Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Can I play radio songs on the piano if I'm self taught?

Hi, I recently started piano about 6 months ago.

I'm learning through Alfred's Adult Piano Course level one with no teacher. (because of financial problems)

My Goal in piano is just to play my favorite songs and radio songs.

Here are the four songs I want to master first:

Clarity by Zedd:
http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0116096

Love Myself by Hailee Steinfeld:
http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0155229

Why Try by Ariana Grande:
http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0151080

Love Yourself by Justin Bieber:
http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0157475

Is it possible I can play these songs by only learning by Alfred's Piano Course with no teacher? I know there's three levels and I'm willing to go all the way to learn these four songs.

I was also wondering for people who know the Alfred's series what level can I stop in the series to learn these songs?(thats if it's possible by learning only by the Alfred's series). Right now I'm on level one currently learning the C Major Scale and learning Joy to the World.

Thank you if you read this and answered my question.

The problem is that playing those songs from sheet always is more complicated than playing by ear (learning it from how it sounds).

-Often the rhythms for pop music is very syncopated, which makes it pretty tricky to learn from sheet

-Also, they will put the melody in the piano part, when its not in the song itself. So it makes it unnecessarily complex if you're singing or having someone else sing it. If you need to play it, it will be trickier than the pieces you will encounter in the Alfred books.

That's not to say that the books aren't helpful. However, you may want to use a combination of reading the actual notes, reading the chord symbols above the notes, and listening to recordings to figure out a way to play that works for you.

I don't use the Alfred books to say how far you should go, but it certainly doesn't hurt to buy one of those pieces and give it a shot now. You'll be able to tell how hard it is, set it aside for a bit, and then try it again a few months later.

I would never say never but ..... It is highly unlikely. Sorry.

The Alfred's method is designed to teach you to read sheet music with a goal oriented towards being able to play classical music. I looked at the first sheet music you liked to, clarity by zed. Notice there are three staves on the sheet music. The bottom two are the piano part, and the top staff contains the melody line. Certainly the Alfred's method would give you enough background to play the piano part. The melody line has to be played by a different instrument (usually the voice as you sing along with your piano playing, but if you have a friend who plays the recorder they could play the melody line with you as you play, for example).

Now, if you wanted to play an instrumental version of the song, you'd have to find a score with it worked out, or do an arrangement of it yourself where you sort of combine the three staves by working out inversions of the chords that put the melody line on top and figuring out which chord patterns work with the song, or do a similar thing as you work it out by ear. The latter two are far beyond the scope of the Alfred's method.

I did notice there were three staves. Which one of the treble's is the piano part?

The lower treble. Notice the large curly brace { bracketing the bass clef and the lower treble clef together. That shows the two clefs are for a single instrument.

Justin, Alfred's all in one book is spotty and weak regarding theory, which includes teaching about treble.

Do yourself a big favor and get this book, also by Alfred's; I use it all the time with my students, and it covers very well what you will need to know (theory, anyhow):

http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Complete-Training-Workbook/dp/0882848976

I hope you realise it could be against copyright restrictions to do this. If a neighbour heard you, your piano could be confiscated and you could be banned from keeping one in future. As they say. .

"A piano isnt only for Christmas". . .

If you scroll down on the musicnotes page you linked, on the right-hand side you'll find "or, see other arrangements of this song." This will take you to a page that will offer arrangements. You want something that says, "Easy piano."

For example, this is the version you'll want to use for Clarity: Clarity easy piano arrangement

Oh I just noticed that thanks.

I don't understand. What part of copyright is his plan violating?

I assumed Peter intended this to be a joke!

Probably the going all out learning all four songs ... you might consider going all out learning just half of each song. At least you can argue with the music police to leave you half a piano.

You could start by picking out the tunes by ear. Just with one hand, one note at a time, playing the notes the singer sings. Since you have four particular songs you really love and want to play, you probably know those tunes well enough for them to get stuck in your head. If that's the case, you can pick them out on the piano. There will be a lot of trial and error and that's OK. Every time you correctly find a little group of four or five notes, stop and practice them a few times successfully to help them stay in your memory. Adding one or two of those little groups a day is plenty, unless you're really having fun and not getting mentally exhausted. Resist the temptation to write down note names. You'll become a faster and better ear player without doing that.

I don't know the Alfred books well, but somewhere there must be an explanation about chords, including how to build major and minor chords when given a chord name?
Once you're comfortably able to play Alfred pieces with melody in one hand and chords in the other, you could then do that with your four favorites, either learning to identify the chords by ear, or looking up one of those cheat sheets guitarists use with the chord names printed above the lyrics.

As you progress you can make more and more complicated arrangements of those songs yourself to suit your current ability, and you'll be closer to being able to learn printed commercial arrangements as well. However, you might also find more and more other pieces that you love to play.

But is it ideal to learn this way? The trial and error way. So I don't learn the technique first?

I tried my hardest to be funny. But it was April 2nd, not the 1st. Shrug. . .

Oftentimes on this forum its hard to tell.