How To Play Piano

You can learn how to play piano and play it well. With this website, I would like to help you get started on your piano journey by showing you a path that you can take to building a strong foundation of piano-playing skills. Here, you will find all the basic resources you need to successfully work through the beginning stages piano development.

To get started immediately, a 3-part set of lessons I call "Basic Stuff" will help you prepare with some technique and fundamental keyboard understanding. As you begin to learn how to play piano, you will want to know these very basic things in order to get off to a smooth start.

Next, you will find a series of familiar tunes (17 tunes, in all), which are presented with piano tab (for non-music readers), music notation, and video demonstrations. The tunes are listed in a somewhat progressive order (easiest-to-hardest), though they all qualify as "elementary" level piano music since they all consist of just a melody which can be learned hand-separately or hands-together.

Along with the tunes, you will benefit tremendously from going through the series of basic piano exercises and learning to play arpeggios, cadences. A good plan would be for you to follow the exercises (which should take at least 8 weeks of practice) with the learning of scales. Add Twinkle to the mix at first, replacing it with Burlesque by the time you get to scales.

Ultimately, then, you will be playing an extremely effective combination of exercises for learning how to play piano: Scales, Arpeggios, Cadence, & Burlesque (SACB). Eventually, this combination of exercises will help you master all 12 of the major scales (and someday, even the minor scales).

As you learn how to play piano, you will probably also want to get started learning how to read music. You will find a plan for music-reading, which should be included in your daily practice routine, along with the tunes and exercises.

Finally, you will eventually be wanting to learn (and memorize) some actual piano pieces. So I have included video demonstrations of several pieces, and how to learn them. These pieces range from elementary level to advanced. (Over time, more and more pieces will be added to the list as this website grows... stay tuned.)

For a complete understanding of what your piano journey entails, you may want to consider the ebook "Piano Player...You", as it is a great "bird's-eye" perspective of the whole thing. It will serve as your map/guide, as you embark on your piano odyssey.

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"Basic Stuff"

"PRE"-LESSON 1: Piano Fingering, Piano Technique, Piano Posture 


LESSON 1: Know Your Keyboard, part one - the black notes 


LESSON 2: Know Your Keyboard, part two – the white notes

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The Tunes

Lesson 3: Mary Had A Little Lamb in C, F, & G 


Lesson 4: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star in C, F, & G 


Lesson 5: When The Saints Go Marching In in C,F, & G 


Lesson 6: You Are My Sunshine in C,F, & G 


Lesson 7: Down In The Valley in C,F, & G 


Lesson 8: Frere Jacques in C,F, & G 


Lesson 9: Alouette in C,F, & G 


Lesson 10: Yankee Doodle in C,F, & G 


Lesson 11: The Water Is Wide in C,F, & G 


Lesson 12: Brahms Lullaby in C,F, & G 


Lesson 13: Home On The Range in C,F, & G 


Lesson 14: Danny Boy in C,F, & G 


Lesson 15: Amazing Grace in C,F, & G 


Lesson 16: Simple Gifts in C,F, & G 


Lesson 17: America the Beautiful in C,F, & G 


Lesson 18: The Star Spangled Banner in C,F, & G 


Lesson 19: Greensleeves in A-minor, D-minor, & E-minor

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The Basic Exercises

-Click here to go to the exercises for beginners-

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Arpeggios

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Cadence

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Twinkle

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Burlesque

-click here for the instructions and video tutorial on Burlesque-

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Scales, Arpeggios, Cadence, and Burlesque

-click here to see the whole routine-

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Music Reading

-click here for ideas on reading music at the piano-

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Learning and Memorizing Piano Pieces

Here are a few examples of how to go about learning and memorizing piano music:

Elementary level pieces

The Chicken Dance

Minuet in G (Bach)

Carol Of the Bells

Intermediate level pieces

Fur Elise (Beethoven)

Canon In D (Pachelbel)

Advanced level pieces

The Entertainer (Joplin)

The "Moonlight" Sonata, 1st movement (Beethoven)

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How To Play Piano: Some Music Theory

-click here for Wikipedia's explanation of music theory (totally awesome)-