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Basic Piano

Prepare For Online Free Piano Lessons

by Tania Gleaves on January 20, 2012

Online free piano lessons are the perfect choice for those who may feel intimidated by sheet music. In the comfort of your own home, you can learn to read notation without feeling (too) embarrassed or incurring the costs of an expensive tutor. But before you set out to download every song from the web, let us give you a quick primer for what you’re about to encounter.

The Setting

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Every piece of sheet music contains a set of staff lines. Staff lines are groups of five lines and four spaces that hold the notes you’ll see and play. Also known as ledgers, they also hold the Clef symbol which indicates which hand you’ll play with. The Treble Clef (S-Shaped) indicates right hand work while the Bass Clef (C-Shaped) indicates left hand work. To make music legible, notes are separated by bar lines. Bar lines divide notes into measures which also make music legible. It’s much easier to read music that’s separated into parts than it is to read music that isn’t — much like the way it’s easier to read an article that’s separated into paragraphs.

The Music

Earlier we mentioned that staffs hold the notes that you’ll encounter. Notes, which can look like solid and hollow circles, sit right on top of a line or right in the middle of two lines. The placement of these notes corresponds to a particular pitch and each pitch corresponds to a piano key – and more…

Notes not only represent pitch, they also represent rhythm. A solid circled note for example, can represent a quarter or a whole beat while a hollow note can represent two beats or four whole beats at once. If you see a small dot next to a note, it means that note should be played a little longer.

Timing

While taking online piano lessons, you’ll see other symbols that teach you when to play the notes we’ve been talking about. If a dot sits next to a quarter note for example, the quarter note (which is normally played for one beat) is then played for two beats. If you see an arc type shape that appears to connect two notes beneath or above it, it indicates that those two notes should be played as one.

Other symbols include rests and time signatures. Some rests look like little black hats whereas time signatures look like fractions. You’ll find a song’s time signature on the first staff. It tells musicians the number of beats that are in each measure and it describes kind of note counts as one beat. You’ll find rests all over the place however and since they’re the only shapes that look like squares, they’re fairly easy to locate. Try to remember that a solid “hat” on the second line of a staff indicates that you should stop playing for four whole beats. Half of a hat on the third line indicates that you should rest for two beats.

Two kinds of rests don’t look like hats at all. They look like lazy W’s (Ws pointing to the left) instead and if you see one, it means you should rest for only one beat.

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Whether you already play piano or want to learn, I’m glad you stumbled across this page. It means there’s one more person out there looking for a better way to add music to his or her life, or perhaps to improve on an already established skill set.

Either way, welcome. The good new is, I’ve got helpful advice for any level you may be at. I invite you to discover your potential and take the necessary steps to reach your goals.

Click Here For More Helpful Tips On How To Play Piano Regardless What Skill Level You Have!

Beginners Play Piano, Don’t Be Shy

If your idea of a scale is something in your bathroom that seems to know you like donuts, you’re definitely among the beginners. But seriously, if you know only a handful of basic chords, a song or two, or you have never touched a keyboard, you will want to learn the basics.

I recommend you take a course in introductory musical theory. You’ll want to learn the names of the notes, practice the scales, begin to put together chords, and embrace the art of repetition. That’s right, the key to picking up on the basics is to imprint them into your psyche, increase your dexterity, train your hands to make those stretches they’re not used to making, and find the connection between mind and body that will enable you to play naturally.

At the beginner level, students should have the patience to put off learning actual songs or

performance styles in favor of getting comfortable learning chords, fingering, etc. The good news is, with the right training, you can pass through the beginner level relatively quickly. Of course, the right training is, at best, half the equation. Your ability to master the above skills will depend on your determination to practice every day. Just like physical training, by going through the correct motions a little each day, you can accomplish much more than inconsistent practice every so often.

How you decide to learn is up to your preferred method of absorbing new information. Some people are visual learners, others are aural. What this means to you is, you might need to learn to play with the aid of sheet music (visual) or by listening to someone play a note or chord and you copy them (aural). The latter method is also known as playing by ear. Most websites that promote piano lessons offer a sample of their training style so you can try before you buy. It’s a good idea to try both so you can get started in the right direction and not waste time learning in a way that’s against your learning style.

When Intermediates Play Piano

By this point in your piano education, you should know all the scales, the popular chord styles, and be able to perform with confidence. This isn’t to say you should be a virtuoso. At the intermediate level, many musicians can find work playing out at various venues. But their skills are limited.

Now is a good time to think about the type or types of music you want to play. Will you study classical? Are you more into jazz or blues? Would you prefer to play rock? Or are you saving yourself for religious styles like gospel? With your intermediate skill level, you understand many of the chords and progressions you will use in your chosen genre. Now you need to focus on lessons that show you the fundamentals, the nuances, and the tricks behind playing a particular style.

Like the tip I gave for beginners, it applies here as well: Determine if you are a visual or auditory learner and pick the package you are most likely to understand, enjoy, and stick with.

And again, practice!

Advanced Performers Play Piano

Congratulations, you’ve come a long way in your musical journey. But you’re far from finished. With your advanced skills, you can sit in with another musician or ensemble and play piano. You can listen to a song and learn it with relative ease, or perhaps you can open sheet music and read the notes as easily as you read printed text. And just maybe, you are ready to flex your creativity and explore new horizons.

Some performers don’t know how to recognize when they surpassed the intermediate level. That’s okay, it will be clear eventually. If you are already performing comfortably but you want to infuse your music with more complex chord structures, creative runs, or you want to add another genre to your repertoire (that’s a lot of French!), you are most likely advanced and ready to take on a bigger challenge. It’s been said many times, learning to perform music is not a destination but a journey.

Many professional artists play multiple instruments. They are skilled guitarists or drummers who also play a little piano. It is not uncommon to encounter a musician who is very good at any instrument he or she decides to learn. If you are just such a person, and piano is one of your secondary instruments, consider how you could benefit from actual lessons.

I’ve discovered some outstanding courses for advanced piano playing that can be purchased online. Take the time to evaluate the publishers’ websites and read reviews if possible. Most lesson packages are moderately priced, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding a good, affordable lesson system.

And in case you forgot already, you still need to practice! Just remember to keep the fun in the fundamentals. Learning to play piano can be a lot of work, but it’s a form of entertainment and should never be a chore. Good luck!

Click Here For More Helpful Tips On How To Play Piano Regardless What Skill Level You Have!

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Time Signatures – An Essential Component to Reading Music

January 15, 2012

Fractions In Music? Oh No! Time signatures in music indicate a song’s rhythm. Sometimes called a meter, the time signature tells musicians the number of beats in each measure of music and what kind of note counts as one beat. Written as music, they look like fractions – but fortunately the only math that you [...]

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Piano Intervals

January 9, 2012

Introduction Piano intervals are differences in pitch. If you think of the C major scale, each one of its keys is an interval between its lowest note and its highest. That includes whole notes and half notes, mind you.. The smallest interval is obviously the half-step (called a minor 2nd) and the largest interval is [...]

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Playing Beginner Piano – An Introduction

January 7, 2012

It isn’t hard at all to learn beginner piano and once you learn the basics, you’ll discover that the rest of your journey is a straightforward process. Learning can be intimidating to people who have no experience with piano music at all, but it can even intimidate musicians who are used to playing a different [...]

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Beginning Piano Books Basics

January 4, 2012

There are many different types of beginning piano books…and with so much to choose from it can sometimes be confusing! To help you narrow down your piano books choices you have to make a few decisions. What type of piano playing are you interested in? Classical Music? If you are looking to learn classic piano, [...]

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Piano for Beginners – Different Ways of Learning

January 3, 2012

There is a bit of a mini-revolution going on in the world of piano teachers. And it all has to do with teaching piano for beginners. You see, there’s the old way of teaching piano. This way focuses on learning notes, learning to site read music, and learning where each individual note is on the [...]

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Basic Piano Scales – Essential, But Easy!

December 26, 2011

The relationship between full-size compositions and basic piano scales is incredibly strong, for without the scale, we wouldn’t have the wonderful symphonies that we enjoy today. Knowing what this relationship is, there can be little question about how basic piano scales contribute to such masterpieces from the likes of Bach or Vivaldi. And being aware [...]

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Top 10 Ways To Effectively Practice Piano

December 17, 2011

Let us start by admitting piano practice isn’t always fun. At times, it can be as grueling a task as mopping the floor or teaching your York Terrier to roll over (even when he hasn’t done it for the hundredth time). The key thing about piano practice however, is that it isn’t really supposed to [...]

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Piano Lessons For Beginners – The Ultimate Insider’s Guide

December 14, 2011

Piano lessons for beginners can be a tough thing to come by. There’s so much to consider when taking up the piano for the first time. First off this is an investment, in time and money. Make sure that you are ready to make a commitment to study and practice. The piano is a beautiful [...]

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