Whats the fastest way for a beginner to learn a song

Question

I would like to know how to play bizarre love triangle on piano. Sheet music can be found here: http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0130187. What would be the fastest way to learn how to play this song for someone who has no piano experience, would it be by lessons or by just learning music theory in order to decipher the notes myself and then try to play,tell me if Im wrong but it seems to me that it would take longer to learn by lessons since they teach you more than just music theory, which is benneficial but i just want to play the song. By looking at the sheet music is this a intermidiate or advance level type of song?

Thank you so much for your help.

Answer 1

Reading music is not really very difficult. Reading music well is an advanced skill, but if you can learn enough to slowly decipher which key on the piano to hit by where the shapes are on the staves and you've got the recording to give you the timing, it's possible to play something with only very basic skill in reading music. However, there is much more to playing piano than hitting the right note at the right time, especially if you don't want to cause damage to your hands. IMHO, if you want to go from zero to playing an intermediate piece, you'll get there quicker by learning beginner pieces and exercises first. If you try to take on something that is just too demanding for the stage you are at, you will probably become very frustrated at the lack of progress and give up.

EDIT: I may have come across as a bit disparaging. I don't want you to give up on playing piano. If you can find a good piano teacher, they should be able to get you started on that piece within a very few sessions by intermingling it with general exercises and parts of the song in such a way that you are not overwhelmed, but broken up so that you can notice your progress.

Answer 2

If you want to kick off your interest in playing piano by learning just the one song, you have several options.

As mentioned in answer by Dave Halsall, you can learn to translate the notes on the staves to the keys on the piano one at a time and painstakingly learn to play the song one measure at a time.

If you know someone who plays piano and reads sheet music, you could have them demonstrate how to play the song for you. If you do this, you should video tape the demo. Perhaps you should have them play it very slowly in addition to full tempo, so you can watch the slow version of the video as you learn. Having the video will prove quite valuable as you will need to watch it literally hundreds of times.

Another alternative is to find a tutorial on YouTube (or a cover) and learn to play the song by watching someone else. You can pause and replay one section at a time as you learn the song, measure by measure. There are video editing programs that will allow you to alter the playback speed if you download your favorite YouTube version and upload into the video editor.

When learning to play a song through memorization of a video tutorial, you will want to learn one small section at a time. Perhaps start with just the first four measures and practice that over and over until you can play it well - then add the next few measures. As you practice, start super slow. A metronome (can be found on line for free) will help tremendously. After you memorize the fingering for the notes for the section you are working on, practice playing in time with a metronome. Start with a ridiculously slow speed until you are able to play it with no mistakes. Then speed it up a little and continue at the new speed until you can play it error free. Continue this process until you are at full tempo. Then you will be ready to move to the next section.

If you have a digital piano or keyboard that has either a USB or MIDI jack, you can connect your keyboard to a computer and use one of the Guitar Hero style piano game programs with falling notes such as Synthesia or PianoCrumbs. These programs don't teach you proper fingering but might help you learn to hit the right keys on the piano at the right time. You can slow down the speed as much as needed and also set in a mode where it pauses until you hit the correct note.

With these type programs, you find a MIDI file of the song from a site like this Free MIDI Bizarre Love Triangle

Regardless of which method you use to learn this song, it will take dedication, practice, perseverance and time - lot's of time. But the good news is, if you do learn to play this song, it will be much easier to learn more songs and if you decide to get serious about learning to play piano, you will have a head start on learning basic rhythm and timing and coordinating left and right hand.

If you do get more serious about learning to play piano, It would be extremely beneficial to find a qualified teacher to at least help you learn some basics such as proper posture, fingering, positioning, etc. before you develop bad habits that could contribute to repetitive stress injuries or otherwise impede your progress. You don't have to learn theory and reading music if you don't want to, but I encourage you to at least learn some of the basic mechanics of physically playing the keyboard.

Have fun.