Musical Instrument Guide

If you are learning how to play piano, it is very important that you have a piano at home for you to practice. Without it, you will not be able to practice constantly and it will hinder your progress.

And considering the fact that the cost of piano is not cheap, you will need to be very careful in selecting and buying a piano; you will want to ensure that your investment is going to last for a long time.

Below are some tips for you to consider when you plan to buy a piano:

1. Decide on your budget

The price of piano can vary wildly, depending on its make and quality. It can cost between a few hundreds dollars to several thousand dollars. So, you need to determine the maximum amount of money that you will pay for the piano and stick to it.

2. Decide on the type of piano

You are basically looking at two options: electric piano or acoustic piano? Acoustic piano will take up more space than an electric piano, but, the sound will be better. Besides that, you need to make sure that you have room in your home for the piano.

3. Check out the market

Never buy something that you don’t know the price range. Find out about the pricing of new and used piano advertised daily in the newspaper or you can go online and search for prices as well as reviews from several piano website. Have a feel of the cost of the piano will be helpful.

4. Decide on new or used piano

New piano will be more expensive than a used or second hand piano. If you have budget constraint or new to piano and don’t know if your interest will last long, why not consider getting a used or second hand piano. Before you buy any used piano, make sure that you get someone to check it out for any possible defect or problem.

5. Seek advice

It is good to ask someone who has experience in piano on which piano to buy. They can be your piano teacher, piano tuner, music teacher, friends or relative. Seek their advice before making any decision, especially if you are getting a used piano.

6. Visit showroom

Go to the musical instrument showroom and ask the sales persons for help. Find out which piano is the most popular within your budget and which is the most suitable for beginners.

7. Play and listen

Most important before buying piano, you need to try playing it. If you don’t know how to play the piano, ask someone to go along and play for you to listen. Make sure that you feel extremely comfortable with the sound and piano as ultimately, you will be the one playing it.

Knowing how to play musical instrument is fun and enjoyable, especially when you are learning to play your favorite music songs. But, not everyone can play song just by hearing it; you will need to have a sheet music in order for you to be able to play that particular song.

And that brings out a question: are you willing to pay for the piano sheet music, guitar sheet music, saxophone sheet music or any other instrument sheet music?

If you are willing to pay, then it is quite easy as there are many online websites that are selling them through download. If you don’t want to pay, as in most people, then, it will be a bit harder as it will take a much longer time for you to find free sheet music.

Despite that, you can still find and download free piano and guitar sheet music online, though most will be classical sheet music as they mainly sit in the public domain. You may be able to find pop, jazz and some popular of contemporary piece, but, it will be very rare.

Here are a few ways that you can go about to find free piano and guitar sheet music.

Search For It

Hit the search engine like Google, Yahoo or MSN and try to search for very detailed terms for the sheet music you are looking for. Don’t simply go for the term “sheet music” as the scope is too wide and you will have a hard time searching. For example, if you are looking for Celine Dion sheet music, enter terms like
Celine Dion free sheet music
My Heart Will Go On free sheet music

Guitar Tablature

If you are skilled in improvisation, this method will be very useful regardless whether you are pianist or using other musical instruments. As guitar tablature gives you the lyrics and chords of a song and is available for almost any song, you can try to play the chords and get yourself familiar with the melody and rhythm. You will be able to get a good feel on how to play the song.

Forums

There are many musical forums available and you will meet many like minded people there. You can exchange opinions, seek advices and even get new sources for sheet music in the forum. People are generally friendly and helpful, so, check out the various forums.

Notation software

Notation software is a tool that helps to translate the Midi music files into sheet music and all you have to do is to look for the Midi files for your favorite song; and it is a lot easier to look for the Midi files than the sheet music on the web. Take note that there is paid and free version notation software, with paid version having more functionality. For the purpose of just getting the sheet music, the free version will be sufficient