Anyone play piano/keyboard

[BenF]

Wasn't sure where to post this, so plumped for non-guitar discussion.

My daughter (6 years old) has voiced a desire to learn to play piano, and is constantly singing made up tunes and making up simple lyrics.  Recently, there has been a distinctly musical element to her ramblings.

So we got her a simple keyboard for Christmas, with a couple of octaves and some fancy sound effects, more a toy than an instrument, but instrument enough for her to see if she liked it.  She has already been making up some simple melodies, and consciously works on them, memorises them, records them and joins them together quite effectively.

I have ZERO piano related knowledge, and so little guitar theory knowledge that I can't help.  I know what to look for on the web to learn guitar related stuff, but where can I start with teaching her some very simple basics.  If she sticks at it for a while, we will get her a bettwe keyboard and some lessons. 

Any advice???  Anything would be appreciated.  Are there any decent websites out there with basic instruction?

Cheers

Ben

[DaveyO]

Ben
dont know about the internet, but my daughter is takiing piano lessons every week and she is enjoying it very much,
like yours, my daughter has natural musical ability, she has a good ear.
try a couple of lessons a month and see how she does, I 'm sure you can find a teacher with a Piano and some lessons that
are not so expensive
works for me,
dave

[flatlander]

I taught myself to play a little piano when I was 18. As much to understand basic scale and chord theory as anything. Music theory is the same by the way for guitar and piano. It's a lot easier to see on piano because everything is in order and all the sharps are black! A good opportunity for you here as well. I don't have much time now but here's what I did.
First see if you can find something to tell a little about how to hold your hands. When playing a scale with right hand you use the Thumb, 1st, 2nd then cross your thumb over to get the next note.
That's so you don't get all the way to your pinky and run out of fingers and the have to jump your whole hand over.
Know where middle C is and work in the key of C 1st. That will just be all the white keys. If you start on C and go up using only white notes, you'll get do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do. The major scale.
Tell the names of those notes and start talking about that. c-d-e-f-g-a-b.
Just stay there for now. Strum a C chord and tell her to just play white notes. After she gets moving on that a little. Play a simple and slow 3 chord song using C-F-G chords.
See if she can feel chord change and seems to follow it with melody. You can direct her to start on f note when you go to f chord and g when you go to g chord..
A whole step means it's 2 notes up. A half step is the very next note. Notice when playing c scale. c-d =whole step d-e is whole step e-f is half step because there's no black key in between.
f-g whole  g-a whole a-b whole then to complete b-c is half step. Formula= whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half. Know this well as you will need it later.
That same formula will apply to all the other keys. They just won't be as simple because some of the notes will be sharps or flats.
  These white notes are all major scale notes. No blues or minor notes happenin with them.  Think of the scale. do-re-me.........c-d-e......... as numbers. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7     8 is the octive.
If you want to introduce blues the first note to add is Bb. The flatted 7th. Next flatted 3rd, Eb. That's probably good to start, Flatted 5th F# would be next.
         
Just start with C. If this interests you, when I get a chance I'll explain how to make some basic chords and basic left hand stuff. I highly suggest learning the basic theory required to get started on piano and teach it to her. In a few months you'll learn a lot of stuff the will increase your understanding of guitar that you can take back. And after teaching yourself you'll probably never forget it.
There's plenty on web explaining scales and chord construction. Gotta go. Good luck!

[BenF]

Thanks Dave, I think lessons might work in a couple if years. She is a little young in my opinion to maintain the required concentration.

Matt, your comments are really useful as usual. I will play along with her later, and teach her Sind simple melodies. I think frim what you have posted that I can begin to relate keys to strings with a bit of clarity in my mind.

Many thanks for taking the time to comment. My biggest regret is not learning some sort of musical instrument as a child. I refuse not to react to any desire by my own children to learn something. I guess piano is one instrument that is likely to lead to other instruments, whereas it is too easy to learn guitar and nothing else.

[tadol]

Ben - I don't think shes too young. You may not want serious lessons, but having someone who can show her proper technique, crossing fingers over and such, as well as help learn basic scales and notes and reading staff. You may be perfectly able to do all that yourself, but make a special time to sit with her and show her something new/ something to practice. Get her used to just a little of the discipline of studying music, mixed with alot of the pleasure, and she'll be way ahead in the years to come -


Tad

[DaveyO]

Ben,
You would be suprised at how a good Piano teacher can hold a kids attention
they usually keep the lessons short and they teach fun stuff that the kids enjoy.
I hope you at least try it, you may be happy you did it
good luck
Dave

[BenF]

Thanks for the advice. I might see if they can offer lessons at her school. I always think school music teachers are underutilised!

If not I'll look into private lessons.

[Big E]

Hi Flatlander, great pointers. I'm going to try it out myself. 

[flatlander]

If you get a teacher, try to get a FUN one. A boring piano teach can slay desire in SOME. See if they'll teach songs she and you can do together.
Don't trust a teacher that can't play by ear, as well as read music. I'm kinda serious.

[flatlander]

Hi Flatlander, great pointers. I'm going to try it out myself. 

So you have keyboards around the house then I presume? Learning how chords are made is so much easier to understand on keyboards. If you get started on it let me know perhaps via PM,
and we'll go over more basics.maby start a new thread.  Please understand, I'm not a piano player and have rarely dinked with them since I was a teenager, but I can tell you how to make chords and basic stuff to do with left hand and like I said, it can really help you to understand some simple practical theory.

[mas music]

Good for her! It's great to have a keyboard in the home. If she sticks with it the next step would be a digital piano with 88 weighted  action keys. These boards sound and feel like real acoustic pianos. Should she progress as the years pass there is nothing like a real acoustic grand piano. In an era gone by, Before TV's and radios upright pianos were the original home entertainment system. 

[Denis]

Good for her! It's great to have a keyboard in the home. If she sticks with it the next step would be a digital piano with 88 weighted  action keys. These boards sound and feel like real acoustic pianos. Should she progress as the years pass there is nothing like a real acoustic grand piano. In an era gone by, Before TV's and radios upright pianos were the original home entertainment system. 

I tried one of these the other day.

http://www.yamaha.ca/content/electronickeyboards/products/digitalpiano/homepiano/P-85/keyfeatures.jsp

Had my kids with me and they were all over it.  They loved the different sounds but like mas music said, they are definitely something that she could progress with.  I'm definitely thinking of getting one sometime in the near future as well...nothing wrong with putting her in lessons asap too.  If she likes it, then the younger the better.