rut Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 ok. I never learned to read music (I play guitar) but have an interest in learning keyboards. I've always played by ear and I know the "right" way to do it is to learn to read first. Since I'm hard-headed I was wondering if there are any good books/dvd's that cater toward someone who wants to play by ear? Thanks Rut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzwee Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 If you want to play by ear, then you don't need instruction books per se. You need to spend a lot of time listening to whatever you want to play. Also get a "chord" book for keyboards of some sort and you've got the rudiments of what you'd normally do on guitar. When you want to get serious, I suggest getting a teacher because many many bad habits can be acquired without guidance. I don't know what genre you're intending to play but since you don't sound like the classical music type, you'll find that lots of tunes are in leadsheet format, i.e. chords and melody. The melody stuff is really simple single staff "reading". It should be easy to figure out when you put your mind to it. By the way, I'm not kidding about the listening part. A long time ago when I did not know how to play piano, I just used my ears and played Layla, Let it Be, Elton John stuff and other simple stuff like that. So there's stuff that can be done if you really have the proper ears and know what a triad is. Hamburg Steinway O, Crumar Mojo, Nord Electro 4 HP 73, EV ZXA1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverDragonSoun Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 When you want to get serious, I suggest getting a teacher because many many bad habits can be acquired without guidance I agree with this 100%. While I admire your desire to want to do this on your own, a teacher will be able to identify things to help you specifically and save you lots of time by showing you how to do things correctly. I always hear the stories about epople start on their own, then get a teacher, correct bad habits and then get much better. A teacher will save you time and make you a better player faster IMO. Begin the day with a friendly voice A companion, unobtrusive - Rush Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Horne Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 Originally posted by rut: ok. I never learned to read music (I play guitar) but have an interest in learning keyboards. I've always played by ear and I know the "right" way to do it is to learn to read first. Since I'm hard-headed I was wondering if there are any good books/dvd's that cater toward someone who wants to play by ear? Thanks Rut This is a perfect thread for my return. It only takes about thirty minutes to learn how to read conventional music notation. When I was in the military I was told to teach the singer her parts. (I made a big stink about that.) We went into a practice room and I gave her a crash course on how to read notation. She could always ask me questions but I refused to spoon feed her. As Jazzwee stated you really don't need a DVD to learn how to play by ear. I started by ear and then took the next logical step - I learned to read. Take the time to learn how to read. Take a few lessons with a teacher and a whole new world will open up. If you're not aware of what you don't know, you'll never progress to your full potential. (Please don't respond with those artists who never learned to read.) Since this is my first time back in several weeks, I just sorted through a shitload of e-mails. I've learned that parts of a letter I sent to Time Magazine will be included (at least in the European edition) in the issue that goes on sale today - the 10 July issue. This is my second published letter in Time. The content of that letter is political so I won't mention it here but will provide a link. They took some liberty with my words but the last sentence is the one I knew that would get the letter published and that was intact. Time mag (I know this is OT.) A very stressful move - still lots to do. No guitarists were harmed during the making of this message. In general, harmonic complexity is inversely proportional to the ratio between chording and non-chording instruments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rut Posted July 4, 2006 Author Share Posted July 4, 2006 Congrats on the Time article (although I don't necessarily agree . I'm mostly interested in learnings blues type piano and background fill using a syth. I have been using a simple book to learn reading. I know the notes on the scale but have problems reading them and playing the notes at the same time. Thanks, Rut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzwee Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 For Blues piano, go to homespuntapes.com. There should be some there that could show you a few licks. However there are some basics you'd have to learn before a lot of these DVD's begin to make sense (based on what I said above). Hey Dave, glad to see you back! Hamburg Steinway O, Crumar Mojo, Nord Electro 4 HP 73, EV ZXA1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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