Learning The Piano Made Easy
For the first time reader it will seem like there are an endless amount of notes that must be learnt – Unfortunately, it is also what makes the music quite difficult to learn. If you are learning to play the piano, then one of the first things that you will need to consider is, of course, the note. The note is the fundament of all music and the basis of all the tunes.
To begin with, you will need to learn the first 12 major notes. Don’t panic, as there are a number of techniques that you can learn to not only memorize them, but understand them as well. For the majority of us, we will have encountered the do-re-mi scale at some point in our schooling, and we have applied that here to show you how those notes that you learnt way back in school are interpreted into musical notes.
Just by simply learning the 12 notes, you are already well on your way to learning to play the piano. When you have these notes memorized, then you will be amazed at the number of doors that open for you. The next step is to move onto learning the 12 major chords.
These chords are the most important that you will learn, and, like the notes, will form the bedrock for your piano playing skills. Interestingly enough, these chords correspond directly to the chords that are used in playing the guitar, so when you have mastered them you will be able to play on both the guitar AND the piano!
On the table above you can also see the keys (notes) that are to be pressed in order to form the chord. The comparison between learning to play the piano and learning to play the guitar doesn’t end there – in both, all you really need to learn is the twelve major chords and then the proper positioning of your fingers.
As you probably would have guessed, there are a lot more chords available than just the ones that we have illustrated above, but these twelve are among the easiest to memorize. Also, learning these twelve will hold you in good stead for learning all the others.
When you begin to tackle more complex chords as you continue to learn the piano, many will seem really complicated and difficult to learn. In reality, however, they are just variations on the chords that we have illustrated above, and if you already know those, then you shouldn’t have too much of a problem. When you have mastered these – you will more than likely find it a lot easier than you think – you can move on to learning other chords.
The most important thing to remember as you memorize more and more chords is the location of middle C. If you bear this location in mind as you progress, you’ll discover that all other chords are based around its location. These variations are known as the minor chords. The biggest difference is that the major chords take only three fingers to play, whereas the minor chords can involve four and sometimes five fingers.
When you realize that the variations are based on what you already know, then you’ll see that the world really is your oyster! When you are just starting out learning the piano, all of this can be more than a little overwhelming. What you will find, however, is that when you know these simple principles, the rest comes quite naturally.
Copyright 2009 Lauren Paltrow (Stage Pianist)


