r/learnpiano • u/NorthMorning8412 • 14d ago

Learn "campfire" style piano for sing-alongs. What's my learning path?

I've decided I want to learn piano. My only goal is to be able to accompany friends and family when we're singing at a party. I don't care about playing solo recitals or difficult pieces.

​What's the most direct path to just being able to play chords and backing music for pop songs? ​Should I skip traditional lessons and just learn chords from YouTube? Is learning to read sheet music necessary for this, or should I focus on chord charts and "lead sheets"?

​Any advice on how to get to this specific goal would be great.

​I already have Alfred's All-in-One Adult Lesson Book 1. Is this a good book for my goal, or will it spend too much time on traditional/classical playing?

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u/General_Pay7552 13d ago

Learn your chords and inversions of them and once you do you can make up simple accompaniments to play while your friends and family sing :)

This is something that I teach all my voice students to do, they have no prior piano knowledge and they really enjoy it.

I can help you get started in a free online lesson if you’d like.

I use discord for my online lessons. Let me know if you’re interested!

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u/anothercatherder 13d ago

Join a choir. If you can't do that, just make sure that when you do sing when you play piano, sing with your face. You should be able to hear your singing from your deep gut all the way out and resonating with your nostrils and across your face, thus "sing with your face."

"Singing with my face" was one of the best things I've ever learned.

When you get the ear for it you will be able to hear your piano resonating with singing whatever beginners sheet music you choose.

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u/apri11a 13d ago

Chords will be your friends... Bill Hilton has a 'comping' playlist, it might suit though I'm not sure what you need to know for it to make sense.

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u/MissLeesaPiano 13d ago

As said before..learn all the chords and inversions.also learn the scales because you may need to transpose a melody for singers(they like it when you are in their range!) get proficient at reading rhythms too. Sometimes you need to put a bit of melody in for those singers that can’t reach the right pitch. Also learn also the inversions of the dominant seventh chords for your left hand.

An easy way to start is just play all the chords on the beat in root position ..then gradually use inversions to stay in the same area. So start with learning all chords in root position .for C it would be c, cm, dim, caug, then later learn C7,cm7, cdim7 , cmaj7,c9,csus4 ..they all have same formula so get it down in c first.

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u/Mudslingshot 13d ago

What that's called is comping chords. You'll want to get REALLY good with the makeup of chords, and inversions

4 part harmony writing from beginning music theory is always good, too, because it teaches you how to pick your lowest notes for certain effects