Getting A Feel For The Piano Keys

When you start playing the piano, one of the first things you have to consider is where to place your hands. All you have to do is look at the keys positioned in t he center of the keyboard. These are your nine home keys and where your starting position begins.

Yes, we understand most of you have 10 fingers, but the thumbs rest together on the middle C. It’s not a difficult task either. In fact, if you look close enough at the black key/white key pattern, the middle C is easy to spot. When you look at the center, find the area where there are two white keys together.

In the front of each key is either a letter or number. The letter C is placed on the area where your thumbs rest and every key after that goes up in numbers. So your index fingers will rest on the 2s, middle fingers on 3s, rings on 4, and pinkies on the 5s.

If you have a piano in front of you ore close by, try it. Once everything is setup, make your way up the keyboard by playing to the right. Move from thumb to pinkie and when you get the hang of it be sure to practice with the left hand as well.

This simple process gives you the opportunity to play a few songs right from the very beginning. Sure it might be Hot Cross Buns, or Mary had a Little Lamb, but just making the progress in small steps is beneficial. Some musicians memorize the keys by sound, which might bode well for you.

We recommend utilizing the home keys as a reference point. This should be done for each octave, and in order to figure it out the simplicity is definitely there. Just look at the home key position to the right of the keyboard. It’s as easy as middle C to the C above middle C. It’s the easy way to keep track of where you are on the keyboard.

It’s also important to take a good hard look at the piano before you get started. Making sure your bench is positioned properly to read the music and reach both sides of the piano will be a crucial part to your success. Not only will you be able to recognize the home keys, but you will also get a “fast forward” glimpse of your hands gliding over the piano keys.

You should make sure you know the names of the keys as well. They move from left to right, A thru G. All you have to do is start from your middle C position and move two white keys below it to find A. After you are situated you can just move up each white key in alphabetical order until you reach G. When you finally find G, then it just starts over again.

So your middle finger on the left hand will be on A and the pinky on your right hand will be on G. Is it all starting to make sense?

We’ve been talking so much about the white keys, you are probably wondering why the black keys are used. What it comes down to is these are the sharps and flats. When you move up to a black key from white it’s a sharp and when you move down from a white to black it’s a flat.

You should practice hearing the different sounds and you can start by setting yourself up around the middle C. Just go up to the black key on the right. This is C sharp. However, when you go to next white key after (which is D), and then move back to the black key it becomes C flat. So interestingly enough, C sharp and D flat are the same key.

There are many things to learn when playing the piano and much of it revolves around the white and black keys. If you don’t have black keys you wouldn’t be able to have half steps. This means a lot of the songs you hear today wouldn’t be able to sound the same. In today’s world there are even some black keys that are the main keys in a scale. It’s just something to think about as we move forward in your learning.

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!"