Playing The Piano Teaches You Perseverance
Learning new songs on the piano takes time and effort. Until you can actually play a song fluently by heart, you’ll probably spend several weeks practicing it. As you look forward to being able to play the song, you stay motivated, learn patience, and increase your perseverance. These skills will always help you when you are confronted with difficult tasks at school, university, or work.
Chapter : Shopping Guide
Main article: How to Buy Your First Piano
Buying your first piano or keyboard can be exciting and overwhelming at the same time. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
What is your budget? The price range for pianos and keyboards is huge. . Meanwhile, concert grands can net six digits.
How much space do you have? Measure the area you intend to fit your piano in and bring your measurements to a store.
Who do you live with? If you live with roommates, family, or in an apartment building, you may want to choose a piano you can use headphones with. Many acoustic pianos also come with a quiet practice pedal.
Acoustic, digital, or hybrid? The sound quality of an acoustic piano is unparalleled, but digital pianos and keyboards are way more affordable and often come with useful features. A hybrid piano has elements of both.
Rent or buy? If youre uncertain about committing to the piano, you may want to rent one first. You may also be able to find affordable, high-quality second-hand pianos.
Features to Look For
There are so many products available how do you know what features to prioritize? We have the following recommendations:
Resources
These videos may also help!
How To Play Scales
Main article: How to Play Piano Scales Hands Together
If youre curious about scales, now is a good time to start.
Youve mastered the five-finger scale, but what happens when you want to play the entire C major scale, from one octave to the next?
Unless you master the right technique, youll run out of fingers! So, before playing hands together, be sure to practice playing a full-octave scale on your right and left hands.
C Major Right Hand
Notes: C-B-A-G-F-E-D-CFingering: 1-2-3-1-2-3-4-5
Putting hands together takes practice. The technique is more easily explained through video, so watch this lesson to get the basics.
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Learning To Play The Piano With Skoove
The reasons why Skoove is considered one of the best apps to learn how to play the piano with, because it has so many features which make learning the instrument simpler than traditional piano lessons. Skoove also has lessons for every musicians skill level, beginners and advanced. Included in the Skoove app:
- Each lesson can be separated out one hand at a time
- Teaching lessons for all skill levels
- Teaches the basics of reading music
- Available in six different languages
- A fully featured metronome,
Melody And Playing By Ear
Heres where things can get a bit more complicated. Learning melody and incorporating ear training take some extra work. But the payoff can be truly worthwhile.
Why do melody and playing by ear go hand in hand? Well, training yourself to hear changes in the music precisely is a good way to develop melodies without sheet music. When you can pick out melodies without needing to sight-read, you can spend a lot less time worrying about individual notes or mimicking the original song like a robot. Learning how to play piano by ear allows for more personality in your playing.
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Learning How To Play The Piano: The Basics In 13 Steps
Learn how to play piano with us in only 13 steps for free!In our crash course for beginners we teach you the theoretical basics at home:
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The names of all the notes on the keyboard
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Whole and half notes
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Note values and rests
For a more practical approach, we added lots of illustrations, sheet music to perform, exercises and various quizzes for you.
If you are the visual type you will find everything you need to know in our online piano courses and videos!
Lets go!
Beginner Sounds From The Piano And Guitar
One great aspect of learning the piano is that there isnt any physical hurdle to making a pretty sound come from the instrument.
When a professional pianist strikes a single note on the instrument, it sounds the same as if a total beginner were to strike that same key.
This isnt the case for say, the violin, which can take several months for a beginner to be able to produce a pretty sound from it.
The guitar is more like the piano than the violin in this way.
However, there is some hurdle to making a good sound from the guitar in that it requires some hand strength and callouses to be able to produce good sound from the instrument.
If you arent interested in developing hand strength or callouses and want to be able to produce a good sound from your instrument on day one, then piano is probably the instrument for you.
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The Waltz And Other Types Of Music
Maybe you already found similar ones in the songbook that you acquired? Some of them can be seen in the figure above.
The time signature represents the length of a bar like you already learned when we talked about the 4/4 bar.
A 3/4 bar indicates that the length of each bar equals 3 quarter notes. A 2/4 bar indicates that each bar has the length of 2 quarter notes. A 6/8 bar indicates that each bar has the length of 6 eighth notes.
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A 3/4 time is used for waltz
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A 2/4 time is used for march or polka
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A 6/8 time is used for a jig, or American march
Below you will find a library of time signatures and examples of how they are played. How about a bite of music to whet your appetite?
While the page with the time signatures loads, you can listen to the song Take Five by Paul Desmond.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio. Here is a link to the audio instead.
The song is written in 5/4 time therefore it consists of 5 quarter notes per bar. You also get a 5/4 bar when you combine a 2/4 bar with a 3/4 bar. Combining different time signatures is a common technique to create a unique rhythm.
Waltz 3/4
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio. Here is a link to the audio instead.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio. Here is a link to the audio instead.
Irish Jig 6/8
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio. Here is a link to the audio instead.
Half time
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio. Here is a link to the audio instead.
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12 bar blues in 4/4
You did great!
How Playing Piano Makes You More Successful In Life
Did you know that people who practice an instrument are more likely to be high achievers? Here’s how your music training can help you find success in other parts of life.
Did you know that when you’re learning to play the piano you are actually improving several skills that will help you be more successful in other areas such as university or work? In fact, multiple studies link the study of music to increased success in other fields, as this article from the New York Times points out.
So what is it that makes musicians more successful in life? Here is a list of ix essential skills that you will master by practicing the piano:
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How Long Will It Take Me To Learn The Piano
To answer this question, you have to explain what you mean by learn the piano.
If you want to play Hot Cross Buns, then you can do that in less than a day . But if you want to play the renowned Piano Concerto #3 by Rachmaninoff, then you will need to study for more than a decade, practicing diligently for hours a day with the guidance of world-class instructors.
Chances are, youre aiming for something in between these extremes. If learning to play the melodies of popular tunes is your goal, then you can do this in weeks or months.
If youre aiming to play the melodies and harmonies of standard, midrange classical pieces, then you can expect to study for multiple years. Furthermore, the farther you intend to go in your learning, the more seriously you need to consider taking lessons through a traditional approach or a hybrid web-conferencing arrangement.
Whatever the case, you need to practice faithfully. And did I say that you need to practice faithfully?
You know the old adage, that practice makes perfect. Well its true. No matter what keyboard instrument and learning method you choose, these factors alone wont give you the skills to fulfill your dream of tickling those ivories with ease.
At a minimum, reputable voices will encourage you to practice 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week. More serious students will need to plan for more. Are you up to the challenge?
Play Piano With Two Hands
Now play the same song with two hands, each hand in the same position youve just practiced. The top line here is the right hand and the bottom line is the left hand. Notice that your hands are moving in the same direction the whole time:
RH: 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 2 2 2 3 5 5 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 1
LH: 3 4 5 4 3 3 3 4 4 4 3 1 1 3 4 5 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 3 4 5
Now that you have an idea of how to play piano with two hands, we can move on to the next step.
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Playing With Both Hands
Main article: Play Piano with Both Hands
Lets get one thing out of the way: playing with both hands feels weird. At least at first.
Hand independence is something youll continually work on as a pianist. Even advanced pianists have challenges with hand independence.
The Five-Finger Scale in Both Hands
You already know the five-finger scale. Now lets try playing it with both hands.
When you play the five-finger scale up with both hands, the fingering with look like this:
Right hand: 1-2-3-4-5 Left hand: 5-4-3-2-1
When you play the five-finger scale down with both hands, the fingering will look like this:
Right hand: 5-4-3-2-1 Left hand: 1-2-3-4-5
If this feels easy, try playing loudly in one hand and softly in the other. Then, switch.
Learning Note Values On The Piano
You have already made great progress in learning the piano and speaking the language of music a language that all people can understand. It reaches directly into the heart of the human being and has its own special meaning for everyone. With the help of music, you can relieve stress or express something for which you cannot find words. Its both an art form and a way of thinking. Music is a form of mathematics and also a science. By making music together you learn to work with others and to achieve a shared creative goal. Performing in front of an audience helps to reduce inhibitions when giving a presentation to a group of people.
Now, the time has come to get to know the concepts of beats and bars. You can already name every note on the piano, and you know its location on the keyboard.You know the white keys and black keys now we want to learn where the notes are placed in time so we can make music together!
To make music, instead of just playing notes in random order, you need a kind of map that shows you which note is to be played when and for how long. Reading music sheets is similar to reading a hiking map. The hiking map shows the destination, the route you need to take, where you can rest, and for how long, in order to reach your destination in time. In the music, the sequence of notes provides the route the bars and beats tell you where in time the notes are to be played.
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Do You Recognise Middle C In The Shaded Area
To the left and right of it there are additional C notes.
If you count the white and black keys on the keyboard, you can see that there are 12 keys between the C notes. In the notation system, on the other hand, there are 8 lines and spaces between the C notes.
This sequence of notes is called an octave. In the above picture you can see the octaves on the keyboard and in the notation system from one C to the next. We will learn all the notes in one octave focusing on the octave that contains middle C.
Note: Keyboards come in different sizes and with different numbers of keys, so dont panic if you count more C notes than in the picture. Just look out for a pair of black keys the next white key to the left is always a C note.
Now that youve learned the C notes, it is time to learn the other 11 notes in an octave.
Learning an instrument always represents a certain challenge regardless of age and musical background.
We at music2me want to help you find the optimal introduction to playing the piano. Here, you can learn, try out, and practice the basics all in 13 easy steps!
The piano lessons show our piano teacher from your perspective. This makes it a lot easier to place your fingers correctly and you dont even have to know all the notes. Please try learning how to play the piano with us!
We have tried to make this beginner tutorial for piano as easy as possible.
So get to the keys and lets go!
Choosing The Right Instrument
You cant drive without a car and you cant play baseball without a bat and glove. In the same way, you cant play the piano without a keyboard. But what kind of keyboard will you choose? An acoustic piano or a digital one?
Acoustic pianos stand out as the traditional choice, whether upright or spinet, studio or grand. They offer real mechanical action, give you fuller control of the sound, and produce superior tone and timbre.
So when you press the keys, you can feel the small vibrations as the felt hammers strike the metal strings, you can hear the acoustic reverberations of the sound, and you can shape the sound with the pedals as a potter shapes wet clay.
Whats more, when you play a nocturne by Chopin, you know that you are playing the kind of instrument that Chopin himself once played, guaranteeing a more authentic and intimate experience, the kind of musical experience championed by acclaimed musicians like Josef Lhevinne and Andre Watts.
Even so, digital pianos offer exclusive benefits that acoustic pianos fail to provide. They are portable and slim, whereas acoustic pianos are obnoxiously heavy. Digital keyboards do not need tuning, which can be expensive, and are immune to fluctuations in humidity.
They feature volume controls and headphone jacks that equip you to practice in privacy without disturbing people around you.
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What Is The Virtual Piano
A virtual piano keyboard is perfect when there isn’t a real piano or a keyboard at home or when your piano or keyboard isn’t next to a computer. The online piano keyboard simulates a real piano keyboard with 7 1/4 octaves of 88 keys , a sustain pedal, ABC or DoReMe letter notes representation, a Metronome, zoom-in, and a full-screen mode.
Putting It All Together: Learn How To Play Piano In 8 Easy Steps
Okay, we have covered a lot by now. Lets recap the steps thatll help you when learning to play:
So do you think you can learn the piano easily? I hope youve got the hang of it. Learning piano isnt something that happens overnight, so keep practicing and dont get discouraged.
Get together a selection of a few songs or piano pieces that you can play and make your dream of becoming a skilled pianist a reality. Show your friends and family what you can do!
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Modern Vs Classical With The Guitar And The Piano
Although guitar-like instruments can be found in history over 4000 years ago, the six string acoustic guitar as we know it today originates from the 19th century.
The piano, on the other hand, predates the guitar and has richer musical history as an instrument included in many classical pieces.
Thus, if youre more interested in playing classical pieces and music that spans a longer time period, piano is probably a better instrument for you to pursue.
Reading Piano Sheet Music
The first major leap for learning to play fundamental piano concepts is learning how to read sheet music. We label each of the notes with an alphabetical note name, then we can alter those with sharps or flats. True musicians will know how to read music by using interval recognition rather than reading from point to point, or note to note. Eventually master sight readers will know how to read many measures ahead of their current destination, but it all starts at the same by learning how to recognize notes on lines and spaces.
Learn how to read piano sheet music faster.
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