Learning Beginner Piano Basics
Have you often dreamed of playing the piano, but feel it is a dream out of your reach? I was exactly like you before I stumbled upon some basic piano lessons which totally transformed my view. Not only did I learn to play the piano, but it had a true impact on my life.
Right from my very first lesson, the way I viewed the piano changed. I realized suddenly that the keys on the piano make a pattern and that pattern allows the keys to be separated into sections. When you break the piano down in such a manner it suddenly doesn’t seem so daunting or confusing. I never realized that the keys could be looked at individually rather than as a collective group.
It all started with simple lessons in material I already had before me. I realized that it was quite fun to try out the new ideas presented in each lesson and later on even tested myself to see how much I had improved. I learned to practice playing and writing notes, clapping rhythms, and eventually stringing together melodies. The more I practiced these things the more improvement I could hear. Read more
Time after time, I have come across pianists who cannot read music well and rely on memorization to save them. Do you admire pianists who can just pick up any piece of sheet music and play without stumbling? If you want to take your sight reading to the next level then check out the piano course "Mastering The Art Of Piano Sight Reading!"
Learn Minor Piano Scales
Note: Please pay close attention to this lesson as you will need to know minor scales when forming minor chords.
Minor Piano Scales:
2 Steps to Playing a Minor Scale:
1. Find the relative major key of the minor scale that you want to play. (Either refer to the chart above or find what scale has the keynote of the minor scale you want to play as it’s 6th tone … since the minor scale is also the Aeolian mode of a scale.)
2. Play the relative major key starting and ending on the sixth degree. (The 6th degree of the relative major key should be the keynote of the minor scale that you want to play. You can also verify the relative major key by counting 3 half steps to the right. If it takes more or less than 3 half steps to get to the relative major key, then the relative major key you have chosen is not correct.)
Natural Minor Scales
If you haven’t read our article on “Learning to Play Absolutely Any Song by Ear in Virtually Minutes,” then visit the link below …
http://www.learningtoplaypiano.net/learn-to-play-piano-by-ear/
Play Piano Resources
If you want to play piano, then you are in luck! Below is a massive list of the Internet’s top piano lessons and resources …
Piano History
Pianos:
- Buying a Keyboard – There are many different questions when it comes to buying a keyboard. How much should I pay, how many keys it needs and so on. A lot of it really depends on the buyer and your own personal preference.
- Caring For a Piano – Practical tips and advice about caring for your piano.
History:
- Jazz Piano History – There are different types of jazz music, each with their own origin and style.
Piano Lessons
Free Lessons:
- Piano Tutorials And Video – Take your piano playing to the next level: Mastering the piano techniques successfully used by professionals.
- Musician Transformation – Discover how you can use ta free chart to easily find and fix your most frustrating problems hindering you from getting to the next level in your gospel playing.
- Hear and Play 705 – Free 34-minute video reveals how to start playing by ear and quickly & easily figuring out the key to any song within minutes.
Adult Lessons:
- Rocket Piano – YOU can learn how to play piano using our FREE LESSONS, step by step instructions, tutorials, jam tracks and famous songs!
- Learn & Master – Is by far the world’s most complete video instruction course for learning recreational piano. It was designed to walk you through from start to finish – even if you’re taking piano lessons for the very first time.
- Piano For All – Imagine being able to sit down at a piano and just PLAY – Pop, Blues, Jazz, Ragtime, Ballads, even incredible Classical pieces? Now you can.. and you can do it in months not years!
Children Lessons:
- Piano Wizard – An amazingly simple video game that can virtually teach anyone how to play REAL piano music in minutes.
- Piano Is Fun – Fun piano software to help children and adult beginners learn to read piano notes.
Piano By Ear Lessons:
- Hear and Play – This course is a 300 page ebook that includes charts, diagrams, notations and techniques. It also comes with a CD-ROM that contains several bonuses.
- Piano System – A massive training package by Nate Bosch – with four DVDs, two play-along CDs, and two professionally printed workbooks.
Jazz Lessons:
- Jazz 101 – In this 2-hour, 2-disc set of step-by-step instruction, you’ll be taken by the hand and shown, step-by-step, how to master TONS of award-winning jazz tips, tricks, and techniques as well as signature soloing secrets that’ll have you sounding like a pro very soon.
- Jazz 201 – In this 5-hour, 4-disc set of practical instruction, you’ll discover how to overcome fear when it comes to improvising and learn what it takes to play runs, licks, and solos with ease.
Gospel Lessons:
- GospelKeys 101 – This dvd course will teach you everything you need to know to get started playing basic hymns and congregational songs.
- GospelKeys 202 – Learn the secrets behind how chords, progressions, and patterns are formed – which means you’ll have what it takes to easily learn new worship songs BY EAR on your own!
- GospelKeys 300 – This dvd course will teach you everything you need to know to play just about any praise song you can think of.
- GospelKeys 500 – In three steps, you’ll learn everything from left-hand bass runs, right-hand fill-ins and chordal movements, “cool-downs,” advanced stride techniques, basic progressions, and much more!
- GospelKeys Master Class – Now you can learn tons of extremely personal secrets from one of the best gospel musicians to ever touch the keyboard… Michael Bereal!
- GospelKeys Ministry Musician – uncover tons of contemporary gospel secrets from one of the baddest gospel musicians in the industry today, Mr. Jason White!
Chord Lessons:
- Power Piano Chords - Who else wants to learn chords for one buck a lesson?
- Hear & Play Chords – Discover how to form various types of chords: major, minor, diminished, augmented and the easy theory behind them. DO NOT BE INTIMIDATED.
- Tritone Xtravaganza – Use these Tritone techniques to take your piano & keyboard playing to new heights.
Urban Lessons:
- GospelKeys Urban Pro 600 – A way to quickly and easily play all the latest contemporary urban chords, progressions, licks, and tricks by ear.
- GospelKeys Urban Pro 625 – Play better than you’ve ever played before in half the time with these 57 phat-sounding, contemporary worship chords.
- Urban Worship Classic – Find out how to make all your worship songs sound contemporary in a matter of minutes …
Christmas Piano Lessons:
- Christmas Keys – A way to sit down at the piano and easily play all your favorite Christmas classics in less than 3 hours – without sheet music!
- Christmas Piano DVD – These 2 DVD’s are chock full of special instructions and techniques – lessons available no where else but here. If you ever wanted to experience the joy of playing Christmas “improv” – everything you’ll need to know is in this step by step course.
Piano Fingering Exercises:
- Hanon Exercises – These are exercises specifically designed to train the pianist in speed, precision, agility, independence, dexterity, and strength of all of the fingers (and wrist too!).
- Hand Coordination Techniques – Accomplished pianist finally breaks the musical code and develops a step-by-step piano lesson and system unleashing the secrets to playing piano with two hands and better hand eye coordination.
Piano Sheet Music:
- Virtual Sheet Music – They currently have a high quality growing digital sheet music archives as well MIDI and Mp3 audio files, which include over 6,500 unique single compositions and collections (over 1,500 items), that are updated regularly.
- Sheet Music Plus – All Piano music, including songbooks, solos, duets, play alongs and methods at Sheet Music Plus.
Organ Lessons:
- GospelKeys Organ Collection – A step-by-step way to quickly and easily master praise & devotional songs, worship chords, and shouting music… ALL on the organ!
Ear Training Software:
- PITCH Ear-Training Software – A learning tool that drills you on notes, scales, chords, intervals, and even allows you to sing and mimic what you hear (using the microphone on your computer or a USB headset mic).
- Pitch Master Pro – Utilizes your brain’s natural ability to recall bits of information in quick succession. With this unique approach you will be able to memorize notes, intervals, chords, and scales extremely fast!
Piano Tuning & Repair:
- Concert Pitch Piano Services – Piano/Keyboard/Organ Appraisals, Piano Price Lists, Piano Age Lookup And More.
- Professional Piano Tuning Kit – This kit includes all of the tools that you will need to properly tune your piano.
- Piano Tuning, Repair & Rebuilding – This is the complete course in professional piano tuning, repairing and rebuilding.
Further Piano Resources:
- Teach Piano – This book it includes all the tips, tricks and techniques you’ll need to set up your piano teaching business, starting today!
- American Pianists Association – If you develop your talent to a professional degree, you might want to contact this organization. It is dedicated to promoting the careers of concert-level classical and jazz
pianists around the nation, between the ages of 18 and 30. - Music Teachers National Association – This association is for certified music teachers and teachers who wish to become certified. If you are looking for a certified piano teacher in your area, the association has a teacher finder that you can use to search their database.
Fingerings For Major Piano Scales
Correct fingering is very important. The following fingerings are for the left and right hand only when playing major scales.
When playing a major scale, always put the 5 finger from your left hand on the first note of the scale. The same rule applies for the 1 finger with the right hand.
If you were playing a C major scale (with both hands) the above picture illustrates the correct position for each hand. That is, by starting with your 5 finger on your left hand and your 1 finger on your right hand.
Right-Handed Scale Fingerings For Major Keys:
Left-Handed Scale Fingerings For Major Keys:
How to Read the Finger Charts:
Example #1: If you wanted to play an F Major Scale with your right hand, you would start with your 1 finger ending with your 4 finger.
Example #2: If you wanted to play a B Major Scale with your left hand, you would start with your 4 finger ending with your 1 finger.
For even more in-depth training on correct piano fingerings, check out the impressive 300-page Hear and Play piano course at the link below…
Learn Major Piano Scales
Major scales play a major role in the principles and techniques that you are going to learn through your piano lessons. For example, one of my favorite techniques is to take a one-fingered melody and replace it with full-sounding chords.
However, in order to successfully master this technique (quickly and efficiently), you will have to know all 12 keys. Keep in mind that this is not a matter of memorizing 12 different major scales, but understanding the theory in how major scales are created so that when necessary, you can quickly play any given scale.
We will be using a concept known as the “Circle of Fifths” to learn all 12 Major Scales.
Two Rules To Learning All 12 Major Scales!
As stated earlier, the goal of these lessons is to make every rule, technique, and principle as easy to understand as possible. Therefore, I have chosen to introduce to you a few rules that will simplify the process of learning all 12 major scales. I also encourage you to practice these scales often, as you will soon memorize them. (However, memorization is not required).
It is also important that you note the order in which we will learn each major scale.
We will be learning the scales in a counter-clockwise order. That is, from C to F to Bb, and so on … I find it much easier for students to learn the major scales using the chart counter clock-wise versus starting clockwise. Let’s get started!
Major Scale Techniques
To explain these two rules, we will start with the major scale that we already know …
The whole point of these two rules is to rely on one scale to form another. For example, the next scale to be learned on the Circle of Fifths charts is the F Major Scale …
So then, the problem is turning a C Major Scale into an F Major Scale. How do we do it? There are two steps which will enable us to perform this simple task:
Step #1:
Identify the seventh degree (note) of the current scale and lower it by one half step.
Step #2:
After lowering the 7th note of the scale one half step, change the starting and ending note to the next scale on the chart …
In this case, we have lowered the 7th note of a C Major Scale and wish to play an F Major Scale. Therefore, all we must do is start and end on F instead of C.
Explanation of Two Steps
By lowering the seventh note of the C major scale (or any scale from which you want to form the next scale), we are no longer playing a C major scale. In actuality, we are playing a C Mixolydian Scale (you will learn different modes of a scale later). In addition, when lowering the seventh degree of C major, we are playing the same exact notes of the F major scale. That is, the only note difference between C major and F major is the [B->Bb]. That is why they are neighboring keys on the “Circle of Fifths” chart. Keep in mind that simply lowering the seventh note does not complete the process of changing from one scale to another. The process is only complete when the scale is played starting and ending on the first note of the new scale.
Summarization
Step One
We started with a C Major Scale …
We identified the seventh note of the scale and lowered it one half step …
Step Two
We played the same scale (in step one) starting and ending on F (instead of C) …
F Major Scale
This concludes our lesson on major scales for today. This lesson doesn’t even include half the information that Hear and Play’s 300-page piano course covers on major scales. If you are serious about taking your piano playing to the next level than I highly recommend that you check it out … Click HERE Now For More Information.
Learn Piano Sharps & Flats
Now that you’ve had some experience with the white keys of the piano, we will introduce the black keys…
If you’ve had any music experience or have been around musicians, you’ve definitely heard the words, “sharp” or “flat.” These terms are the names given to the black keys of the piano.
Actually, each black key has two different names. However, only one name can be used at a time. So then, the question is: “How do I know when to call a black key a sharp or a flat?”
The answer is very simple: Sharp is the name given to the black key directly to the right of a white key while Flat is the name given to the black key directly to the left of a white key.
Below is an example of “sharps” and “flats” …
Notice the black key directly to the right of C: It can either be labeled as C Sharp (because it is to the right of C) or D Flat (because it is to the left of D).
To recap, if you are referring to the note directly to the right of C, you would use C Sharp … but if you are referring to the note directly to the left of D, you would use D Flat. (Please keep in mind that C Sharp and D Flat share the same key and sound exactly the same.)
Using “#” and “b“
Sharps are notated with the symbol, #, while Flats are noted with the symbol, b.
Note that the sharp names for the three-grouped black keys above are: F#, G#, and A#. Why? Because one key is directly to the right of F, one is directly to the right of G and one is directly to the right of A. Contrary, the flat names for the three-grouped black keys are: Gb, Ab, and Bb. This is because Gb is directly to the left of G, Ab is directly to the left of A, and Bb is directly to the left of B.
Here is a chart to help you understand the flat / sharp relationship:
Learn Piano Notes
Before we can learn how to play scales, chords, and various progressions, it is vital that we learn the notes on the piano and how they relate to one another.
The best way to describe the notes on the piano is by comparing them to the notes of the alphabet. In fact, the notes of the piano actually borrow the first seven notes of the alphabet system (A – B – C – D – E – F – G). Each note differs in sound. Below are all seven notes of the piano:
Here is a wider example of the notes of the piano:
Notice that the same seven notes repeat themselves over and over again. That is, the notes sound the same but the pitches differ. For example, if you play a C and move to the right until you find the next C, you’l notice that if you play them simultaneously, both notes sound the same but one is higher than the other…
The notes above are said to be one octave (interval of an eighth) apart. You’ll learn more about octaves in further lessons.
The note ‘C’ is to the piano what the letter ‘A’ is to the alphabet. Middle C marks the center of the piano. As you’ll notice, the C Major Scale is also the easiest and simplest scale of the twelve. It consists of all white keys from any starting C to the next. The shaded notes below represent the C Major Scale.
Here is a useful tip if you are having trouble memorizing the notes of the piano…
C is located directly to the bottom-left of the two-grouped black keys while F is located directly to the bottom-left of the three-grouped black keys.
Written Piano Music And Rhythm
Do you play piano? If so, do you know about rhythm? If you do, you know that you can improvise with rhythm as long as you are somewhat expert at playing the piano. It’s the same with singing. Singing, too, can be improvised simply by holding some notes out longer and making others shorter — and no one has to tell you how to do it. You just know how.
To learn a song you don’t know yet, it’s useful to use written music and play it as written first so that you understand the rhythm. If you’re playing in an ensemble or group and the group is playing from sheet music, you’ll do better if you play from sheet music as well because you will stay in time with them.
The first thing you learn about rhythm is the time signature. The time signature is directly to the right of the treble and bass clefs on a music staff. If the time signature changes while the piece is in progress, the composer puts a different time signature at that point where the rhythm is about to change. Read more
The Lines and the Spaces in Piano Music
Your first experience with playing music from written notations will come as soon as you learn the notes. The first thing you have to do is to learn about the lines and the spaces of the staffs. On the diagram below, the notes used are all quarter notes. That refers to the rhythm of the notes which will be discussed later. The purpose of this diagram is to show you the notes as they are positioned on the staff.
If you look just at the actual lines of the staff, you will see that they are, going up, E-G-B-D-F. Some people remember this with little sayings, like “Every Good Boy Does Fine.” There are memory tricks for all the lines and spaces on both staffs. For the spaces of the treble clef, you will notice that the letters of the notes spell F-A-C-E.
Now, you can relate the notes on the page to the keys on the keyboard. Remember where the middle C is? The C on the left of the diagram above depicts middle C. The middle C is shown on an added line below the treble clef or above the bass clef. Using middle C as a reference point and your new knowledge of the letters that go with the notes, try to look at each note and then play the key it refers to.
Take the music you have at hand, and try to pick out a few notes on the piano from the treble clef. You might even be able to play a melody line by using this method. This will only get you started. However, every time you can have the satisfying experience of playing music, you should take it. The feeling will carry you on to want to learn more. Read more
Tips For Reading Piano Music
With just a little success behind you, you can tackle the task of learning to read music. Of course there are a number of successful musicians that aren’t able to read music. They can simply listen to a song and play it by ear. They are able to make improvisations on simple things to deliver elaborate variations of well known songs. These musicians seem to know their instruments just as well as a singer knows his or her own voice.
You might be the type of person that can do that. You will learn more a little later about chords and improvisation. However, if you are just learning about the piano, it’s very likely that you will get more help from written music. Further, when you learn how to read music you will open a new world for yourself. You will be able to play songs that you have never heard before. Not only will you be able to play this music, but you can repeat your performance anytime you want to because the sheet music guides you note for note.
There is a great deal to learn. You will have to find out how each note is depicted. You will have to know what the staffs are that the notes are written on and what they look like. You will have to learn how rhythm, sharps, and flats are represented. Once you learn these basics, you can start to build on the knowledge. Read more
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