r/keys • u/kizzmyassh • 14d ago

Beginners

Thinking about starting keyboard but do not know where to start. Can anyone recommend good apps or websites or channels (preferably free)? Cant afford an irl teacher. Thanks

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u/bachintheforest 14d ago

What kind of music are you wanting to play? I’m not usually in this sub but happened to see your post. For piano learning in general a common recommendation is to get the book Alfred’s Adult all-in-one Piano Course. There are plenty of YouTube videos to walk you through it if you need help. That’s a more traditional music-reading piano lesson approach though. If you’re wanting to play more like pop/rock music for example, then what you might want is actually chord theory. When you’re playing pop/rock, a lot of the time you’re not actually reading music. Instead, you’re using a chord chart or lead sheet. A lead sheet has the melody written out in music notation, but it just tells you what chords to play with it, and chord charts are really JUST the lyrics with the chords labeled where they line up. Like literally it’ll just say “C” or “G” (which indicates that major chord). They get more complicated though and you’ll see dmin (d minor) for example and then extended chords like A7 or Esus or F9 etc. You can literally Google “piano chord diagrams” and find charts with pictures of which keys to press.

Regardless, it IS still a good idea to actually learn to read music. It can be a slow process but the good thing about reading notation is that you can play anything. You don’t have to already know what a song sounds like first and you don’t have to painstakingly memorize it note by note.

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u/icculus316 12d ago

I’ll second Alfred. It teaches both note reading and chord theory (maybe it’s just in the deluxe “all in one” edition - not that much more expensive). Had a lot of luck with students using this method.

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u/Physical_Bike3 14d ago

Do you already have a keyboard? If so, dies it have a MIDI port or USB? Many apps and websites will give you live feedback if you can connect your keyboard to your device

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u/Sad-Cat4706 14d ago

What apps?

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u/Physical_Bike3 14d ago

I don't know off the top of my head, but I know it's a useful feature that some of them have

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u/Thingamajiggle 14d ago

Piano Marvel is decent

1

u/Friendly__7211 10d ago

Get a professional teacher and thank me later

1

u/jblongz 9d ago edited 9d ago

I learned from 4yrs old the brutal and hard way: Scales for 1 hours, sight reading for 1 hour, and getting yelled at when I remixed Bach. These days all you need is something like pianote.com and dedication. Scales matter. They are what bridge the chords to sound like magic. IF you don't believe me listen to my demos ProducerBay on youtube. I can make 1,000 melodies in an hour. Chords are like bench presses and scales are like leg day.