Tell me stuff about pianos !

[Babieseverywhere]

I know proper pianos are the best thing to play on and I did grow up with a piano in our house and did learn the basics myself.

But to save our neighbours ears, as we live in a semi..we are getting a second hand digital piano with full sized weighted keys for DD1 to learn on....with headphones!

I can teach her to read music and will look at getting some lessons for her via school. They are 10 minute lessons, which seem very short !

But can I have some recommendations for any useful beginner books or apps that would be useful for DD1 who is 11yo.

I ordered a second hand book off eBay which I remembered from my youth!

The piano is lovely...I can remember the C major scale and how to read the right hand bits. Looking forward to my daughter learning on it.

Found an app for testing sight reading and rhythm etc called Perfect Ear..I hope that helps her too.

Does she LISTEN to music, and if so what sorts? Besides starting to learn to play, it is also important to listen to as wide a range as possible.

How far did you get with your own playing? What model piano have you got, and what features does it have besides basic piano sounds? Ideally you need MIDI and recording/multi-tracking facilities, which besides being enjoyable in their own right, can help with learning about sounds, backings, chord theory and the technology of music.

There are plenty of on-line tuition sites, which I can guide you towards.

An easy introduction to piano is the John Thompson range of books, but for age 11 probably the Kenneth Baker Complete Piano Player books are more suitable, as they feature a wide range of light and popular tunes, and also some 'pop'.

It is an old Casio Privia PX110 in perfect condition. It has midi in and out sockets. I have the user guide here. It says it can play music library tunes and record and replay songs from memory.

I can't remember much from when I played as a young girl. I remember some of the theory and scales... I studied exam pieces over a couple of years of lessons but refused to do any exams...so I am still a beginner.

My daughter generally listens to pop music and listens to classic fm in the car with me, So limited exposure to music.

Our household is not musical but we hope to change that !

She is enjoying doing little simple one handed songs on the piano and I am reminding her to do the correct fingering. I showed her a couple of scales major C and G and said she needs to practise each hand separately every day.

She is the one wanting to learn to play...I hope she enjoys it.

The Alfred piano series is great for learners. I much prefer it to the John Thompson books because it introduces the concept very early that your hands move about, whereas John Thompson spends a lot of time with tunes where everything is with both thumb's on middle C.

Yes, the piano came with the first two Keith Baker books.

I ordered the Fanny Waterman book from eBay as I am sure that is the series I started on.

I would love some online suggestions. We were looking at Simply Piano for the youngest two (5yo and 7yo) ?

There are many different Alfred books on eBay I will get a level one to try.

Any recommendations for 5yo piano book...she isn't a good reader yet.

Hi again -

This is one on-line tuition site that it may be worth looking at, but I haven't researched it or anything. I'll let you know about others I come across:

www.hoffmanacademy.com/

Sounds good. I will have a look.

We have a free trial of Simply Piano for a week. (Saturday to Saturday) I have completed 3/13 modules.

I am going to start my DD1 on it tonight to see what she thinks.