Hi everybody
I'm a classical guitarist (grade 8), and I now have a real desire to develop some basic piano skills quickly. In particular, I would like to be able to sight read basic pieces.

In some senses I'm a complete beginner because I've never played a keyboard instrument before, but on the other hand I'm not because I'm very familiar playing and reading multi voiced music with my guitar.

Can anyone recommend a good self-tuition book or do I need a teacher? How quickly can I expect to get up to a competent level if I can spend half an hour day on this? Any advice would be appreciated.

Wouldn't it be great if we could all 'speed learn' an instrument! Like you, I am a Guitarist(Grade 8) but play other instruments, piano amongst them. I self-taught myself piano 20 years ago but couldn't get beyond Grade 4 level. I am now having lessons and can see some light at the end of this very long tunnel.

Find yourself a good teacher who acknowledges your experience on another instrument and will understand that you might need to approach things in a different way to someone with no musical experience. I speak from experience.

I think I know of a teacher who is based in London and is a Gutairist and a Pianist. PM me for further details.

You could start by buying the Alfred books for Adults which use a 'chord based' approach in the left-hand. You will quickly find that you can play right-hand much more confidently than your left-that is the frustrating part!

I would recommend Keyboard Skills for Reluctant Pianists . It is written for adults, designed as a DIY book, and will teach you some basic keyboard skills in fairly short order. User friendly, comes with CD etc.

Obviously a teacher would be ideal, and even a few consultation lessons now and then would be better than nothing, but this will get you started.

Good luck

A good teacher will speed up your learning 10 fold by:

Saving you from masses of trial and error (and possibly picking up techniques that are initially adequate, but ultimately limiting)

Forcing you to work to a higher standard (because once a week you will be playing for someone that understand what they are hearing)

Ensuring that you learn to walk before you try to run


Your theoretical knowledge and aural training give you a flying start, and the co-ordination and control you have developed by playingthe guitar will be helpful - but probably not as much help as you might hope. To reach a good standard in a short time you should be prepared to devote a lot more than half an hour a day to it. On a well-planned half an hour a day you can make steady progress. But unless you are a musical genius it is not likely to be very quick progress. And if you are a musical genius you'd be spending hours at it anyway - and you wouldn't be asking for advice on this forum!

This reminds me of the time I was at medical school when students on the dental course wanted to jump ship to the medical degree course and thought they do it easily. They couldn't!

Mad Tom gives some good advice here. Being competent on one instrument (I suppose migrating violin to viola or vice versa an exception) is no guarantee that you will sail through on another totally different instrument. The piano is difficult at the best of times. As MT says get a good teacher. Good luck!

It depends what you mean by "basic skills". If you just want to be able to play grade 1 pieces, and you're not too bothered about how well or badly you play them, sure you can manage with a book. But why would you want that? If you want to be able to play properly - at any level - Mad Tom is right. (As usual. 94 votes can't be wrong.)

Agreed with what others have said.



To give you an example, I have grade 8 on the piano and have recently taken up the harp. On paper, the music looks exactly the same, so the only skill I have to learn is how to play the harp. Theoretically, the coordination, two-hand playing, etc I learn from the piano should be great help. However, almost 5 months down the road and I can just comfortably sight read grade 2 pieces based on (average) 20 minutes practise per day. I wouldn't call this "speed learn" nor "decent level", but I do play properly, make steady progress and enjoy every minute of it. I'm able to (shakily and sloooowly) stumble through higher grade pieces, but I don't see the point; I much prefer to play easy pieces beautifully.

I find that although I can read music and feel my way through pieces pretty easily it is frustrating. I can read music better than I can play and I'm always trying to improve my sight reading when it is usually my motor skills which are behind.

There are so many things to think about when learning the piano. Personally I would say you have 2 options. Learn simple keyboard skills, ie, chords with a melody or chords with a bassline. This is pretty easy stuff and you can get to grips with simple tunes. You won't be playing piano as such but you will be able to play along with others relatively quickly.

Or you start with a simple grade one book, go through it slowly. Once you've done that get yourself a load more grade one pieces and keep playing. Stay on grade one until you find a new grade one piece easy, then move on to the next. It is a long slow process however. I was doing this before I found a teacher. A teacher does help you keep disciplined and your expectations set higher than you might do on your own.