• Registered: 2009-12-22
  • Posts: 1

Topic: piano player trying to play guitar

hey guys.
I'm a piano player trying to learn guitar and it's been real difficult looking at guitar without looking at from piano stand point.

With the keys, I look for what chords are in the major scale such as the 1, 4, 5. (ex: key of C= C, F, G, Am- relative minor)

Is there a chard some where that will show me the easiest voicings for the chords in all or some of the major scales?

If any of you guys have any other tips for a pianist trying to make the cross over, I'm very interested.

Thanks

2 Reply by Stonebridge (edited by Stonebridge 2010-01-01 10:38:32)

  • From: Cardiff, Wales, UK
  • Registered: 2008-08-25
  • Posts: 182

Re: piano player trying to play guitar

Having started as a pianist (and still one) who has learned guitar, my best advice is to forget the piano keyboard when thinking about the guitar fretboard. It is unhelpful. You just have to learn anew where to put your fingers and practice, practice, practice.
Regarding chords and harmonies; it's useful to be able to visualise chords and chord progressions on the keyboard. It helps with knowing which chords to play on the guitar, but doesn't help with knowing how to fret them.
You just have to learn the shapes for the chords you need. If you want to play melody, you need to learn the scales.
There are plenty on here who will give advice on these things.
Good luck.

  • From: Alabama Gulf Coast
  • Registered: 2008-06-24
  • Posts: 1,819

Re: piano player trying to play guitar

I have been trying to convince my lovely niece, Phaedra,who graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music as a operatic soprano vocalist and pianist to take up guitar. I bought her one when she was in school but she resisted learning to play it.
Piano is a vastly superior instrument if you have one handy but a guitar is so much more portable.
After singing and dancing at Busch Gardens in Virginia and a stint in some Broadway shows, she married and settled down to teaching and playing  piano/organ in church as well as choir directing.
Her private vocal teaching would be easier if she could play guitar since most private homes lack a piano.
She bought a nice Epiphone acoustic and I showed her how to restring it. She knows most basic chord shapes but I was able to show her some short cuts like the four-string Bb, making G with her pinky on the first string-3rd fret (quick change to C) and how to wrap her thumb around the neck to play the 6th string on a barre F.
I really like the way Ms. Phaedra turned out.
If she pursues guitar like she did piano, dance and vocal, she will be a killer player in no time.
toots

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4 Reply by christopaul (edited by christopaul 2010-01-11 22:56:45)

  • From: Rhondda, South Wales, UK
  • Registered: 2009-01-19
  • Posts: 120

Re: piano player trying to play guitar

Piano a superior instrumet to a guitar. Go wash your mouth out with soap and don't come back until you have understood the error of your ways. big_smile

I see friends holdiong hands, saying "How do you do"
They're really saying, "I love you"
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  • mja155
  • Junior Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2010-02-08
  • Posts: 4

Re: piano player trying to play guitar

Yeah I played the piano for about 6 years until I quit and started on the guitar. It feels really weird but now that I've been playing the guitar for about 8 years now I find the piano really weird to play. Like stonebridge said, you need to forget about the piano keyboard when it comes to guitar. If you practise on the guitar enough then you will get used to the distinct shapes and patterns the notes make on the fret board when it comes to playing chords and scales.

6 Reply by butlersdog (edited by butlersdog 2011-07-07 02:14:54)

  • Registered: 2011-05-04
  • Posts: 9

Re: piano player trying to play guitar

Try to really understand every aspect of the instrument, I guess. In that way, you would be able to really get things done and work it well in the long run. I just hoped that it would help you out in the long run.
____________________________________-
how to play guitar

  • From: Bellevue, WA
  • Registered: 2006-06-15
  • Posts: 3,336

Re: piano player trying to play guitar

Learn C A G E and D, and you will have the foundation for pretty much everything else you'll do.  The keyboard is a vastly superior tool for learning theory, but it isn't going to help you with the guitar.  The theory you know from the keyboard will, though.  "Looking for the I IV and V" is the same no matter what instrument you're playing.

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