Reddit mentions: The best books about musical instruments

Here's my obligatory write up of people in your position.

Beyond that short treatise, I figure I should touch on another thing having to do specifically with something you mentioned.

>Additionally, I do have the discipline to do scales/arpeggios.

This is great, but be careful about the approach. It's easy to get extremely technically focused as you try to "catch up" technically on a secondary instrument, to the point that you become obsessive about the scales themselves rather than their application. These also can feel very comforting and eventually... comfortable.

All to often people make the mistake of focusing on one scale to the detriment of others, say focusing on getting C major from 110 to 120 while there are other keys that are barely at 60. I suspect you know better than that, but the pitfall you're more likely to run into is trying to get all of your scales to a point... and then push that tempo rather than focusing on music.

You really need to read... a lot. You need to work on actual songs even though they will be children's songs and silly crap. At the very outset you likely won't be doing any true sightreading, but you should push to be working on that ASAP.

I think for piano more than most instruments, there's more to be learned by progressive pieces of music than with pure technical work. For monophonic (and mostly monophonic; e.g. bowed strings) instruments, you're mostly covered if you have scales, arpeggios and maybe some advanced sequences. That literally is 95% of music... fragments of scales, arpeggios, and sequences.

With piano, that doesn't even scratch the surface. You'd need to add cadential patterns to that list and those are almost infinite in a way that the rest are not. And that's still not even tackling the real issue... composite rhythm and the coordination issues it causes, especially when complicated by all of the other technical barriers.

Experiencing very small, approachable hurdles like these by working through lots of childish books really helps deal with these issues that are relatively unique to harmonic instruments.



It's easy to get complacent and feel like you're making progress by plopping down to run your scales and arpeggios daily, but I'd recommend strictly limiting the amount of time you allow yourself to spend on these. It's easy to feel like you're making real progress when really you're just mindlessly repeating them. Drills are comfortable for some of us. It sounds like they are for you and they definitely are for me, but we have to be careful not to let them be a means unto themselves.

It's much harder to sit down and really mentally work on simple songs that have small coordination hurdles for you, particularly when they don't feel inherently musically rewarding, especially to those of us who previously had a lot of experience being very virtuostic and musically expressive on our primary instruments. But this is the true path forward.

Resources
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I like this book for scales. I'd strong encourage you to avoid doing all of the scale variations it has. Simple HT 2 octave in every key should be the goal long before you worry about some of the others and I'd argue that the real value isn't even in any of the variations. You'd get more out of doing single hand 3rds and 6ths than the separated versions which you'll very rarely run into in reality. They are nice coordination parlor trick, but I don't feel like they have a lot of value and like I said, you'll get more practical stuff from working on simple songs in method books than you will bashing your head against some of these. Save them for much later (like years) if at all.

Likewise, I wouldn't agonize over the dom7 arpeggios either. There are much more common and useful patterns found in all sorts of music. However, DO focus very intensely on the cadences and triad arpeggios.

I like this method book overall. I'm not even saying it's the best... it's just one and it works. I'd honestly recommend visiting a used book store and just buying a lot of beginner books of all different series. Focus less on pushing hard toward progression in on series and more on just consuming a huge volume of different music. Or, you might work through this series of Alfred books and then use other such books are sightreading practice once you start getting better.

Get this book for sightreading as a start. It's offensively easy, but it's really where most people should start and I wasted far too much time trying to poorly sightreading much harder stuff for too long because I just didn't realize the collection of small deficits that were tanking my ability to improve despite my fairly solid technical facility.

Read with a focus on keeping your eyes on the page and reading a bar ahead. You obviously know how this works from violin whether you think of it or not, but there's a lot more notes to drink in on piano. You've got to learn to know what your pace is for reading and accurately playing. Carry these concepts over to the children's books that will be more complicated than this particular book.

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I will strongly caution you not to try to play hard music. It's such a waste of your time. Lots of people get very good at playing a handful of very hard pieces, but they are based on pure finger memory. These people have no functional skill at piano and can't prepare almost anything new with less than several weeks or months of brute forcing it into their hands.

When you let yourself jump from hard song to hard song, spending weeks or more on each, you'll eventually realize years in that you haven't actually gotten any faster at learning new material. It shouldn't be that way. I'm sure you can sightread (and would be expected to) for tons of gigs on violin. You could probably throw together some fairly advance solo rep in a week or two. Meanwhile, many pianists who've been playing for decades couldn't play an arrangement of some song they heard on the radio in less than a month. It's a sad state of affairs. It's just part of piano culture and many only end up learning maybe 5-10 pieces of new music every year.

Be mindful of the fact that much of your growth as a violinist is due largely to the ensemble experiences you've had... constantly reading tons of new music that's not at the bleeding edge of your ability. You've probably had times where you learned more music in a month that some pianists learn in an entire year, but it has made you a functional player... not someone who has to hide away and practice for 3 months to come back and have your part of the string quartet music learned.

Read! Read a ton and read easy. Your reading skill is the the specific skill that lets you be able to learn new music faster. The better you read the more music you can consume...the more you consume, the more you improve on lots of tiny thing that let you consume even more faster. Unlike almost anything else in music where improvement tapers off, with reading, you just get faster and better at it.

It's definitely a case I make for anyone wanting to make a living (or even side money) playing piano, but honestly, even just for people who want to really enjoy piano as a hobby, putting in the (fairly enormous and painful) upfront investment in good reading is what leads to a point where you can really just sit down and enjoy music.

Having a written schedule helps a lot. It lets you focus on the areas you want and keeps me from getting off track. I take weekly lessons as well so I usually develop a practice routine for the week with my instructor, but on occasion I've added to it a bit or worked out my own.

There are two things you should do first: determine how much time you have and what you want to work on. Be honest with the time you have, not just how much you want to have. If you're not going to actually practice for four hours every day it won't help if you work out a schedule for it and then end up skipping most of it. Anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours is typical, I personally tend to aim for 1 hour and allow myself some flexibility to go longer if I want to. If you can't do a single longer session consider trying to play in several shorter ones and break things up between them.

Figuring out what to work on is often the harder part. Having a teacher to work with will definitely help you not only determine where you need to improve, but how best to do it. Otherwise try to have an honest assessment of your skills. If you're working on something new and notice you're having trouble with part of it write it down and add that to the list of things you want to work on. Maybe you're having trouble with triplets, getting a smooth articulation, you need to improve your knowledge of the neck, or want to improvise better. Pick a few of those areas to work on and then begin looking into how you can focus your practice on improving them.

Personally I tend to break a practice routine into a few areas: warm-up, technique, rhythm, ear training, reading, improvisation/composition, and repertoire. Here's a sample routine of mine from May:

1. Modes in all keys, one per day (i.e. Monday - Ionian, Tuesday - Dorian, Wednesday - Phrygian , etc.) at 90 bpm. [10 minutes]
   
   
2. Bass Aerobics #1; play to backing track. [5-10 minutes]
   
   
3. Bellson p. 23, 90 bpm [5-15 minutes]
   
   
4. Black Sabbath - "Electric Funeral". Learn bridge (2:17) by ear.
   
   
5. Improvise over Em riff. [5-10 minutes]
   
   
6. Play for at least 30 minutes.
   
   I like to start off with scales and arpeggios as a warm-up. I'll switch them up over time depending on what I want to work on and to keep from getting bored. In this case I follow a pattern of playing the scale up and down and then the chord tones (i.e. 1-3-5-7-8) up and down as quarter notes. Always to a metronome. Whenever you're playing something and aren't just slowly working it out, play it to a metronome. Don't be a in a rush either, speed comes from precision and you get that by doing it right at a slow tempo. Currently I'm doing the same thing with two octave minor scales in each key which presents a number of other challenges and is giving me a lot of practice on shifting and fretboard knowledge.
   
   Next I move on to cover an exercise I happen to be working on. In this case I was working from a book I'd purchased recently that's nothing but technical exercises. Often I'll work on something that my instructor has given me, for example at the present I'm working on playing ghost notes with better articulation so I'm going over some simple exercises he gave me.
   
   After that I had been doing some rhythm studies. Louis Bellson's "Modern Reading Text in 4/4" is a great book for this and an absolute classic, especially among drummers. It's just pure rhythm without any pitch, but it will help you learn to read better (including things that are written awkwardly in places) and focus on getting your time and rhythm down solidly. Once you have a rhythm down it's also great to then go back and start adding in pitches. Maybe picking a few bars and looping through them exploring what you can do with it and how pitch and rhythm interact.
   
   Ear training is one area where I'm a bit less disciplined. I include it in my weekly routine, but I often won't get to it every day. It can tend to suck up a lot of time and cause you to get distracted from the rest of practice until you've spent an hour on it alone and then don't have more time to finish. I like to put a little bit of time in on it though when I can and once I start getting something down I want to work on it for the rest of the week. That's why it gets listed here. Sometimes I'm learning a new song from notation though and it will go in this slot or I'm doing both. After the drier exercises I like to switch to something more musical, but that's still a bit of work so that's why it tends to show up at this point in the routine as well. You should try to always be learning a new song as well, whether it's by ear or from notation.
   
   In addition to just learning songs by ear I also like to use software to work on my ear training. Personally I use Perfect Ear 2 for Android and would highly recommend it, but there are plenty of other resources out there. Just spending some time every week working on intervals is going to help you out a lot and will make learning songs by ear that much simpler. You won't even realize it when it happens, but you'll listen to a song, start to work it out, and find that you got it perfectly the first time without really thinking about it. It's a great feeling and you get there by working on your intervals.
   
   The improvise step from this week is something that's sort of lost to time. If I recall correctly I'd been noodling around a week or so before and had come up with a simple riff with a couple of different fills. This was simply taking a little time out to play around with that. Often I'll be working on playing a song just from the chord chart so that will take this place. Some weeks I don't do any improvising. But just having something really simple like finding a backing track online, playing over a basic 12 bar blues in the key of your choice, or comping a jazz standard ("Autumn Leaves" is just about everyone's first standard) will let you take some time out to work on this basic skill.
   
   The last part of every practice for me is to just play. I have a playlist on the computer that includes everything I know or have been working on recently. I'll usually try to focus on the most recent songs I've learned since they often need the most work, but after running through each of those (and a second time if needed) I'll flip it over to random and just play along to whatever comes up. I like to keep it on random in particular because it means I need to quickly get into the song and don't have a lot of time to think about it. You have to just hear it and go. If I'm having trouble with a section I'll stop and repeat it or take some time out to work on it specifically. Either going down to the metronome to slow it down or just taking it note by note until I have it down again and can start playing at speed. Then when I have that section I'll work on transitioning into and out of it before I can finally just play through the whole song. I try to put in a minimum of 30 minutes of playing time, but usually I'll go even longer because I'm having fun.
   
   This is actually a key aspect of this sort of schedule to me. Most of these areas have a pretty variable time. Sometimes I'll just play an exercise through once (e.g. scales) and move on, but other times it takes longer because you need to slow things down and work on problems. Or it's short and you play through an exercise several times once you have it down solidly. I prefer to set minimum times that I'll work on something and let myself keep going longer if I want to. When I start to get bored or frustrated I have something else to move on to. If you have less time available to you though it might make more sense to enforce minimum and maximum times so you can be certain you're able to get through everything.
   
   In this case I've included a couple of books I've been using to get exercises from, but that's not the only source. I'll also find stuff online, get them from my instructor, work on reading/practicing pages from a method book (The Hal Leonard Bass Method in particular is very good and well-organized into discrete lessons that break down easily into a practice routine) or any number of other sources. The web has a wealth of resources out there that will give you stuff to work on to improve your playing. Scott's Bass Lessons is particularly well thought of around here and provides things like a weekly riff to work on with notation and a workbook (also included for the regular lessons if you sign up for the paid section).
   
   So, yeah, really, really long, but hopefully this gives you an idea of how to create and organize a practice routine. With each subsequent week I'll move on to another page/exercise in the books I'm working on, the next section in a song I'm learning by ear (or a new song altogether), a new scale to warm-up with, or whatever. Find out the routine that works best for you though and the time you have. Add in more exercises or take some out. Spend five minutes just working on standing in front of the mirror and playing open strings up and down (then skipping) and focus on your right hand technique. Whatever you do, plan the work and then work the plan.

Very basic beginner tips:
You're spot on with picking up sticks and a pad first (I should also mention a metronome because drumming is ALL about keeping time, but this is bare basics so for the sake of my bad typing skills and your wallet I'm going to omit it, but know this HAS TO BE YOUR NEXT PURCHASE (also there's dozens of free metronome apps FYI)).

This is all you will need to begin drumming and it shouldn't cost you more than $30. As far as for what kinds/brands, just buy two matching sticks that feel comfortable in your hands and a pad that's 'bouncy'. (Don't worry about wood types or tips for the drum sticks yet, you're still a far ways away from that being a concern)

Now that you have sticks and a pad, the next move is to learn how to hold them. This is going to be hard without any visuals, so bear with me here lol. Hold your right hand forward as if you were to accept a handshake. With your left hand, place the stick in the center your palm so that the blunt end of the stick is facing the ground. Now close your fingers around it to create a fist. Adjust the height of the stick in your fist so that only 1 inch of the blunt end is protruding(sp?) from the bottom of your fist. At this point, it should seem like your holding the drum stick the same way that you might hold a hammer; you're close but there's two more VERY IMPORTANT steps. Next, adjust your thumb so that it rests on the shaft of the stick. (Imagine that with your fist you're trying to now give someone a thumbs-up and that your stick is just a big extension of that thumbs-up, that what this should all look like) Finally, while maintaining this hand position, turn your wrist 90 degrees so that your palm and stick are both facing the ground.
Now repeat with your left hand.

If done correctly, you should be making a 'V' shape with your sticks. As well, if done correctly, you should be able to hold both stick with only your thumb and fore-finger. (Just to cover all bases, your middle, ring and pinky fingers are simply there for minor support, most grip strength and stick control comes from finding the fulcrum (or balancing sweet spot) of the stick and pinching it with your thumb and fore finger)

Confused yet? Good! Just a few more things and I'll feel like I'm really doing you justice here lol:

Just start off at first by trying to get your sticks to hit the pad and bounce back at you. Don't 'bury' them into the pad; make them work for you, not against you. Don't worry about speed, intensity or consistency just yet, it will all come in time.
Obviously, alternate your hands. You'll find that you have a dominant hand (99.99% chance it's your writing hand) but don't forget that, unless you plan on starting a Def Lepard cover band, your going to need both hands, so give them both the appropriate amounts of attention they deserve!

Once you got both hands hitting with equal confidence, just go back and forth with your right and left hand and try to focus on making them both sound, look, and feel as even as possible.

New drummer LPT's:
-Buy a metronome ASAP.
-Forget about speed, it WILL come naturally.
-Buy, download, torrent, steal, GET this book and go through it. It is the golden standard for pre-drumkit drumming. If you master this book, you have mastered the concept of drumming.
-Hold off on a drumkit. They're big and expensive; you'll really want to make sure that you REALLY want to commit to drumming first.
-Finally, YOUTUBE will teach you all this and more for FREE!

Good luck, sorry for the novel but I really hope this helps.

Sources: drumming 12 years, currently professional touring drummer, tried to teach a friend how-to a while ago and he's... not terrible :P

I've been playing guitar professionally for 15 years. In that time, I've gotten a BMus in classical guitar performance, taught music, accompanied several accomplished musicians on stage and in the studio, and played in bands that have performed festivals / won grants / were written about in nationally distributed newspapers and magazines. I've edited three LPs and six EPs, mixed three records, and have production credits on them all. I've appeared on stage and in the studio ~ 1k times. All my income comes from teaching, playing, and writing.

Tips:

1. Never stop being a student of your craft. Be humble and take every opportunity to learn.
   
2. Play live frequently! I've met many talented musicians who want to reach a large group of people but don't play shows. There is no big secret to breaking through a scene: The more you appear on stage, the more people see you play.
   
3. Professionalism goes a long way. If you're playing a gig for a single person or a thousand people: Respect your crowd. Don't treat a gig like a throwaway ever. Communicate and be engaging no matter the size and demographic. You'll be surprised what one fan can do for you. I once met a guy in a small crowd who had traveled to my city and happened to be there. He liked our set and happened to book shows where he lived; this person became a springboard for us to reach an entirely new market!
   
4. It's important that you're well-rehearsed and sound great, but bar owners care about how you treat the business end of things as well. If you want to succeed: Don't get blackout loaded and forget to do things like man your merch table, give shoutouts to the serving staff, and treat the venue respectfully.
   
5. Network with other bands. We need each other to help an entire scene grow. I've been having songwriting sessions with other bands in my hometown and it's really fun to crossover and rewarding too.
   
6. Learn to sing. I've only ever sang backups but I can hold a tune. This is a very valuable skill, even if you're only singing "Ahhh" in the background. Backup vox can improve a song dramatically.
   
7. Invest in your craft. Sound matters! What's the point in honing all that skill if it's not going to sound great. Be on top of changing trends and know when a deal is a steal. You can grow your backline and not break the bank if you're well-educated. All this takes is time and browsing the internet.
   
8. Be conscious of your crowd. Looks and gear matter. When I get booked to play solo jazz at a corporate cocktail event, I'm not going to show up with a ratty jeans and a flying-V (rad as that would be). And, while those wallflower gigs are kind of boring, I can charge $500/hr or more and they don't blink an eye. That amount of money is nothing to them and pays my rent / expenses for a month.
   
9. Teach! All the time. There is nothing more rewarding than watching a person learn to do something they love and know that you helped them get there. At any level, you can become a teacher. Find a person who needs what you know, and share it with them.
   
10. Listen to music. Know what's out there. When you get stuck in a rut as a player, find an entirely new genre. The opportunity to do so, given what the internet is, has never been greater. You can invest in hours of listening at zero cost.
    
11. Transcribe music by ear. Knowing theory and being able to read sheet music is great; but a strong ear is the most valuable thing a musician can have. Contrary to what you might think, this is a skill that can be taught and learned. You might be horrible at it to begin with, but if you frequent Ricci Adam's MusicTheory.net every day, you will improve. I used this to quiz myself during my degree; great tool.
    
12. Know your value and don't be afraid to demand it. Music is a business and you will be your only agent for a long time.
    
    Books:
    
    
13. The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick.
    
    
    
    

Hey there! :)

Your question is a VERY difficult one to answer, as it depends on a lot of variables concerning both yourself and the route you decide to take. However, the EASY answer is to say that you cannot achieve a masterful level of proficiency at the piano on your own. This does not hold true 100% of the time, but MOST of the time it's true.

That being said, you can certainly learn a lot on your own before being held back by your lack of a teacher. It will probably go slower, and take longer, and most importantly you won't know for sure if you're doing things correctly or not (this is the biggest thing) and also you won't have someone to ask questions. But it's of course better than nothing and I would never discourage you from it if it's your only option right now!

When I say that you can't know if you're doing things correctly or not, that really is a huge thing. That feedback which a teacher can provide is essential to knowing that you're learning things right. Teachers also can teach you things that will just be glossed over/skipped otherwise, they can guide you to various things that you'd never think of, and they can tailor your lesson plan to you and adjust it as needed.

Here's what you CAN do, right now:

1. Try learning songs by ear. Don't bother with anything except the melody, playing it with the right hand. Pop songs that you like are going to be the best place to start. This may be hard to do for awhile and will require persistence before you can pick up on it but it's a good skill to have. It's ear training :).
   
2. If you go on youtube, you can find all sorts of tutorials for songs. This will not teach you proper technique, nor will it teach you how to learn songs "in the real world", meaning sheet music, which is the preferred way to distribute music and learn it and preserve it. However, it will give you a way of learning songs which you like (again, pop songs are usually best) and it'll start working on your finger dexterity.
   
   The most important thing though, is that you need a lesson plan. Since you don't have a teacher to give you one, you need something to replace that. My suggestion would be to look up the Alfred's adult beginner lesson book. Click here for an amazon link to see it! You can just order it online, or find a local music store and look for it/ask for help finding it. Personally I shop at Evolas, I think they may be fairly local though (I'm in Michigan). A piano lesson book provides structured learning and will cover things that you need to know in an ordered way. Lesson books are not perfect; they don't take the time to explain things in TOO much detail because you're supposed to have a teacher going through it with you, and explaining things themselves. However they DO have some explanation of every lesson, and once you know what you're SUPPOSED to be learning about, you can always turn to google for more information about it.
   
   The lesson book is my single huge recommendation to you. It's probably your best bet. It's by no means perfect, but I don't know what you can do better. You will have to pace yourself; do your best to make sure you understand a concept completely and learn the associated song well before progressing to the next lesson. Again, this will be difficult without a teacher but it's doable!
   
   My source for all of this is that I've been playing piano for twelve years, and have been teaching for the past 3-4. I'm generally an observant, thoughtful person and this is the sort of thing that runs through my mind :). I would like to close by making you an offer... I will still maintain that you cannot do better than to get an actual teacher and take regular lessons. HOWEVER! Should you choose to seriously pursue this to the extent possible, I would like to help you as much as I can! So at ANY point, if you have ANY question whatsoever, you are free to PM me, and I will do my best to answer! I will teach you things that you're confused about or want to know more about, or anything at all that you can think of. So I'll essentially offer myself as a teacher over the internet. It's very limiting, but it may help you to have someone who you can ask those questions that hopefully you'll have :).
   
   Good luck, whatever happens!

I was in the same boat as you a few years ago, I played classical my entire life then started to pick up some jazz when I entered college. This is super useful, as it has really helped my playing overall and now I can make a decent amount of money playing around town because i have diversified my skillset. As a classical player I can understand where you are coming from when you say you want to learn scales. I was definitely the same way when I started, very obsessive with the theory and involved in jazz, and I think that if you have been training your brain to approach the piano a certain way your whole life, you shouldn't try to change it now. I agree with OnaZ on his book choices, and you should start picking up your modes, but don't worry about them a whole lot, they are not the end-all-be-all of jazz music. Modes are just a tool you can use to achieve a desired sound or color. If you understand the way you find modes (different configurations of a major scale) then you don't need to spend hours and hours drilling them into your head. I think you'll find that once you start playing jazz and picking up tunes, etc, the modes and bebop scales will kind of fall into place.

More than anything, I suggest you find a teacher! And a good one! One that plays jazz primarily. I would suggest contacting a university nearby and see if you can get connected with some people in your area for lessons.

So! If I had to go back in time and give myself some advice to how to really pick up jazz it would probably go something like this:

1. Listen to Jazz:
   
   Only recently has jazz become something that you can learn in a school/university. Throughout the majority of jazz history, jazz was learned by people listening to jazz musicians. It is, more than anything, aural tradition. Find jazz that you enjoy, not just stuff that people say you should like (although you are going to have to listen and learn to appreciate some albums you may not care for). Definitely check out An Introduction to Jazz Piano (Although it leaves out my main man Red Garland:( )
   
   
2. Transcribe:
   
   Start picking up licks and riffs from your favorite players. Just steal them. The first step to becoming a good jazz musician is emulation. You don't have to transcribe whole solos (although this is ideal) you can just grab parts of them and learn some riffs here and there. Blatantly rip off the greats and start building up a bag of tricks. If you are already a little comfortable with some blues scales, I would highly suggest maybe doing a few transcriptions of Horace Silver. He is a great guy to start on and his timing/feel is impeccable. He plays a lot of blues that you check out on youtube or grooveshark.
   
   Listening and transcribing are going to probably be the most helpful, I find that a lot of players (especially guys coming out of classical into jazz) have more trouble with the rhythm and timing of jazz, and not the scales or notes. Honestly, I like to make the argument that rhythm is superior to harmony/melody in jazz (but that's just my opinion). The Jazz Theory Book is a great place to start. I would definitely recommend picking that up, although it is cheaper than a teacher, it definitely will not replace a good one!
   
   Wow, that is a pretty intimidating wall of text (sorry about that)! I tried to edit it down as much as possible, I could talk about this stuff all day. Although jazz can seem very intimidating at times, don't get frustrated! Your classical chops will really help you out. I really hope you find this music to your liking, I think it is the best stuff around. Good luck!!
   

I responded to your post in /r/luthier about buying tools. From what i remember you have access to the school wood shop but for limited amounts of time. I’m going to try and take you through some of the major steps in building a guitar and what tools you could use.

1. Dimensioning- taking rough lumber to surfaced. Three options are buying presurfaced, using a jointer and planer, or using hand planes. For this step I would go with buying rough lumber and using the jointer and planer at school to surface the wood to size. Presurface lumber would be my second option. It would save you time but be more expensive. While I love hand planes I feel like for buliding a guitar your money could be better spent elsewhere.
   
2. Laminating- both the body and neck. Wide boards are more expensive so the body you would probably end up laminating. The neck might also be as well depending on your preference. Get some clamps(you’ll need them) and do the glue up on your own. Just make sure you have enough.
   
3. Cutting out the body- options are band saw, router with template, jigsaw, or turning saw. If it were me I would make a template at school then roughly cut out the shape on a band saw at school I would then buy a router and flush trim bit to get the guitar to the exact shape at home. You could do it with just the band saw or jig saw if you are careful. Frame saws are great but will cost more than a jig saw.
   
4. Routing pick-up cavities- like the step suggests a router is best for this. If you get a router make sure it has a plundge base. This is also best done with a template to get exactly what you want. You can do this step with chisels which might be cheaper but as the next step will show you should probably get a router.
   
5. Routing the neck pocket- This step should really be done with a router. It will give you the most precise cut and you dont want to mess up the neck angle because then you will have issues with the action. Chisles could be used but I still don’t trust myself with chisles enough to do that.
   
6. Shaping the neck- here is where hand tools shine. Either spokeshave, rasps or both. finish with sand paper.
   
7. Headstock- it is a bit more difficult to tell tools without knowing if you want a fender style vs gibson. You could do any of the shaping with a coping saw though. For the tuners it would be best to drill the holes with a drill press. Brace and bit could be used if care is taken.
   
8. Shaping the body. There are some options for the body’s edge i.e. round over, binding ect. but if you want any countour for the arm or belly it will be spoke shave and or rasp again.
   
9. Finger board inlay- drill press, hand drill, or brace for round. Chisles for trapezoids
   
10. Fretting- Quality back saw would be your best bet. Making a jig for accuracy would help.
    
    Alright this isn’t a comprehensive list but I’m running out of steam. And some of these are out of order I was too lazy to fix it. As you can see a router would do a lot for you. I know you were thinking of hand tools only but if you could find a way to make the router work it would be the best bang for your buck. I recommend reading this book and figuing out what tools you can buy and use in your situation. There are also look at stuff on Youtube to get ideas.

1. Depending on where you live, you might be able to get through the early stages of your drumming life without a kit (acoustic or otherwise) at all. Try and see if there is any place near you where you can rent a kit for an hour. If you live in a moderately-sized city this shouldn't be hard.
   
   If you can find a place, this is a great option because it is a low cost, low risk (like you said, what if you learn drums aren't for you and lose motivation - you don't want to be stuck with a bunch of expensive drum stuff) way to play on a decent kit. This is what I did for a long time before buying my first kit.
   
   If you can't find a place or if you're insistent on buying you're own, I would look for a cheap used starter kit (high hats, snare drum, bass drum, maybe one tom, and a cymbal - should be able to get a decent kit for <$200) on craigslist or your local music store. I would not recommend a new kit, those will be significantly more expensive and you won't really even know what you're looking for in a kit anyway. I'm not personally a fan of electronic kits, but if you want to, try one out at a music store and if you'd like to learn drums that way, by all means do so.
   
   
2. Rudiments! Rudiments! Rudiments!. The links on the sidebar should help you out too. Also, there are a few big books that all drummers have practiced with, the most important of which is probably Stick Control. There are other ones too but get this. Practice with it. It won't be the most exciting thing you do at your kit, but it will make you a lot, lot better. Trust me. (You don't actually need a kit to practice, buy a practice pad!)
   
   Even with all this, I would still recommend that you get a couple of lessons. Even if it's just 1 or 2 lessons, it will really help you a lot to have someone to help you get started. The first time you sit down at the kit will be the hardest, and having someone to talk to and converse with will do wonders. If you can't get lessons, it will be harder but certainly not impossible. Remember that it's only going to get easier as you play more, so don't get discouraged.
   
   
3. Sometimes it can get really frustrating, I'm not going to lie. Sometimes your brain tells your hands or feet to do something and for some unknown reason, your limbs don't comply. This happens a lot at the beginning and you will get better as long as you practice, even if it doesn't feel like you're getting better. Honestly, all those rudiments and books I mentioned above are great, and will help you get good fast, but for God's sake just sit down and play. Play to a song you like, play random noises, improvise, try to compose a song. Whatever. Just play. If drumming is for you you should be having fun by now. You should never get too frustrated because you should be having a lot of fun while playing. So that's that.

One important thing is to relax, and especially relax your fretting hand. If you've got the strings in a death claw, it's going to sound bad and you might eventually wind up with carpal tunnel.

Instead of trying to do hammer-ons right away, force yourself to go back to fundamentals. Set the metronome (you must have a metronome) to 40 beats per minute and play one finger per fret. Your fingers should fall immediately behind each fret. Whole notes, half notes, quarters, eighths triplets and 16ths...make sure you're playing in time with the clicks. Try to relax completely and use only the minimum amount of pressure it takes to sound each note without buzzing. The idea behind this exercise is to teach your muscle memory the exact amount of pressure you need to play a given note. Forcing yourself to play slow will give your muscles time to readjust in order to sound the notes accurately. Your fingers, wrists, body posture, etc. should be completely relaxed and comfortable throughout. If you start tensing up or feel pain or burning in your fingers, make yourself relax and loosen up.

Couple other popular hand exercises.

1. The Soft Touch. Play exactly as above, only leave your fingers on the frets until each finger is ready to move up to the next string. Example: you play index A on the E string, middle finger A#, ring finger B, pinkie B#, keeping each finger in fret position. Now leaving your mf, ring and pinkie down on those frets, pick up your index and move it to D on the A string. Then pick up your mf and move it to play D#, ring to E, pinkie to F and hold. Then continue up the D and G strings the same way. It might help to start higher up on the neck, like C on the E string. Throughout this exercise, the most important thing is that you relax your hand. There should be no pain, no strain, no bizarre wrist angles. Just smooth, slow, relaxed and locked in to the 40 bpm pulse.
   
   
2. The Spider. Purpose of this exercise is to learn independent control of index/ring fingers and middle/pinkie fingers. Play A on the E string with your index, then E on the A string with your ring finger. Then A# on the E with your middle, followed by F on the A string with your pinkie. Then switch up and hit B on the E string with your ring finger, followed by D on the A string with your index, then B# on the E with the pinkie and D# on the A with the middle. Alternating 1-3, 2-4 fingers the whole time. Practice that until it's comfortable (could take a few days), then play the same pattern skipping up to the D string, and finally all the way to the G string. The full spider pattern is played E string to A string, then E string to D string, then E string to G string, then back down E to D, finally back to E to A.
   
   For books, there's a big difference between a good one and a bad one. I can personally recommend Serious Electric Bass, Bass Logic, Bass Grooves, and Standing in the Shadows of Motown (this last book is less of a beginner's guide and more of a project you could spend a lifetime on: i.e. learning from the great James Jamerson). Also highly recommended is Ed Friedland's Building Walking Bass Lines. I also have and recommend The Bass Grimoire, but it is more a reference book for advanced scale and chord building, as opposed to a beginner's guide. Bass Guitar for Dummies is actually pretty good and comprehensive.
   
   And there are some good online resources as well: studybass.com is great and starts from a beginner level. Scott Devine is an amazing teacher especially with more advanced techniques, but also for fundamentals. Paul from How To Play Bass Dot Com just steps you through a bunch of popular rock & r&b tunes...not bad for picking up new songs, but it's far better to learn the theory & structure behind a song than just memorizing the finger patterns. MarloweDK is a great player with hundreds of videos, but he's highly advanced.
   
   Finally, musictheory.net has some great ear training exercises you can do any time, in addition to a wealth of info about basic theory that applies to all instruments.

Hey man, I'm kind of the in the same boat you are. By that, I mean
I used to play for about 7 years with lessons once a week, but I never really practiced much and put effort into it. At the beginning of this October, I started to take it up again and started playing every single day, making sure to do scales, play from Hanon, trill exercises, argpeggios, etc... and then moving on to playing my pieces. I play anywhere from an hour to seven hours a day depending on how I'm feeling instead of playing video games or watching tv and average about 3-4 hours a day. The last piece I had played before quitting a while back was Chopin's Nocturne Op.9 no.2, but it was an absolute wreck. I was able to completely refine it within the month of October and I moved onto other stuff. I tried tackling some Rachmaninov and Beethoven, but they were beyond my skill level for now so I decided to table them and I'm currently in the middle of refining Claire de Lune and taking another stab at Rachmaninov waltz I tabled. Claire de lune a fairly simple piece, at least technically, and if you've learned a basic George Winston song, it should be well-within reach. You might have fingering troubles with the chords and the key is a little hard to play in, but that's about it.

Practice your major and minor scales. They are a huge part of fundamentals that people overlook way too often. They help with fingerings and memorization of the keys on the piano.

buy a copy of this http://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446
it has a ton of exercises ranging from trill exercises, scale runs, arpeggios, chord trills, etc... Play a few of the first 10 exercises every day maybe 3-4 times and it's a great warm-up. It's immensely useful in building up your hand strength and stamina so doing it everyday is a must. Use a metronome while doing this because keeping tempo and not rushing/dragging will be very important. It also helps to monitor your progress as you get faster and faster. Play the exercises as fast as you can without messing up 3 times perfectly before moving onto the next tempo.

Break the piece into multiple chunks. They are pretty clear sections of the song so work on each section individually until you get each section down perfectly. Write down fingerings on tricky chords or runs so that you can remember them and not have to fumble around the next time you come across it. Take it nice and slow. Rushing it will only take more time in the end. I wouldn't worry too much about tempo and just worry about getting the notes right for now.

In the end though, getting a teacher is probably your best bet as they can give you more detailed instruction. What I said for you is if you're looking to pursue this without any instruction similar to what I'm doing right now. My goal by the end of this year is to be able to play Chopin Etude Op. 10 no. 4 by the end of this year practicing about 3 hours a day at least a tempo of 140 (I think I can do it). I currently am not taking lessons either, but I personally am not at the level yet where previous training hasn't covered me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIKdCTmcTLs
This is my goal for the end of the year if you're interested.

I think every theory book I've ever read has opened up my mind in some way - while always being unsatisfactory in other ways (incomplete, too dense, too little on some forms of music, etc). My experience and interest is largely in popular music of all kinds, less in classical, so that has biased my reading somewhat; but I can recommend all the following (not 100%, but worth reading):

Eric Taylor: The AB Guide to Music Theory, pts I and II - good review of the basics, aimed at pupils studying for grades. Not deep in any way but good if you're just starting out. Solidly classical, which could be a downside for some. The concepts up to grade 5 are shrunk to useful pocket size in [this] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Steps-Music-Theory-Grades/dp/1860960901/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466150641&sr=1-1&keywords=theory+of+music+grades+1-5) - 100% recommended for any absolute beginner.

George Heussenstamm : [Harmony and Theory, pts 1 & 2 (Hal Leonard)] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hal-Leonard-Harmony-Theory-Diatonic/dp/1423498879/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466150878&sr=1-2&keywords=Hal+Leonard+Harmony+%26+Theory) Usefully split into Diatonic and Chromatic. I've read a few texts on standard classical theory, and this is the most approachable, IMO.

William Russo: [Jazz Composition and Orchestration] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Composition-Orchestration-William-Russo/dp/0226732150/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151290&sr=1-1&keywords=russo+jazz+composition) Taught me more than I thought I wanted to know about counterpoint. Most of which I've now forgotten (not much call for it in the bands I played in...). But if you're not into big band jazz (at all), maybe not worth it.

William Russo: [Composing for the Jazz Orchestra] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Composing-Jazz-Orchestra-William-Russo-ebook/dp/B01EZ8OKQW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466149432&sr=1-1&keywords=william+russo) Neat little guide book on jazz arranging (NOT composition).

Mark Levine: [The Jazz Theory Book] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151006&sr=1-1&keywords=levine+jazz+theory) 50% recommended. Well written and presented, eye-opening in many ways, but beware - chord-scale theory! (controversial stuff, in ways he doesn't admit.)

Robert Rawlins and Nor Eddine Bahha: [Jazzology] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians/dp/0634086782/ref=pd_sim_14_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=41YkvVcCfEL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR120%2C160_&refRID=ZR730GKYPSZYA2THNXGT) The somewhat dry antidote to the above. 50% recommended. Should have been good, but somehow hard to read, easy to put down. Unlike Levine, no quotes from jazz standards or recordings - all music examples are written by the authors.

Dominic Pedler: [The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Songwriting-Secrets-%2522Beatles%2522-Dominic-Pedler/dp/0711981671/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151087&sr=1-1&keywords=pedler+beatles) Outlines the vast number of theoretical concepts that the fab four would be astonished to learn they employed. Includes a useful appendix on basic concepts of tonal harmony. If you like pop and rock (and theory) but don't like the Beatles, still worth reading.

But then if you like the Beatles AND theory... [Alan Pollack's site] (http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/awp-alphabet.shtml) is essential reading. (Pedler is deep, but doesn't examine EVERY song. Pollack is briefer, but does.

Allan F Moore: [Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Popular Song] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Means-Analysing-Interpreting-Recorded/dp/1409438023/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151140&sr=1-1&keywords=allan+moore+song+means) Does what it says in the title - and goes deep! (way beyond the plain old superficial harmony concepts peddled - sorry - by Pedler :-))

Walter Everett: [Rock's Tonal Systems] (http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.04.10.4/mto.04.10.4.w_everett.html) More stuff to raise the eyebrows of any rock musician. "Wow - we really do all that?"

Paul F Berliner: [Thinking in Jazz] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Jazz-Infinite-Improvisation-Ethnomusicology/dp/0226043819/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151218&sr=1-1&keywords=thinking+in+jazz) Not a music theory book in the usual sense, but discusses how jazz musicians think about improvisation.

> Say if I can't find a teacher right away, how would you say I should try striking that "balance" you talked about? Any resources you'd suggest for each element (technical/musical/theoretical)?

Technical and musical elements are quite difficult to advise on because they are quite individual. Some people are very expressive but aren't necessarily brilliantly technical players and some are brilliantly technical but make music that sounds like robots, and all shades in-between.

If you pushed me I would say that something like Yousician's free lessons will get you off the ground as far as basic technique is concerned. Their free service is perfectly adequate for a complete beginner.

As far as musicality goes that's more difficult to teach. Really you're looking to try and "feel" something while you're playing and it's not quite the same as feeling an emotion - you're trying to feel the flow of the music. I found it helpful when I was first learning to play along to a track and not worry too much about getting it right - just noodle around trying to get into the feel of the thing. Playing with other people helps here too.

As far as theory goes that's easier.

Standard theory (you can call it 'classical' theory if you like but it applies to pretty much any form of music except really early music and more modern experimental stuff):
The AB Guide to Music Theory Part I
Music Theory in Practice Book I

(As you'll see from the Amazon listings there are more books in the Music Theory in Practice series, and there's an AB Guide to Music Theory Part II as well).
Get someone who knows what they're talking about to check your answers!

Jazz theory:
The Jazz Theory Book

Songwriting:

Chord Progressions for Songwriters

Bear in mind that music theory is a bit like art theory in that it's largely descriptive rather than prescriptive - it describes common practice and therefore gives you some guidelines but it's quite possible to follow all the rules and still come up with something that's fucking dreadful. So when you're writing try not to get bogged down with "is it correct?" - just ask yourself "do I like it? does it sound good?".


> What would an ideal (or even okay) progress would look like according to you?

I would say classical guitar grade 1 within 1-2 years is normal progress. If you're ambitious then 6 months to 1 year.

the reviews aren't really wrong... it does have its flaws, but there isn't really another book that does it better. i've read quite a few harmony books and it is the most comprehensive basic harmony book that i've found. it's also pretty much the standard for college courses.

Tchaikovsky also wrote a book on harmony. It is good and very inexpensive, but very short. he writes extremely efficiently though, so there is really a lot of info in such a small book, but obviously not as much as Tonal Harmony. It's also older than Tonal Harmony, so some more modern ideas are not included. That said, it's a great way to quickly learn a lot, and at the price it's really a no-brainer. It doesn't have exercises or lots of examples... just good info.

Also, I should mention that all these harmony books teach using the classical tradition of placing heavy emphasis on voice leading. If you are, for example a guitarist writing pop and rock songs, you may not see how the information will be relevant to what you do, but I would encourage you to go ahead and read through it, as it will make your writing better, and give you a more complete understanding of music. Also, there isn't really a good basic harmony book that doesn't teach this way.

Also, if you are interested in Jazz Harmony there is absolutely no better book than this one.

• Drum lessons or stay at home learning from me and a resource?
  
  I definitely recommend drum lessons if you can. Especially since you have no real knowledge of drumming, this will help immensely. Someone to tell him "No, hold the stick like this" will help in the long run and save him from making habits out of bad technique. This doesn't mean that he can't learn by himself, it just means he will learn quicker, and hopefully have good technique.
  
  
• If we go for drum lessons, is there a text book he'd learn from so there'd be daily practice homework? If it's learn at home from us, what book?
  
  Yes. As soon as he starts lessons I'm sure the teacher will recommend a few good books. They aren't really textbooks, though, as much as drumming exercises. I don't know a whole lot about different books, but I have heard good things about Stick Control for the Snare Drummer. Other than that, any basic rudiments book will be fine something like this.
  
  
  
• Drum pad and sticks or hand drums? Or both?
  
  Interesting question. I'm not really sure how to answer this. Does he want to play hand drums or a drumset? I know when I first started I thought hand drums were dumb (My only experience was playing a djembe in a drum circle in 6th grade music class with a bunch of rhythmically challenged idiots). There was something about all the drums and cymbals put together that just made it so powerful and awesome to me. I'd say whatever he likes to play, let him play. If he falls in love with the bongos, so be it.
  
  
• We're moving into a house in 4 months... adult drum kit or kid size stuff? I know there's stuff marketed to kids online, should I stick with the adult size stuff?
  
  This is a tough one too. I've never really messed with kid's drums, but I'd say take him to guitar center and let him play the full size kits. If he can play it comfortably and is able to hit all the cymbals with a little adjusting, I'd say get a full size kit. I just wouldn't be a fan of getting a kid's kit that he'll grow out of in a couple years. If you have the extra cash, though, it'd probably be more beneficial to get the kid size drumset.

My two cents:

• Electric - a cheap electric is far easier to play than a cheap acoustic. While it will be important to build callouses and finger strength (both of which are facilitated by playing an acoustic steel string), I feel it is far more important for you to enjoy playing and make some initial progress. If you can get some momentum in learning/playing, then you can start worrying about strength, endurance, etc. If you give up after 3 months b/c your hands hurt and you haven't made any progress (b/c it hurts to practice), strength, endurance, and everything else is moot. However, if you really want to play acoustic, consider starting with a nylon-string (classical) guitar.
  
  
• I would look for a used electric, probably something like a Mexican-made Fender or a lower-end asian-made guitar (Ibanez, Jackson, Schecter). Many folks like the Epiphone entry-level models... I haven't played one so I can't say.
  
  
• As I said above, electric is more likely to get you quickly to the point of playing something interesting and enjoying it.
  
  
• In my experience, most guitarists do not read music. (Many have only a superficial understanding of theory and some don't even know scales or chords by name). Significant portion of those that do read cannot sight-read (self included). Anyway... it's perfectly reasonable to learn to read while learning to play. Barring that, tablature is widely available and very popular. Well-made tab is useful and often will include rhythmic information.
  
  
• Get started by learning some riffs and songs you like. Also, learning something like the 12-bar blues will let you start playing with friends and that can greatly enhance your enjoyment and learning.
  
  
• Being self-taught is fine. Many guitarists never take lessons. I personally have benefited a lot from taking private lessons. However, practicing and playing new stuff will get you a long way. I recommend getting a good book to use as reference. The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer is a personal favorite.
  
  Have fun and good luck!

In addition to learning songs you like, rudiments are always a good foundation. I've never used Stick Control, but I like these (free) resources:

http://vicfirth.com/40-essential-rudiments/

http://www.snarescience.com/index.php

All good hand exercises, some of them (singles, doubles, paradiddles) are good for your feet as well, although I wouldn't bother doing flams and drags with your feet. Also splitting rudiments between a hand and a foot is good, as is playing rudiments with two limbs and having your other two limbs play a repeating pattern underneath (ostinato).

If, as you say, you "listen to really heavy music, super fast drums" and you wish to be able to keep up, you're certainly going to want to get your single stroke rolls (hands and feet) pretty fast.

Edit: And make sure to use a metronome, especially when you are first starting out.

2nd Edit: I suggest buying a double pedal sooner rather than later if you like / plan to play music that uses a lot of double bass, even though most people on this forum will probably tell you otherwise.

3rd Edit: Every drummer's technique can look a little different and still be "good" (at least imo), but I think this is a good video on hand technique. As are these.

I know it's a contentious group of pieces, but I've had incredible luck with Hanon. If you can read music and play hands together, I highly recommend it.

I took lessons for 13 years, but since I've been in college I've been self teaching. I've always really loved piano and I have decent technique, but I never really learned things in a way that wasn't sloppy. I decided I wanted to change that, and I sat down and learned all 3 parts of Hanon exactly as instructed in the book. It's not a perfect method, but I play through it every day now and honestly my technique is miles beyond what it used to be. I wish I had learned as a beginner so badly it hurts.

So my suggestion to you is this: buy this book (http://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414561983&sr=1-1&keywords=hanon), play through it every day (no matter how boring it may get) exactly as instructed. It takes a little under an hour to play the whole book at tempo, and I imagine you'll be preoccupied learning all of the etudes for quite a while.

I'm a firm believer that we can all craft ourselves into excellent pianists, and all I think you need to do that is repertoire and a will to practice and make a sound that you like. Once you have the technique from the Hanon down, you can get started on any number of pieces. Another very good method is Bela Bartok's Mikrokosmos, which my mean, Hungarian teacher made me slave away at for years. It comes in 6 volumes, the first of which is (http://www.amazon.com/Mikrokosmos-Pink-English-French-Hungarian/dp/1423493044/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414562208&sr=1-1&keywords=mikrokosmos).

If you were to learn a significant amount of the material from either of those methods, you would be a significantly better pianist. If classical piano isn't necessarily the route you want to go, you'll still be well served by either/or.

The most important thing is to play whenever the urge strikes you, in my experience. It becomes a bit of an addiction, but there's such a huge world of piano music out there that you'll never grow bored with it, and you'll certainly never run out of things to do. Best of luck.

When I was first starting out, way back in the last century, there were few places to go to learn this type of thing. And those that had the knowledge were usually less then excited at the thought of sharing their knowledge with you, so that you could become their competition.

But times have changed, and we have this Internet thing, and everybody is sharing everything. Maybe it isn't the Info Age, as much as it is the Era of Sharing, and sharing means a lot of crappy stuff gets thrown in the mix.

So choose your trusted sources carefully, and see who their trusted sources are.

For a good primer in guitar electronics, I recommend reading this book. It's dated, but it's basic info is good, and it's free to read in your browser (takes some time to load):

https://www.scribd.com/doc/2154081/Craig-Anderton-Guitar-Electronics-for-Musicians

I'm anticipating another book on guitar electronics from a source who's previous work I like:

https://hazeguitars.com/completeguitarwiring

This is a good video to understand shock hazards associated with play the electric guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS_5K5YEYv8&feature=youtu.be

When it comes to other aspects of guitar adjustment, Dan Erlewine has been the go-to source for decades. His books on guitar repair and maintenance are the gold standard. This first book I've linked is more for the guitar repair professional, and might be a bit much. But the second book I've linked should be must-reading for anyone curious about adjusting their guitar to play it's best:

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-3rd/dp/0879309210

https://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Electric-Guitar-Great/dp/0879309989

Although I haven't actually read any of the books by John Carruthers, I studied under him and on the basis of that experience I would recommend anything he's involved in:

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/books-sheet-music-media/alfred-teach-yourself-guitar-repair-and-maintenance-book?src=3soswxxa

There are a bunch of John Carruther's videos on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9C05D39374BFA9B1

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB7631EF18F62E16D

I like this book because it's illustrated so well:

https://www.amazon.com/Players-Guide-Guitar-Maintenance/dp/0879305495

Dan Erlewine is a consultant at the guitar tools and supplies seller Stewart-MacDonald. They are a good resource for not just tools and supplies, but they have educational videos, some of which you can get via email, and some of which can be seen on YouTube:

https://www.stewmac.com/

Many of the boutique pickup makers have blogs on their sites, where they talk about pickup design and characteristics.

Just learning good practices on installing strings on various types of guitars is an important starting place:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfK8lQZaq_8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW0d9bBzUao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvTFtHLOQvk

And if you can master the secrets of floating tremolo set-up, you can impress your friends and strike fear into the heart of your enemies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYcGmMJnX0M&feature=youtu.be&t=213

There are so many more good sources, but that should give you a start.

My best advice for you is to find a project for focusing your improvement. It's fun to be able to jam in different styles and settings, and it's a worthy long-term goal, but it's impossible to tackle so many things at once. Find a band to start/join, doing covers or originals. Or find some people to jam with every week. Or take lessons. If you can find a good teacher, lessons will be the best thing for you. Even if you can learn a ton on your own, you'll always have questions along the way that are best answered in person by a master player.

Once you find that project to focus on, center your learning around it. Figure out what theory will be useful. (I second smackhead's endorsement of musictheory.net. Also, Music Theory for Guitarists is a great theory book.)

Learn songs by ear as much as possible. It improves your ears, fingers, and mind. Even if you forget how to play it later, you'll improve through the process, and have that extra experience with you. Imagine learning 1000 new songs in the next year. You'll develop the ability to hear a song in your head and know how to play it, so that you'll never have to remember how the tabs go.

And for some serious motivation, check out some articles on my guitar blogs: From the Woodshed and Deft Digits. Good luck!

> Is taking on a drum student and saying something like "This means I need to learn to play kit!" really fair to the student?

Maybe not... but I've played kit before in bands (when the drummer takes a break from his throne for a pit stop at the porcelain throne...) and always been complimented on my timing. I just don't have the rudiments across different drums, so I feel like I should learn that. I've no aspirations to become a percussion instructor or put it on my business card, but it is music, and that one has always been on my card :-)

___

 

> How you teach little techniques (holding the stick, hitting cymbals, foot technique) will affect the student for the rest of their playing career.

Yes, and I've seen people learn technique on a variety of instruments that hindered their playing forever. Even (especially?) if they learned from a teacher with a music-ed degree. Seems that's always a risk, particularly when people don't shop around for teachers. But I totally get where you're coming from, esp as a trained musician yourself. I will say a couple of things to that, and I will avoid being defensive. If any of this reads as such, try to find a different voice in it.

First, even to my cello students, I don't just teach cello; I teach music, and I tell them this. For other students I teach music, theory, and composition. For this student, I told his parents that I'm not a kit drummer, but I can teach him music; and if he can play music, he can play music on drums [insert list of self-taught drummers here?]. I have experience with hand percussion (professional, if you count using a cello as a cajon... ¡kek!), but I don't call myself a percussionist or drum teacher. I do say I have a drum student, though, which gets a laugh from some colleagues. I've coached for other instruments and ensembles, all the way up to conservatory level especially for audition prep. I wish I auditioned for Curtis and Julliard when I was a teenager, but no, I had to feel cool and go to Berklee instead. (Big mistake; hindsight is 20/20, right?)

Secondly, this student was taking lessons with a teacher at a store last year and quit. His parents encouraged him to try a different teacher and I'm working on getting him excited about music. I can't force anyone to learn who doesn't want to... but I can show him good music, watch his reaction to find what music actually moves him, then get him to stop "practicing" and start "playing!" I always say that doctors practice for a living; musicians get to play :-) When he started with me he brought Stick Control: For the Snare Drummer and explained why he hated it. Fair. I hate it too! So we work on other stuff. Should I teach him traditional grip or match? French grip? Open handed instead of cross? Open handed traditional so the right hand holds the stick underhanded?? I'm gonna find what works best for me and teach him that way. Gotta be careful because I'm ambidextrous & do some things left handed (golf, soccer, snow and skateboard goofy-footed, use tools in either hand, etc). More likely I'll find a way that works for him and teach him that way. He'll be self-taught with a coach. Does that sit any better with you? ^(this isn't personal, but I genuinely appreciate this feedback, it's useful self-reflection!)

YouTube lessons can be helpful, but almost certainly never as helpful as an instructor. YouTube lessons can't see you making mistakes and can't correct them. You can't talk to YouTube lessons. They're alright for beginners but I would definitely recommend getting some one-on-one advice, even from people who aren't professional teachers.
There's this amazing book called Stick Control: For the Snare Drummer (https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040 ) and it's full of great practice exercises that can help both you and your son. It's not a full kit book, but it's meant to strengthen your sense of rhythm and technique, and can help with speed aswell if you use a metronome. If you don't want to buy the book, I'm sure there's a .pdf somewhere, but the book is always better in my opinion.
Don't waste your money on Drumeo and Drumeo Edge. The whole Drumeo program is basically watching somebody else play drums and trying to mimic it. I can't speak for other online drum lesson services as I don't have much experience with them.
Find some music you like on YouTube, and use the speed feature to slow it down and really listen to what the drummer is playing. You can start slow and break it down and slowly increase the speed until you're playing it just as fast as the drummer in the song. It's a great way to teach yourself how to learn songs.
Learning drums takes a lot of patience (and can be quite expensive!) so I'd advise you to take great care in how you hit your drums. Drumsticks aren't very expensive and neither are drum heads, but when you're nailing them so hard you break one a day, it adds up quickly. Same goes for cymbals, but those are quite expensive aswell.
When you buy the second kit, I'd advise you to invest in a mid-range kit, not too great, but not garbage either. When you listen to songs and then your drums sound crappy, it's quite discourage. Get some mid-range cymbals as well, Paiste offers some pretty good beginner's cymbals.

Coordination and timing are big obstacles to overcome, but the more you play, the more naturally it comes. I never took lessons until I could get college credit for them (roughly 5 years after I started playing), and most of that was so I could learn to read music and maybe pick up on a few things. The biggest help for me was the fact that I could learn by ear, so if I heard it enough and tried it enough, I could figure out pretty much any song I wanted to play.

I would definitely invest in Stick Control, even if you can't read music. It's easy enough to read and it's really helpful in breaking habits when you have to think about what hand you're supposed to be striking with.

Really, the most important thing is just keep playing. Tap along to the radio. Tap along to everything. The more you play, the faster you'll break yourself from coordination/timing issues and the better you'll be. /u/crabjuice23 suggested trying different genres of music. I 100% agree. Play along to anything you can. If you hear something you like but can't quite stick it, slow it down in your head and keep playing it until it's comfortable and you'll have it full speed at no time. Patience is huge.

keep it up dude! Seeing as you are a young drummer, I want to offer some advice for you to improve. You seem to lose some stick control throughout the song . I would highly recommend you work on improving your technique by going through books such as Stick Control for the Modern Drummer. You can use this as a warm up and play like 4 lines perfectly multiple times or something similar. This book is only a suggestion, there are many ways to improve technique. You just have to make a conscious effort to work on it. A good mixture of practice vs playing will keep you engaged and feel great about improving at the same time.

When I was your age, I spent a lot of time focusing on different patterns and independence and didn't really work on technique until a bit later, and I can say from experience that even though I was practicing a lot, I wasn't practicing near max efficiency because I didn't make technique a priority early on. Working on your rudiments and having great technique makes basically anything easier to learn and makes it sound 1000 times better.

I hope you find this helpful. I use to teach mainly beginners and intermediate players and if you ever want some advice or guidance feel free to shoot me a pm. Keep drumming!

edit- I looked through some of your other videos. I think your stick control was a lot better in some of them. You definitely have talent and I hope you keep at it and keep improving!

Hi there!

I'd say that an important first step is plenty of research on the principles of guitar building, so that you have a good understanding of what you are trying to achieve before you start designing or building:

There are some excellent books on the subject, and also many resources on YouTube where you can watch the pro's at work and see how it's done....

Having some woodwork experience is a good starting point, and having the right tools for the job definitely helps, but many people have managed to achieve a first build on their kitchen table with just the basics....

Do you have an idea of what type of guitar you would like to build? I'm assuming a solid-body electric of some kind, which is somewhat more straightforward than say an acoustic guitar....

It's a good idea to base your first guitar on something which already exists, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel (some time spent trying out as many guitars as possible down at the local guitar store is always fun, until they get heartily sick of you!)....

Another good learning strategy is to acquire a couple of secondhand cheapo guitars to tinker with and take apart etc, without fear of ruining a decent instrument (also good for practice at soldering and wiring pickups, pots etc)...

You might also bear in mind that a kit guitar, or buying in components like a factory-made neck, or pre-slotted fretboard etc, can be a great starting point, and considerably less daunting than trying to make absolutely everything from scratch for a first-timer!

Nobody's first guitar is ever 'perfect' I'd say, so aim for something relatively simple and execute it really well, then save that triple-necked guitar with eighteen pickups and loads of exotic hardwoods you've always dreamed of (lol) for a future build, once you have mastered the basic skills... :>)>

Hope that helps.

PS - ask loads of questions as you go along, if something crops up that you are not sure of... that's what we're here for!

Best wishes,

Woody

Mark Levine's excellent The Jazz Theory Book includes a great list of mandatory repertoire at the end of the book, which I've edited down considerably to this list based on my experience in jam sessions and gigs. For a full-time working jazz musician though, there are many, many more essentials that I'm sure I'm missing. Also, I've tried to omit tunes already mentioned.

I've noted (Alternate Titles) in parentheses and [parent tunes with the same changes] in square brackets.

The tunes:
Ain't Misbehavin', All Blues [3/4 blues], All of Me, All of You, Alone Together, Autumn in New York, Beautiful Love, Billie's Bounce, Black Orpheus (Manha de Carnaval), Blue Bossa, Blues for Alice [Parker blues], Bluesette [3/4 parker blues], Cantaloupe Island, Caravan, Ceora, Chelsea Bridge, Cherokee, Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars), Darn That Dream, Days of Wine and Roses, Desafinado, Dolphin Dance, Donna Lee [Indiana], Doxy, Embraceable You, Footprints [3/4 minor blues, sort of], Four, Georgia on My Mind, Giant Steps, God Bless The Child, Green Dolphin Street, Have You Met Miss Jones, How Deep Is The Ocean, I'll Remember April, In A Mellow Tone, Invitation, In Walked Bud [Blue Skies], In Your Own Sweet Way, I Remember You, Israel [minor blues], It Could Happen To You, It Don't Mean A Thing, Joy Spring, Just Friends, Limehouse Blues [not actually a blues!], Lover Man, Maiden Voyage, Milestones, Misty, Moanin', Moonlight in Vermont, My Favorite Things, My Foolish Heart, My Funny Valentine, My Heart Stood Still, My Little Suede Shoes, My One and Only Love, My Romance, Night And Day, Now's The Time [blues], Oleo [rhythm changes], One Note Samba, Out Of Nowhere, Over The Rainbow, Poinciana, Recordame, Rhythm-A-Ning [rhythm changes], Ruby My Dear, St. Thomas, Satin Doll, Scrapple From The Apple [Honeysuckle Rose], Skylark, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, Someday My Prince Will Come, Song For My Father, Sonnymoon For Two [blues], So What, Stardust, Stompin' At The Savoy, Sugar, Summertime, There Is No Greater Love, There Will Never Be Another You, Tune Up, Wave, The Way You Look Tonight, Well You Needn't, When Sunny Gets Blue, Whisper Not, Without A Song, Yardbird Suite, Yesterdays.

www.guitarzoom.com. Look for the course "Music Theory for Life". It's a 12 week online course by Steve Steine. Very good. You can also find many of his videos online that talk about music theory in shorter form but still more than enough to get you started. Here's a good series to follow by him: https://www.lessonface.com/absolute-fretboard-mastery-steve-stine

The other thing that really helps is playing every day. This really helped me get through solos that previously I never even attempted to play because i thought I would never be able to. I use an app on my phone called "habit" to track that. I mark every day I play and end up with a streak. I never want to break that streak so I play every day. I started with a wall calendar where I crossed off the days. After a while, you have a nice long line of days and you will feel really bad breaking that line.

Now comes the question of: "Ok... I can play everyday, but what should I play?" I had that issue. So I went ahead and bought this book: http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-One-lick-per-day-Developing-Maintaining/dp/1423414357/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462400123&sr=8-1&keywords=guitar+aerobics

This book is basically a year's worth of every day licks to play and practice. Priceless. It will give you something to do every day by default. No thinking required. It starts off easy and builds up. It will teach you usable licks straight away from different music styles. It will also teach you how to play in time since you should be using a metronome (or the drum tracks they provide).

I use the book when I am not in the mood to practice a song I am working on that day. I make sure I am playing some "challenging" song since it's fun to end up with a song you've been wanting to play. I give it time... no hurry. I've been having fun learning "Hangar 18" for like 2+ weeks now. I am taking it slow and making sure I am not rushing through parts.

Good luck!

Piano teacher for 5 years here. This is more or less a directly copy and paste from a previous comment of mine.

Obviously, I'm going to recommend you find a teacher as soon as is possible if you really want to advance. BUT there are a lot of things you can do on your own to learn effectively.

• First, do not practice to the point of frustration. This may sound odd, but 20-30 minutes spend at the piano at the same time each day is much more effective then an hours on end. It more about building up patterns of behavior that are conducive to learning. Set a pattern that you follow every day and be sure to set aside extra time to experience more piano music. Listen to jazz, classical, pop, broadway, film scores, anything that is mostly piano and is recorded by a professional. This ear training will be much more valuable then hours at the keyboard.
  
  
• Secondly, aim a little lower at first. There are tons of method books out there and all of them have value. At this point in your education note reading and ear training are the most important to focus on. Get books that you can easily understand (even if they are children's books!) and read, read, read! the more you read, the better you'll get! Think of how you learned to read when you where a child. At first everyone reads small books with three or four letter words and they read a hundred of them. Then they move on to pop-up books and read hundreds of those. Then short stories, also in the hundreds. This processes is not up for debate, it's how we learn. Apply that to you piano study! The pieces you have already learned are great but have obviously left a few holes to fill in your education. Don't be discouraged, it takes years to become proficient at music reading but you can do it if you put in the effort!
  
  
• Third and finally, learn your scales. There are a few books used by almost all piano teachers to teach basic technique and dexterity. I like to use Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises and start with #32, 33, and 34. Then move on to #39, which is all the major and minor scales. I start my kids on this after a year or two, and my adult students as soon as possible. You will also benefit greatly from learning the fist twenty or so. Those focus solely on the practical study of hand coordination and dexterity, rather then the more theoretical study of major and minor keys. Another is Czerny: Art of Finger Dexterity for the Piano. There are also few others I'm not super familiar with. I would NOT recommend the Czerny without a teacher! that book is an asskicker and could seriously hurt your wrist/forearm without proper guidance.
  
  I hope this helps a little. Remember that you have just started and you have to crawl before you can walk. Take it easy and make sure you understand everything before moving on to the next step. Good luck and have fun!!

Whoa, I started with those exact 3 songs when I started learning the piano almost 10 years ago! Anyway, I suggest you start with this book to learn some fundamental music theory. I like this book because it has multiple scales and lists the chords and arpeggios for each key signature and goes through the circle of 5ths. You don't necessarily have to go through this book in order, just make sure you follow the fingering patterns carefully and play the scales, chord progressions and arpeggios slowly so you can internalize them and familiarize yourself with the layout of the keyboard.

If you'd like to become a proficient sight-reader (which I highly recommend, being good at sight-reading will help you in the long run), start practicing with reading some simple pieces. Go through the Alfred's book and see how well you can read through those pieces on the first run. If you feel like you need more sight-reading practice, the Mikrokosmos books will provide you with plenty of material to sight read. I also like this book of hymns. Remember, if you can't play it nearly perfectly (at least in terms of getting the notes right) on the first run, it probably means you should work on reading through that piece. So keep practicing!

If you have the money, you might be interested in investing in this series of books. Each level contains Baroque, Classical and Romantic pieces, as well as etudes and music theory, which really helps with building up a well-rounded foundation. But then again, the best use of your money would be ideally spent on a good teacher.

If you'd like a song at a similar level to what you're currently learning, I also learned this version of Canon, Ballade Pour Adeline, A Thousand Miles (because it's a fun piece and why not :)), and Summer by Joe Hisaishi during my early piano years.

But to be honest, I don't recommend learning any of the pieces I just listed above, because they will take you too long to learn. In the same amount of time you spend learning those songs, you could be progressing much faster if you focused on learning fundamentals and picked much easier pieces. And I mean pieces as simple as Minuet in G major and Minuet in G minor, maybe even simpler.

I feel obligated to write all of this since you're starting from a similar place that I was when I first began learning piano. Jumping into pieces that sound beautiful or amazing isn't the most efficient method of learning. Take this from me who went from being fixated on learning the entire Fur Elise → River Flows in You → Canon in D → Rondo Alla Turca and other songs wayyyyy beyond my level, to dropping all of it in and just starting from the very basics because I realized I sounded like utter ****, even if I could play the notes and it sounded fine to my family/friends who didn't play piano. I also wasn't making much progress in terms of learning, since each new piece would take me foreverrrr to actually learn. Building up your fundamentals is the way to go, because once you get to the level where you can actually play those beautiful pieces, the learning process will be so much faster. I know starting from the bottom and working your way up can be a slow and sometimes even tedious process, especially when you have to go through all these pieces that seem really easy or boring, but trust me, it will be worth it and far more rewarding in the end. :)

Since this post hasn't gotten any responses, I'll do my best

You've covered a TON of ground in one post, it comes of as a bit scattered, and therefore pretty hard to respond to, but I'll do my best.

>Are there any recommended books with or without accompaniment (I need recordings since he isn't here)? I bought this book, https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0769233775/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 .

I have no experience with that particular book. There's a frequently referenced book, Klose's 25 daily exercises for saxophone, that I'm fond of and is held in high regard. Also look on the sidebar on that top link for some ideas.

> I think that I've adopted a double lip embrouchre; when I try putting my teeth on the mouthpiece pads the vibrations sometimes kind of hurt my teeth.

Okay. Some people do better with that, I hear, just be sure that you are staying in tune with all your notes and that your tone is good across the range of the horn. I've always found that I sound best with the standard embouchure, and people I've played with tend to have the same experience, but there are people out there that do the double lip embouchure and sound good.

> So right now I'm trying the 2.5 orange box reeds on my Yamaha YAS62. I just recently bought Hemke 2 reeds because I wondered if it was the reed.
I also own a YAS-275 which is sharing this problem.

I'm assuming this is about your lip hurting. A common problem that this sounds related to could be that you are using too much pressure on the lower lip and pushing on the reed. A symptom of this is that your upper range will sound sharp and the lower range comparatively flat. If that's the case, push in your mouthpiece and try to use less pressure from your jaw on the reed.

> When I play the notes don't sound smooth they sound a little bit abrupt. They sound a little bit restricted like the notes are singular or alone with the other notes around. Am I playing too staccato?

I have no idea what you're saying. You could be dampening the reed by pressing on it with your lip like I've mentioned above. Without hearing your sound, I won't know. "playing too staccato" doesn't make sense to me. Typically, you're maintaining air pressure when you're playing, and staccato is tonguing in such a way as to stop your tone put space between your notes. Given that tonguing in such a way is deliberate, I don't think that you're doing that?

> I can play the C Major scale and it sounds fine legato. When I play the arpeggios it sounds really bad at the top going back down. I play the lowest C, E, G, C, E, G, C going up. The problem is going down from the C when you are pressing your middle finger with the octave key then transitioning to the G. It almost sounds like a little bit of vibration or it is going inbetween the notes. I tried looking up online and it says that I should increase the speed of my air stream. I did this and the problem largely went but was still slightly there. It just made this kind of fluctuation shorter and less obvious basically. I think this thread means what I mean: https://www.saxontheweb.net/SOTW_Archive/alto/08-04-02/boardset-saxweb-boardid-alto-thread-83-spec-4558793.html
Also I left it on the stand for like a month last year when I was thinking of getting back into it and my mum hit it off the stand a while ago which I was wondering if that would ever need to be checked again (the other suggested solution to the weird st I found online was taking it to a tech). I'm thinking that I'm just out of practice but I do remember the YAS-62 used to sound really good.

Work on your intervals. If you can hit the note just fine on a scale but you're having issues with arpeggios, then there's a couple of things that can go wrong. Things that could go wrong include:

• your fingers aren't closing all the tone holes at the same time. Try the problem interval with the notes completely separate, then start narrowing the space between the notes gradually, working on moving your fingers together.
  
  
• The sax's mechanisms might not be fully responsive, due to a sticky pad, weak spring, etc. If the step above did not resolve the issue, watch in a mirror to make sure that everything is moving right, and right away when you go between notes.
  
  
• It might be a voicing issue. Get the note in your head. Sing the note, make sure you know what notes you're going from and to. If you have the wrong (or no) note in your head, you may actually disrupt the primary pitch of the note you're playing and that can result in that "in between" sound.
  
  
• Also, keep an eye out for leaky pads. If you're not sealing right, it can cause an issue. You'd have problems with the scale though, too.
  
  > Also if I do have to take it to a tech, I'm in London what is the best value one (not priced, best value)? I really hope I'm just shit and I don't need to take it to a tech but tell me what you think thanks.
  
  Sorry, can't help here.
  
  
  > Also my mum is only paying for half of my lessons since she would only pay for every other week and I think that I probably should have weekly lessons. What is a fair price for lessons (I'm guessing half an hour)? I don't know if I could get a discount since I'm paying for half of it; is that a reasonable reason to ask for less?
  
  Respect the people that are trying to teach you. If you can't afford their rate, then either find someone else or explain that you can't afford their rate. Not sure how old you are, but if you're in middle or early high school, you might be able to get someone a few years ahead of you to give you lessons, and that should be somewhat cheaper.
  
  > Thanks for reading and getting back to me (if you do)
  Not sure if it is the reed hardness since I can play the low Bb and B okay.
  Edit: Oh wow the PDF links for the real book in the FAQ are actually legible Another dumb question, when sheet music has chords like Bb7 or whatever is that transposed? If someone was trying to play guitar accompaniment could they just play those chords?
  
  If the real book does not specify what key it is written in, it's likely C. You'll have to transpose the chord if you want to read it as a saxophone. For instance, a Bb7 would be played as a G7 on alto or a C7 on tenor. A guitar could just play them.
  
  > Also does the dent in the neck matter?
  
  Probably not if it's small. I'm assuming it's small because you didn't mention it till now.

> Obviously if I were to jump into a jazz improv session I couldn't say "wait everybody, tell me the exact order of the chords you're going to play and I'll memorize some scales to them really quick".

Exactly, this is how rock players tend to approach jazz and it's hopelessly difficult for most situations. Plus, even if you manage to do it you're unlikely to sound like a jazz musician. I wasted a fair bit of time trying to do this back in the day. Here's a clip of Hal Galper laying into this approach; incidentally, you should watch all his clips, they're great.

In particular, I wouldn't worry at all about "jazz theory". I'm not even convinced such a thing exists. I mean, if you want to you can work through a college textbook like Levine but it won't make you a jazz player. I think /u/awindupgirl is 100% right on this.

Echoing what others have already said I would say your first steps are:

• Start listening obsessively to jazz. Not jazz-rock, not avant garde, not recent stuff but bebop and similar stuff from the '40s & '50s. Include some vocal jazz (Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan etc) because you'll also need to...
  
• Start learning standard tunes. That means you can sing and play the melody and play the chords without looking at the lead sheet. I know everyone moans about them but get the Real Book and use that for now. This list is useful guidance. [EDIT: Also, lead sheets for most standards can be turned up by a Google image search.]
  
• It will help to learn some jazz chord grips, which tend to be different from what rock players use. This resource will get you started. When you go to a jazz jam, most of the time you'll be comping (playing chords) so this is a key skill.
  
• Slowly start attempting to solo on the changes to tunes you know using chord tones, like /u/beardling described. If you know your CAGED arpeggios from your rock days, that will help massively. When trying to solo, always keep the melody of the song in your head. You're playing the song, not noodling to a backing track.
  
• Also, start transcribing. That means picking a solo that's not too fast and complicated-sounding on a tune you already know, and listenign to it over and over with your guitar in your hand until you can play some of the phrases you hear. This takes a long time and is extremely frustrating. As with many things, the people who succeed are the ones who don't give up just because it seems impossible.
  
  Most of the time you spend on the above should be spent listening and playing, not book-learning.
  
  You'll probably find this page, and the whole rest of the site, useful. It's not everyone's thing but I'd also recommend checking out Kenny Werner [EDIT: link].
  
  Finally, good time is the single most important thing in jazz. Set the metronome to click on the 2 and 4 like Emily Remler tells you in the video in the sidebar and really nail your timing. You can play any note on any chord and make it work but if you're out of time nothing will sound good.

There are a lot of resources online - youtube etc, but I prefer books so when I decided to teach myself how to play around 2 and a half years ago I used Alfred's Adult all-in-one, progressive sight reading, and Easy classics to moderns.

Once I felt comfortable enough with sight reading, I just started buying whatever I liked. I also sit down and transcribe the music I like. Just got done learning this track from pride and prejudice, and it barely took a week to learn! It's so wonderful to see my fingers flying across the keys, I can't even describe it.

You might also like flowkey.

Good luck, and I'm sure you'll thank present you for starting - say 5 years from now, when you're sitting at your piano and feeling generally amazing after a particularly good improvisation :)

I make enough from guitar building and repair to be able to fund it as a hobby in itself. You're looking at a significant initial investment in tools, workspace, and marketing in a market that's pretty saturated with factory guitars and independent builders. I hope someday to build up a customer base large enough to make this a career, but until then I enjoy it as a hobby and an art that pays for itself. As an art, I'd suggest picking up a couple of books:

Guitar making tradition and technology and Make your own electric guitar.

Both of these will give you a great background on how to build an instrument. The links in the sidebar will be very helpful to you as well.

One thing that has been helpful to me is engaging in your local music community. I live in an area of the US with lots of churches and worship pastors that need their guitars worked on. I work on their guitars and every now and then do builds for them that meet the needs they're looking for. I don't know what your community looks like, but engaging with musicians where they're at and building up a report is the beginning to a self-sustaining hobby and hopefully will carry you to a business.

Best of luck to you!

Dan Erlewine's Guitar Player Repair Guide has been around for years and covers a lot of ground. I bought my copy when I was 16, over 20 years ago. The newest edition also comes with a DVD too. You can get it at StewMac here, although it's available from Amazon and most book sellers. No one book can cover every single little thing, but it's a good reference to keep around; I still check mine from time to time.

Anymore, it's easy to find most of this information freely available online. Someone already mentioned frets.com, which is an awesome site. There are tons of great Youtube channels too (Freddys Frets, StewMac, Crimson Custom Guitars, Sully Guitars, Dave's World of Fun Stuff, Blues Creek Guitars, O'Brien Guitars, and dozens more I can't remember offhand.) I think it's easier to learn certain things by watching videos, so I'd suggest picking one book as a main source, then look up videos for anything that's not entirely clear to you. I didn't have the benefit of Youtube or the internet when I started working on them, so take advantage of it!

I'd also recommend getting at least one book on building guitars, because it can give you quite a bit of insight about how different instruments are constructed. I've had Melvyn Hiscock's Make Your Own Electric Guitar for years too and it's a great book, but it's currently out of print. Keep an eye out for a used copy, or look into the ones that are currently available. StewMac has a good selection of books, but again you can find most of them from any book seller.

Finally, don't get too overwhelmed. Guitars are not particularly complicated things and it's not rocket science, even if it looks like it sometimes. There really aren't that many repairs that I'd consider too difficult for the average person, as long as you're willing to put in a little time to learn how to do them. Even refretting isn't that hard (although it's tedious and takes all friggin' day.) Learn how different types of guitars are built, because all a repair is is repeating a particular part of the build process to fix a problem. Watching "factory tour" videos on Youtube of various manufacturers can give you a surprising amount of information on how a particular builder tackles certain aspects of the instrument. There's almost always multiple ways to achieve a repair, it's just a matter of figuring out what works best for a particular instrument or situation or just how you prefer to work.

This is pretty good! It's impressive you were able to work that out by ear.

If you can learn to read sheet music, that will really help you out a great deal. If one issue you have is reading rhythms, you need to use a counting system. (The system I use is described in this PDF.) An excellent resource for reading rhythms is the book Rhythmic Training, which you can get inexpensively, especially if you buy it used. (Edit: note that this book is for professional/college level musicians, so if you can't get all the way through, that is completely OK. But going through the first few chapters slowly and steadily and clapping the rhythms is probably a good idea.)

For reading notes on clefs, you kind of just have to do it. It takes a lot of practice and will be slow going at first, but will get easier. One book for piano that includes both the very basics of music theory and some things on technique is Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Course. Maybe you could ask for Book 1 for Christmas, if you celebrate Christmas?

As far as technique goes, one thing I notice is that the index finger of your left hand is collapsing at the first knuckle (screenshot). That shouldn't happen. You might find this video (by piano professor John Mortensen) helpful on what your hand should look like when you play.

Good luck as you keep playing!

If you can spare the money I most definitely recommend finding a teacher. You will want to start with rudiments (they can be boring, but you'll be glad you did them in the long haul) and while you can pick them up from books, having a teacher giving feedback helps a lot. You don't have to stay with a teacher on the long-term, if you make it clear that you just want a solid base most teachers know what you mean and want.

If you don't have that money, these are three books I highly recommend to anybody who wants to play any percussion instrument:

http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764040/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

Description: This book is full of rudiments. Like ctrocks said: This book is evil. You will most likely both grow to hate and love it. Hate it for both how boring rudiments can get (to me, at least) and how hard they get. But love it for the results and seeing how all those rudiments advance your playing immensely. I suggest picking this up as soon as possible.



http://www.amazon.com/Accents-Rebounds-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764067/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343162586&sr=8-1&keywords=Accents+and+Rebounds

Description: The 'sequel' to Stick Control. This book adds accents and even more difficult rhythms. I would suggest picking this up at an intermediate level.

http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Steps-Syncopation-Modern-Drummer/dp/0882847953/ref=cm_lmf_tit_5

Description: Don't let this book fool you. It all starts out really simple. But this is one of those books that really lays down a foundation you will be very grateful for. And when you're getting to a more advanced level, you will see how you can translate a lot of these syncopated rhythms to the entire drumkit. I suggest picking this up as soon as possible.


http://www.amazon.com/4-Way-Coordination-Development-Complete-Independence/dp/0769233708/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c

Description: This book is very well named. You will want to grab this book after you got the basics down, imo. You want to work on the independence of your limbs as soon as possible, but not too soon. Yet again: rudiments. But now rudiments that require all limbs.


http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Techniques-For-Modern-Drummer/dp/0757995403

Description: We're starting to get into the bigger leagues with this book. I honestly don't quite know how to describe this book except for the word: challenging. Challenging in a very, very good way. I recommend picking this up once you're starting to get into a more advanced stage.


These books are for the basics, imo and in the opinion of many fellow drummers as far as I know. But don't forget: the books are merely tools. You don't want to be only playing rudiments, you'll go crazy. I tended to go for a trade: every half out of rudiments rewards me with a half our of putting on tracks and rocking out. Resulting in one-hour sessions a day. Hope this helps!

Edit: Feeling bored so added more books and descriptions.

A big thing is to not let your practice routine stagnate. Take it from a (tuba) performance major who learned most of his stuff without lessons. You need to keep fresh material under your fingers. Pick up the Jazz Theory Book and use some of the examples in there for scale and key studies.

Also, I would highly recommend studying classical rep as well, work ona new solo peice every month, and try to play (and work up) one etude (at least) every week.

You practice should look like this, in essence:

10-15min of warm-up with long tones (focusing on superb sound and tone at ALL dynamic ranges), and easy, finger warming chromatic scales and the like.

30min of etude practice (try to do a new one every week)

30min of solo rep/stuff from band you need to work on

whatever time is left to you doing scale studies and jazz improv.


As far as getting better at jazz, the biggest one I know of is simply transcribing solos of other players and playing them. It takes for FUCKING ever, but if you're serious, it's what you do. Since I only ever play Bass Trombone in jazz band, it's not really worth it to me, but if you're looking to get better at tenor, man, listen to some coltrane and write down what he's doing for at least one chorus and play it with him. You start to assimilate some of the licks he uses and get an innate understanding of how to navigate the chords. Start with blues based songs, since they're the easiest. Move up to rhythm changes when you have solid material for any blues song. After that, man, you'll be set.


ALSO, you can always google and find some great stuff written by other great players, either on forums or on professional player's personal websites. I learned alot of what I know doing that when I didn't have lessons.

If you have any questions, send me a PM and I'll do my best to help out.

1. If the reviews for that pad's good, then get it. I own a Billy Hyde drum pad and a Vic Firth drum pad. Both are good, but I prefer the Billy Hyde pad as it's less bouncy. However, when building stick control it's good to have some bounce.
   
   
2. The one practice pad is fine for now. When you practice, you can play seated and use your left foot (or both) to tap out pulses like you would a hi-hat. For example, tap out quarter notes with your left foot while your hands play eighth notes alternating.
   
   
3. For the Ted Reed book you should be fine for most of it. Another book you should (MUST) get is George Stone's Stick Control.
   
   
4. Ted Reed's book can be played using a practice pad and a drum kit.
   
   
5. Honestly, I'd get a private tutor right away then drop them later if needed. They'll help you save a lot of time with technique and direction. Starting a new instrument can be frustrating, so having some guidance is a huge benefit. Also they'll help prevent you from developing bad habits.
   
   
6. You can tap your feet while practicing seated. However, to learn foot technique you'll need a pedal. You can buy drum kits for cheap second hand online, which are fine for practicing. Check out kijiji. They may not sound like a professional kit, but they operate the same. I still practice on my old starter kit while I have my nicer stuff at my jam space.
   
   Hope this helps somewhat.

You need a method, not random bits of knowledge. You may use Justin's, or you may look for a book.

The secret here is structure, which is only provided by a method. Otherwise you'll always feel your knowledge is scattered all over the place and hence barely usable.

A good method should at least:

• give you tools for identifying the notes on the fretboard. I highly recommend this book, in addition to whatever method you choose.
  
• the CAGED system - essential knowledge. Once you master this, you'll easily be able to play: the chord, the arpeggio, the major scale and modes for each of these five shapes, anywhere on the fretboard.
  
• accent the role of the major scale (the Ionian mode of the diatonic scale), because if you know its shapes in all five (CAGED) positions, you already have the shapes for all other modes, and using modes becomes simply a question of choosing the respective harmony, not learning new shapes. Also, by simply removing certain notes from it, you automagically get the pentatonic scale. You get the idea, most common use scales and modes may be played using the major scale patterns.
  
• teach you intervals and how to build chords, which are simply intervals stacked on top of each other
  
• point out the use of arpeggios in soloing, as opposed to scale soloing only, this makes a world of difference if you want your solos to be interesting
  
• teach you rhythm and how to play in time, even (or perhaps especially) when soloing
  
  Once you have a structure, the Internet truly becomes an awesome resource, because now you can research the issue at hand with a better sense of purpose and more specifically.
  
  So don't fret, this isn't a stupid question, it actually shows you are ready and willing to progress, you'd be amazed how many people become dismissive at this stage, and think they've achieved mastery, because it's "all feel and talent, man," and don't even see how much there is to learn and improve.
  
  TL;DR: get a method by trying several, then stick to the one you choose.

I assume you've got an acoustic guitar :)

Start playing with the lightest strings you can buy, and increase their gauges only as your strength and stamina increase—technique comes first, speed, strength, and endurance later.

Instead of coming up with your own curriculum, you should buy a beginner's guitar book (e.g. Hal Leonard) and work through it over a few weeks. Once you've practiced the commonest picking and fretting techniques and you can coordinate your right and left hands properly, you should begin to learn the easiest guitar parts of your favorite songs. Use guitar tablature for this if you have to, but learning songs by ear is better (a program like Adobe Audition is perfect for this, btw).

As you learn songs, you should memorize the names of the chords you're playing. When not practicing your repertoire, you should learn to play the major and minor pentatonic scales and the seven modes of the major scale. You should also learn to read staff music and chord charts (e.g. learn which notes are in the chord Eb9(#11)). Play with an online metronome to improve your rhythm and to practice playing faster.

After that, you're probably ready to study Mick Goodrick's The Advancing Guitarist, which is the best guitar book ever written, IMO.

Here's my disclaimer: if you don't have access to a drum and at least one other person to practice playing clean with, you're already at a disadvantage. No pad feels exactly like a drum and when it comes down to the wire in an audition, what determines who makes the line is usually who can play clean consistently no matter where he is in the line.

Buy this:

http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764040

No matter where you want to march, it will be your ultimate tool. It will lay the foundation of your playing, and it will give you amazing facility on the drum. Play through all of it. Play through it at every dynamic. Play five lines and crescendo the whole thing. Do whatever you can to essentially turn the thing inside out on itself so that you get as much experience playing things your hands have never felt. The key here is repetition. You want to shed layers so that your hands become so refined that anything you're asked to play is practically second nature.

Once you've played through the entire book ten times, buy this:

http://www.amazon.com/Accents-Rebounds-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764067

Repetition, repetition, repetition. Variation, variation, variation. If something sounds disgusting, practice it until it's beautiful. You need to dedicate substantial time to practicing, and you need to always practice with a metronome. I advise against most phone metronomes, because they tend to be inconsistent. I recommend practicing for 90 minutes and then taking a 30 minute break. Practice consistently. Don't do eight hours one day and then take a week off. Two or three hours a day is ample practice time. You've got to be deliberate and take your practice time seriously if you want to make it. If you're unsure about whether or not you want to march, I'd advise against auditioning because the people who really want it are usually the ones who make the line.

Get on YouTube and check out some different lines from the past maybe three seasons. Listen to as many as you can and see which lines really pique your interest. Then get on Google and look for audition materials (either from past years or current materials). A lot of corps require you to buy their audition materials so if that's an issue for you, you could try another corps. Or you could step up your game, get back on YouTube, try to find some videos of the drumline warming up, and figure out their exercises on your own. Be wary though; that's a pretty significant undertaking.

My best advice is to take initiative, and to try harder than you want to. You'll have to do both of those things if you spend a summer with a corps anyway, so it's better to start now. Best of luck to you.

I started 2 years ago, @25yo. This is how I progressed.

Step 1: I picked up Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One and played out of it for about a month. At the end of that month I felt confident enough to play for my grandmother, who inspired me to begin. She encouraged me to go go no further without the instruction of a teacher

Step 2: Got myself a teacher. We began mostly with scales and exercises, then moved on to Keyboard Musician. This book is made up of smaller pieces ranging in difficulty, and incorporates some theory.

Step 3: Practice, practice, practice. I have been at it for two years. I try to practice on my lunch break on every business day, typically for 45 minuted to an hour. Which usually means I get 3-4 days of good practice in a week. Its not enough but I have been able to make progress, and am definitely glad I made the commitment.

I am now choosing bigger pieces to play, typically spending a month or two on each, but I always have 3-4 things going at once. Here are some examples of what I am currently playing or have played: example 1 (1st movement only), example 2 (not me playing ;) ), example 3

Of course you could be looking to go a different route. Many people learn to play by ear and skip the whole reading music part. Learning to read music has been one of the hardest parts for me. Anyway that you do it, just do it. Good luck to you.

Hey there! I'd like to consider myself a pretty experienced drummer, so hopefully I can be of some help to get you started.

If you aren't too familiar with reading music, I would highly recommend getting Syncopation for the Modern Drummer . It's a great starting book for reading music and familiarizing yourself with common snare & bass drum patterns that can be applied to the drum set.

If you want to learn more how to play the complete drum set, which I'm guessing you'd like to do, check out The Drumset Musician . It provides a basic intro to coordination and ability to use all your limbs separately. (One of my biggest struggles when starting out was forcing my hands and feet to not do the same thing at the same time on the drum set)

Other than those books, YouTube will definitely be your best friend, so don't be afraid to use it!

Best of luck to you, and I hope you end up enjoying the drums as much as I do!

When it comes to improving rhythm playing, as well as overall fretboard knowledge, I'd recommend diving deep into the CAGED system and learning how to play chords and progressions in different areas around the neck. Fretboard Logic is pretty much the classic book on the topic.

Learning to focus on chord tones while soloing/improvising, as u/pigz points out, is also massively important. The 12 bar progression is definitely a great place to start with this, but as you get comfortable with it, it's worth branching out and practicing the same thing over other common progressions.

Also, if you're pretty comfortable with the pentatonic shapes, it's probably a good idea to start practicing the shapes of the major scale. I'd still focus on the pentatonic stuff when you're practicing soloing and improv and stuff, but go over the major shapes as a separate part of your practice to start laying the groundwork.

Also, if you don't already, it's a tremendously good habit to sing along when you practice. I don't mean singing songs, rather when you practice scales and/or licks, try to sing the notes as you play the scale, or sing the lick before playing it. This will help you build a connection between the notes you hear in your head and where they are on the fretboard.

One thing I tried doing was learning every chord in every position and every inversion. I'm not done writing them up, but I have charts for dominant, major, minor, and half-diminished chords I could scan for you. I also have the arpeggios to be played over the chords.

Another thing is to learn are your scale modes. I'll pick either 4 modes in 1 position or 1 mode in 4 positions and practice each scale for 5 minutes.

You could improve your sight reading with this. It's not meant to be studied, but to be opened up to a random page and played.

I'm also a fan of speed and dexterity exercises. You don't have to shred, but sometimes you need to get from point A to point B in a hurry. After playing these for a while, you'll also feel less fatigue. My favorite books for this are John Petrucci's Wild Stringdom and Frank Gambale's Technique Books

Also, if you really get into jazz, I highly recommend The Jazz Theory Book. It will help with your improvisation and teach you how songs are structured, which will help you with other genres. A more classic theory book that's good is The Complete Musician.

After you get technique stuff down, it all comes down to where you want to be as a player. What do you want to play? Do you want to write? Do you want to do covers? Maybe you want to teach.

Sorry this was so long. I love teaching music myself, so if you want to learn anything specific, PM me and I should be able to help you out and send you some materials.

I have 2 books. One that nobody likes is by Melvyn Hiscock. Admittedly its a bit dated, but gives a pretty good idea of the principles of guitar design. It is not a woodworking book however, so it assumes you have some knowledge of woodworking techniques. I say nobody likes it because anytime its mentioned, someone will complain that they bought the book but couldn't build a guitar.

I have this booklet as well, and I also have his booklet on how to make a 5 string banjo. I think its pretty good as well.

Honestly though, there is enough information online about making guitars in this day and age, that I think you can do just as well by watching a bunch of videos and reading a bunch of online articles. Also, there are some really good people on this subreddit that can help answer questions in great detail.

Second the recommendation of scales and arpeggios, in all keys, major and minor. You can start off with just a few, the easiest ones (go in order of the circle of fifths if you want), and continue to add on. Start slowly and, most importantly, EVENLY, building a good foundation for speeding it up later and applying it to technical passages. But there's no real recommendation anyone can give you for "X amount of times," because scales and arpeggios are things you'll continuously practice no matter how high of a level you get to. At a higher level once you've mastered them, you may not have to do the entire set every day, but you can then apply them to pieces by choosing from your arsenal certain exercises that practice the techniques needed in a tricky section of Rach or such.

A good resource for other technique exercises is the book of Hanon exercises. It's been used for many decades, and includes lots of scale/arpeggio-type exercises, and you can work your way through them. Be aware, though, that they're VERY tedious (literally just pattern building through each key), but it sounds like you have the ability to self-motivate yourself. Be careful not to treat these just as exercises, though, and go through them robotically and monotonously, because it's very easy to see them as such. They're just tools developed to help finger agility, speed, and recognition of patterns so you can apply them to full-blown pieces. It's like a tennis player who practices a certain type of grip for 50 serves a day. Great if she can do it through the exercise, but if she reverts to her old grip when she starts playing a game (putting it into action), the grip practice was wasted. Application of theory into pieces is sometimes the hardest thing to do.

I know this has been a giant essay, but lastly, none of us can really give you an individual recommendation. It seems like you've got the self-motivation to learn yourself, but if you are interested in really getting a structured routine, get a private teacher, if only for a few lessons, to help you develop what kinds of things you need to work on.

Rather than trying to understand theory/progress yourself, you might want to consider having a conversation with your child's teacher to talk about progress, and with your child to talk about enjoyment.

If she is enjoying herself and the teacher is happy with her progress, then I think that's all you really need to know.

Here are two small things you can listen for as a layman

Is she learning the piece by trying it over and over and over again from the beginning and struggling through to the end, or is her teacher breaking it up into chunks for her, and she is practicing those smaller chunks? She should be doing the latter. The main part of learning is learning how to learn. Her teacher should be actively coaching her on how to have a successful practice session.

Also, is she simply playing what she knows over and over and over again, or is she working on new pieces, or new parts of a piece of music? It should be the latter.

A good way to very generally assess progress is to ask the teacher how many pieces she has learned. If she has only worked on 2 or 3 pieces in the entire first year, I would say that is a warning sign that she needs a new teacher. If she is progressing through a method book and has sampled a collection of many smaller pieces, that is a good sign.

If you do want to take a more active role and understand more of what she is learning, start learning your child's method book or pick up Alfred's All-In-One Level 1: https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All---One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473689244&sr=8-1&keywords=alfred%27s+all+in+one+adult+piano+course+level+1 . This book will teach you the notes, terminology, and will introduce you to the challenge of learning to play that your child may be encountering.

Best of luck!

On improving your chord knowledge. The best place for you to start would be to find fingerpicking songs you like, learn them, and play them a lot. Through the process of learning songs, you will improve your chord knowledge and your overall musicianship. Also this book.

For your singing/strumming problem, remember, singing is rhythmic and will fall somewhere on or between strums. Start doing simple songs. The more you do it, the better you will become at it. If you try to do it 5 times, it will probably be pretty hard at first. Maybe even perceptively impossible. If you do it 10,000 times though, I promise you it will be easier.

So pick an easy song, play and sing through it a gazillion times. The first few times might seem impossible, but each time you do it, you will learn and become better. Never give up. You'll get it.

On improving your listening (aural) skills, most musicians don't have "perfect pitch", but you can improve your relative pitch by doing some ear-training (www.musictheory.net/exercises). Another great approach to ear-training is by simply figuring out songs by ear.

Also don't forget your metronome is your friend, and playing with it constantly will make you a better guitar player and musician.

Everyone is right about getting a teacher, particularly for the basics and more advanced concepts as well. I personally started playing through a high school class for a semester then was taught all over again by a guy from my church.

Since then however I have been playing on my own (with books) and learning by ear as well. Here are my recommendations

• get a teacher, even if its for three months
  
• get a good book. Ive used three beginner piano books and my top recommendation goes to the elder beginners piano book, which I used in high school. It is nice because it teaches at a good pace, it doesnt assume youre amazing or a genius and there is a good amount of practice before new topics
  
• second is Alfreds piano book, my current book. Which I love and personally prefer, as someone that has been instructed before. I just feel it moves at too quickly a pace for an abject beginner. there isnt as much practice as I'd like and I'd be left behind if my foundations werent already decent
  
• third, while still a good book.....I honestly can't remember the book right now. I'll update when I get it. It is a great book long term but it skips through topics really quickly. Much better as a supplement to one of the others
  
• failing to get a teacher, youtube and particularly Lypyur/Furmanzyck is a great resource for much of what you'd need to learn as far as theory. He is a great teacher and I highly recommend his stuff
  
• Have a goal, a otpic or song that you aspire to and can work towards tangibly. Thats up to you but people here can help you as far as breaking it down and being able to get there
  
• and an extra tip, a shameless plug for r/PianoNewbies, where you can learn and improve with other beginners

I was in the same boat a couple of moths ago, went to musical school from ages 6-13, stopped when I moved to another country. Haven't touched piano for 6 years. Decided to get back into it, bought a digital piano 2 months ago.

For key signatures, I recommend practicing scales and arpeggios, acquiring this book can certainly help. For music theory, I highly recommend checking out Dave Conservatoire. He has made a bunch of videos about general music theory.

Sight reading is something you pick up with experience, a good exercise is to sightread absurdly easy pieces (start with grade 1). I was never much into sight reading, but I do have this PDF which might be helpful. There should be plenty of sight reading exercises on the web.

I am not sure what you mean by this, is it training relative pitch or improvising on spot and playing exactly what you have in mind you want? I seem to improve both of these things while transcribing music into a score. I guess composing could work as well. I started out painfully slowly, (took me 5 hours to transcribe first 20 seconds of Come on Eileen). But, just like any skill, you will get better at it with experience. The software I use for ranscribing is called Sybelius, but if you can not afford it (or if you do not support pirating) there are free alternatives.

Arguably, the most important thing is staying interested. Playing scales, learning music theory, listening to the same song 50 times because you can not figure out a chord or timing can be extremely boring at times. So playing a piece that truly challenges your hands will reward you much more than practicing tedious scales.

I've been playing for a long time now, and have never experienced this thing which you term 'piano culture'. Of course there are competitive people in every field—from music to lawn-mowing, probably—, but do you have to associate with them? Absolutely not.

It should not be at all challenging to find a teacher who is willing to teach away from the exams. You may find that you want to take them down the line, or see how well you're progressing by practicing material from the grades. This is fine, as is staying away from them altogether.

At the end of the day, if you want to learn: learn. Self-teaching is not frowned upon at all, it's just more of a challenge and, on average, you probably won't progress anywhere near as quickly as with guided instruction. If your enjoyment motivates you to learn solo, then do that. Lots of great musicians have, and will continue to.
***

Edit**: If teaching yourself is your favourite option, I recommend the Alfred's Basic Piano Course series! Best of luck :)

Source: I play piano (3 years of lessons, 2 years self-taught) and have started picking up guitar (6mo self-taught)

Piano and violin can be rough to learn without a teacher. If you just want to play music, there are a lot of free resources available for guitar - justinguitar.com is fantastic. There is a subreddit for learning guitar which has a very helpful and supportive community.

Now, if you maintain that classical piano is really your thing, then I can certainly relate, but I will warn you that the available free video lessons are largely missing. There are tutorials on youtube around specific songs or specific topics, but nothing as structured as justin's site (at least that I've found).

My recommendation is to pick up a method book - I used Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One, which is about 10$ on Amazon - and work through it page by page. Join a forum like the adult beginner forum at pianoworld, where you can post videos of your progress and people can help you with the trickier items like posture and hand positions.

There is a subreddit for piano here as well, which is worth subscribing to as well.

I highly recommend Fretboard Logic SE by Bill Edwards. It teaches the CAGED system for chords and scales in a very natural and intuitive way. No prior music theory knowledge is necessary for the book, it starts from the ground up. It isn't very long, you should be able to get a solid grasp on the foundation of the ideas it teaches within a week, but you'll be going back to back to it to learn more for a while to come. I was simply astonished at how much better I understand the guitar after a short time with this book. Before the book I was in the same position as you, played guitar but only knew chords through rote memorization and learned solos by copying others, after I was able to begin writing my own music and I felt comfortable and ready to go deeper into the music theory rabbit hole.

The book teaches the CAGED system, and I know there are resources online that teach it, so if you don't want to drop the money on a book, you can find those and they'll teach the same concepts as Fretboard Logic. However, Bill Edwards does a great job at easing the reader in to the ideas and makes them very easy to understand. Plus, it's nice to have a physical book to reference the diagrams inside of it.

I do! Don't have a lot of beats so far but I'm working on it haha. You can check them out here if you want.

Also if you really want to learn music theory I recommend the book "Music Theory for Computer Musicians" by Michael Hewitt, you can also "borrow" it online if you catch my drift. It's a series of 3 books if I'm not mistaken (second covering harmony and third one composition). Then maybe you'd want a piano scales book (like this). Knowing your scales is pretty important if you want to compose music, you'll have to practice those and the book is really helpful for that. You can also find free versions online of similar books (I think r/piano has a link for one in their beginner's guide).

But again, really not that necessary for lofi hiphop unless you want to go deep. Music theory however is not wasted knowledge, so go for it if you're really motivated.

Lol are you me?

Your story is scary close to mine, I took lessons from 9-12 and just started to try and get back into around 23.

I can tell you what I did, I'm still kind of figuring it out myself:


I bought a P115 (600$), I didn't have the option to use my old unweighted piano as it broke many years ago, I could have gone with the P45 (450$) but recent college grad with decent paying job so I said fuck it and dropped the extra 150$ based on this subs recommendations.


That being said playing on a decent weighted keyboard is infinitely more enjoyable than playing on an unweighted keyboard; I think if I had had something like a P45/P115 (they use the same key action so they feel the same) I would have stuck with lessons as a kid longer. It is just so much more enjoyable to sit and play at.


As for getting back up to speed I try and practice 30 mins ~ 1 hour a day in 15-20 min sessions.


I usually do a Hannon Hand Exercise then I do a scale/cords ( I'm just working my way through major and minor scales one per day).


I bought Alfred's All-in-One Adult Beginner Course and blasted through the first 3/4ths of the first book and now try and do one little chunk (lesson and associated song) a day or over the course of 2 or 3 days based on it's difficulty.

I try and sight read something new everyday and really focus on technique and dynamics, so I'm working my way through Kabalevsky's 24 Pieces for Children one piece a day, nice and slow, focusing on dynamics, technique, and tempo.


Lastly I picked two songs I wanted to work on that are just slightly above my current level and maybe a little bit below the my level when I quite all those years ago. The way I practice those songs is by picking out the hardest measure and working on it nice and slow, hands apart and together, then work on the next hardest measure, and so on and so forth.


So that's what I'm doing, maybe you can find a nugget of help in all that, I did a fair amount of research on how to practice and what to practice ( had some really boring days at work lol )

I'll echo several comments on this thread. Take some time to learn theory yourself. Learn to read music. If all you knew how to do was speak English but never read English you would be missing out on so much beauty. I'm not saying become a proficient sight reader but at least learn about the written language of music.

Some ways to do that are to audit a music theory class at a local college, go through the lessons at musictheory.net, or pick up an easy adult piano course book like the one below which is how I got my start learning to read music before heading to college. The piano is the best instrument to learn how theory fits together on and learning theory on the piano has made me a phenomenally better guitarist.
http://www.amazon.com/Adult-All---One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452649895&sr=8-1&keywords=adult+piano wh

A great place to start with these musicians is to begin using lead sheets. I've done this with several churches I've consulted with. (I'm work with a few church consulting firms helping churches transition music styles if they need to go more contemporary or blended to be more relevant to their community.) Taking an older church lady who is used to reading the block chords in hymns and using lead sheets to transition them to chord charts has worked 100% of the time. Lead sheets help them follow the count, which is what they're used too, but only gives them the melody to read. Songselect.com and praisecharts.com has all the lead sheets you'll ever need.

As a worship leader it's your responsibility not to grow complacent and learn, learn, learn as much as you can about music. Disciple these junior-high students into great church musicians. Meet them in the middle and share a common ground with them. You learn some theory and they learn some improv. Win-Win. Also, be patient.

Everything this guy said is gold. I would add a couple things.

• If you are completely new to guitar and not adverse to spending money:
  http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269624397&sr=8-1
  You can get a lot of this info on line, but the book is a classic.
  
  
• You really want to pick a few songs that you really like and want to play as your goals. It helps you with focus and inspiration. And if you tell us what type of music you are looking to play to start I can recommend more books or websites.
  
  
• For guitars you really get a lot more bank for the buck for a few bucks more. Basically from 100 up to 600 dollars the guitars really improve every bit you spend. However, BloodyThorn is right about wasting guitar equipment. This is why there is so much used equipment on craigslist.
  
  
• For buying a beginner guitar, don't be afraid of buying used. Try craigslist. But if you have a friend that plays, get him to come along and help check it out. And if you decide to keep with the guitar and you outgrow the guitar after a year or two, then you can always use a guitar that you can afford to lose. Much nicer to take your second $150 guitar with you on a boat than your only $700 (or $2000) dollar guitar.

I started guitar really late in life and as such, my hand dexterity was really shit. Guitar Aerobics is helping out a lot with increasing my fretting accuracy and speed. I still struggle with the max speed in the individual exercises, but i have noticed improvement week over week.

It's not a cure all and while it may expose areas where you have technique deficits, it won't really be able to tell you what to do to correct it. On the other hand, it's a good addition to and a good warm up in a longer practice session. It's well structured and covers a different technique each day of the week, each week building on the last. It's was definitely worth the $15.

I ripped the CDs that come with it and put them on my phone which made it much easier to use them too. The play along drum tracks are a nice alternative to a metronome.

If I understand what you're saying, then yes, Amaj7 with a 9 will sound good in certain cases. It's actually pretty popular to combine the 7 and the 9 in jazz chords. You can definitely have more than one extension to a chord, it's just pretty cumbersome to write Amaj7 add 9, so most of the time it is omitted to be just A9 or Amaj7.

If this kind of thing interests you (combining different types of chords and adding notes in the chord), definitely get a jazz theory book. Below is one a fairly popular one. It is one of the best ways to progress from amateur to journeyman, in my opinion. Get through that book and you'll be able to play in jam sessions with other musicians, be comfortable talking theory, while elevating your own playing to a degree you probably didn't think possible, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040

I run a discord serve aimed at helping people that are new at piano, but if that doesn't work for you I also recommend these sites.

MusicTheory.Net - to give you the overall idea of what music theory should be.

PianoLessonsOnTheWeb - for overall piano lessons. Not much seen into this guy personally, but what I have seen is pretty good.

Bill Hilton - absolutely awesome youtuber that provides some good ideas and techniques on what to do

Michael New - Overall really good at describing music theory.

Alfred's - Overall one of the most highly regarded beginner series known out there. Highly recommend.

Paul Barton - Overall to be amazed by his godly voice/humbleness and his overall playing (inspiration)

Discord - Shameless plug of my very own discrod server!

I don't really play jazz music, nor do I listen to it that much, but I do hate the basic pentatonic sound. My recommendations for getting beyond on that would be:
1.) Read this book.
2.) Memorize the notes in scales/chords so that you can instantly recall, for example, what the major 6th from B is or anything else. Actually learning the notes that make up scales/chords instead of just the patterns on the fretboard is necessary, I feel, for the next step.
3.) Learn to target the notes of the chords that you're playing over more, instead of just doing the autopilot in a random scale thing that a lot of beginners do. That's a pretty standard skill in jazz, to be able to spell out the changes you're playing over. Of course, you don't have to limit yourself to playing target notes so much though, after you learn how to do it.
4.) Learn as many chords as you can.

After typing all that, I reread your post and it seems like you're going for the jazz fusion sound. My tips still help and that Mark Levine book I linked to will definitely still be useful to you, so don't chalk that up just because it doesn't look like a fusion book. But I also recommend now looking for some online lessons of that jazz fusion style you were talking about. That style of guitar seems to be pretty popular in terms of online lessons, so I don't think you'll have trouble finding anything. I would further recommend that you find some course that markets itself as a complete course in fusion guitar. If it costs money, then pay for it. Maybe pay for the fusion lessons instead of the Mark Levine book, if you're short on change. The reason why I say to pay for complete lessons, instead of trying to find some free lessons online, is that a complete course is just so much easier and better to work with than random, uncategorized lessons. You'll learn a lot more from some online course that's professionaly put together, than from some random dude on youtube who just makes videos in his spare time.

The best way to start, IMO, is to read. Get as much info as you can on the subject. There's a couple of books that are pretty good; This One or This One are good places to start. Another thought is to check out websites like projectguitar.com. They've also got a forum with lots of tips and such.

Finally, it's going to be a big asset if you already know your way around some various woodshop machinery, if you plan on doing it all from scratch. Knowing how to solder helps too.
One final thing. Do't expect to be able to build something utterly incredible your first time around. Start simple; it's easy to bite off more than you can chew. You will make mistakes; it's pretty much guaranteed. Don't worry about it. When you finally finish, you'll have an instrument that you can be proud of.

Good luck!

EDIT: Almost forgot, there's also an /r/luthier subreddit as well.

get all of your scales down. And I just mean like major/minor or Ionian/Aeolian. Just know your way up and down all of them, as well as all arpeggios. Knowing these shapes will help you to navigate charts easier. Second just start looking at charts, and don't even start playing in time with the music right away. Go through slowly and play the arpeggios (up to the seventh) of every change. Then play the song at speed and just go up and down each arpeggio. Eventually just start adding notes in between here and there and keep going like that until you are a master, and are ballin for shock calling. Seriously though, after doing that for a while start to look at things like major minor scales, and the altered scale, which are both very common in jazz (herbie hancock, wayne shorter). A good piece of literature on the subject is a book by Mark Levine called "The Jazz Theory Book" here it is on amazon for like thirty bucks, but well worth it imho. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1883217040/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2D0XUFQTHPTMU Best of luck.
The beginning of this part of learning jazz always sucks but it will be as much fun as you make it. Don't give up. This is a genre very worth learning how to play well.

I wouldn't be too worried about the nut. Chances are that they didn't need to do any change to the nut when going from factory 9s to 10s. I've put 10s on all my Fenders and haven't had any issues with the nut action. Even if it was filed slightly, the chances are that it isn't going to really cause any issues going back to 9s, but you won't know for sure until you get it strung up and see what the nut action is like. As for the rest of it, basic setup on a strat is pretty straight forward. You may need to adjust the truss rod slightly in order to get the proper relief, but it isn't difficult. Just do it slow and make small adjustments at a time. The most tedious part is really adjusting intonation and/or if you want the trem to be floated. It isn't difficult, it just takes patience as you have to keep re-tuning after every adjustment.

As for taking all the strings off, you shouldn't have any problem with this. I've never had any issue with taking all the strings off when I restring, because I usually do a fret board clean (and oil if it is rosewood or ebony) and a quick fret polish. The only real worry is the need to reset the trem if you want it floated, which in this case you would have to do anyways since you are changing gauges. It really isn't difficult to do a setup. Just read up/watch some how-to videos and take your time. Also, if you plan on doing your own maintenance I highly recommend checking out this book. It is definitely a great reference/guide for most repair/maintenance work.

Stick Control. Most drummers will say it's best to start with this book but I'll be honest- it's not fun. Don't expect to be wowed by drumming with this book. It's meant to build good form/technique and other solid fundamentals that are very important to drumming.

Either way, if you're looking for something a bit more exciting, I'd say search youtube for beginner lessons on the kit and/or your pad.

Good luck!

They are both brilliant and will last a lifetime, I've had them for around 5 years and they still blow my mind, and keep me learning.

Some others I own and think a great are:

[Creative Guitar 1 and 2 by Guthrie Govan] ( http://www.amazon.com/Guthrie-Govan/e/B0034Q44JU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1) In my opinion the best guitarist around. He has a mastery over the guitar at a level I have never seen! These books are excellent a written in a ways that enjoyable and easy to understand

[Single Note Soloing, Volume 1] (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Guitar-Single-Soloing-Volume/dp/0769209726/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0MRB4A99W8P09SX6GMQG) and [Volume 2] (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Guitar-Single-Soloing-Volume/dp/0739053841/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GGV91GVW1H6MM5AQ6C0) by Ted Greene. Excellent for jazz soloing.

[The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine] ( http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=pd_sim_b_17?ie=UTF8&refRID=1FP5R211R7V7ZDP5Q4GT) THE book on jazz, this is without a doubt a must own!

If you want to get really deep and crazy take a look at the Scott McGill books:

[Scott McGill] (http://www.amazon.com/Scott-McGill/e/B00J36EZ58/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1)

And lastly for an insane look at rhythms [Advance Rhythmic Concepts for Guitars by Jan Rivera] (http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Rhythmic-Concepts-Foreword-Machacek/dp/0615979831/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0J05GGH3PGDQRWPRB298) Metric Modulations, Polyrhythms and Polymeters galore! I feel with most guitarists rhythm is often overlooked and getting your rhythmic playing down separates the men from the boys. It's amazing how good rhythm can make the simplest of solos mind melting.

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-3rd/dp/0879309210

That is a really good source of useful information. It goes as far in-depth as you wish to go. There is information that is useful to every level of guitarist and luthier as well. Clearly explains the basics every guitar owner should know. Using this book, I set up my LTD with FR Special on it in drop C the very first time I did it. Really simple procedure and my guitar stays in tune very very well. Divebombs go back up right in tune every time.

I suggest trying different strings, different tunings, and different setups (varying string height etc) to find what you like and what feels good. Take it to a pro if you don't want to go to that much trouble, although it is pretty easy if you have any DIY skills. Try to let them know what you plan to mostly play on it.. different styles will favor a certain setup. That book tells how guitarists including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King and several more have their guitars setup.

From my experience, ear training and visualization should be your focus, not theory. I learned a shitton of theory, and it did not do me much good without practice. It’s like how I know a lot about baseball, but I don’t play baseball, so knowing that what to do in certain situations won’t actually help me do it if I have to process it like it’s a math problem—there simply isn’t a way to transform thought into kinesthetic movements without taking the time to “lay down the tracks”.

The theory will come from practicing, both with guitar in hand and when you are out and about by visualizing chords changes or melodies or the Circle of Fifths or whatever. Then, as you look through theory for things to practice, you’ll likely already have a place to put the names of the things in your head. I should add, try singing the notes you try to play, even if your voice sucks—practice will make your voice better.

The point of theory is music. To that end, I recommend doing what I didn’t do, practicing the exercises in The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick. Also, really play with the Circle of Fifths and the brightness/darkness implicit to it.

I subscribed to Mark Michell's (Scale the Summit bassist) website Low End University that covers a myriad of topics both bass and non bass related, I'd say its a little more advanced material than what Scott Devine offers but both are great and have some good stuff for free.

As for books, I'd always been really interested in music theory behind jazz and certain video game OSTs and I can't recommend Mark Levine's The Jazz Theory book if that's your sort of thing. As someone else posted, Alex Webster's book is marvelous for not so much composition but being able to fluidly play intense rhythms and using three fingers.

There are a lot of ways. To learn theory, you can ask your teacher, or, if you're self taught, look for some books. Ed Friedland has some great books and I suppose most books and DVD's from Hal Leonard are great too. Berklee Press sells awesome books as well. You can find a lot of lessons online, but it's a lot harder to find valuable material, in my opinion.

The best way to learn about genres is listening to enough music and play as much as you can. When you learn enough songs, you'll automatically learn to apply that when you're creating your own lines. Starting from a book may be a good way to get you started, but the knowledge you learn will be too limited. Learning the songs by ear is a good way to train your musical ear, but there is no shame in buying some songbooks too.

The most important thing is to apply everything you learn. Try to create your own bass lines, loop some chords and play around with your scales, maybe analyze some songs, stuff like that.

It's called a dominant[0] resolution and it's one of the most common harmonic techniques you'll find in basslines. Going to the fifth (i.e. the dominant chord) creates instability which wants to be resolved by going back to the root; it's a way of creating tension and release.

You've probably noticed chromatic resolutions coming up a lot as well, i.e. playing a note one-half step either above or below the note you're about to play.

Generally, you want to place the note you're resolving to on a strong beat of the bar (usually the first or the third beat) so try playing around with creating basslines or fills that put a note a fifth above or below the root, or a note one half-step above or below on the 4th beat of the bar or the '4 and' of the bar. You could try this on the 2 or the '2-and' too.

For more information like this check out Ed Friedland's 'Building Walking Bass Lines'. It doesn't sound like a walking line would be appropriate for the music that you're listening to right now but the information in this book absolutely is.

When I'm playing this I'll typically use the same finger to fret the note across two strings and roll the finger across the two notes to play each one. This didn't come naturally to me, I had to work at it a lot. I played major /minor scales in ascending/descending 4ths to practice it [2]. I find that if you can play these with the same finger (rather than one on each string) you can playing some pretty sick sounding fast pentatonic runs.

I'd be happy to clarify any of this if you'd like me to.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominant_(music)
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Building-Walking-Bass-Lines-Builders/dp/0793542049
[2] http://faculty.spokanefalls.edu/InetShare/AutoWebs/dannym/Jazz%20Improv%20II/Exercises/3_Major%20Scales%20in%20Fourths.pdf

I am 21 (well, almost) and I've been playing guitar for two years now. This is how I went about it. I am in no way claiming this to be the best or most efficient way to learn though. First, I learned the major chords: D, A, G, F, E, and so on (I just googled "major chords"). I constantly played them whether it was while watching TV or sitting down and focusing on it. At the same time, I looked up tabs to music I enjoyed. One of the first pieces I learned was "Green Eyes" by Coldplay. It's a great one because it's got pretty much all the basic chords (and a lady killer if I may say so ;). Also if you take a look at the top 100 tabs on Ultimate-Guitar, those are some good pieces to learn not only because they are good songs, but you'll learn a lot about playing guitar in the process. After about six or so months of this, I really wanted to jam, so I began learning scales. I began with a natural scale, then moved on to memorizing the pentatonic scales. I'm still working on that actually! I recently also ordered this book to help get more comfortable as well as a theory book. At the same time as learning all the scales and things I'm constantly looking up tabs, trying to pick up pieces by ear, and all around fiddling with my guitar! If I ever get frustrated, I put that bad boy down and do something else. Been playing for two years now almost every day and I love it. Just take it slow and easy.

Edit: Grammer

Aw, I'm sorry you're feeling sick and bummed out. I'm in the same exact boat! I'm got super sick yesterday, and today I'm feeling no better. And this week is my Spring Break! I had plans to be outside and stuff. Sigh. I guess it's better that I got sick when I didn't have school though. =/

I saw this video last night and I couldn't help but smile! It's silly, but I like Taking Back Sunday a lot, and I thought it was really cool of them to do this. Plus, the chorus is like...genuinely awesome, haha! And they showed bunny and chinchilla puppets (I have a bunny, and I had a chinchilla that passed away two years ago).

If that doesn't put a little grin on your face, then this ought to do the trick! =D

Oh, and here's my item: piano practice book.

Please feel better and thank you so much for hosting this contest!

You should get a piano bench that is adjustable. I started with the one linked below, although I'd shop around as the price may have jumped up. I don't remember spending 50 dollars, but considering it's lasted 6 years I guess it was worth it. It's not 100% adjustable since it has "levels" and you might end up needing a height between levels. The acoustic piano benches that are fully adjustable cost $200+ though. A bench at the proper height will help avoid back pain after playing for a little while.

Scales are good to learn, you can do this as a warm up. I just listed two that seem to come up often and only had a single black key in them. I wouldn't recommend learning only scales as that would get boring. My teacher would have me do one scale as a warm up and when I could play it two-octave, hands together, including the 3 primary chords and inversions, and the arpeggio (the book we used had all of these on one page) then we'd move to a new one.

Now I'm going back and playing the scales of any pieces I'm working on at the time during warm-up. I do 4 octaves contrary motion. So it starts out normal then half way left hand starts going back down and right hand keeps going up. When right hand hits the 4th octave it starts going down and left hand starts going up again. Makes them feel fresh. I can learn scales faster than pieces so soon I'll have to start rotating scales in that aren't tied to pieces.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GUR8V8/ref=s9_acsd_top_hd_bw_boCu1_c_x_3_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-2&pf_rd_r=ZWXDVWB0S7AT05JJVCKX&pf_rd_r=ZWXDVWB0S7AT05JJVCKX&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=ab2b2dba-42b7-45ce-8379-d10e65c92e8d&pf_rd_p=ab2b2dba-42b7-45ce-8379-d10e65c92e8d&pf_rd_i=11966001

Edit - this is the new book I use for scales. The old one was fine but this had a little more info in it. There were some sections at the beginning that explained how scales were formed before getting into the usual big list of all of them.

https://www.amazon.com/Scales-Chords-Arpeggios-Cadences-Complete/dp/0739003682

Hey there!
Since you don't have any musical background, a great place to start is learning how to read sheet music and general music theory. A great website for you is http://www.musictheory.net/
Under lessons, you can learn a ton about sheet music.

To be honest, I'm not a great Piano player. I just recently picked it back up. I do, however, have a musical background and even with the information I have, it is still difficult to pick up. I don't have a teacher but I will eventually get one whenever money isn't so tight. Piano isn't something you learn how to play overnight nor is it something you can "master". You can always improve and there is always something to learn.

The last piece of advice I could give you is buy a workbook! It's especially helpful. I personally recommend:
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167

Good luck and have a blast on this new journey you're about to embark! Remember, don't give up! You got this!

The same way you learned the E string, you can learn the A string with A-shape barre chords. (Then you can learn the C, G and D shape barres.;)

I have spent some time using just about anything I could find for help with learning the fretboard. I use a little trainer app on my phone, and I also used this book. The author uses a system based on five patterns for finding all positions of any given note on the fretboard. ("Pattern 1 has roots on the second and fifth strings, two frets apart.")

In addition, as cthrubuoy says, knowing about the octaves is very useful.

Try learning just the natural notes, or try drilling yourself regularly. Put your finger behind a fret and then identify the note. Or pick a note and find all of them. 10 minutes of this a day can be a HUGE help.

I also memorized a few landmark notes on the fretboard. Places where E, F, B, and C are stacked on top of each other, for instance, helps to learn the notes around them. Also, knowing that in standard tuning the nut (open), the 5th, 10th, 12th, and 17th frets are all natural notes could be useful.

In the end, what works best is consistently applying yourself to getting it. Until I started working at it every day (a few months ago) I could pretty much tell you the E string, and some of the A string, and anything else I would have to count out.

My advice is to buy some books. There's a lot of info on the internet, but it's all spread out and often chopped up into pieces, which can make it a bitch to make sense of. If you're going to go the internet route, though, check out guitarlessons365.com (not affiliated in any way). The vast majority of the lessons are free and the music theory section is completely free, not to mention very good.

http://www.guitarlessons365.com/lessons-archive/music-theory-lessons-archive/

Regarding books, this is a great, easy to read book on music theory that won't hurt your head. I'd start either here or with guitarlessons365.

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Music-Theory-Book-understanding/dp/1440511829

For guitar books, Fretboard Logic is a must read. Definitely buy this. It focuses on the 5 position system (CAGED). If you're interested in learning the 7 position system for the major scales and other 7 note scales, check out guitarlessons365.

http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348759781&sr=8-1&keywords=fretboard+logic

After that, I'd check out this as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348759708&sr=1-1&keywords=guitar+theory

Worth checking this out as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348759937&sr=1-3&keywords=guitar+theory

Here's another important book. I'd probably buy this last, though.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348760257&sr=1-1&keywords=jazz+theory+book+by+mark+levine

I think the best thing I can recommend, and I know this isn't what you wanted, is for your child to either

a. Read method books, this Hal Leonard one is pretty good (https://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Bass-Method-Easy-Use/dp/0793563836)

b. Because your child can read bass clef (he played piano so I'm assuming he can), he already has a huge advantage as a player. Have him learn how the notes relate to the frets (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ui66iADgzo), and he can begin to read transcriptions and play pretty much whatever he wants

Definitely get a teacher, and just encourage him to practice. That's about it.

I've been a drummer since I was 8. Quite rusty right now as a lot of things have kept me from practicing (moving to apartments for years, etc.). Honestly, it's never too late to start. Are you going to be playing Carnegie Hall in a year? Wildly unlikely. But as long as your expectations are grounded in reality, that learning anything takes time and practice, you should be good.

As for practice and sense of tempo/timing: it is imperative that you buy a good metronome and practice with it regularly. You don't necessarily need a Dr. Beat, though I have one, and it is useful at times. But you do need some kind of click to play off of.

Can you read music? If so, there are some really good technique books out there that I'd recommend that are classics. Most people hate grinding technique, but I find it oddly relaxing. Here's some good books:

• Stick Control
  
• Syncopation
  
• Master Studies - (Do wait on this one a bit and start slow. It is possible to injure yourself if you get too carried away. Stone Killer exercises are no joke)
  
• New Breed - This one's actually a full drum set book. Quite challenging. May want to wait on this one a bit or try to just play one or two of the lines together (eg. right and and right foot).
  
  The first two books are probably where you should start. With all of these, start the metronome at molasses level slow - like 60 bpm or maybe even slower if you're not accurate at that speed. Get comfortable with that speed - maybe 15-30 mins at that speed without any mistakes. Then bump the timing up slightly 2-4 bpm and repeat. At no point should you be tensing up. If you are, you need to stop immediately, shake out your arms, and back down the tempo a bit.
  
  Make sure that you're making more use of your fingers than your wrists. Wrists can be good to start the stroke, but your fingers should be doing a lot of the work.
  
  There's a lot of other technique stuff that you can do, but the above alone could take you 5-10 years of solid daily practice if you're being thorough.
  
  Good luck!

If you're interested in playing, definitely check out iReal Pro. It comes with the progressions for over 1,300 jazz standards and will play synthesized backing tracks that you can transpose to any key or adjust the tempo.

You can also make your own - for example, improvising a sloppy solo on "Auld Lang Syne" in F takes nearly zero brain power to do - but since I couldn't find a similar jazz standard, I ended up putting together my own based on The Public Domain Christmas Jazz Fakebook I found on /r/jazz a long time ago.

Also, while you're at it, start burning your scales (most major and minor modes across all keys, blues, bebop, pentatonic) into muscle memory. One good Youtube channel for jazz piano is Walk That Bass. I also have Mark Levine's The Jazz Theory Book, which comes well recommended but is rather heavy on the theory. For somebody getting started it's better to get a feel for jazz and the method to its madness by transcribing individual pieces and solos. Always use a metronome. Don't get too dependent on the pedal; avoid if possible.

I'm not the most experienced pianist, but playing jazz is by far the most heavy in mechanics and theory music I've ever approached, but it's very rewarding and extremely cathartic once you get into the groove of things. Churning out lines and licks one after another is wonderfully fun and pleasant to listen to once it starts getting even somewhat close to habit - well, except to any unfortunate neighbors who are stuck hearing the same progressions day after day.

This is a really short description of each, but hopefully will help.

CAGED system is a way of knowing how to play chords all over the neck. If you know the notes of the fretboard and where the root note is in each chord shape, then you can use that to play any chord, in any position using only the C, A, G, E and D chord shapes. If you're looking for a C chord near the 13th fret, there's an C on string 2 fret 13. The D shape has the root note on the 2nd string, so if you play a D chord shape at the 12th position (which uses the C root note on the 2nd string), that'll be an C chord. Alternatively, you could think about it this way... if a D chord is at the 14th position, slide a full step down to the 12th position and you'll have a C chord.

Next, if you know the scale positions and the root note within each, you can combine the CAGED system with scale positions and blend them.

The keys to understanding this are 1) understanding the CAGED system, 2) knowing scale positions (you mentioned pentatonic and mixolydian - just pick one scale type for a start), and 3) knowing the notes of the fretboard. Once you have a solid understanding of those, a bit of practice will get you over the hump with combining them.

The thing that helped me put all of this together (apart from hours of practice with backing tracks), was a book called Guitar Fretboard Workbook. The exercises are short and helped with memorizing note positions on the fretboard, and it has a good explanation of the CAGED system as well.

I hope this helps.

Edit: corrected chord name.

music theory on youtube

https://youtu.be/Ud9CpGOG1GE

see if you can hook up your instrument to a computer or get a modest priced/used one that can and get synthesia

https://synthesiagame.com

pickup this book; you can take the cdrom that comes with the book and load those midi files into synthesia. This will allow you to ensure you are doing the exercises in the book correctly

https://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Group-Piano-Adults-Book/dp/B0071F9BIY/ref=sr_1_26?keywords=Alfred+piano+book&qid=1572991464&sr=8-26

Learn the landmark system (instead of the typical Every Good Boy Deserves Chocolate and FACE methods of learning the Treble Clef

https://youtu.be/jSOU-J9KHbg

I also recently had this book recommended to me but it has not arrived yet

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Scales-Chords-Arpeggios-Cadences/dp/0739003682/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=chord+book&qid=1572991814&sr=8-6

I just started using this app to train my ear to identify notes

https://mdecks.com/politonus.phtml

My method so far about 8 months into learning. My best friend is a professional musician (lives far so can't help me practically) and unlike some opinions floating around he was very encouraging of using Synthesia as long as I continued to pursue actual music reading in parallel. There is a button on Synthesia to show the sheet music so you can do both. That said sitting with just the book or a piece of music that is familiar in front of you and forcing yourself to spend some time with it alone is very fulfilling and will come slowly as you work with all of these materials. Good Luck!

You mentioned you like jazz, feel free to hang out with us /r/Jazz

Internet is great, and there is a lot for good free ressources. You'll have to go through a bunch of crap though, it can be confusing for a beginner and takes valuable time away to an already time consuming hobby.

So here are a few books I personally recommand.

Jazzology, an encyclopedia of theory centered around jazz that you can use with any genre. It's really good.

The real book, a good way to learn jazz standards with sheets that aren't so painful, using solfège for melody and letters for chords. This is the format I use with students.

The Jazz Theory book, or anything from mark levine.

The Complete Musician is good if you can find it for cheap, which is no easy task.

The definition of perfect pitch includes knowing the names of the notes. Without this knowledge, it's just "having a good ear". A good way to practice it is picking random notes and visualizing what the chord will sound like before playing it. That vizualisation aspect is the amazing thing about absolute pitch and helps with composing. The tuning or knowing what key you're in things are cute but fairly irrelevant.

Anyway, have fun.

I did exactly what you're explaining with my dad. The process takes a long time. I'd recommend starting with designing the body. If you want to design your own body, sketch it out, and GIVE VERY EXACT MEASUREMENTS ON THE STENCIL.

This includes the center line. EVERYTHING ON THE GUITAR IS BASED ON THAT CENTER LINE. The neck, pickups, and bridge all have to be exactly on that line.

Also you have to factor the scale of the neck you're planning to get. I got my neck from Warmoth. It's a great neck and I can't be happier with it, but a finished neck is around $250.

Back to the body: What wood do you want to use? Are you going to book end the wood if you're going to use a translucent finish (burst, dye, etc.) or are you going to just paint it? I dyed my guitar and used layers upon layers of laquer (~15 to be exact of museum quality finish).

Hardware is something else to consider. Stewart-MacDonald is a great site for that. Think pots, switches, tuners, bridges (stopbar too if you're doing a Gibson-style bridge), pickup rings if you're not using a pickguard, pickguard, neck plate for bolting the guitar on, etc.

Basically, there's a lot to consider when building a guitar. It's not easy at all, but if you have fun with it, you can build a hell of a guitar. I recommend buying a couple books on guitar building. This is one of the books I got. It's really good and I highly recommend it.

Good luck!

Scales would be the obvious place to start. Work on one scale every week for the whole week. Find a resource online for proper fingering or pick up a cheap resource like this. Hands slowly separately. Then hands slowly together. Work with a metronome.

Try to find a teacher as soon as you can. Even a few formative lessons (1 to 3 months) will do wonders for your playing down the road and give you the best possible chance to develop good technique.

Music flashcards are good. Back in my day they were actually on paper, but nowadays there are apps which do a better job. Make it a priority to be comfortable reading music.

Now that you have your keyboard, I strongly urge you to examine your chair height. Most people sit too low and this starts causing extra wrist tension. Look for the forearms to be level or sloping slightly downward toward the keyboard.

Good luck! Take it slow, don't expect anything to come quickly. Be patient. Have fun!

www.justinguitar.com, mah man.

Easy peasy. When you're done with that, head over to /r/Guitar and ask around.

Face to face is useful for learning proper position/pick/strumming technique, but mostly you should be listening and learning by ear.

So I'll walk you through the basics in no particular order once you've gotten over the fingertip pain and can switch chords pretty quickly.

Memorize the notes on the fretboard. Every string. Every fret.

Find trusted tabs for songs you like. Try to play along while listening to the song. Apps like Reaper have "slow down" functions that maintain pitch.

If you are a Beatles fan, The Beatles Complete Scores is invaluable. Even if you aren't a fan, it's a great resource. I'm not a fan of the "professional" tab sites, so do your research if you think you want to subscribe to one of them.

Learn your chords.

Learn your scales.

You don't HAVE to learn music theory, but it helps. Especially if you're playing with other people. So, circle of 5ths and all that.

DM me if you have questions or I'm in Culver City if you want to meet up.

Caveat, I'm not a pro. I don't teach for a living, but I've been playing for far too long and know just enough to get people started. :)

I haven't seen a (free) scale and arpeggio manual online, but a complete training book is available for $5 at amazon. You may as well buy one because it will last a lifetime and it will give you a rock solid foundation to build your repertoire upon.

For free sheet music the best place I have found is the Petrucci Music Library at imslp.org. Best of luck on your piano journey.

last year i bought like 3 guitar books. two were mostly theory, but my favorite one was Guitar Aerobics. Its basically a book full of riffs, broken down into 6-7 categories of different mechanical skills (alternate picking, barre chords, rhythm strumming patterns, sweep picking) spread out every week, with backing tracks and sample sound banks of the riff being played. Every day you have something different.

it starts off basing everything on the Am pentatonic and starts building on complexity as it progresses
I didn't really stick to it daily, but i really think it still improved my mechanical abilities a lot. I was basically only using downstrokes to pick but now i find myself naturally alternate picking even across strings.

my favorite aspect of it is that if you don't know how to practice, amd at a certain point in time you only have 10 minutes can open up the book to where you left off, do one of the exercises.

at <15$ on amazon it's cheaper than a guitar lesson but works great for supplementing your spontaneous "i have to learn this song" moments by helping you get the chops to handle harder stuff

B&H has the px160 with stand, pedals, and bench for $450 new.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1376638-REG/casio_px_160_88_key_digital_piano.html

Guitar center has a lot of used digital pianos. They price them to be competitive with used listings on ebay. Looking through listings on guitarcenter and sold listings on ebay might be as close as you'll get to a blue book value.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Keyboards-MIDI.gc#narrowSideBar

PX150 and PX160 have the same action, either would be fine to start on. Getting a yamaha p115, kawai es110, or roland fp30 might be a better fit for some, but the level of improvement is not huge. Unless you really dislike the casio tone, either keeping the px150, or selling it to get the px160 bundle I linked above, would leave you with a perfectly fine instrument to start out on.

A teacher is recommended, but if you go with method books, faber adult all in one or alfred adult all in one are fine to start with.

https://www.amazon.com/Adult-Piano-Adventures-All-Course/dp/1616773022

https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186

If you get to the end of the third alfred book and can play through the pieces in the 'ambitious sections' at the end of the book, you might want to consider an upgrade. Until then, don't worry about it. A PX150 is just fine.

https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Alfreds/dp/0739000683/

Most piano teachers will give you this book to start:

http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167

I spent a long time learning as a child, went back to teachers a couple of times as an adult to get a refresher. If you can get through book 1 and book 2 in the series, you can pretty much play any pop song, and holiday type song and it allows you to start to gauge tracks at an intermediate level. From there it's how much you want to practice.

1 hour a day every day for 2 years will do more for your ability than any number of lessons. Teachers are a guide, it's all about your willingness to work at a new skill. If you can't do an hour, do 30 minutes, or even 15. But daily practice is the key. If you can't commit to 15 minutes a day, you should consider what else you're prioritizing if you really want to learn to play.

Also, the whole 10,000 hours to mastery is especially true for any kind of music. an hour a day means 30 years to mastery. 8 hours a day means 5 years. This is why musicians typically get really good in high school - by around 6th grade most people are crossing over from hobby to passion, and then start committing real time to their passion before real world problems get in the way ( like work, marriage, kids, etc.).

• Learn how to NOT RUSH. It is a tendency of every beginner musician I've ever known. The easiest way to force yourself to stay slow is to subdivide in your head (Subdivide AS MANY TIMES as you need to stay slow. You may be physically playing notes slowly, but if you're thinking at the fastest rhythm possible, It will be next to impossible to rush). Use a metronome/click track on the slowest possible setting and play songs you're comfortable with until you can keep a steady beat.
  
  
• Learn about rudiments. These are the building blocks for a lot of different rhythms. I'd highly recommend picking up a good book on rudimental drumming and practice the examples forwards, backwards, and sideways! This book is my number one recommendation for ANYONE serious about learning rhythm.
  
  
• As several people have said, dynamics are incredibly important for percussion. As a quick example, take any rhythmic passage, then practice accenting the downbeats, the upbeats, then alternate, then accent TWO downbeats, two upbeats, three downbeats, three upbeats, etc. Immediately you will get a feel for the importance of dynamics.

You want to learn to play them comfortably in any key, and you want to make the feeling of playing them very natural. At first you'll have to play very slowly and that's completely okay and it's even the right thing to do. Play as slowly as you possibly need to so that you get the movements just right. Your teacher may ask you to play them for him/her during the first year (or maybe not that long) to ensure that a) you're during them and b) that you're doing them with correct technique.

A good book to get is The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios & Cadences. It has all of the scales in each key as well some arpeggios and chords which you can start to play with too. It also has a very small blurb on what to do for scale practice. Personally I do them each day before I practice other things.

You can start by buying these two books and reading them cover to cover: Jazz Theory by Mark Levine and Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine That's a good first step. There's plenty of other books out there obviously, but I've had good success with these. Learning Jazz is all about becoming acquainted with a new musical language and internalizing it to the point where it becomes as natural and automatic as speaking. This takes a lot of practice. Good luck and be sure to listen to lots of jazz!

Are you trying to work on reading music? If so, it's just like reading words. Remember when learning to read how you did it? Taking it slow, like first recognizing 26 letters and the sounds they make, then you sound out groups of them called words, then groups of words for sentences, etc. You get better the more you do it. There may be tips/tricks promising quick results, but even with them, you just have to do it over and over.

I would suggest adult beginner piano books.

Amazon Link

Example PDF

They don't go painfully slow like kids beginner books, and taking it from the beginning is nothing to be ashamed of. Having a solid foundation will make future skills more stable. Best wishes!

Get your hands on some improvisation books. Doesn't necessarily mean they all have to be just guitar books...jazz theory books will come in handy for any musician. Get your hands on a Real Book Listen to great performers - I'll suggest Pat Metheny, John Scofield, and Herb Ellis for starters. Become really familiar with their music and the way they improvise... when you hear little bits and pieces of things they do and you like them, write them out - transcribe. Hearing and practicing these will enable you to incorporate them into your improvisation, and the more you study and 'shed your heart out, the more you will pick up on how great improvisors do their thing.

Also, practice all your scales... slowly. When you are transcribing, you'll be surprised how much easier it is when you have a good understanding of every type of scale and how they are used (theory books will explain).

Hope this helps. Cheers.

Buy a book called The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer.

I bought my copy a few months after I started learning (been playing for close to a decade now), and my only regret is not having bought it even sooner. It's tattered from use, but I still read it often and still find new things to learn. It's always in my flight case.

It has sections on any guitar related topic you can imagine: from biographies of influential guitarists to music theory to illustrated guides on how to rewire your electric guitar's pickups. It's essential, and I consider it worth at least ten times its price.

Edit: There's also a British guitar magazine called Guitar Techniques that I used to read up until about a year ago. I only stopped because importing the mag to South Africa became too pricey for me. It features top quality lessons by professional guitarists, tablature, music notation, exercises, articles, etc., as well as a CD with backing tracks, et al. A copy of the above-mentioned book plus a subscription to GT and some regular, disciplined practise will probably turn you into Eddie Van Halen :)

Good luck and have fun!

I was in a similar situation as you are, I played piano since I was young and when I took up guitar the fretboard was a bit daunting to me. It clicked for me when I imagined that each of the six strings was like its own separate piano so six dimensional if you will ;). Since each fret is a half step, its like the keys on a piano going up a half step. So the 'piano keys' on the lowest string start on E and go up by a half step, the next string is A so the 'piano keys' start on A, then go up and so on.

Once the set up of the fretboard made sense to me, it's all about memorization to know the exact locations of notes off hand. I think that this is going to be different for each person you need to figure out what makes sense to you. Memorize 'landmarks' such as each open string, the 12^th fret is an octave up, and the odd frets are good ones to start with memorizing.

I used this: http://www.guitarhabits.com/learn-the-guitar-fingerboard-thoroughly-in-16-days/ as well. I found it pretty helpful.

Also if you're looking for some books, http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313039330&sr=8-1 & http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313039376&sr=1-6 were both really good and helped me with understanding the fretboard and general mechanics of guitar.


Hope this helps! Good Luck!

How about spending some time working through a book?

• Stick Control is great for getting your hands to do what you want, but might be a bit boring as /u/virusv2 said.
  
• A Funky Primer is pretty good overview of rock patterns, and will get you comfortable with basic independence of your limbs.
  
  I have been working through both and am enjoying them! Another thing that has really helped me is transcribing drum parts and learning to play them that way. I did this with a Tool song and it was unbelievably illuminating. Really makes you think about what the drummer is doing.
  
  PS: Nice username :P
  

Playing evenly requires strengthening your finger muscles. Like the other comment mentioned, each finger has different strength depending on your usage. Hanon books are usually very good for practice. Another very good book is the Hal Leonard Schirmer's Library "Scales & Finger Exercises". Each exercise tells you which fingers it's focusing on. I honestly don't believe in the tapping on table method.

I think it's pointless to keep tapping one finger to strengthen it over and over again. You need to move that finger in a context with the OTHER fingers as well because usually it's 'alternating' between fingers that demands the most control. You can develop the muscle memory for a particular finger but when you alternate/change it become even more challenging. Hanon and the book I mentioned have the same idea. They focus on strengthening your weaker fingers alongside neighboring ones.

Link to the book:

https://www.amazon.com/Scales-Finger-Exercises-Schirmer-Schirmers/dp/149500547X/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=Scales+and+Finger+Exercises%3A+Schirmer+Library+of+Classic+Volume+2107+%28Schirmer%27s+Library+of+Musical+Classics%29&qid=1557982300&s=books&sr=1-1-fkmrnull

​

https://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=Scales+and+Finger+Exercises%3A+Schirmer+Library+of+Classic+Volume+2107+%28Schirmer%27s+Library+of+Musical+Classics%29&qid=1557982300&s=books&sr=1-1-fkmr0

​

Bach pieces or Handel are usually also very good exercises :)

Goodluck!

That's good that you recognized it. It's always tempting to rush past tough fingerings, but you get the most out of practice when you can isolate a technique, break it down, and focus on it.

Check this video out: http://youtu.be/AoLvhHjacMw?t=56m14s
It's Valentina Lisitsa working on a brand new piece (to her).
Here she repeats a single section repeatedly until it's almost 100% before moving on. Even the top pianists have to replay sections until it's in their fingers. Hold yourself to a similar high standard when you practice. Really try to get at least get one solid pass without mistakes, even if it's at a much slower tempo. Here's a story about Rachmaninoff practicing a Chopin etude so slow it was unrecognizable: http://www.practisingthepiano.com/enjoying-ultra-slow-practice/

Also, I recommend you get Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises. Lots of good exercises. Even Rachmaninoff recommended them. Good luck.

Just want to echo that 30 minutes a day is more than enough. Of that time, I would spend 10 minutes on rudiments and the rest on whatever you want.

>What all will I need to get started? Practice pad, sticks, kit, metronome?

If you buy an electronic kit, I wouldn't worry about practice pads. I'd recommend picking up Stick Control, learning the rudiments, and an introductory book such as Fast Track or Tommy Igoe's beginner DVD. Once you feel more comfortable, I'd recommend picking up Groove Essentials and New Breed.

For stick, I generally recommend starting with Vic Firth 5B hickory sticks. Of all the sticks I've tried, those are the most absolutely average. Weight, balance, size, etc. From there you can move into thinner (5A, 7A) or thicker (2B) as you want, but 5B is a good starting place, hickory is the best wood to learn with (and play with forever, imo, but that's debatable), and Vic Firth is fairly consistent.

Vic Firth's stick size comparisons. The standard sizes used by the majority of drummers, from smallest to largest, are 7A, 5A, 5B, 2B. Everything else is just incredibly minor tweaking that some people like.

I'm sort of in the same situation as you; I'm 31 and hadn't played since I was 11. For the past two weeks, I've been spending time at the music library of my university:

1. Going through my old Dozen a Day books; I'm still on the easy ones (doing the preparatory one at the moment), but they are great for exercising the fingers.
   
2. Going through the Alfred All-In-One Course; I don't know if it's the best series for self study, but it seems to have all the qualities I was looking for: mix of theory, finger exercises, simple melodies and a progression that doesn't remind you of drawing an owl.
   
   
   I haven't started playing songs quite yet, my motricity and coordination are not quite up to par, but I found my old books such as Technic Is Fun (vol. 1-3) and a book of simple Mozart songs that I'll probably be picking up in the upcoming week.
   
   Finally, there is one thing that has been absolutely essential to get me to practice an hour every night: having fun! I remember how much of a drag I found piano when I was a kid, I would try to find ways to reduce my practice time in the weirdest possible ways; it's no wonder I quit. Whatever you decide to do, just make sure it's fun for you, otherwise you'll just be miserable.
   
   Good luck buddy!

From a recommendation by this sub, I've been learning lead blues guitar from a book called "Blues You Can Use". I can't recommend the author and book enough. He also has other books in the series, but I'd start with this one. Then, if you get through his works and still want some more work in the blues vein, the author Joseph Alexander wrote some great stuff, like The Complete Guide to Playing Blues Guitar.

After that, I recommend using a few books on the "CAGED" system of learning scales/chords/patterns. In particular, some that have helped me are Joseph Alexander's The CAGED System and also Fretboard Logic.

Then, if your head hasn't already exploded, use Justin Guitar.

Good luck!

There are many people here telling you to use the metronome, and they are right. Unfortunately not much advice is given on how to start using one.

Start really simple, start the metronome really slow ( 60 clicks per minute) and just fret play frets 1 then 2 then 3 then 4 on one string all with down strokes. count out loud or in your head "1 2 3 4" as you play those frets in sync with the clicks. You can pluck the "1" harder to remind your self that you are starting a new bar. So go ONE two three four, ONE two three four.

Then try playing 11 22 33 44. Same metronome speed, except now say in your head "One and Two and three and four and One and two, etc. " you will still pluck down on the one two three four, but on the "and"s you will pluck up, going up, down up, down.

This will get you started. to start learning basic rhythms try something like this: Modern reading in 4/4

Also, before you start tapping your foot as you play, try tapping the beat to songs you listen to, as if you are the metronome. the vast majority of songs will easily fall into "One two three four" rhythm. Try the intro to "Sweet child of mine" you can count along with the guitar "One-and-two-and-three-and-four-and" and you will notice it repeats. Then when you go to play these songs your self, you will not only hear the song in your head, but also the "beat", which will tell you exactly when to play the next note, even if the notes are not played one after another.

Go very slowly and evenly and you will get better.

The most challenging thing for me to learn I think was always sight reading. However, my guitar teacher showed me a good methodology for this, basically he split it up into the different skills you needed to sight read. One skill was reading the rhythms, which was covered by http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Reading-Text-All-Instruments/dp/0769233775 this book, Modern Reading text in 4/4 time. Which is basically a book full to the brim with rhythms. The idea is then that you tap your feet in 4/4 time on the floor and clap and vocalise what ever rhythms are written down. I used to do this for hours, and the rhythms contained in that book went from simple to just insane.

Actual note reading was covered by reading studies for guitar...

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013351/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311235782&sr=1-3

and advanced reading studies for guitar

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013351/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311235782&sr=1-3

The methodology for learning was to start ridiculously slowly, with a click at about 30bpm, and to do one note per click. This may seem insanely slow, but it helps you to become relaxed about sight reading, and also trains you to read ahead because you get bored.

This was part of the sight reading task, then after a while of doing this we moved onto sight reading notation from tunes from real books. I learned a few tips from doing this, I'll list the ones I can remember here.

1. When you first see a piece of music, scan it and find out the information listed here.
   2.Work out the structure for the piece, AABA ABAB etc, this will help you to minimize the amount of other analysis you need to do.
   
2. Check out the key signature, and time signature.
   
3. Look for the lowest and highest notes in the tune, this will help you to start off in a comfortable playing position, so you can do the whole tune without worrying about changing position, or knowing when you have to.
   
4. Look out for any accidental notes, if you know them before hand, they are less likely to throw you off.
   
5. Scan the rhythm and quickly hum the rhythm of the tune to yourself, this will also give you chance to scan through the notes once before you actually play the tune.
   
   If you follow these tips, then sight reading will eventually become easy for you, but it takes quite a lot of work to achieve this.

I'm 26 and started playing piano 2 months ago! I can't stress the impact a teacher has had on my learning!

I've been going through Alfreds Basic Adult Piano Course Music and Theory and have found it a great introduction.

This has also been supplemented with additional pieces from my tutor (I've just finished learning Motzart Minuet in F K2 and am nearly finished with Bach Minuet in G minor, BWV Anh. 115 ) which I though were challenging but fun pieces to learn :)

I guess I could have picked these books up and learnt myself, but I'd say my progress would have been a lot slower. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have as I am in a similar situation?

Alfred's All-In-One Course is the easiest and best book I've tried. I also highly recommend getting a couple of private lessons especially at the beginning to get help with hand technique and other things that you may incorrectly teach yourself.

As of keyboards, fully weighted keys are of utmost importance to learn to play with proper dynamics. I recommend the Roland FP-4

Real books are great. When you feel comfortable find a jazz jam in town, playing with people will help.

Here’s a book I enjoyed:

Building Walking Bass Lines

You should also get this book:



The Improvisers Bass Method Book

The improvisers bass method book is an industry standard. The beginning may be things you already know, but it does a great job providing you with practice techniques that will actually help translate knowledge to playing. I’d highly recommend both in addition to going through the real book. Outside of that just listen to some jazz. A lot of the key is listening. Go put on some Bill Evans or Miles or Mingus and listen to their bassists

Hi OP.

I'm 27. I had piano lessons for several years when I was a preteen. I stopped and started a few times in the past several years.

I recently picked up Alfred's piano books (I'm sure there are better options for this specific use), which contain far easier pieces to play than what I played when I was 8-9 years old.

But that means despite not knowing the sheet music, I know I can play the pieces themselves fairly easily. It's been AMAZING for me to get started sight reading again.

In other words, find pieces that are easy for you to play technically, so that when you're practicing the piece you're actually working on how to read the music, not play the piece. In my opinion, anyway.

While I'm a few years out of building my own, here's the thread that documented basically everything I did for mine: Link. I'd also highly recommend purchasing this book - there are some invaluable tips and hints scattered throughout it.

Overall mine was probably about $1000, but the main costs came from the pickups and components I used -- as a side note, good wood can be found for cheap if you do some thorough research. Additionally, I contracted out the fretboard to a local man who built guitars as a hobby, and that cost a few hundred IIRC.

As everyone else is saying, StewMac and the internet will be your best friends if you decide to move forward with building one. There are dozens of particle board/acrylic templates online that can be purchased and printed off. A good guitar can be built for only a few hundred dollars if you are patient and learn from your mistakes as you go. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

I learned a lot from taking classes and private lessons, as well as self study by reading books and analyzing music. I'm not really aware of that many good resources for jazz theory online unfortunately, but there is this site: http://community.berkleejazz.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

EDIT: I love the Jazz Piano Book, it's not really a theory book but I thought it was great. The author has also written a Jazz Theory Book which a lot people seem to like, but I haven't really gone through it yet. Some other options are the Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony and the Jazz Harmony Book

Start off by listening to a ton of jazz. Afterwards, learn your major, minor, dorian, and mixolydian scales/modes. Check youtube, there's a ton of good tutorials if you don't know them yet. Then buy a real book and start attempting to follow along with the changes. Start with just the root notes and later add the 3rds and 5ths. Here's a book that I think explains walking basslines pretty well, and another one if you're interested in soloing.



Here's a list of jazz songs most students learn early on:

Afro Blue

All Blues

All Of Me

All The Things You Are

A Night In Tunisia

Au Privave

Autumn Leaves

Beautiful Love

Black Orpheus

Blue Bossa

Blue In Green

Blue Monk

Blues For Alice

Body And Soul

Cherokee

Cotton Tail

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

A Fine Romance

Footprints

Four

Freddie Freeloader

The Girl From Ipanema

How High The Moon

How Insensitive

Lady Bird

Maiden Voyage

Misty

Mr. P.C.

My Funny Valentine

Oleo

Ornithology

Recorda-me

Red Clay

Satin Doll

So What

Song For My Father

Sugar

Take Five

Take The “A” Train

There Will Never Be Another You

Tune Up

Guitar Aerobics by Troy Nelson is a book I picked up to supplement my playing with Rocksmith. I do a daily technical exercise from it (it has 365 of them that cover a variety of techniques, starting at an easy level and working up to an advanced one.)

I'm noticing it help me with my overall playing ability and would recommend it to anyone interested in boosting their chops, regardless of level :)


Guitar Aerobics: A 52-Week, One-lick-per-day Workout Program for Developing, Improving and Maintaining Guitar Technique https://www.amazon.com/dp/1423414357/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_vhcgvb0BKS7SR

Pad, sticks, metronome, a copy of Stick Control.

You'll want to try different sizes of sticks and find what feels best in your hand. Any metronome will do, really. I have the older version of this one and it's good: http://www.tama.com/eu/products/accessories/RW200.html

I like this practice pad: http://vicfirth.com/products/accessories/practice-pads/slimpad/ - it's got a quiet side and a loud side, and it's large enough to put on my snare drum if I want to hear the snares while practicing.

Stick Control looks like this: if it's at the music store, get it! http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040/

Take your shiny new pad, sticks, and metronome, and work through Stick Control according to the instructions at the beginning of the book. Work on rudiments also, here's the best reference I've found (it's full of videos demonstrating each, plus basics like how to hold the sticks): http://vicfirth.com/40-essential-rudiments/

Read rhythms everyday, it doesn't matter what they are or what book they're from, just read them. Take it slow and sync up with a metronome so you can learn what notes line up and what don't. This a great book by Ted Reed called 'Syncopation' (jazz drummers will know what I'm talking about). There's a section near the back that is considered the bible for learning coordination, but I think it will also help your situation. I think it starts on page thirty-eight or forty and it goes through lessons one until eight. Put a metronome on and shed that stuff everyday and you'll develop some great rhythmic vocabulary as well as better yourself at reading and performing more complex rhythms. Check out this [link]http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Steps-Syncopation-Modern-Drummer/dp/0882847953/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410966323&sr=8-1&keywords=Ted+Reed%27s+syncopation) for the book!

Happy shedding!

Edit: Well... the link thing didn't work out, but you get what I mean.

No, it's never too late to start something that you could love doing until the day you die! Drumming is THE BEST, and drummers get the hottest girls anyways haha. If you've always wanted to give it a shot, do it!!

You could actually make a lot of progress being 18 with more focused practice than kids that start "playing" at 6 or so. Don't let age dictate anything regarding music, seriously.

Get a practice pad, some sticks, grab a copy of Stick Control and you're well on your way to drumming.

I'm willing to bet your college has a music program, yes? Students can usually get a discounted rate taking lessons from one of the instructors on campus, and you might be able to get access during off hours to a drum room. We had that at UMass when I went there years ago, so I would bet yours has it to.

Seriously, play the drums. It's one of the greatest decisions I've made in life.

A little late to the party but you sound just like me dude, was playing tabs and could do a few scales, but when I wanted to start playing triads and stuff, I needed to learn sheet music. I bought this book off Amazon and sat down 10 hours a week going through it. It does a good job of going string by string, showing you the notes applied to actual sheet music. There’s some tab examples but after a month or so I didn’t need them anymore. It really helps if you say the note you’re playing as you play it too.


Hal Leonard Bass Method - Complete Edition: Books 1, 2 and 3 Bound Together in One Easy-to-Use Volume! https://www.amazon.com/dp/0793563836/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_C.xyCbV7M9AWF

I'm a self taught drummer also, but I think the main thing to remember is you never want to stop learning new stuff. Start with the basics and move up from there. Like others said YouTube has great tuts. Every new drummer wants to play fast, but speed is nothing without control. Your job is to keep time, that's the main thing to remember, I sometimes forget that! This is probably one of the best books to help you: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1892764040/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I think he has a fantastic set to learn on as is. Learning on a simpler setup like this will reinforce his understanding of the basics and the roll of the drummer as a time and rhythm keeper, but that's just my opinion, and my opinions are sometimes stupid. As far as upgrades go, if he likes rock and metal, a china cymbal would be fun, and bigger crashes never hurt. He'll eventually want a double pedal, but I recommend getting a single pedal down first. My biggest piece of advice though is to get him a copy of Stick Control for the Snare Drummer. I "taught" myself how to play for 9 years, neglecting the rudiments, and it really, really hampered my progression as a drummer and a musician. Stick Control is a must-have if you're asking me. I hope he has fun playing!

Edit: typo

My advice is don't use more force than you have to and play pick closer to the bridge, there's more tension there and the resistance of strumming the string is more consistent when you start.

I personally recommend starting with pretty thin picks, but try different thicknesses to find if there is a gauge that feels better.

One of the big aspects is that you have get very good at muting strings with your left, or fretting hand when playing since you can't really mute strings while holding a pick.

For dexterity take some exercises from a drumming a booking like this one, but instead of alternating right and left hands alternate down strokes and upstrokes at low speeds and then slowly speed up. Then start to incorporate plucking string next to each doing down strokes on one and up strokes on the other. The best one to start with is paradidle (RLRRLRLL), or Down-Up-Down-Down-Up-Down-Up-Up. The goal when doing this type of practice is to make each stroke even and full.

Here are two books that helped me exponentially:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0634049011?pc_redir=1413778480&robot_redir=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/063406651X?pc_redir=1413771056&robot_redir=1

The first book helped me visualize the fretboard a lot faster, and also taught me how to form really complex chords using interval knowledge. The second book gets into some really advanced stuff like modal interchange, chord substitution, and playing with modes over extended and altered chords. I'd suggest you start with the first book as the second book ramps up really quickly and it's easy to get lost if you haven't figured out the basics yet. Oh, and there are tips on how to use the harmonic and melodic minor scales as well, which is super helpful if you want to get into jazz.

At the same time, I still use a lot of lessons from justinguitar.com because that guy is amazing at relating complex concepts to others in a simple and coherent manner.

Since you seem to enjoy working through things on your own, I'd suggest working from front-to-back with a good bass method book, like Ed Friedland's 3-volume set. You'll be able to move through the early material easily, but it will force you to read. Reading is essential to moving forward and you can't really develop a complete understanding of theory if you can't read.

As others have said, joining a band is a great idea for moving past your plateau. In addition, you can use playalongs (music with all the instruments except for bass) from youtube, the web at large, or through programs like Band-in-a-Box or apps like iRealb. These are all good for working on rhythm and developing your own lines.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446&ved=0ahUKEwiKosmdlMzNAhWLOSYKHU0YDTUQFghxMAk&usg=AFQjCNFdItV_cTSzTFwtY_uszIdXP2pM5w

That's an exercise book by Hanon. As far as I know, it's pretty well known. The begining exercises are super easy, but towards the middle and end, they are good at making your fingers do paterns and things they don't commonly do. I'll pick one out and do it as a warm up kind of thing regularly. They are good for flexibility and dexterity. I would recommend, especially if you don't have a piano teacher making you do runs, arpeggios and everything else.

Hello! This question has surely been answered before, but this is definitely the thread to ask it in again. I started learning piano at the beginning of this year by taking a class at my university, and what really kept me going was the weekly lessons. We used Alfred's all in one adult piano book 1 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0882848186/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=1944687542&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0739013335&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=13PYJQZQ6C25YD6GVMVW , which progressed at a perfect pace, and I was assigned anywhere from 20 pages a week in the beginning to 4 by the end of the semester, until the book was completed and the year was over. I guess the questions I'm asking are for good incentives to stick to a regular routine of practicing (i.e. the little gpa booster the class was for me before) and more importantly, if I should move to alfred's book 2 or if anyone knows of a piano book that picks up from the basic skills I've learned yet has slightly more intriguing music! Thank you so much in advance :D

The Louis Bellson Book

This is for jazz syncopation. Can practice this without the bass. Just tapping your foot and tapping your hand on your knee or whatever.

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The Applebaum Book

This is for more modern/contemporary pit band / session type of stuff, but still valuable.

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There are also smartphone apps like "Read Rhythm" and sites like "SightReadingFactory.com" but I prefer the books above for rhythm-only stuff.

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Best way to learn two-feel is to transcribe a ton of two-feel. Transcribe the all the two-feel choruses Bob Cranshaw plays on this tune. That should add some variety to your lines. Or what Don Bagley does on this tune. (Or anything that Ray Brown, Scott Lafaro and Eddie Gomez ever did in two feel).

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I'm working through Troy Nelson's Guitar Aerobics at the moment, and it's really excellent. What makes it is the structure: 365 exercises, one for each day of the year. The techniques repeat on each day of the week. e.g. Monday is always an alternate-picking exercise, Wednesday is always a string-bending exercise, etc. The exercises build on each other, they start off easy and get progressively more difficult. But they do so in an incremental and logical way so you don't feel lost (at least I'm not so far, 6 weeks in).

I'm finding it great to help nail the various techniques....you practice a 2-bar hammer-on lick for half an hour, you'll get the technique pretty well down. Whereas if it was part of a longer song, it'd be easy to half-ass it and move on to the next bit before you'd really got it right.

The structure of the book, where you have your practice plan laid out for you for the next year, is a good motivator too.

1. http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764040
   
   rudimentary technique book, one of the standards.
   
   
2. http://www.amazon.com/Fundamental-Studies-Snare-Garwood-Whaley/dp/1617270245/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398263911&sr=1-10&keywords=whaley
   
   another rudimentary book, another one of the standards.
   
   
3. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/microMETROBL?device=c&network=g&matchtype=&gclid=CM2KgZzr9r0CFchQ7AodyicAQw
   
   first metronome i pulled up under 20$. essential.
   
   
4. http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Weapons-Modern-Drummer-DVD/dp/B000S6TNLI
   
   DVD by Jojo Mayer, who has (imo) one of the best stick techniques in the business. Really great video examples of proper stick grip, and various techniques regarding rebound and bounce.
   
   
5. Have fun!! Never forget about innovation and creativity. You can use the best technique in the world, and still sound absolutely inhuman and arrhythmic. Don't be afraid to just play what you feel.
   
   edit: me not word good. changed #4 around for redundancies.
   
   

My advice:

Buy this book to learn your scales.

Buy this book to strengthen your fingers.

Google how to read sheet music. You can learn the basics from many sources.

I recommend the PianoWorld Adult Beginner's Forum to hang out at.

Search the google, search that forum, and browse the index of quarterly recitals on the forum to find beginner level music that you enjoy listening to.

Find the sheet music for the pieces you'd like to learn on IMSLP. It is best as a beginner to find version with suggested fingerings (small numbers near the notes).

And get to work learning what you want to learn. Print the sheets, study them, take a pencil to them, write the notes in English to help you learn to read.

You'll undoubtedly come across symbols you won't recognize from your basic google search. When that happens, look the symbol up here.

Many people recommend the Alfred books and such, and though I'll admit I've never tried them, I have seen many people lose steam because the music in the Alfred books isn't appealing to them.

It won't happen overnight, but if you truly are interested you will stick with it. The method I have outlined is what I did. I took two lessons and didn't like them. It's been nearly five years but I am at the point where I can learn to play Chopin preludes and nocturnes, and sound half-decent. I don't claim to be an expert, but you can learn to play piano as a hobby with minimal resources.

As always it starts with playing something very simple and singing over that... playing quarter note chords on the piano with a few chords and figuring out a melody with your voice is a great way to start... watch some videos of people playing and singing at the same time, you'll notice that the parts they play will sometimes get simplified when they are singing, and then become more intricate when they can focus on just the parts.

I would like to point out that many piano books aren't actually the exact way the artist plays the song, in fact most of the songbooks include the melody line in the right hand that should be sung, and not played...

If you were to get the Beatles Score Book, you'll quickly realize that a lot of the melody lines are sung over a chord progression that is much easier than playing the chord progression and the melody line while singing the melody line as well...

Your questions are pretty broad theory questions and the FAQ should cover most of them or at least help point you in the right direction. If you've been playing for 15 years but don't know what a Cmaj7 is, you have a hill to climb, but not an impossible one.

It seems like your questions are theory based, you already know basic chords, so start with learning basic music theory. What notes make a scale?, Do you know your notes on the fretboard?, What notes of a scale do I use to make a chord? What are intervals? You don't have to be an expert in theory to be a great guitarist , but you have to know the basics, and should be able to answer these questions. This book is a great resource.

The guy who suggested rudiments is absolutely correct.

Proper technique is hugely important, so reading up on or watching some videos about that will help you immensely, if you haven't already.

I would also suggest finding and practicing some stick control exercises. Stick Control by George Lawrence Stone is a great book filled with really helpful exercises.

Listening to, watching, and playing jazz can be a great help as well.

Source: percussionist for ten years

Get this book. It's been a tremendous help to me.

I also recommend getting the free trial of Scott's Bass Lessons and going through the Bass Guitar Foundations course.

With learning any instrument, you have to learn to crawl before you can walk, walk before you can run. Having strong fundamental skills will save you a lot of frustration down the road.

I'm not much of a pick player, but I've watched one of my favorite bassists who exclusively uses a pick, and she anchors her pinky finger below the bottom string on the body of the bass. I tried it, and I found it helpful. She (and, I believe, most pick players do this) also wraps her thumb over the top of the fretboard to mute the top string when she's playing the string beneath it, and when she frets a note, she uses that finger to mute the strings below it. Here's a video of her playing (it's an acoustic bass, but everything still applies).

I think this is pretty well written, it's stickied in the BHO Theory subforum and covers the essentials well: common chord progressions and scales that go well in the context of the particular chord in the progression (and somebody also asks about what keys songs are in) http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/71709.

That theory subforum doesn't get a lot of threads but there is a lot of good explanations in older threads

What book/s are you using with your teacher? Most of them cover chords and scales in the context of soloing and playing backup rolls or vamping. You could look at the books by Ned Luberecki and Janet Davis and Trischka's Complete 5 string wehre they gradually introduce basic bluegrass chord progressions, pentatonic, blues and diatonic (8 notes/octave) scales.

Also if you play guitar i remember Kolb's book being good: https://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X

If I were you I'd look into Justin Guitar for a solid base and to just get you playing songs. He's produces the best internet lessons I've seen and they're all free. He's an amazing teacher and is very entertaining in his lessons. Start with the beginner's course and work your way to intermediate and then into specific areas you want to learn.

I also enjoyed this book. It covers basic music theory and how to navigate the guitar.

Short answer is with your wrist. You also want to ingrain good habits now, that will help you with string skipping, speed, etc, later. First, don't hold the pick between the tips of your fingers and definitely don't use your fingers to move the pick. The fingers hold the pick, your wrist is what moves it. The pick should rest between your thumb tip and the side of your index finger (not the tip). Tighten your grip by making a complete fist, rather than squeezing two fingers.

It's best to not anchor your pinky/ring finger onto the body of the guitar for stability. If you're making a fist, you'll be less inclined to do this. Try to train for accuracy without anchoring and it will pay dividends later. Ideally your only anchor should be your forearm against the guitar body's edge. Lightly anchoring the wrist against the bridge is OK, and sometimes actually necessary to mute strings, either to palm mute the string actually being played, or to silence the lower strings when playing the higher ones not being muted.


You should also be angling your pick on two separate planes. The more important of these being the string horizontal plane. That is, you don't want to hold your pick perfectly horizontal to the string, but rather angle it a bit so your downstroke strikes with the nut (headstock) end of the pick first (the other end being the bridge side). You also want to pick in such a way that your downstroke ends slightly under the strings and your upstroke ends slightly above. Not as important as the horizontal plane, but this second tip will help with moving from string to string.

Start practicing your alternate picking on a single string, using just a single finger on your fretting hand, if necessary.

Use Amazon's "look inside" feature to check out the first exercise in this book. Once you can do that, you can progress to multi-string patterns. With multi-string patterns, you'll have to be more mindful of upstrokes and downstrokes, as they relate to the movement from string to string, but always try to stick to the up/down repitition and try to avoid throwing in consecutive down/down or up/up.

Use a metronome and start as slow as necessary to maintain accuracy. Once you can repeat a pattern flawlessly, bump up the BPM's, rinse, repeat.

EDIT: Fixed Link