Mantius Cazaubon - Piano Lessons For Beginners: Learn How To Play Piano Quickly In 7 Easy Lessons

Chapter 1 Easy PianoLesson

Let'sstart learning how to play piano.

FingerNumbers

Firstof all I want you to take a look at your fingers. When it comes to playingpiano, each finger has a number. On both hands, your thumb is finger 1, yourindex finger is finger 2, your middle finger is finger 3, your ring finger isfinger 4 and your little (or pinky) finger is finger 5.

Thefollowing image clearly illustrates this. Take a good look and memorize yourfinger numbers.

PianoKeys

Secondly,let's learn about the keys of the piano. Take a good look at your piano orkeyboard. What are the colors of the keys? This is a very easy question.Clearly, the keys are black and white. Something else I want you to notice isthe fact that the black keys follow a pattern. They follow a pattern of twoblack keys followed by three black keys, followed by two black keys, then threeblack keys and so on. This pattern of two and three black keys keeps repeatingdepending on the number of keys that your piano or keyboard has.

Iwant you to focus on this pattern for a while to totally understand what ishappening. This pattern or picture is very important for playing yourinstrument. In a little while, I will show you how you can use this two andthree-key pattern to identify all the notes on the piano.

On apiano, only seven letters are used to name notes. Yes! You only need to knowseven letters. This is how easy it is. These seven letters are the first sevenletters of the alphabet. What are the first seven letters of the alphabet? Ofcourse, you know the answer. It's A B C D E F G. A B C D E F G are all theletters of the musical alphabet. You don't have to worry about H. Youdon't have to worry about I or J or K or L M N O P. :-) Just A B C D E F G.These seven notes keep repeating over and over.

Sowhere is A on the piano? Where is B? Where is C? And so on. We will now findout.

Thefirst key we will locate is C. As long as we know where C is, it's easy to knowwhere the other notes are. Remember how we talked about the pattern of two andthree black keys? Let's use this to figure out where C is. C is located beforea set of two black keys. That's it! For every set of two black keys you see onyour keyboard, the key to the left of it is C. There are 8 Cs on an acousticpiano, 6 Cs on a 76-key keyboard, 6 Cs on a 61-key keyboard and 5 Cs on a49-key keyboard.

Nowthat we've found the white key, C, let's label the other white keys. The whitekey after C is D. The white key after D is E. The white key after E is F. ThenG, A and B, and then C. It continues and goes to D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F,G... and so on. So you can clearly see that these seven notes keep repeatinguntil we run out of keys.

Doyou notice where F is on your keyboard? Take a look at the set of three blackkeys. F is located immediately before a set of three black keys. That's howeasy it is to locate F. Every time you see a set of three black keys, the whitekey to the immediate left of it is none other than F.

Foran acoustic piano, the first note is A. A is the lowest note on an 88-key pianoor keyboard. If you ever get lost, just start with the first note, A, and go upyour piano to B, C, D, E, F, G, A and so on. If your keyboard is small, itwon't start on A. Most 61-key keyboards start with C, while 76-key keyboardsstart with E. Some keyboards start with F. It really doesn t matter how many keys yourkeyboard has. Simply identify C or F and it's easy to name all the keys. Justmove in alphabetical order.

Iwant you to spend some time on this so that you will be able to look at thekeys and know their names. With practice and determination, this will happen.You will be able to look at the keys and it will be almost like you're seeingthe letters written on the keys, even if that is not the case. It's amazing howthis happens. I am looking at my piano right now and it's like the letters arewritten all over the keyboard. :-)

Thereare some lookalikes on your piano. These lookalikes are E and F, and B and C.This is because there is no black key between E and F, and B and C. They movefrom a white key to another white key. So pay attention to the difference.Notice how E and F lead to a set of three black keys while B and C lead to aset of two black keys.

HandPosition

Howshould you position your hand to play the piano? This is important. You mustcreate a semi-circle with your hand. Curve your fingers. Pretend that you havea bubble in your hand. Hold the bubble gently so it doesn't break.