tory25 wrote:Hello
My father can play any song he hears on the keyboard using preset chords. He can read music. It's his 60th birthday soon and I'd like to see if there's anything available that specifically teaches piano chords. He's very computer literate so an interactive CD Rom or similar would be good.
Many thanks.
Like your father, I played keyboards from scratch for several years, first with single or two finger left hand chords with rhythms,and read and played the right hand melody. I then learned most of the full left hand chords which are usually shown in keyboard music books and played that way. I then took lessons for a few months to improve my self-taught technique, timing etc.
I then tried to learn to play piano-style with limited success, reading the left hand and the right.
Being dissatisfied with this, and too difficult,I then experimented with playing the right hand melody, but playing a variety of block, broken, and arpeggio chords with the left. There are books which can help with this method, but it can be self-creative. ( It's a good idea to stay with the simpler keys, C, F, G).
As a result, while not a "real pianist", I can now play almost any popular song to an acceptable level, on the piano I recently purchased.
You can improvise chord variations with the left from keyboard music books, guitar books, or "fake books" .
It sound fine to me, and I wish I had discovered this method before. I haven't found any suitable CD's etc, some courses on CD have been disappointing.
As I am new to this forum, I would welcome any comments or info. While it sounds good to me, this method does not seem to be recommended or publicised as a relatively easy, fun way to succeed on the piano.
