Beginner Piano Lessons

Rhythm in piano lessons is best explored as a separate issue from anything else.

The reason for this is that children typically have difficulty with more than one problem at a time. Thus, it is not too much to ask them to find the notes themselves, or to use a certain fingering, as a single, isolated task.

But to ask them to perform the above two tasks AND do everything on an exact rhythmic “timetable” and you will risk instant failure.

A better strategy is to learn how to read the notes alone, first, and then later try fingering and rhythm. This delay allows the child to build up the skill of finding the notes on the page, and finding the corresponding note on the piano. Don’t insist on fingering, and don’t insist on rhythm. Pretend that rhythm doesn’t exist.

Just finding the note on the page and the corresponding piano key is a mammoth, painstaking task. Once a child has the idea of this, all the rest falls in place more or less easily.

There are good ways to explore rhythm on its own, aside from reading music.

For example, any child can clap along with a jaunty 2/4 song. They get the cyclic idea because it is so simple. But as soon as you combine it with the dexterity issues of the piano, that security flies out the window, replaced with confusion.

The answer is to take the clapping idea, which they can do successfully, and take it further.

Try a piano game I call “Ones.” The child plays each white key once, ascending from Middle C, in an even rhythm. You make up a simple accompaniment using common chords such as C, F and G.

A silly game like this demystifies the piano for a moment, from a child’s point of view.

Separate each skill (notes, fingering, rhythm, etc.) from the rest. Develop it. Find the relation between the skills before you attempt to combine them.

Assume nothing and you will see what the child sees.

There are lots of fun games for the whole family that you can play using piano by number books. Here are just a few:

Name That Tune: One person plays the songs on the piano while everyone tries to guess the title of the song. Kids love playing the songs, so kids can take turns. You can also use the Play Along Audio CD, but kids also love being the center of attention and playing the songs on the piano.
Musical Chairs: Put chairs in center of room and when the music stops everyone has to find a chair, except there’s always one chair too few. Use the CDs or have the kids (any age) play the piano.

Christmas Pageant: There’s more than enough material on the Play Along Audio CD to present your own show. Kids (any age) will love putting it together, and can take turns playing along with the music or acting in the show.

Make Up Your Own Show: The Family Favorites section has 28 familiar melodies that creative kids can turn into a show about anything.

Have Everyone Try It! You’d be surprised what fun a family gathering can become when everyone is asked to play a song from the book. You’ll discover that your family and friends have hidden musical talents! Most people really do want to try playing the piano, so make a game of it!

TEACHING GAMES

FOURS “Fours” is the most basic rhythm game that I play with kids. I always use it on the first lesson, and on all subsequent lessons until the child seems too old for it. It’s a fun but very childish game that teaches rhythm and piano geography without using printed notes or numbers of any kind.It’s important for kids to actually play the piano without the encumbrance of graphic notation (notes or numbers) of any kind. For example, you’ll notice that kids in general can go to the piano and play three songs: Chopsticks, Heart and Soul, Knuckles (that funny piece played on the black keys with the knuckles of the right hand!)

“Fours” is a piano game constructed in exactly the same mold. The child plays numbers and I play the chords. If the symbols below don’t line up in your browser, remember that there are always four notes (numbers) for every chord (letter.) The child begins on “Middle C,” also known as the number one: “1″ The teacher plays the letters, or chords.

1111 2222 3333 4444 5555 6666 7777 8888

C G C F C F G C

I play a kind of funny Chico Marx oom-pah accompaniment using the chord pattern (C G C F C F G C, etc.) Kids find this very easy and refreshing. We play up the piano keys, moving to the right, with the natural goal being for the child to reach the highest key on the piano. I’m pretty “strict,” that is, if the child breaks the rhythm or misses a key, we start over. Strangely enough, kids love to go back to the beginning and start over as much as they love going all the way to highest key.

Fun variant: Ask them to count up the white keys until they reach the highest white key (starting from Middle C, which to them is #1) and tell you what the “number” of that white key is (it’s 29.) This has no musical value except that it makes the child an explorer of the instrument.The object of these games is to make the child a keen and enthusiastic observer of their instrument, something impossible to do when the child is locked into reading only sheet music from a book. Kids need to improvise, however humbly, and essentially all of my games are designed to make fun music outside of sheet music, numbers or conventional.

“Fours” teaches a child that
Sheet music is not always necessary to have fun with music
They have to count while they play
Music is divided into numbered units
Piano is a fun thing they can do right away.

Sometimes piano classes don’t turn out to be everything you hoped for. There are a lot of potential problems you should look for before signing up for piano classes. These classes are often quite expensive and you certainly do not want to waste your money going to one for a few weeks and then finding out it is not what you want. Here are a few things you can look for when you are thinking about taking piano classes at a music school or with a private instructor.

What kind of music are you interested in playing? This will make a big difference in what kind of course you need to be looking for. Most of the piano classes offered specialize in classical music, and if you are not interested in learning classical then you should search for one that offers lessons for the kind of music you like. You can find music lessons in jazz, blues, gospel and modern, but you may have to search for them a bit.

You will enjoy your lessons so much more when you learn the kind of songs you love listening to. This will help keep all the boredom of your lessons so that you learn faster and get through your lessons without the desire to quit. A lot of people quit their lessons right at the beginning because they get bored and give up. You want to make sure that you can find a class that is fun, interesting and keeps you motivated.

Another very important thing to look for when you’re signing up for piano lessons is who the instructor will be. Want to find an instructor you feel comfortable with him and on top of that one that is alive and exciting. A dry boring teacher will and continued dry boring lessons. And don’t get into a position where you want to quit as soon as you have started.

The most important thing to look for when you are choosing piano classes is the atmosphere of the classes themselves. Does it seem exciting and alive? Are people participating, and do the students and a teacher look inspired? Make your observations and take a good look at the instructor. If there is passion about music it will show up in the atmosphere of the room, and the teacher, and you will feel drawn towards these lessons.

If you have been unable to find good piano classes and feel like you would like to try taking lessons on the Internet, then you will have no problem finding some good ones that can teach you everything you need to know about playing the piano. There are some courses on the Internet that have been put together by inspired passionate instructors that are willing to do everything they can to help you learn how to play the piano. You should really look at these lessons and consider them as a good option.

There are 36 black and 52 white keys (88 total) on a piano. These keys trigger hammers inside the piano that strike the pianos strings to produce sound. The white keys are a piano “natural” notes while the black keys are used for notes that are either sharp or flat. The first key (on the far left of the keyboard) is the note A and the last key (on the right), the note C.

The keys are arranged in half steps (semitones) and in the order of a chromatic scale (half step, half step, half step, etc.). The white and black keys alternate except for the fact that there are no black keys (sharp or flat notes) between the notes B and C, or E and F (the notes B#, Cb, E# and Fb do not exist).

Some think the piano is based on a C scale, but that is really not the case. You can play any scale on the piano (a D minor scale, an Ab 7 scale, etc.) simply by choosing a certain starting point (piano key) and playing the notes in the proper order. Playing left to right creates ascending (higher and higher) notes, playing right to left creates descending notes.

The piano keyboard can also be looked at from the standpoint of octaves. An octave is an interval casually thought of as 8 scale notes above or below the reference note (or the beginning and ending note of a scale). The note names of notes an octave apart are the same (i.e., you can play the note E, then play another E an octave higher). Notes an octave apart (and all notes for that matter) are measured as a certain Pitch (a particular note or tone). Pitch is measured in cycles per second (written as hz). Whereas the note A is measured at 440hz, the A above (an octave higher) is measured at 880hz. The note A above that (another octave higher) is measured at 1760hz. Octaves provide a basic framework for scales and chords.

One of the challenges of a pianist is the stretching of the hands and fingers to play certain combinations of notes that produce chords or arpeggios. It takes time to develop the flexibility and strength needed and certain exercises are used for that purpose. At times, all ten fingers are needed to play the music as written (or desired). As a general rule in music written for the piano, the left hand plays the notes of the bass clef, while the right hand plays the notes of the treble clef. Typically, the melody of the piece is played by the right hand (with the left hand often providing bass notes, runs, and arpeggios).

Portable, electronic keyboards rarely contain all 88 keys. Depending on size and purpose, a portable keyboard can contain as few as 24 keys. The musician is limited in the number of notes that can be played and often has to “rearrange” the melody and chords by playing one octave above or below the intended passages.

Keyboards:

Keyboards are typically smaller than a full acoustic piano in that they tend to have approximately 61 keys (4 or 5 octaves) whereas a full acoustic has 88 keys (6 octaves). The main benefit, however is that the keyboard is portable, able to provide a wider range of sounds, due to sound modification, and the ability to interact easily with computers via MIDI or USB connections.

When playing a keyboard one will notice that the keys are slightly smaller and are in fact easier to press than an actual piano. This may take some getting used to for a pianist that has been playing on an acoustic. The reason that the acoustic is heavier is because they are triggering the hammer that hits the string and makes noise, whereas a keyboard does not require this action to occur. Since the keys are lighter and smaller keyboards are sometimes better for younger children.

Digital Pianos:

Digital pianos are a mix between the keyboard and acoustic piano. Digital pianos allow for a greater variation in sounds because they allow for sound modification. They are however, larger than a keyboard and are usually the same length (88 keys) as an acoustic piano.

The sound quality of a digital piano is often better than a keyboard because they typically have built in speakers, but this also reduces the portability of in comparison to the keyboard. Digital pianos also tend to have “weighted keys” which make them feel more like an acoustic when playing.

Acoustic Pianos:

Acoustic pianos are the original and true form of piano playing. The piano, as we know it today, has been around since about 1700 (for more history of the piano refer to our piano history section in our piano articles).

The term acoustic was recently added to the piano after the creation of digital pianos. Therefore when one refers to an acoustic piano they are referring to a piano which makes sounds acoustically, which means through the vibrations caused by the hammer hitting a string. The vibrations are amplified by a board in the piano referred to as the “sound board.” The soundboard then evenly distributes the sound via the cabinet (if your piano is enclosed) or out the top lid, in the case of a grand piano.

The keyboard is a set of adjacent keys that are depressible on a musical instrument. This is especially in the case of a piano. Keyboards consists of keys that are required to play the twelve notes found in the western scale of music with some longer keys and some shorter keys that gets repeated at an interval of octave. If you depress a key on a piano keyboard it produces sound.

The sound is produced either mechanically or electronically in case of electronic keyboards. The keyboard is also found on a synthesizer and the pattern is almost the same as the piano. The history of the musical keyboard layout can be traced back to the first century. Since then the keyboard has gone through a lot of changes.

The basic layout of the keys has not quite changed from older keyboards; it has maintained almost the same manner as the traditional keyboards. You will find that the modern musical keyboards can play some compositions automatically. These compositions have already been programmed in the memory of the keyboard.

If you press a particular key on the keyboard it automatically starts playing the compositions. There are some musical keyboards in which you can even save your compositions. These kind of keyboards are specially used by musicians who compose and record music for later use.

Musical keyboards are popular as gifts. These keyboards are available in a wide range of sizes as well as prices. You will also buy portable keyboards, which are purposely designed to be used by the children. The price varies according to the quality of the instrument.