Starting Keyboard

Yay!! another multi-instrumentalist.

I'm "intermediate" at guitar, after playing for a year. I have a long background in amateur music (banjo, acoustic, folk.) and a good ear for jamming. Well after listening to lots of kick-ass prog & ambient music I decided I wanted to learn keyboards.

I kind of realized how much more creative potential there was in 61 keys & 600 voices than in 6 strings & 24 frets.Just for starters the kind of chords you can do on keys is vastly more than what you can physically do on a guitar.

I'm not knocking guitar, don't get me wrong, but the world is full of better guitar players than me. My chances of ever playing in a band as a guitar player are about 1 in a million, esp. cauze I'm an overage female. (Of course people want to see a sexy Metal chick, but who wants to see a middle-aged Granny in a band??) Old enough that standing with a guitar on my shoulder for a long time is painful & fatiguing. But I could still play keys even when I'm in a wheelchair (in the not-distant-enough future.)

I have a basic rock keyboard book, and something called PROGRESSIVE ROCK KEYBOARD in the Hal Leonard series. That's for next year.

I'm also just practing arpeggios & scales, plus chords and chord voices. When I get better at chords I will play along with some of my fave songs.

I don't know how else to progress on an instsrument unless I can find a jam-band.

Good luck & keep me posted!!
'

Hanon is excellent.

Edited by Minimalist777 - August 10 2007 at 18:17

purplepiper wrote: why not focus all your musical energy into one instrument? I've played guitar for 6 years, sometimes considering other instruments, but it occured to me that I'd rather be an insane master of one instrument, than a master of several. ahh, who am I kidding...keyboards are awesome!!! getting a mellotron wouldn't hurt either...you should try to learn apocalypse in 9/8! start listening to elp a lot too!

I feel like I've become quite proficient with my guitar that I'm ready to take on a second instrument full time, the keyboard.
So far I've been going through Hanon's virtuoso for pianists book (its nothing special) for my warms-ups and am playing well.
Since I've played guitar for about 5 years I have continously learned theory during that time so I have a good amount of knowledge there.
My style of music will always contain metal elements(at times) and jazz elements (at times). So far it's been along the line of a mix between DT and Pain of Salvation (thats my influences wearing on me). But I plan to take my sound a lot further.

So far I have nice rythm since I already play an instrument and know about 10 major scales up and down the keys.

So point me in the right direction.

What should I learn?
I know my scales are going to be important so I will learn those. I read music very well and feel for a beginner I should just learn some video game scores? I really don' want it implemented in my music, but will learning some classical scores make me have more precision, give me a challenge and better playing?
Then should I try to play some tracks by my favorite 'keyboardists bands' like Yes, Genesis, Dream Theater, Pain of Salvation and various others.

Can you point me to good sites? For sheetmusic,lessons and reccommended pieces?

Other guidelines?