learn to play piano

One of the most important aspects of any pianist’s repertoire is the understanding of how to play chords. To play chords, you must learn some simple theory. To make it easier, you’ll mainly be playing the white keys.

Look at the white keys on the keyboard and find a C. If you don’t know how to find a C, then look at the sets of black keys. The black keys are grouped two ways: in a set of two or a set of three. Find a set of two black keys and move to the white key immediately to the left. This is a C. Now that you’ve found a C, learning how to play chords comes easy.

To begin learning how to play chords, start with the C chord. Hold the thumb of your right hand on C. Now skip the next white key and put your middle finger on the white key after that. This is an E. Holding those two fingers in place, skip the next white key and play the white key after that with your pinky. This is G. Play all three of these notes at the same time and you’ll have created a C chord. Learning how to play chords is that simple.

By holding your hand in this position and moving it up and down the white keys, you’ll be able to play chords in the key of C. Just remember the basic pattern: play a white key, skip one, play the next, skip, and play the next key. Move to the right with your fingers in this shape and you’ll be playing D minor, E minor, F, G, A minor and B diminished. A whole world of chord progressions is already at your fingertips. Play chords and hear the differences in each. You may even start to hear songs that you know and love by playing chords in this key.

Another way to learn how to play chords is to number the keys. Starting at C, number the white keys up to seven. C is one, D is two, E is three, etc. When you reach the number seven, start over at one. Now that you have each white key numbered, you understand the relationship between each note. A C chord is numbered 1-3-5. These are called the chord tones. A Cmaj7 is 1-3-5-7, while a C7 is 1-3-5-b7. The flat indicates a black key, at least when you’re playing in the key of C.

To make a minor chord, start at C and play the following tones: 1-b3-5. This will be C, Eb and G. Your thumb is on C; your middle finger is on the black key just to the left of E; and your pinky is on G. Congratulations! You’ve learned how to play the C minor chord.

This is just a basic explanation of how to play chords. There are many more chord shapes to learn that make piano music great, but it’s best to start at the beginning. Even the greats have written entire songs playing chords in the key of C.

Duane Shinn
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/how-to-play-chords-on-the-piano-512932.html

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Is your passion listening to piano music? Would you like to be able to play just like your idols? Are you thinking of taking lessons but you are not sure where to start? It could even be that you have had some lessons but you have given up as it has taken longer than you thought to learn. Lots of other people may well be in your shoes at this moment and only need a push in the right direction.

The Various Ways to Learn the Piano

Before you do anything else, it is essential to know that there are two ways of playing a piano. These are:

1.Chords
2.Note reading

It is a good idea to know what you want to do when playing the piano. If you are happy enough playing music other people have written, all you have to do is learn how to read the notes. However, on the other hand, if you are more creative and you would like to write your own inspiring music, an understanding of chords is a must.

If you want to learn to play the piano fairly fast, it may be a wise choice to take a chord based approach. If you learn the chords on the piano, you can learn the sounds they make and, therefore, make your own music. You can always learn note reading afterwards if you choose.

The Pros and Cons of Learning from a Teacher

Finding a qualified and reliable instructor is the key to having successful lessons while learning to play the piano. You could learn at home or at the instructor’s studio. There are advantages to both, so it all depends on where you would feel most comfortable. A lot of people try to find an instructor that is local to where they live.

When you are looking for an instructor, you will need to have a goal in mind. It could be that you want to play for fun and want to learn how to play from music sheets. However, if you want to be more creative, it may be a good idea to look for instructors that will give you chord based lessons.

If you hire a piano instructor expecting to make your own music and they teach you nothing but reading notes, you will obviously not be able to reach your goal. Make sure that you know exactly what you will be achieving. Otherwise, you could be wasting a lot of money on something that you, basically, do not want. Also, it can be a huge waste of money to learn something that you could learn online for a cheaper price, and it is just as effective.

Learning online

As mentioned earlier, learning online is a lot cheaper than piano lessons and it is just as good. It can be a great benefit to learn online as you can do it in your own time and at your own pace without someone breathing down your neck. It can also help to save time, too, so the benefits are quite good when learning online.

The only real disadvantage with learning online is that a person may not have enough motivation to learn properly. Also, with an instructor, if there is something that doesn’t make sense, they can get help. When you are learning online, it may not make much sense and there is no instructor there to ask for help.

You can also learn how to play the piano with piano learning DVDs and computer software designed to help.

General Guidelines to Learning the Piano

Overall playing the piano should be something that is fun and it should certainly not reduce you to tears all of the time. If you take your time learning and have regular practice you will eventually achieve what you want. You should not give up if it is something that you have wanted to do for a long time. There may be times that you get frustrated, but just keep going and you will be able to play the piano just as good as anyone else can, and even write your own music in time.

Kevin Sinclair
http://www.articlesbase.com/article-writing-articles/how-will-you-learn-to-play-the-piano-72208.html

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Playing by ear is the ability to play a piece of music (or, eventually, learn an instrument) by simply listening to it repeatedly. The majority of self-taught musicians began their education this way; they picked up their instrument and began playing an easy melody from a well-known song, slowly picking out the notes as they went along. And even after these musicians master their instruments or a particular song, playing by ear still plays a large role.

Many pop and rock bands don’t play or write their songs based on sheet music, they figure the songs out by playing by ear. It’s even common among non-musicians. Ever sit down a piano and mindlessly pick out the tune to “Mary Had a Little Lamb”? What about grabbing a guitar and suddenly finding yourself playing the opening licks to “Smoke on the Water”? That’s playing by ear. You’re able to play part of the song just because you’ve heard it so often.

Playing by ear is a valuable technique for many musicians; learning songs based solely on hearing them is a great way to understand song and chord structure. In fact, a great number of rock and pop musicians learned to play their instruments this way. Instead of picking up a book or taking lessons, they concentrated on figuring out the notes and rhythms to a song until it was mastered. Then they moved on to another song. And another. Gradually, they learned their instrument just by playing by ear — and in the process learned how to effectively structure a song in that particular genre.

Playing by ear is also beneficial in helping a musician develop his or her own style; sure, they’ll at first mimic the style of the song they’re imitating, but the amalgamation of the music that they’re playing by ear will help them create something distinctive, something indicative of them only.
Though classical musicians are generally educated based on tons of music theory and sight reading, some methods rely on playing by ear. The Suzuki method of musical training, for instance, claims that learning music is the same as learning a language; it’s acquired by years of hearing it, eventually coupled with formal training. Just like we pick up our language by listening to our parents and subsequently attending school, we can learn music by playing by ear and later taking formal lessons.

So can the average person ever hope to play their piano by ear? Maybe not to the degree that some extremely talented musicians do, but anyone can learn enough about the basics of playing by ear if they learn the following skills:

Being able to hear a tune and have a general sense of the contour of the melody — when the tune moves higher or lower as the song progresses.

Learning to chart that melody contour either on paper or in their memory.

Learning to match the melody to appropriate chords.
Playing by ear is really a combination of of three factors:

1. Using your tonal memory to recall music you have heard:

2. Using your ears and fingers to help you reproduce what you recall;

3. Using “melody contour” (the “shape” of the tune), “chord structure” (how to form the chords on the keyboard to match the tune), and “chord progressions” (the path chords take as they move through a song).

Obviously, the first 2 steps you can take more or less by yourself — you can mentally rehearse recalling a particular tune; you can sit at the piano for hours and through trial and error pick out tunes, chords, and rhythms. But the real key to playing by ear is learning how to chart the shape of a tune, learn how to construct chords, and then determine the likelihood of chord progressions — in other words, which chord comes next.

When you get an understanding of step three, you will be in a MUCH better position to understand and profit from steps one and two!

Duane Shinn
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/is-it-really-possible-to-play-the-piano-by-ear-118910.html

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Amazing Grace for piano is a popular song on the internet. In this piano lesson we will learn to play this song with melody and chords without the use of sheet music. We will start by finding the note C.

The note C on your piano is found on many places on the piano keyboard. C is always to the left of two black keys on the keyboard. Let’s find the middle C on the piano.

The middle C is often called C4 as it is in the fourth octave of an ordinary upright piano or grand piano. It is sometimes called the keyhole C as it is at the same horizontal position as the keyhole on some pianos.

In this piano lesson we will call it C4 and the C to the left of this note we will call C3 and so on. We will now continue this piano lesson by learning the song Amazing Grace. Let’s take a look at the lyrics to the first verse:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see

We will play this song in the key of F-major. You don’t need to know exactly what this mean but it still is in F-major anyway.

We will start with the first line:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

Here is the notes to play to this line:

C4 F4 A4 F4 A4 G4 F4 D4 C4

In this piano lesson we will use a type of piano tab that doesn’t indicate the length of the individual notes. You will probably figure out this by yourself as you know the melody!

I feel confident that you are able to do this!

Let’s continue with the next line:

That saved a wretch like me

C4 F4 A4 F4 A4 G4 A4 C5

We will now take a break in this piano lesson and amuse ourselves with three piano chords that you can play with your left hand as you play the melody with your right hand.

The first piano chord is called F-major or just F and it is played with these notes in this song:

F: C3 F3 A3

The next chord is Bb-major. It is played with these notes:

Bb: D3 F3 Bb3

What is the note Bb3?

Well, the ordinary note B3 is immediately to the left of the note C4. Bb3 is the black key immediately to the left of the note B3. Okey?

The third and last chord we will use in this piano lesson is the chord C7. It is played in the following way:

C7: C3 E3 Bb3

If you want to use these chords in the song I recommend that you learn them by heart first. Now we will continue with the piano lesson.

I once was lost, but now am found

A4 C5 A4 F4 A4 G4 F4 D4 C4

We finish this part of the piano lesson by playing the last line of lyrics.

Was blind, but now I see

C4 F4 A4 F4 A4 G4 F4

Our piano lesson on Amazing Grace is completed as far as the piano melody is concerned but if you want to use your left hand to play the chords as you play the right hand melody you’ll find the bonus text here:

I will notate the melody as I did before but at certain places among the notes I will place the piano chords you already have learned after a slash.

When you see a note with a slash and a piano chord after it you are supposed to play the note and the chord at the same time.

Here is the Amazing Grace melody with piano chords:

C4 F4/F A4 F4 A4 G4 F4/Bb D4 C4/F

C4 F4/F A4 F4 A4 G4 A4 C5/C7

A4 C5/F A4 F4 A4 G4 F4/Bb D4 C4/F

C4 F4/F A4 F4 A4/C7 G4 F4/F

That’s it! I recommend learning the Amazing Grace melody with or without chords by heart. You will then have access to it whenever you will find a piano or keyboard to play.

Peter Edvinsson
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/piano-lesson-learn-to-play-amazing-grace-113601.html

The piano is an excellent instrument for almost any genre of music, but none more than blues. For decades, the piano has been a mainstay in blues music.

Beginner Blues Piano..

One might ask, “What is blues piano?” Well, the answer is simple. It’s a form of music that is played on the piano. It’s also one of the easier styles to learn and once you master this style of music other styles will be easier to learn. I guarantee that by the time you are done reading this you will know a great deal about beginner blues piano.

The first thing you need to learn is 12-bar blues. This a common progression in blues piano playing. In order to play this, most people will use seventh chords. When playing a song it is usually broken down into three sets and each set is broken down into four bars. You should start out playing on the “C” key. If you do this then your fourth key should be “F” and the fifth “G”. For instructional purposes think of “C” as “I”, “F”, as “IV”, and “G” as “V”.

Now, the first set will be played as follows I, I, I, I. The next set will be IV, IV, I, I. And the last set will be played V, IV, I, I. These should be played using your right hand. In order to come up with the correct sound you really should learn to play seventh chords.

Now that you know what your right hand should be doing, it’s time to learn your left hands positioning. Your left hand will follow an 8-note pattern. This pattern goes like this: I, III, V, VI, VIIb, VI, V, III. Now the actual notes that you will be playing with the C chord are: C, E, G, A, Bb, A, G, E. While the F chord notes will be F, A, C, D, Eb, D, C, A. And for the G chord is: G, B, D, E, F, E, D, B.

Before you begin playing look at the notes on the piano and familiarize yourself with their positioning. If you already know the chords and notes of the piano, blues piano lessons will be easy to master. The first thing you should concentrate on learning is the 12-bar blues in key C. Once you have it down in this key then try playing it in others.

If you learn blues piano first it will give you a good foundation that will help you move on to the genre of music that you long to play. Once the foundation of piano playing has been established you will find that it is much easier to learn new styles of piano. Just keep in mind that learning a new style can be challenging, but once you learn them you will be able to play with ease and elegance.

Finding a good teacher to help you can actually be beneficial to your learning of the piano. If you can’t find a good teacher in your area don’t worry because there are always other methods. You can always go online and find some very good information on blues piano lessons or find a DVD to play at home. A lot of time the DVD will come with an informational book to help you out. If you are serious about wanting to learn blues piano and stick to your routine and practice you will soon find that you are playing like a pro.

Just remember that you won’t learn to play overnight. It will take time and patience, but the end result is quite rewarding.

Lauren Paltrow
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/learn-to-play-blues-piano-1191028.html

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Playing piano can be a wonderful experience. If you want to start playing piano sheet music you need to know a few of the conventions used in western sheet music notation. Let’s make a little journey through the music notation djungle!

First we might notice that the piano as we are used to play have been around for some time. Around 500 years or more. Playing keyboards is in other words a rather old art. This means that the conventions as to how to play keyboard instruments and how to notate the music have had some time to develop.

As you might know a piano has 88 keys. This means a full sized piano but you will find keyboards with a considerably less amount of keys. however, the order of the white and black keys are the same.

How can you learn to play piano?

Well, as you might know little children don’t have too much problem with this question. The just hammer on!

At least one thing you can learn from children. To learn to play you have to play. That is an important beginning!

Do you need sheet music in order to start playing the piano? Well, the before mentioned children have already answered the question with a definite no!

Some accomplished pianists have never used sheet music at all and play entirely by ear or by reading chords in songs. This type of pianists usually learn songs by listening to recordings or just by playing from memory. It works fine and many very fine musicians and pianist have used this approach.

Other pianist have always played sheet music and would feel very uneasy confronted with a keyboard without their music sheets. Maybe they have learned pieces by heart and have a large repertoire of piano solos but they have never improvised or played by ear. Even these pianists can create great music.

I would suggest that you use the best parts of both these approaches as you learn to play piano. Take time to develop your ear and improvise but also to make a conscious effort to learn to play piano sheet music.

One way to learn to read sheet music with a concentrated effort is to read a piano solo and trying to understand all signs and symbols in the music.

Try to tap the rhythm and as you become more skilled you can try to sing or hear the music in your head. This is a very effective way to really get into learning sheet music.

Here are some symbols you will find as you read a piece of piano sheet music:

You will find vertical lines in the music that divides the notes in groups. These lines are called barlines and the distance between two of these barlines are called a measure.

Sometimes you will find two dots at the end of a section and also a double bar. The two dots are called a repeat sign indicating that you should play the section twice.

The elaborated G is called the G clef and indicates the position of the note G in the treble note staff. It is also called the treble clef.

The left hand notes are mainly situated in the bass clef or the F clef because the two dots indicates the note F.

It will be a great help for you to study the sheet music before you play a piece of music, rehearsing the names of the notes and preparing yourself for a pleasant encounter with the music behind the dots.

Peter Edvinsson
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/piano-lesson-for-piano-beginners-252946.html

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