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New beginner here, and I'm very excited to get started. MY only Piano experience is the old spinet our family inherited from grandma when I was young (Late 70's) I loved to fool around on it, but never got serious as I was a "Guitar guy". No that's wrong, I wanted to be a guitar guy. After 25 years of effort I've decided I picked the wrong instrument.I love the guitar, but honestly, it never felt right in my hands. Strangely when I banged on the old spinet, it felt right! Even though nothing really made since on the guitar, I somehow figured out many of the common piano chords on the spinet.Again, that was years ago. I last played it about 97, and it's since been sold.


So 25 years later I want to learn keybords / Piano. Main interests are older rock, and pop classics, but I do love the nice classical pieces for piano. I will be self teaching (I know...) for now, I've ordered book 1 of Alfred's AIO method. But have already learned all my major / minor chords as well as some inversions. I've also been practicing c major scale runs.

I'm using a Roland FA-08 Synth with 88 weights keys. I've also picked up a Dave Smith OB-6, and a Moog synth. I don't have much love for upright Pianos, but would love a Grand one day if the room was available. As of now, I have much more equipment than talent / knowledge.

I'm hoping this forum would be a good place to ask the questions I'm going to have. I already have a very basic question regarding counting.

Welcome to ABF, William!

You seem like you're off to a good start. I suggest you take a look at the MOYD and 40 Piece Challenge threads for good motivation. The most important thing is not to give up.

welcome, what is the question?

Trying to wrap my head around counting. I know in the beginning your counting out loud. But what about after that? Are you counting to yourself? Imagining clicks for every beat? Something else? can't seem to find a solid answer?

The canonical answer here would be: pick up a metronome. It does the clicking off of beats for you, so you can being to concentrate on the notes and let the rhythm become more of an unconscious thing.

There are physical metronomes which click, but I prefer visual-metronome apps on smartphones, since I can see the beat out the corner of my eye, and I'm not disturbing anyone when I play late at night.

Hope that helps some.

You cannot find a solid answer because there is none. This depends on the person. Some use metronomes, but I count in my head. I do this when I learn complicated measures or when I start a piece and need to establish a solid pulse. How long depends on the piece.

Where I am, with the genre of music I play, I just feel the beat. Sometimes I get sloppy and some attention to the rhythm during practice helps with that.

If I run into something really tricky, I might feel it out some.

I've played a long time, but if I can get there you can too.

(Note: There is some modern art music with crazy complex rhythms that I wouldn't be able to easily do at first glance and I wonder who could, though I expect there are some who could.)

I am not a teacher but for what it is worth I count to myself and when I think the piece is fairly consistent I will bring in the metronome. When counting to myself I never imagine a click. Counting either aloud or in your mind you cannot go wrong, you might be out of time but you have done the first basic of being able to see the note, play the note and given the note a verbal length of time. When ready to bring in the metronome you will refine the process of coordinating what you already do with the clicks of the metronome.

I suppose the answer depends upon the individual. My start was very similar to yours, but I am now many years into lessons. I count internally when first learning a piece, but the counting dies away as I progress to the point where there is no internal counting once I know the piece. However, there does still seem to be an internal "foot tap" on the beat that persists.

In the beginning, you'll need to count to learn how to play what you see on the page. Over time it'll be internalized, kind of like dancing.