess chords is crucial in contemporary music but in classical they are not used so often. Or did i just add another chain to my idiotness?

http://www.words3music.ph/A-G/Coldplay-InMyPlace.html

ColdPlay, In my Place. Thoughts?

You should take a irocku look at what offers for Rock lessons. YOu can check out their free lesson and see how their various level works. And the Levels 1-3 for the 26 songs is less than 80$.




Once you are able to read Treble Clef, it will be very useful to increase your knowledge of Chord Theory, Progressions etc. These sound complicated but are indeed very logical and simple. Start using the free resources :
Music Theory
Music Theory Web

Chords are used in classical music and contemporary music. In learning classical music though via sheet music, the chords are not marked as such. Rather you have all the exact notes you are to play written out for you, Left Hand and Right Hand. These notes though, do make up an underlying chord structure.

A lot of the time with sheets for POP, jazz and other non-classical, all the notes will not be charted for you. You may find arrangements (as in the coldplay sheet sample provided) that does have everything written for you. This is someones interpretation as was stated though. It is not exact to the Coldplay original arrangement. When you can find material like this, and if you like it, I would think this would be good material for you.

If you look for other arrangements of this same tune, you may come across a lead sheet that will just mark the chords and the melody line (similar to sheet music for guitar). Reading in this fashion is very common outside of classical. It is up to you then, to come up with the harmony and rhythm and how to play the chords provided. There are folks here that can help you with that.

The reason I suggest classical as a learning platform is the abundance of progressive learning material. Not nearly as much high quality material for learning is available outside of classical. But, I would not exclude non-classical because of this either. I completely agree with other comments around staying motivated and also relying on your ear.

This Coldplay sample, looks to me like it would be fine material for you.

Fatih, Yes indeed chords and chord progressions are essential in playing and understanding all styles of music. You will have the melody with the melodic rhythm, and you will have the harmonic chords and the associated harmonic rhythm. The magic happens in the creative combination of these four structures.

There are tutorials and easy piano versions of the music you are interested in on youtube; and may I specifically suggest googling or sending a private message to Hugh Sung who is a Piano world member. Hugh is an amazing upbeat tech savvy performer and educator who offers lessons and tutorial via the internet.


Enjoy

Deeka , thanks man. These are great links. I downloaded the App for Iphone advertised on Music Theory .net website. It is great! I worked on my "Keyboard Reverse Identification" skills all day. So far i did 1250 notes and you wouldn't believe how much my sightreading improved in 1 day. I bet i will be sightreading like a pro in a month .
Which exercise is better for me do you think? Pushing to piano buttons for identification, or pushing letters for identification?
What does Irocku offer? I don't exactly get it. Sheet music and video tutorials to show how it's done? And do you think they have some songs for my level. Because i am a total beginner yet.

Greener , thanks man. I see what you mean. I guess i will stick with classical for a while. I still wanna try this In My Place .

Dave those tutorials don't include sheet music. Just video tutorials. I thought those videos weren't a part of a real piano education system. No notes?

Dangg Dave! That online learning stuff got my attention so badly. Getting the best education from whereever you are? Great! When i checked Hugh's website i saw it wasn't a live lesson system but was based on video exchange. Which system do you think will work better? And should i give up on having a tutor in real life?

Sign up with your email and see the 1 complete sample lesson where they give all 7 Levels (beginner to advanced) of the song. This will tell you what exactly is provided.

Fatih, Huge is able to have live online lessons. You can PM here in Piano World or I'm sure he has an email address posted somewhere. Hugh is accessible and will respond to sincere inquiries.

http://www.irocku.com/_resources/piano/notelearner/

Without comment!

I guess you got lost in the website and confused their Note Learner resources as actual lessons !!
Similar to the Flash Card Type exercises seen on many other sites. Starts with Key Identification for total newbies I guess. And then progresses to Treble and Bass Clef.

The actual lessons are here :
Subscriber Lessons