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| Question: | How can I learn to improvise on piano? | Category: Piano, Improvising |
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| Answer: | Improvisation on piano requires a thorough knowledge of scales, chords, and keys. It also helps to have a large "vocabulary" of patterns that you can use as fills and rhythmic patterns. Gail Smith's Complete Book of Improvisation, Fills, and Chord Progressions provides a large number of patterns along with information on how to work them into your playing. For a more jazz-oriented approach that teaches you to improvise a melody from scratch, look at Complete Book of Improvisation, Fills & Chord Progressions. This step-by-step method gradually builds your confidence enabling you to create your own melodies over a standard chord progression. | |
| Question: | What do you have for beginning piano or keyboard? | Category: Piano, Electronic Keyboard |
| Answer: | Basic keyboard skills are the same for piano, electronic keyboard, and organ, so I recommend starting with a basic piano method. If you are working by yourself, we have You Can Teach Yourself® Piano. If you are working with a teacher, Gail Smith's Celebrate the Piano series would be appropriate. To find appropriate pieces, use the Advanced Search and specify Beginning level books in the Piano category. | |
| Question: | Can I play music written for piano on an electronic keyboard? | Category: Piano, Electronic Keyboard |
| Answer: | Generally, the answer is yes, but it depends on the size of your keyboard. Many keyboards do not have the full 88 keys of a piano, so some notes at the top and bottom will not be available. If you are playing a piece on keyboard and you do not have a low note available, sometimes you can play the note one octave higher than written. To make the left hand line smoother, you might also play a few other notes before or after the "too low" note up the octave. High notes can be similarly reached by bringing a passage down an octave. | |
| Question: | How can I learn to play piano by chords? | Category: Piano, Improvising |
| Answer: | This answer was too long for this page. Please click this link to the detailed answer. | |
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