I finally bit the bullet and got a keyboard (music, not computer) to make music faster and easier. Any good (free) places on the net to learn how to play the thing?
http://www.8notes.com/ (includes beginners lessons so this might be one worth to check out first)
http://www.music-scores.com/ - Free classic score sheets
http://www.freesheetmusic.net/ - Miscellaneous links to free sheet music.
You tube interactive lessons:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer…p;search=Search
Hmmm… Except for 8notes, those were all teaser lessons. One or two free, then you have to pay for the rest. The 8notes lessons were on basic music theory, not keyboarding.
Thank you though. I’ll probably come back to the 8note music theory once I figure out where to put my hands on the keyboard.
cheers for that 8notes one, it is just what ive been looking for, i did have a book on music theory, but this seems better 
If you want to have a few snappy tricks from my sleeves: Use the black keys as your base for anything, you can easily create chords without picking a wrong key and you can fiddle up and down in melody without picking the wrong key too swiftly.
To train your finger positions usually ladder-training is applied for that, but i guess you could get this from the basic training.
For score reading, that is a different thing, i am personally not really into scores… i can read them if i digg into this again, but i’m not a swell player by playing note-music right from the book.
But isn’t that more than enough? To be able to dig into a tune you like and learn to play it by heart? Playing right from the book is for people who do contests or something IMHO 
I’ll get a keyboard too, have been wanting one for a long time… even a cheap one is better than nothing, it’s kind of a shame to be musical and not play an instrument! Tracking is great but… not the same. If tracking is writing, playing an instrument is speaking I guess.
I use to blame the instruments for not being compatible to my way of playing them. They’re just not intuitive. The keys are never where I expect them to be. It gets worse: They change their places. If I’m thinking of a melody that goes up and down, I can’t just play the keys up and down. All the time the notes are somewhere else. Really, Renoise should have a proper interface for jamming. Or maybe Microsoft will offer DirectBrain somewhen.
A keyboard is not a record player (you seem to me more a type to play records than keyboards 
)… in perspective with a record player is placechanging something that rather happens on a recordplayer than on a keyboard.
I would like to witness your keyboard changing places while you play.
or get a Pad Kontrol / Finger Trigger type midi controller set the pads to one or two scales… and bang the thing away. You’ll never make a mistake… tricky, tricky…
Guys, keyboards changing their notes, DirectBrain, special interface in Renoise… helloooo?
Actually, Pianonanny seems pretty good. I’m learning something anyway, and may someday be able to actually play this stupid thing.
http://www.pianonanny.com/start.html
Quote from Johann
“I’ll get a keyboard too, have been wanting one for a long time… even a cheap one is better than nothing, it’s kind of a shame to be musical and not play an instrument! Tracking is great but… not the same. If tracking is writing, playing an instrument is speaking I guess.”
It is WORLDS apart! With longhand tracking (slotting notes in the track manually) you piece the track together bit by bit. With a keyboard, you turn “record note delays” on and simply play the piece.
One note: Get a keyboard that has velocity control. That means when you hit the key softly it will play the note softly, and when you hit it hard it will play it loud. Here’s a good low-price one:
http://www.amazon.com/CASIO-CTK900-Velocit…9207&sr=1-2