Some have a natural musical ability, others would like to play music but feel they don’t have any skills, and there are those that play by ear (They hear a tune and can easily transpose it to the keyboard).

All can benefit from lessons, with the first learning how to put his musical ideas down, the second learning how music is made up and the third can learn how to commit his memory to hard copy.

A straight instrument (No backing features) is the most difficult learn, (but ultimately is the most satisfying) as everything has to be played by the one person. (Piano, Organ etc.)

An instrument with backing (Piano, Organ, Arranger etc.) can be very helpful in the learning process as it allows the player to sound good earlier in their learning curve, (Thus helping them to maintain interest) however, unfortunately a lot of them (Particularly if they only have one keyboard) tend to stay at this stage, rather than moving forward to find their full capabilities.

It is fairly easy to identify which is which, as the more experienced will develop their own style and use backing to just enhance their performance, whereas the others will sound pretty much the same as each other as they are effectively just playing along to a backing.

If you look at the more experienced musicians, they do not have a lot of backing tracks (Styles are just backings) as they prefer to stand out by being individual.

Depending where you are in the world will determine what teachings are available, with Asia being the top, as their parents push their youngsters to learn to play. (You will find many on YouTube that have fantastic playing skills, but ultimately it sounds cold as they are just playing the notes, rather than the music) Europe is also reasonably well supported as a lot of manufactures (Yamaha in particular) encourage it. (There are also professional exams available for those that are interested) The US on the other hand seems to be more limited with the most common probably being the Lowrey Organ teaching school. (Not much use if you don’t have a Lowrey though)

There are also many self-teaching books available (Many with a CD to show you how it should sound) which are a great help if you have no teachers local.

Most learners usually play a keyboard as if it is an organ, no matter what sound they are using, as they do not realise that to mimic an instrument requires more than playing the notes, and this is where a good teacher comes in.

If you understand how music is put together and how instruments work, then you will always be way ahead of those that don’t.

If you don’t have formal teaching in the early stages (Either via a teacher, DVD or books etc.) then you will develop bad habits which are very difficult to overcome at later stages.

There are always some people who just cannot play no matter what they do, and so usually move onto other things.

When new keyboards come out (Particularly Arranger Keyboards) you will soon see plenty on eBay as their owners find they cannot make it sound like the demonstrator did. (This is because the demonstrator is paid to show all the easy play features that will make the customer sound great, and miss out the fact that you still have to know about how music works to get that realistic sound)

There are many self-teaching information out there, so just do a Google search to find one that is suitable

Bill