I'm thinking of just looking up chords and chord progressions, but if anyone has a better idea, or a suggestion on a song to play, I'd love to hear it.

 

Thanks 

 

Yes, I do know the notes and I can read sheet music

 

Not enough money right now

 

I can't give advice on good beginner songs, as I don't remember any of mine...I started piano lessons at the age of 5...

 

As stated above technical stuff (major, harmonic and melodic minor, and chromatic scales, chords and arpeggios, etc.) is incredibly important. If you can spice things up sometimes, you know make a mini-melody out of the notes from one scale, but still have the main flow go up and then down again, then they're not so boring to practice either.

 

Looking up chord progressions is great if you can do something with them. Find a few you like, mix and match, see what goes good together. Learn different arpeggiations (playing each note of a chord seperately instead of together) to make them sound more interesting. NEVER underestimate theory. I've never checked, but I'm sure there has to be some good basic theory stuff on the net. Just knowing which chords are associated with which scales is invaluable. You can mess around with different melodies a bit once you have a grasp of things.

For instance, a very basic chord progression is the I-IV-V (ie: G-C-D)

Since the I chord, in this case G, is the base of this (and many) progressions, you can throw in a G major melody over top of a G-C-D progression. (G major being G A B C D E F# G)

 

This is very basic stuff, and I do recommend a teacher once you have the money. A lot of teachers like to teach classical music, but you can still learn plenty from that stuff if you can put up with it (I did!). Obviously, it won't be worth your money if you're not enjoying yourself, so whatever you feel like learning, try to find someone willing to teach it and you're all set.