Learn to Play Piano in Six Weeks or Less (Volume 1)

I've played guitar for many years, and have been interested in learning a little about improvising music on keyboards. I'm not at all interested in learning to play traditional classical piano pieces, and have only a little interest in playing popular piano music written by other people. What I'd like to do is learn to create my own music on keyboards, and play along with other musicians at jams and song circles.

With that background and for my purposes, this book by Dan Delaney has been excellent. The author teaches you, bit by bit, how to find the notes needed to construct chords, by showing you first where to find the root note, then where to find the corresponding major seventh note, and so on. The idea is that over time you learn to recognise and find the notes you need on the fly, with either hand. This lets you split chords across both hands, so you can create a full sound. The book also shows you how to play melodies with your right hand.

I find this much more powerful than either of the two approaches I've seen before - either learning to sight-read chords from sheet music, or trying to memorise lots of different chord shapes. Instead you learn how to actually construct music, starting with the simplest elements, and building up from there. This lets you create something simple right away, and as you progress, you learn to create fuller and more interesting music by adding to what you already know.

I've only worked through the first few lessons in the book, but already I'm excited by the fact that I'm making more interesting sounds than I used to. I'm also learning about some of the differences between guitar and keyboard, in particular, the amazing amount of control a keyboard gives you over the fine details of chord construction - you can put any note of the chord just about anywhere you like on the keyboard, something you cannot even dream of doing on a guitar.

If your goal is to play classical or popular pieces note-for-note from a written score, this may not be the book for you. This book is also not a gripping read in itself - it's a bit dry and broken down into bite-sized lessons that show you what to do without a lot of extraneous words or narrative. The information you need is there, but not presented in a particularly interesting way.

However, if you're like me, have an analytical bent, and want to learn to create your own music while also learning some of the music theory scaffolding on which music is built, you are likely to enjoy this book and find it very helpful.

-Gnobuddy

I had a month of frustrating piano lessons 20 years ago, so when I got this book, I didn't hold much hope for learning to play in six weeks. But the lessons were so well designed that I was encouraged to practice every day, and by the end, I was playing tunes better than I had after a month with a professional teacher. The secret lies in learning to play simple chords with your left hand and melody with the right. No you won't play complex pieces this way, but it's perfect for casual players who just want to have fun. You can advance to more complex chords at your own pace, and since many simple songbooks contain chords, you can play things outside the book, too. I highly recommend this book for people who feel frustrated by learning to read both Treble and Bass Clefs. Includes great chord charts for reference.

I found the title "...in six weeks or less." too good to be true after all. The concepts the author teaches require more than a basic understanding of reading music and music theory. My daughter's beginning piano teacher statement that the book contained "...several difficult to learn and advanced concepts..." tells the whole story. Besides which the finger work that comes from years of playing from the ground up prepares students for the advanced stuff taught int this book, so even if you could grasp what's taught in the book you would have to be a Mozart to put it to use. I've gone back to the beginner books my daughter uses.

This book is not for a true beginner. It seems to assume you have an inkling of knowledge of reading and understanding music and the piano. In the very first lesson I had to google a lot to understand what I was reading. It could do a better job of explaining the basics. It would be nice If the first lessons had the notes labeled for guidance. I found myself pretty frustrated from the beginning. I do like that it is spiral bound. That really is a good feature to a music book. Many I have seen are not and that does make a difference when using it on a music stand.

You had better have some basic knowledge before starting this book. The introduction is essentially the author bragging on his expertise but once you get through that and figure out some of the language it's a good first step.

This is not a good book for a beginner. It is very hard to follow. It does offer a website; however, it's for an MP3 so you can't see what the instructor is doing, you can only hear. Pretty disappointed.

The lessons focus on some of the building blocks (shells or 3 note patterns) for the left hand portion of the piano. It doesn't really teach the full chords (they're in the appendix), just the basic patterns of them. This approach sounds great in theory, but the music chosen for it is extremely frustrating. You'll play one of the shells as instructed and since it's not the full chord, it sounds terrible. This leaves you questioning whether you did something wrong. Additionally, some of the end of "chapter" music contains chords that weren't taught. So, in the instructions he directs you to "replace X with Y". So, while playing you have to constantly remember whether it's something you're supposed to know or if it's supposed to be substituted.

Overall, this just left me feeling frustrated and feeling like I wasn't progressing. I'm going to find another book that has nice progressions of the skills that still sound good and don't just say "ignore this part".

I'm about halfway through this book. Several decades ago I had about a years worth of lessons. The problem I have with this book is, in an apparent effort to get its readers up to speed ASAP, it omits some music basics which---if presented first--- would make the content much more understandable and permit faster progress.

There is no magical way to learn to "play" an instrument in six weeks or less for someone who has no previous experience or instruction. Had the author clearly explained (1) intervals, (2) whole steps and half steps, and (3) that virtually all chords are comprised of a combination of major thirds and minor thirds, the content of the book would be much more understandable and easier to retain. And, permit faster progress. There would be no need to use the word "shell" had that been done. And, attempts at suggested improvising wouldn't be done by the reader pretty much in the dark.

When I decided to revisit the piano several months back, I retrieved John Brimhall's Theory Notebook Complete (in 3 parts) (excellent to learn the basics) and purchased Edly's Music Theory for Practical People from Amazon. It's a little on the comprehensive side, but, it most likely offers explanations of fairly important stuff that some of the skimpier books don't cover; I'd rather have it there and not need it, rather than vice versa. I've glanced at a couple of the 'Alfred' books and, personally, don't care that much for them, at least the couple that I looked at (too much space spent on the simplest basics).

For parents wishing to start kids out, I would definitely recommend the classical approach----learn basic theory and learn to read music---both the treble AND bass clefs---rather than "Learn to play basketball like Kobe and Lebron in two weeks!!!" For adults who don't have the patience/time/interest, the chordal approach might be the answer.

This book has been written by an engineer watching a piano player. It gives too much for granted and it is not too easy for a true beginner like me.

learn to play the piano in 6 weeks or less for those that already know how to play the piano. We tried it here and it felt very complicated for someone who doesn't know how to play piano.I need something way more dummed down please.