Why Play the Piano?
You likely already recognize that piano playing is an energizing talent to develop. If you’re a jazz enthusiast, you may have listened to piano music from distinguished artists like Count Basie or Duke Ellington. You may like modern jazz piano players more so and there are many who have won the hearts [...]
Looking at the Piano
Before you begin to play the piano, you need to become familiar with what the instrument is. Some pianos are upright pianos, which are usually large, heavy, tall vertical boxes. These are anywhere from 36 to 51 inches tall. Spinets are the shortest upright pianos, at 36 to 39 [...]
The Home Keys and A to G
You can start by learning where to put your hands. There are a group of keys toward the center of the keyboard called the Home Keys. These are nine keys where your hands should rest as you prepare to play.
You might wonder why there are only nine [...]
What Are Scales?
A scale goes from one key to the key that is an octave above that key. It consists of eight tones. There are different types of scales. Some of them are major scales and some of them are minor scales. Major scales have been described as sounding happy, while [...]
Reading Music: Introduction
With a little success under your belt, you can begin to tackle the job of learning to read music. Of course, many musicians do not know how to read music. They just hear a song and play it, as they say, by ear. These musicians can improvise on any simple [...]
The Lines and the Spaces
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. [...]
Written Piano Music and Rhythm
Rhythm is something that can be improvised or changed easily if you know the piano well. Think about singing: You can sing by holding some notes longer and cutting other notes shorter. You do not need to be told how to do it.
If you want to learn a [...]
Personal Story: Learning Piano Basics
I was one of those people who always dreamed of playing the piano but never thought I could. At least I was until I came across some short, simple lessons on the basics of piano playing. I decided to give it a try, and I have been practicing ever [...]
Keys and Key Signatures
It is difficult to talk about keys without some confusion because the physical blocks you strike are called keys. At the same time, it is also necessary to talk about the theoretical keys music is written and played in. For the purposes of this chapter, keys will refer to theoretical [...]
Get It Together with Chords
If you have sheet music or songbooks to play from, they will likely have chords to play. There are hundreds of possible chords in piano music. There are major and minor chords, diminished chords, inverted chords, augmented chords, and more. Just because there are so many chords to [...]
