I was searching the web for some easy classical pieces to include in my soon to be released beginners piano course when I stumbled across this amazing video.
This is of the pianist Wilhelm Kempff playing Movement 1 from the famous Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. This piece is not that difficult to play and is attempted by many beginners. They will not however be able to play it with as much tenderness and feeling as does the late Mr Kempff here.
You can tell that this man truly loves his instrument. See how he caresses the keys effortlessly in this extraordinary recording that brought tears to my eyes when I first heard it.
How To Play All Of The Chords On The Piano
Here is another quick video I made… This one shows you ALL of the major and minor chords and should enable you to play virtually any song you like.
Teach Yourself Piano
How to Teach Yourself Piano
Every beginner can use advice on how to Teach Yourself Piano. There are many different methods of teaching yourself how to play the piano. Some people use an instructor and others teach themselves. No matter how you learn to play the piano, some things will be the same. The basics of playing the piano are never going to change. With that in mind here are some tips and great advice to help you as you learn to play the piano.
Start with the Basics
No matter how you decide to learn, you will always start with the basics. You will learn about the piano, the keys and where the notes are on the piano. You will also learn some basic music theory, including how to read music. These basics are where everyone starts. It can sometimes be easy to think that you don’t need to go over the basics, but even if you already know how to read music and you already know about the piano keyboard, going over the basics is always a nice refresher and should be where you start.
Choose Easy and Short Pieces to Start Your first pieces should be introductory pieces that test you ability to read music and play that music on the piano. These pieces should be short and easy enough for you to memorize. You should aim to perfect them, which should not take too long.
Also do one or two pieces that you play by ear. This means that you hear them and then try to play them on the piano. You can learn a lot by just trying to duplicate what you hear on the piano. This is great ear training that will come in handy as you advance through your piano lessons.
Understand It Will Get Harder Too often the beginner student feels like things get too hard and they quit. However, advancing to harder pieces is the only way that you will learn and improve. You have to accept that there will come a time when you will really struggle with a piece and you will have to practice over and over to perfect it. This is just you becoming a better piano player and every player goes through this. If you never play pieces that challenge you then you will never get better.
Make It Your Own Have you ever heard the same song sang by two different singers? Did it sound exactly the same? Probably not. The reason is that each singer made the song their own. That is what you need to do with the music you play. One of the secrets to becoming a good piano player is learning to make music your own. Start playing from the heart. Be adventurous and willing to try new things. It will only help you grow as a piano player.
When you first begin to seek how to learn the piano you will probably feel it is very structured. You will have set lessons and you will be learning the basic things that you need to know to become a good piano player. Do not let yourself give up in these early stages. They really do progress quickly and soon you will be moving on to playing harder pieces that sound beautiful. The key is to just follow the advice above and to stick with it.
There is a list of home study courses to help you teach yourself piano on the piano for beginners page
Play Piano Blues
Learn to Play Piano Blues Style
When you play piano blues style you are calling upon some strong music.
The blues is something that is filled with emotion. It is a genre of music that seems to have its very own style that so unique from any other genre. When you play blues on the piano there are a few things you have to know so you can really get this style right.
The Blues Scale Playing the blues on the piano starts with learning the blues scale. The scale is played with the right hand and the first four notes are C – E flat – F – F sharp. Practice playing that over and over until you have the four notes memorized. Adding in the left hand, you will play a C and G together as a chord.
Knowing the first four notes of the scale and the basic chord will allow you to start playing around a bit with creating your own blues sound. See the Piano Lessons For Beginners page for more info.
Improvising a Song
Playing the blues is all about reaching inside yourself and creating music that reflects what you feel. You may not have a lot to work with, but what you have learned with the scale and the C-G chord will give you a great start.
Try messing around with the notes. Unlike just sitting down and playing whatever notes your fingers hit, having guidance of what notes to play will actually make it sound like a real song. No matter what notes you play they will harmonize nicely. Just try to stick to scale order by not skipping notes.
The Complete Blues Scale
After you have gotten to know the first part of the scale you can add in the remaining three notes. This will give you the complete blues scale. The scale is C – B flat – G – F sharp – F – E flat – C. Again, practice the scale until you know it well and then begin to improvise again. You can add in some more notes for the left hand. You can use a C chord and/or a G chord. You now have a very good basis to start playing some amazing blues sound.
Creating Music
You now know the basics for playing the blues on the piano. You now can experiment and try all different rhythms and combinations to create your own blues music. You may want to get some sheet music that reflects the blues style or even just listen to some blues music to give you inspiration.
Remember that blues music is all from the heart. No matter what you do with the music, make it yours. Be free and let yourself go. Follow your ear and if something doesn’t sound right then change it up. Don’t forget to record as you play so you don’t forget the music you have created. After a while, you will find your skills grow and you begin to add your own style to the music. That is why you can be sure that you have mastered how to play piano blues style.
Learning how to read piano notes and music can look like a foreign language to someone that has never set eyes on piano music before but once this language is explained, you will wonder why everything cannot be as simple.
The keyboard is split into two sections called treble and the other bass. The treble clef is usually played with the right hand, striking higher sounding notes and the bass clef with your left hand, delivering a low or bass sound.
The paper that the notes are written on is referred to as the staff. To the far left of each line, right before the notes begin, is where you will find these symbols. They indicate if you will be playing in a high note or a low note. More than likely, you will have two sets of staffs that separate the clef and the bass to easier read.
The word clef is derived from the French word “clef” which means “key” in French. The treble clef is also referred to as the G-clef because of the resemblance to the letter. The bass clef is sometimes called the F-clef. You will learn to look for these symbols each time you open a page of music so you know when your hands are suppose to go. See the Teach Yourself Piano page for more information.
This may all sound confusing to you at the moment but think about the first time you picked up a cell phone or an I-Pod. You probably said, “What the heck do I do with this?” But before long, you were punching in numbers and texting like a pro. That’s the way it is with reading piano notes. You will wonder why you were so scared to learn.
The notes on the staff have a special line for each note but they go up in the order of the alphabet so it isn’t difficult to learn. For the bass, the opposite is true. The notes go down in the order of the alphabet. Sometimes, using a little saying helps in the learning process. For example, spaces on the treble clef and the notes filling those in forms the word: F A C E. This helps some in remembering where the exact location is for each note until you get the hang of it.
Once you have the piano notes down on the sheet music, you match them up to the keys on the piano and that’s when the fun starts. When you realize how easy it is to know that this note goes with this key, you are ready to start playing and chances are, you will be ready to go to the next step.
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