Hi. I'm Teaching myself keyboards using piano Nanny. The site wants me....

[ricky123]

The site wants me to get very simple songs to start practicing. I was wondering if anyone knew a site where I could download sheet music of simple songs to practice. The site has only discussed 4/4 time. It says to only try those songs. I'll learn other time in future lessons.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Although you might be able to find some free sheet music on the web-- you could start with https://musescore.com/-- most sheet music sites will want you to pay for the songs you download, so in the long run it will be cheaper per song to buy a book of sheet music rather than buying a song at a time.

If you're interested in learning popular songs, I believe you'll want to search for "lead sheet," which is a version of a song that's usually written as a simple melody, possibly with chord names written above the melody.

And if you want to get an entire book of lead sheets, you'll want to search for "fake book," which is a sheet music book containing nothing but lead sheets. There are fake books available for different musical genres-- pop, rock, jazz, movie soundtracks, show tunes, etc.

EDIT: However, if you're learning to play the piano then it's good to use sheet music books that are written specifically to be used as lessons, because they'll contain songs and exercises designed to help you learn the different scales, master fingering, come to grips with different rhythms, etc. But that doesn't mean you can't work on learning tunes that you like at the same time, because it can be boring to focus exclusively on scales and exercises-- throwing in a popular song or two that you're familiar with can help give you something to work towards.

 

[Fred Coulter]

I'd be opposed to learning to play piano with lead sheets. Yes, learning chords will be useful, but being able to read music in all it's glory and complexity would be better.

 

[Rayblewit]

Yes Fred. You are 100% right. I am finding it difficult now to back track. What I mean is when I began to learn music, I just focused on the melody and chords for keyboard. It is really tough now to turn the clock back and start all over to learn bass and as well the complexities of music as you put it. I am in senior years now and find it difficult to find time to study and practise bass and scales and all..!

A young person starting out should learn all the facets of playing piano rather than keyboard.

I say to ricky123 . . Whether you are young or old . . You are learning from scratch so try your best at the whole package if you can. Look for some piano books as seagtgruff suggested. You will benefit the hard yards in a few years. Something I regret now that I cannot play bass.

Have a look out for "hal leonard" or "alfreds" they both have a good selection of beginners tunes for piano.

 

[ricky123]

I will do that. Are hal leonard or alfreds authors or somethingelse? If I'm understanding this right, I should get a book to learn scales and fingering and other stuff, but also look for fake books and practice popular songs to give me a broader base.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Hal Leonard and Alfred are two well-known publishers of sheet music and song books:

http://www.halleonard.com/

http://www.alfred.com/

If you get music books that were designed to help people learn how to play, they will usually contain a variety of scales and other exercises, including some simple songs. There are books written for children, as well as books written for adults, and books written for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students.

My suggestion about getting a fake book was because you had asked about simplified songs, and a fake book is about the simplest format there is. If you decide to buy one, I'd recommend starting with just one, because once you start learning to play then you might prefer to buy song books that contain more complete versions of songs.

 

[happyrat1]

They sell everything from toilet gaskets to riding mowers.

You may have heard of them... Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&fi...&sourceid=Mozilla-search&tag=wwwcanoniccom-20

Gary

 

[Fred Coulter]

If you want to read from a fake book, start with a how to. https://www.amazon.com/How-Play-Fake-Book-Keyboard/dp/0634002066/

The problem with fake books is that they really expect you to be able to KNOW your chords and how to accompany before you start using them. They're really for accomplished pianists who don't know a certain piece but do know the style.