Teaching yourself?

has anyone taught himself an instrument? I have a keyboard laying around and would like to start practicing, and get to a playing level. my goal is to understand music and compose.

Problem is i dont know how to start. Is there a good site you guys have? Is there a common book I could pick up? Is it even possible to learn the instrument to a pro level all by yourself?

any help and tips would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

ps: I play drums, with a teacher. I dont play anything else...

I have never had any professional training (with an instructor). All i had was what they teach in school (public school that is). So, i guess you could say i pretty much taught myself. Mind you, im not the best, i think i'm pretty good.

I, as well, play drums. I can play the keyboard/piano/organ, but not to the degree of a pro. Just simple ordinary songs you would find in a common piano song book (ie. "When the Saints", "Silent Night", etc.)

Oh yea,

Most of everything I've learned while learning bass, guitar and keyboards, was self-taught.

My best advice for when teaching yourself is to find a good book to learn from and have a couple musically educated friends that you can ask questions to. Another good advice I can give you is to try to maintain your passion in your instrument (by listening to music or inspiring yourself in some way) , because unlike learning from a teacher, you're not forced to do anything.

I can't quite think of a good "common" piano book to start out with. Though look for a book that will teach you music theory while learning to play piano, if you're kind of familiar with it. It is a big focus to playing piano, I believe. However, if you're totally new to this learning an instrument thing, just get a "For Dummies" book (it worked for me .)

All I had for guitar instruction was one lesson from a friend of my older brother. Plus many, many books and exercises from guitar magazines. With bass, I didn't even have that; my bass education involves playing along with mp3s- with the player set to random, just to keep me guessing. And I can't even sit and watch TV without my acoustic in hand- playing along with just about any music that comes on, or trying out ideas of my own. It also keeps me from snacking or smoking too much.

Of course, I'm not very good at any instrument...so I wouldn't recommend my method.

how do you figure out the chords and all that? I know the major chords, but minor and seventh is whats really confusing me.

Totally self-taught on all the instruments I noodle
with
and after 20 years on guitar I can play all the notes in
the Smoke on the Water riff


seriously,

I'm self-taught on guitar, mandolin, bass, keyboards
though guitar is really the only one I'm any good at.
I started with a bunch of books with chord windows
of my favourite (easy to play) songs and went from
there.

My best advice would be to expose yourself (not that
way) to as many different styles of music as possible
(funk, rock, prog, folk, blues, classical, jazz) all will
give you different techniques you can employ in your
own music.

A salutary lesson for me was playing with a jazz-funk
band in the mid-90s - it taught me completely
different disciplines and techniques which
broadened my playing massively.

IMO opinion there's nothing worse than hearing a
player who's technically great but utterly locked into a
single manner of playing.

Other advice? Explore your instrument (not that way
) I mean don't be afraid to make stuff up. Try
framing chords different ways, put you fingers on the
frets in unfamiliar ways. Don't be afraid to
experiement with articulations you've never seen in a
book. I don't know the name of most of the stuff I
play, I just play what sounds melodious and 'good'
couldn't tell you if it was diminished, augmented or
whatever.

Self-taught often means more willing to break rules
for me. I once knew a classically pianist who could
play beautifully but could not compose because her
teaching was so rigid that she was unable to
express herself unless it was by playing music
printed on sheets - terrible.

Get a bunch of chord window books, start practising
the tunes and within a year I guarantee you'll be
trying to figure out your own voicings... go for it

But how do I start, a basic songs type of book would do? or a chord book? I am not very musically educated, so I dont understand alot of what "scales" and different variations are.

A soon as i get it started Ill do fine, but getting started is always the hardest part for me, and i dont know how to approach it.

p.s. i would not begin with song books no matter what one may tell yu. many times it is too frustrating hearing a song in yur head , having a book showing yu how to play it and still not being able to. get chord books for piano and guitar and just practice playing those chords. once yu can play individual chords start putting them together to build a progression you find harmonic. from there the sky's the limit. good luck

go to cyberfret.com for bass