Teach Yourself to Play Piano: A Quick and Easy Introduction for Beginners Method Book | Self-Teaching Keyboard Instruction with Sheet Music for Adults and Teens | Step-by-Step Guide

I'm almost done with this book and it has really taught me a lot. Love how it works you through each lesson and teaches you the music so you can read it. Background: I'm 48 and always wanted to learn to play. I also realized I needed a hobby and we are fortunate to have a nice electric piano in our home (my daughter took lessons for years), so I figured I would finally learn how to play. I sang in choir during elementary school and Jr. High, but that is the extent of any musical training I've had, so this book does a really good job of teaching even if you don't have a music background. I really look forward to my 15-20 minutes of practice each day!

This book is cool. I am an adult beginner who is trying out a Yamaha Keyboard. I just finished the third chapter and now I can figure out the music notes :D I liked the book. Apart from the quality of the content, the Print quality too is good. As of now, I don't know whether this is the best book out there for beginners or not (I think only an experienced piano teacher can comment on that aspect) and that is the only reason I am cutting one star. Content: Intro Ch.1 Familiarize yourself with the keyboard Ch.2 Playing your first notes Ch.3 Getting started with the right hand Ch.4 Get rhythm Ch.5 Introducing the Bass Clef Ch.6 Getting started with the left hand Ch.7 Introducing the eighth note Ch.8 Hands together Ch.9 Hands work together more Ch.10 Introducing chords Ch.11 More chords power Ch.12 Changing position Ch.13 More new notes Ch.14 Let's play

The book carefully guides you through using first your right hand, then your left, then step-by-step putting both together. I could read music already, but mostly bass clef as I am a beginning cellist. But when I look at the notes, I can think of what they are and where on the cello fingerboard they are located, but for some reason (58 year old brain?) not where they are on the keyboard despite again knowing what notes the keys are. Well, I could do it, but not quickly enough....I had to think each time. This is all to say, I was not the most basic level beginner, but pretty darn close. This book teaches you to start reading music, to start learning the keyboard, start learning rhythms, start playing simple melodies/exercises, and to start putting the two hands together. Thats a lot! I had fun going through the first half of the book in my first sitting because they walk you through step-by-step. It did not feel like torture or even work. I only wish the book were longer, and contained some "real" music, but those things are readily available and I am being greedy. If you think you can't put two hands together, just go slow and work on the exercises one hand at a time, a bit each day. It works!

Very easy to follow step by step instructions. highly recommend for beginners to get and practice.this product is recommended by the professionals

A LITTLE MORE DETAIL WOULDN'T HURT. IT'S A GOOD ENOUGH BOOK, YET ITS TOO CONDENSED. AND I'M AN IMPATIENT PERSON AND I ALSO CAN GRASP STUFF QUICKLY, BUT THERE ARE A FEW THINGS THAT EVEN I NEED A TAD MORE EXPLANATION ON. LIKE 'RESTS' QUATER NOTES BLAH BLAH BLAH.

The book on its own is quite good. The material is well explained, the final example does not sound too simplistic. So I have got an inspiring sense of accomplishment in about 4 weeks. Having said that, the books left me with a very limited music vocabulary (basically, C major scale, C and G7 chords only). I think that the book is lacking "level 2" for further progress. I had to move to another, more comprehensive series of books, that start the learning progress from scratch (the good thing is that I progress quite fast since I have some experience already). In any way, "Teach yourself to play piano" was very inspiring.

Ease to follow instructions

I'm an adult who had never played a single piece of music in my life, but decided that I wanted to learn piano. This book worked out perfectly for me. The exercised were well thought out to keep challenging me for weeks, but without ever getting overly repetitive or boring. Rather than working on technicals that never sound like music, I was able to mostly produce melodies that made me happy to hear. It took me a couple of months to get through the final piece, but once I did, I had completely surprised and impressed myself. I was playing a complex piece with both hands complimenting each other simultaneously (there's probably a real term for that) and it go to be almost effortless. I can now print out any familiar beginner-level piece that I find online and figure it out within a few hours. At some point I should hire a teacher to make sure I am doing things the right way, but this book was a perfect way for me to get to enjoyable playing without that.

Excellent book for complete beginners. I would recommend this to all who are starting from scratch. Very easy to follow.

Teaching yourself to play the piano is a very useful and easy-to-read book. It explains the techniques clearly and the book has many useful music sheets of simple songs for you to try.

This is a good straightforward, simple introduction course, with photographs of the piano/fingering etc. I found it very easy and enjoyable for a beginner. However I did expect to find more than one short piano piece to play at the end, having put all that work in to read the music in the first place!! That felt a bit of a con because as a piano book, there is no music to play in it!!! It would have been helpful to know that first so I could have bought something to play at the same time or got a book which teaches as well as had something to play too. Put in an hour a day and you should get through the book in 2 or 3 weeks. An hour is about enough for a beginner.

I've learned to play several preliminary pieces with both the left and right hands at the same time with practicing 1/2 hour a day for 4 weeks now. I feel this is very good progress; I'm only partly through the book. I'm very pleased with this! It's much more than I expected.

Teach Yourself to Play Piano is simply perfect. Just right for a beginner. Practical, covering every aspect needed to start off correctly. Thank you, Mike Sheppard.