Beginner Piano Lessons for Kids

If you want to teach your child to play the piano, there are several ways of doing it - you can find a piano teacher for them, look up how to play piano online or allow the child to lesson to play piano by ear. This is a healthy skill, as it helps the brain to develop. There are several skills your child will need to learn when playing piano or any other musical instrument. The necessary things for playing piano are proper positioning of the child's hands (otherwise bone injury could occur), proper posture, the ability to read music and the ability to sight-read, ie play a piece without practicing it prior. All of these help the child's brain to develop in intellect and creativity, and are critical to music education. The piano takes a long time to truly become proficient, so ensure that your child's up to the commitment.piano player

The keys might look confusing to the child at first, but explain to them that the white keys are normal notes, and the black keys are accidentals. Also, teach them about the musical alphabet: the notes A through G, and tell them the accidentals are the notes between, which is what are played on the black keys. The black keys on a piano won't be used much at first, so start your child off on simple lessons, and teach them proper hand position and posture. Proper posture includes sitting up straight or leaning slightly forward. Also show the child that the fingers need to be relaxed in their natural position. Instruct them to curl the thumb slightly inwards so they're parallel with the rest of the hand.

The next thing for a child to learn on piano is basic scales. The most basic scale is a C scale, so show the child where C is - it's a key just to the left of two black keys. Then show them how to play up the white keys with right thumb, index finger, middle finger, and then repeat the process up to the next C. This is a full C scale.

This is the easiest way for your child to play a scale with one hand, and it'll teach them finger dexterity. Don't bother with anything like sheet music right now - instead, try to encourage your child to play a TV show theme on the piano, something like the basic Spongebob melody or whatever the favored show is. The important thing is to help them figure out how to play the melody by ear, or playing without music and instead just hearing it played elsewhere.

Instruction in reading sheet music can come later on, but it's best to take this part rather slowly. It can be complicated sometimes to a younger child, but as children learn very quickly they can pick up on the basics relatively easily. The child can then learn to read music and play along with it at the same time, and this can provide a healthy sense of accomplishment. At first you may want to consider piano lesson DVD's as they can visually stimulate a child's mind and hold their interest for a longer period of time. Learning any kind of musical instrument, especially piano, is a very rewarding activity for young minds.

Learn more about beginner piano lessons by visiting the homepage of PianoMasteryLessons.blogspot.com, or by reading through some of the other piano lesson articles we've posted on this web site.

Piano Solo

Here is a solo showing you what can be done once you have memorized a few scales and learned to play them with a little bit of speed. Notice how I'm not playing all of the notes with the same duration. There are quarter notes and eighth notes, and it changes up frequently. During practice sessions it's easy to get caught up in playing the scales at the same pace with the same note duration. That's great for practice and developing meter, but musically it isn't as interesting. When playing solos change up the not only the duration of the notes, but the volume of them as well. Let the emotion you feel flow out into the piano.

Watch Piano Solo #2 for more inspirational piano playing.

Ionian Piano Mode

Now I want to talk to you about modes of scales. For every scale there are a number of different modes that you can play it in. The simplest is the first mode, called the Ionian mode, and that is the one we are going to start with. I'm going to start with C major as an example. Since it is the first mode, the Ionian mode simply plays the scale starting with the first note, in our case C. That's right, to play the C major scale in the Ionian mode, you simply have to play the scale as you've memorized it.

The chord that we make from the Ionian mode is the major seventh chord. If you take the first note, third note, fifth note, and seventh note of the Ionian mode, you end up with the major seventh chord. For the C major scale that is the notes C E G B.

The Ionian modes, and modes in general, aren't limited to the C major scale. If we take the G mjaor scale, G A B C D E F# G, and take the first, third, fifth and seventh notes of the Ionian mode (which is the same as the scale itself), we get G B D F#. Those notes make up the G major seventh chord.

Since the first mode is the same as the scale itself, you may be having a hard time understanding the concept. Don't worry, I'm going to teach you all of the modes and things should become a little clearer as you follow along.

For the next lesson, you can review the Locrian Piano Mode.

A Major Piano Scale

Today I'm going to teach you the A Major scale. I'll start by teaching you the notes, then I'll teach you the proper fingering for the scale. The notes of the A Major scale start, obviously, on A. After A the scale progresses B, C#, D, E, F# G#, and back to A.

The fingering for the scale starts with the thumb of your right hand on the A. You are going to hit the B with your second finger (you'll remember from a past lesson that the second finger is your index finger), the C# with your third finger, then bring your thumb under to hit the D. Follow the rest of the scale out one finger after the other, ending with the little finger on A. To come back do the opposite. When you get to the D bring your thumb under to hit it, then bring your third finger back onto the C# and finish the opposite of how you started.

The finger for the left hand begins with the pinky on the A. Continue hitting the keys in order, one finger after the other, until the thumb lands on the E. Now bring your third finger over to hit the F#. Coming back down the scale is just the opposite. Play backwards until your third finger hits the F#, then bring the thumb under to hit the E and continue until you return to the A.

Practice this scale using both hands at the same time once you've got the hang of doing it one hand at a time. Scales make good daily practice, you want to be as fluent with them as possible. Stay tuned for more scales.

If you are having trouble gaining speed on the piano try these piano fingering exercises.

Brick - Ben Folds Five On Piano

This song was a breakout song for Ben Folds, at least with respect to radio airplay. Ben Folds has a quirky piano-driven sound that is hard for top 40 stations to categorize, which made it hard for them to get much exposure on the radio until 'Brick' came out. The song exposed the band's music to a lot of people, and although they didn't have many songs on the radio after 'Brick', Ben Folds Five became an internet sensation. When iTunes came along, it was clear that the band had legions of fans even if they weren't getting noticed very much by record stores and radio stations.

Watching me perform a cover of this song will help you isolate just the piano part, which will make it easier to learn the song. Hopefully, even if this video doesn't inspire you to learn to play 'Brick”, it will inspire you to keep practicing so that you can play your own favorite songs. Be sure to check out my other piano covers as well.

Next, you can check out Nate's cover of Bruce Hornsby's "That's The Way It Is".

12 Bar Blues On Piano

Today I want to talk to you about the 12 bar blues. The 12 bar blues is a chord progression used in blues and rock music that lasts for 12 bars. Gee, I wonder where it got its name? The chord progression is easy for beginners because it only uses three chords, the root, the fourth, and the fifth. We will be playing it in the key of G, so our chords are G, C and D. The basic structure of the 12 bar blues is 3 lines of 4 bars each. In the key of G it looks like this:

G G G G
C C G G
D C G -

Most of that should make sense to you. Looking at the progression, you'll see that you play the G chord for four bars, the C chord for the next two, back to the G chord for two, then one bar each of the D, C and G. But what is it about the last bar. The last bar of the 12 bar blues is called a turnaround. It's just a little filler to get you back to the five chord, at which point the progression repeats. Generally at the end of the song, instead of ending on the five chord, you'll end on the root to give the song a sense of “closure”. There are all sorts of turnarounds in blues music, but we'll talk about those a little later.

For now, let's put our blues progression to work! I'm going to show you a simple pattern that you'll hear in a lot of blues and early rock music. With your left hand find the G key and the D key and strike them both together. The next part of the pattern is to strike the G key and the E key together. What you want to do is alternate between those two sets of notes. To really get that bluesy sound, try this combination of quarter notes:

G/D G/D
G/E G/D

If you can't quite get the feeling or the rhythm, watch the video and listen to me play. After you play that pattern four times, it's time to move it to the C chord. Just remember that you are playing the root note and alternating between the fifth and the sixth notes. See if you can work out what those notes are for the C and D chords yourself. I bet you can!

If you have gotten the left hand rhythm down, let's put our right hand to work! We could just play the chords with our right hand, but that isn't going to sound very bluesy. The blues gets its sound from the use of the flatted third or the flatted seventh (or both). We are going to create a simple little right hand pattern using the third and the flatted seventh. For the G chord play the third and flatted seventh together, that a D and an F. Now for variety, just move your fingers one key over and play the E and the G. As you play the steady rhythm in your left hand, experiment with different patterns of the right hand pattern I just taught you. Feel free to use it sparingly, it functions very well as accent notes. You can watch the video for ideas.

But when you get to the turnaround, what do you do? You can watch the video to see mine, or experiment with some of your own. A simple one is just to quickly play the first four notes of the scale that the song is in, in our case G major, then, when you get to the fifth note, play the chord instead.

Well, there you have it. You've just played your first full song, and maybe done a little improvisation in the process! But don't stop there, I've got plenty more piano song tutorials waiting to expand your piano playing ability.

Counting Whole Notes on Piano

Today I'm going to talk to you about whole notes, as they relate to 4/4 time, also known as common time. In 4/4 time there are four beats per measure. A whole note, as the name implies, takes up a whole measure.

To understand the proper way to play a whole note, start your metronome. Hit a key on a click of the metronome and hold it for four clicks. On the fifth click, a new measure is starting and you should play the note again. Remember that the click that you start on counts as one click. So it goes: note click click click, note click click click, note click click click, etc.

Keep playing whole notes, holding them for four clicks and repeating on the fifth click until you have a feel for whole notes.

For the next lesson, I recommend you practice counting half notes.

How To Read Sheet Music

Learning how to play piano by ear and apply it to what you see on a keyboard is a lot easier if you can read notes. Being able to read sheet music allows you to visualize what you are hearing and translate it to the piano more effectively.

In order to learn to read sheet music we are going to go back to our old friend, Middle C. Piano music has two sets of horizontal lines. These are called staffs. The vertical lines that break up the staffs are called bar lines, and the segments that they make up are called measures. The top of the two staffs is called the Treble Clef, and represents all of the notes above Middle C. The bottom of the two staffs is called the Bass Clef, and represents all of the notes below Middle C.

Because Middle C divides the staffs, it is obvious that the note in the very middle of the two is Middle C. Let's move up to the bottom line of the treble clef. A note on this line is an E. As we move up the lines of the staff the notes represented are G, B, D, and F. Those are the notes that are on the lines of the treble clef. You can remember the order by using the phrase [E]very [G]ood [B]oy [D]eserves [F]udge. The notes that fall in between the lines of the staff are the notes that fall between its notes. Between the E and G lines is an F, between the G and B lines is an A, between the B and D lines is a C, and between the D and F lines is an E. It is easy to remember the notes that fall in between the lines because they are F, A, C, E. They spell a familiar word. So you know to remember the treble clef you need the phrase “every good boy deserves fudge” and the word “face”. Now I'm going to show you how to read the bass clef.

As I mentioned earlier the bass clef is made up of all of the notes below Middle C. Let's go ahead and start at the very last line on the bass clef, like we did for the treble clef. That bottom note on the bass clef is G. As the lines go up the staff the notes are B, D, F, A. We can remember the names of the notes on the bass clef's staff lines by changing the phrase from the treble clefs lines a little. The phrase for the bass clef is [G]ood [B]oys [D]eserve [F]udge [A]lways. Like the treble clef, we can simply use the C major scale to find the remaining notes on the bass clef. In between G and B is A, between B and D is C, between D and F is E, and between F and A is G. These notes, A, C, E, G, don't spell a word like face, but we can use another phrase to remember them. Something like [A]ll [C]ows [E]at [G]rass. Now you know how to read most of the notes on a piece of sheet music, but what about sharps and flats?

Say we wanted to make a G sharp. We would put the note on the staff and beside it we would place the symbol for sharp, which looks similar to the symbol for number, #. To indicate that a note is a flat, we do something very similar, using the symbol for a flat. A flat is represented by a symbol that looks a lot like a lowercase b. You can see it in the video, or will likely run across it in much of the sheet music you may encounter.

Learn To Play Piano (Part 1)

When you first sit down at a piano keyboard, it can be a bit daunting. In front of you, there are 88 keys. Some are white, some are black. Whenever you are beginning something new, it is helpful to have a starting point. The starting point for learning to play the piano is a single note, Middle C. In this lesson, I'm going to take you from playing that simple note to playing a short chord progression. Don't worry if you don't know what a chord progression is right now, I will explain it a little bit later.

For now, sit down at your piano and find Middle C. The video will show you where it is at. From middle C, I am going to show you how to play a complete C Major Scale. The C Major Scale is an easy one because it consists entirely of white keys. So, let's just play the white keys in order, starting at Middle C. The note directly to the right of Middle C is a D. As we continue moving to the right we play E, F, G, A, B and then finally return to C. That last C is an octave higher than Middle C. This collection of notes is the C Major Scale. The scale doesn't need to begin on middle C, it can start and end on any C on the keyboard.

Now that you know a scale, you have an important building block to music. Scales are used to create melodies and to construct chords. A chord is a collection of three or more notes, all played simultaneously. Go back to Middle C and play it. From there skip a note and play the E, and then skip another note and play the G. Those three notes form a chord known as a triad, which simply means that there are three notes in it. Now that you know the notes of the C chord, play them all at once.

Music wouldn't be very interesting with just one chord, so I'm going to show you two other chords that can also be played with just the white keys. Let's start with an F chord. You remember where the F key is right? Good, hit the F key now and follow the same pattern we did to create the C chord. From F, skip a note to A, then skip another to C. Play them all together and you have an F chord. Now I'm going to show you the G chord. Where do we start the G chord? You guessed it, on the G key. From G skip a note to B, and skip another to D. Play those three notes together and you have learned three chords.

If you play those three notes in order, you'll find they have a choppy sound to them. We can smooth that sound out using what are called chord inversions. Play a C chord. Now, keeping your first finger on the C, move the other two and play an F note and an A note. Take a look at the notes you have just played. C, F, A. Remember an F chord is made up of the notes F, A, and C. What you just played is an F chord with the C on the bottom instead of the top. Moving the notes around in this manor is called inverting the chord. Another way to invert a chord is to take the root note and put it on top. If we do that to the G chord, we end up with the notes D, B, G. Play that inversion of the G chord from the F inversion that I just showed you. Now when you play all three chords together it sounds much more smooth and melodic because your hands aren't jumping around the keyboard as much. It is also slightly easier to play.

But playing the piano is more than just your right hand. Now I am going to show you what to do with your left hand. As you play a chord in your right hand, play its root note with your left. The root note is simply the note that the chord is named after. C for a C chord, F for an F chord, G for a G chord, etc. Play a C note with your left hand and simultaneously play a C chord with your right. Now an F note with your left hand and F chord with your right. G note with your left hand, G chord with your right. When we put chords in an order like this, we are creating a musical phrase. This particular type of phrase is called a chord progression, because we are progressing through a serious of chords. C-F-G-C is what we call a 1-4-5 progression. I'll explain what that means in the next video, so stay tuned!

How to Succeed With Adult Piano Lessons

If you’re learning adult piano lessons, it can be rewarding for both teacher and student. Playing piano as an adult is a good way to relieve stress – listening to music is a good stress reliever, so playing it works even better. Many adults think that it’s impossible to learn to play the piano, but this isn’t true. There are a few simple things to keep in mind when deciding to learn.

First, find a good piano teacher. A good teacher of adult piano lessons will be passionate and really love what they do for its own sake, not just for the money. Make sure that the teacher is experienced at teaching adults, because children’s and adults' learning styles are quite different. The studio would likely be aimed at a younger group and you’d feel rather out of place. So do be sure to pick someone who has taught adults to play the piano.

music noteYou may also want to consider purchasing some piano lessons DVD's or piano videos. These can be extremely valuable if you do not wish to leave your home for lessons. If not just for the convenience they are also a great resource to compliment your face-to-face instruction as you can go over your teachers last lesson as many times as you need.

Take some time to figure out what style you really want to play – maybe classical piano not for you and you want to try rock piano, blues piano or jazz piano. Some people don’t even really want to learn to read music but just improvise chords and learn to play basic melodies. Try to find adult piano lessons that will give you what you’re looking for. There’s bound to be a teacher that can give you lessons in what you want to learn, as long as you’re willing to put forth the effort.

In that vein, make time every day to practice. If you’re taking adult piano lessons, it’s going to take a commitment of your time and energy to become skilled, like anything else. If you happen to have piano practice as a low priority, odds are you’ll not practice as often as you should and be disappointed by the results, ie poor playing. Half an hour per day is enough time to play the piano and practice.

When you’re learning adult piano tutorials, it’s easy to forget that you’re a student and need to listen to your teacher. Being an adult, you’re used to figuring things out on your own, but this is likely an entirely new skill set. So listen to those who know more about it than you do. It’s no shame to be a beginner – we all have to start someplace, and your teacher will help you in your musical development. Even if you don’t understand why your teacher’s asking you to do things a certain way, remember that they’re the knowledgeable one, and the teacher for a reason. This applies to any learned discipline. Think about it: if you were already knowledgeable in piano, why would you be taking lessons in the first place?

Finally, be patient. Learning piano from adult piano lessons can take longer for the results to show, simply because of the newness of it. It’s like learning a new language or a martial art or something similar; it takes practice to become skilled and to notice your growth. And try to have fun with it – just because you’re not playing the Fifth Symphony by Beethoven doesn’t mean you’re not really a piano player. Remembering to be patient with yourself and willing to accept instruction will help you to become a better piano player and person.

Learn more about adult piano lessons by visiting the main page of PianoMasteryLessons.blogspot.com, or by browsing through some of our other piano lesson articles that we've posted on this web site.

Piano Solos

Watch as Nate Bosch performs solos on the piano in this section. Learning how to play solos on the piano can add a lot to your bands performance, or just to your everyday playing. See if you can take some of the things that Nate plays in this section of PianoMasteryLessons.blogspot.com back to your piano and apply them to your playing.

Piano Modes

Learn how to play the modes on the piano in this section of PianoMasteryLessons.blogspot.com! Here you will find lessons on all 7 modes on the piano including ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, and locrian. Begin by selecting a lesson from the list below and you're on your way! Learning how to play the modes on the piano is an awesome way to improve your overall piano playing and increase your understanding of the piano in general!

Piano Scales

Use this piano lesson to strengthen your overall piano playing! Sign up for Nate Bosch's Free Secret Lessons brought to your by the PianoLessons.com Team! Sign up is free and you gain access to some of the most comprehensive free piano lessons online!

Piano Covers

In this section, you can watch Nate Bosch perform famous songs on the piano. See if you can take some of the parts that Nate plays in this section of PianoLessons.com and use them in your piano playing. Some of the songs that Nate plays in this section are also taught on PianoMasteryLessons.blogspot.com in the 'Piano Song Lessons' section.

Piano Song Lessons

Learn how to play songs on the piano in this section! Learning how to play basic songs, easy songs, complicated songs, or challenging songs is a great way to stretch your piano playing while having fun on the piano! This area of PianoMasteryLessons.blogspot.com will teach you how to play a bunch of classic songs on the piano.

Counting Piano Lessons

Learn how to count notes on the piano in this section on PianoMasteryLessons.blogspot.com! Understanding the importance of staying on time while playing the piano will not only improve your piano playing, but will make other musicians respect your playing and want to play with you. Knowing how to count while playing the piano is essential to your piano playing! Learn how to count whole notes, quarter notes, half notes, 8th notes, 8th note triplets, 16th notes, and 16th note triplets!

Piano Theory

Use this piano lesson to strengthen your overall piano playing! Sign up for Nate Bosch's Free Secret Lessons brought to your by the PianoMasteryLessons.blogspot.com Team! Sign up is free and you gain access to some of the most comprehensive free piano lessons online!

Learn To Play Piano

When you are beginning a new task or learning something new it is always best to have a starting point. In this lesson you are given a starting point on the piano. That starting point is Middle C.

From there we go up the keyboard using the white keys and make a C Major Scale. From the notes in that scale we are able to build chords. The chords we build are called triads or 3-note chords.

The first chord we build is the C chord which is made up of the notes C, E, and G. The next chord is the F chord which is made up of the notes F, A, and C. The last chord we build is made up of the notes G, B, and D.

After we build the chords we add the root of each chord in the left hand and then play them in succession. Playing the chords like this is called a chord progression. You don’t get too many details, but we give a good starting point for learning how to play the piano.