Your Online Piano Experience Starts Here

Your search for online piano teaching would suggest that you have strong motivation to learn how to do things on your own.  This website is designed to give the do-it-yourself beginner a good idea of the things a person needs to learn, and how to learn them, in order to develop a solid foundation of piano-playing skills.

As you begin this process of online piano learning, I would encourage you to keep open the possibility of actually having a real live piano teacher someday.  Having the eyes, ears, and knowledge of an experienced pianist to guide you as you work could definitely increase your rate of progress.

At this website, you will find everything you need to get moving on your piano journey. I will help you get started by suggesting a few things to work on at the beginning and where to go as you progress. But if you really want to see and understand what your piano odyssey entails, you may want to read "Piano Player... You".  This ebook will give you the overall picture, a bird's-eye-view, of what it takes to build a strong foundation of piano abilities and knowledge.

A Good Start For Beginners:

What follows is a listing of several things you can do to get your online piano experience started. After the first 3 lessons (Basic Technique), you can either do them in order, or you can bounce around from one thing to another. Each link includes both written instructions (I encourage you to read these, as they often contain valuable ideas that are not necessarily specified within the videos) and video demonstrations.

Essentially, you will begin learning to play the piano by playing the piano. A list of 17 familiar tunes, each with video demonstration and piano tablature (for non-music readers), will provide you with the material you need to start getting acquainted with the piano keyboard and with your piano finger numbers. You can pick and choose which tunes to do (they are listed in a somewhat progressive order, from easiest to hardest) but you should consider learning at least 5 or 6 of them.

After the tunes, you will find a list of simple exercises that will lead you to scales, arpeggios, cadences, and Twinkle/Burlesque. This is the piano technique development path on which I take all of my piano students. It has proven to be extremely effective for the development of basic piano skills.

Next, you will find links to pages involving music reading and how to learn piano pieces.  This completes the presentation of the basic areas of piano study that I believe form the foundation of piano-playing skills every piano player needs.

Basic Technique:

To get your online piano experience started, check out these ideas:

"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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More Online Piano Information: Some Music Theory

-click here for Wikipedia's explanation of music theory (it is cool)-