Piano for Beginners: I Can Play A Song!

I recently made the decision to learn to play the piano. Now, I love music and I have played guitar and banjo before. And I love to sing. But one thing that all of my musical experience has taught me is that I am not very talented musically. So, to learn an instrument, I need it to be relatively easy and pretty basic.

When I decided to learn the piano, I first thought of getting a real, live teacher. Well, that's an obvious way to learn an instrument. But I thought I would have too much trouble keeping appointments. A self-employed mother of two school-age kids, I know that I can't always be someplace at the same time every week. So I decided to try to teach myself to play piano. And I thought of an online piano method because I don't want to have to depend solely on piano music books. I also want to be able to hear recordings of what I am learning played by someone who knows what they are doing.

After I looked around on the web for various online programs, I decided to try RocketPiano. There are a few things that I like about that program. First, they emphasize learning to play songs. Since I am learning piano precisely because I want to learn how to play piano songs, I liked that approach. Secondly, they teach a large range of styles, from classical to gospel by way of pop, rock, country, jazz and blues. Of course, they give you sound tracks so that you can hear what you are learning to play. But most importantly, they offer a free six-lesson trial package, so you can try it out before you pay for it. When you sign up, they let you choose whether you want piano for beginners, for intermediate level or for more advanced students. Then they send you an email every four days with a link to the lesson. After you have had a couple of days to learn the material, you get the next lesson, also via link in an email.

Well, I got the first email and took the first lesson. I signed up for piano for beginners and the first lesson is quite appropriate for beginners. They start with the very basics. First, you learn how to sit at the piano. Then they show you a method of numbering each finger of each hand (the thumbs are number 1, the pinkies are number 5) to communicate which finger to play which note with.

After these preliminaries, you take a look at the keyboard. If you look at the black keys, you will see groups of two alternating with groups of three. The white key before each set of two black keys is always a "C." From there, you can recite the alphabet up and down the keyboard. That pattern orients you to the keyboard.

This class starts with the very basics of reading music, too. You learn to count out quarter notes, half notes and whole notes. They don't cover pitch yet.

But even though I didn't learn anything in this first lesson that wasn't very, very basic, I still got to learn a song! They tell you what keys to put your fingers on, and tell you which keys to press using the finger-numbering system. They print out notes, not to show you what keys to press, but to show you the rhythm. And voila! Mary Had a Little Lamb! What fun! I played it over and over again, just because it was so much fun to be able to play a song on the piano.

At the end of the first lesson, you get a link to download a gift. It is a copy of a computer game that teaches you how to read music. It's called Jayde Musica. It was fun to play. Staffs of music float across the screen and you need to identify them. If you win, you advance to higher levels where the notes pass faster. It's good exercise and it was nice to have a fun, creative way to learn music.

Now, I'll go back over the material again, and play Mary Had a Little Lamb some more. I'll also keep practicing with Jayde Musica. When I get the email with the link to the second lesson, I'll take the lesson and blog it. See you then!

Piano for Beginners: How to Sit at the Piano

Before learning to play notes, before learning to read music, the first thing that a beginning piano student learns is how to sit at the piano. It isn't just a pointless discipline inflicted on students by heartless piano teachers. Piano, for beginners
or more advanced players, requires good posture in order to produce good music.

In the first place, a pianist needs to have good posture in order to command the keyboard. You need to sit close enough but not too close to the keyboard. Sit forward on the bench to give you greater range of movement. In the second place, hours of work at the piano keyboard can lead to muscle fatigue and repetitive stress injuries just as hours of work at a computer keyboard can do. Correct posture can eliminate that discomfort. The third reason that posture is important is visual. Fourthly, and most importantly to me, poor posture makes you hurt. Neck strain, muscle aches and knots of tension in your back can all result from incorrect posture. And if you suffer physical discomfort when you play the piano, you won't love to play the piano. And that would be sad.

Follow these guidelines for good posture at the piano. For beginners, these tips may require a little bit of work. For advanced players, they should be second nature.

1. When you first sit down at the piano, smile, breathe and relax.

2. Here's a handy tip for helping you to position yourself the correct distance from the piano. Try to touch the board behind the keyboard with your fist. If you can do it with your elbow straight and your shoulders square, you are in the right place. If not, adjust your seat as necessary. You should be sitting forward on the bench, so that you can easily move from side to side as necessary to play over the keyboard.

3. Sit up straight. That doesn't mean rigid. Keep your shoulders down and don't forget to breathe.

4. Place your hands on the keys. Your forearms should be straight and parallel with the floor. Don't let your wrists drop. Your thighs should be straight, too, and both your feet should be flat on the floor. If you need to, adjust the height of the piano bench.

5. Continue to pay attention to your posture as you play, especially if you are having trouble learning the music. It is easy to get tense when you are trying to learn something. Be alert to that and avoid it. Hiking your shoulders up or slouching won't help you learn the music and it may cause you discomfort.

6. Smile, relax and breathe. Enjoy the time you have to study piano. It can be the best time of the day, especially if you remain relaxed and keep your posture good.

Piano for Beginners Is Beautiful

Even piano for beginners is beautiful. The technique may not be sophisticated. The music may not be complex. The artistry may be lacking. But even when played by a beginner, the piano is a beautiful instrument.

The piano is majestic and elegant and has earned its place as a central instrument of all of Western music. It is uniquely diverse. First of all, the piano lends itself to all types of musical styles. Classical, rock, pop, blues, jazz, gospel are all suitable for piano. Have you ever heard of classical banjo or jazz tympani? Secondly, the piano adapts itself easily to all sorts of orchestration and arrangements. It is majestic as a solo instrument. It is the favorite accompaniment to voice. It is routinely paired with violin, flute or any other solo instrument. It is a reliable member of any band and often the showpiece of an orchestra.

The piano’s unique place in Western repertoire is due to its extraordinary richness as an instrument. Whereas it is not possible to play more than one note at a time on many instruments, the piano is expressly designed to do so. Advanced piano music is typically written for different chords to be played simultaneously by each hand. But even music that is written for piano for beginners is polyphonic. Each hand may be playing a single note, but both hands together form their own harmony. No other instrument can rival the piano for richness of sound.

Piano for beginners is demanding on a music student. Piano requires a new musician to develop skills that other instruments do not. Most instruments, for example, are written either in the bass clef or the treble clef. Piano requires a music student to learn to read both clefs simultaneously. It requires more manual dexterity than some instruments, because a pianist needs to be able to move each finger independently. On the other hand, the complexity of the instrument requires a pianist to gain repeated practice in harmony and chord construction. That makes music theory a little less theoretical.

Of course, it needs to be observed that the piano is huge not just musically but also physically. You can’t carry it in a case like a violin. It won’t fit in a backpack like a flute. They pretty much have to stay where you put them. And pianos just don’t work in some smaller living arrangements. Moreover, even second-hand and low-end pianos are expensive.

Electronic keyboards can be an adequate substitute for a piano for beginners. Though not easy to carry, they are at least portable. And an electronic keyboard can be purchased for a reasonable price in many big box stores. Practicing on an electronic keyboard at least gives a student the opportunity to learn to read music and fingering. Of course an electronic keyboard does not have the sound that an acoustic piano has, but they can be a reasonable facsimile in a home in which a piano is not feasible.

The best part about piano for beginners, though, is that it is beautiful. And as beginning piano students become more advanced, it only gets more so.