Hi there and welcome to part one of the beginners mini course on Learning How to Play the Piano. This mini course gives you a taste of what's covered in Rocket Piano - The Ultimate Learning Kit.
It's really good to have you on board, all the best with your playing!
In this lesson you are going to learn:
Sitting at the Piano
When you are seated at the piano, you need to have the correct posture. Without the proper posture, you can experience back pain and stress in your joints.
The first rule of correct posture is to keep your back straight. Your torso may bend towards the piano.
Keep your head up. DON'T crane your neck to look at the sheet music. The sheet music should be positioned so you can see it easily.
Your shoulders and arms should be loose and relaxed. If you need to do some stretches beforehand, feel free!
Your arms should be parallel with the height of the keys and bend at the elbow in an angle of slightly greater than 90 degrees.
Your thighs should be parallel with the floor. To ensure this, you should use an adjustable chair.
Your left foot should be set forward toward the pedals, while your right foot should rest midway between the pedals and your chair.
Keep enough distance between your chair and the piano that you can reach the pedals and keys comfortably, yet have freedom of movement. If your chair is too close, your body will get in the way of your elbows. If your chair is too far away, you will have to bend forward to reach the keys.
|
How the Hands are Used in Playing the Piano If you know how to type, you know that you need to use a certain finger to press each key on the keyboard. Similarly, when you are playing piano, you will use certain fingers to press specific keys, depending on the hand position. As you start learning the correct fingers to use, it is helpful to think of each of your fingers as having a numerical value. The standard method is to divide your fingers into your right hand (R.H.) and left hand (L.H.), and assign a number from 1 to 5 to each finger, starting from the thumb (1) and finishing on the pinky (5).
As you work through these lessons, You will need to know which number corresponds to which finger, so that when we ask you to play a key with R.H. 2, you will know to play the key with the index finger of your right hand. Since this numbering system is standard, you will find that some pieces of particularly difficult piano music will have a number (like R.H.2) marked above certain notes that are difficult to finger. |
Introduction to the Piano Keyboard
Today we look at the piano keyboard. A standard modern piano has 88 keys: 52 white and 36 black. Its range will be a little over 7 octaves (one octave is made up of 7 white keys and 5 black keys).
You will notice that the black keys on a piano are grouped in sets of 2 and 3. An easy way to remember which key is C on the piano is to remember that the white key immediately before any group of 2 black keys is C:
In the very center of the piano is an important key called Middle C. This establishes the basic pitch and is the key from which all other keys are referenced.
To the left of middle C, the notes become progressively lower. (Hitting a note will cause vibration of the bass strings).
To the right of middle C, the notes become progressively higher. (Hitting a note will cause vibration of the tenor strings.)
As mentioned before, the black keys on a piano are grouped in sets of 2 and 3.
As you move up each key in the piano, you are moving up a half-step. You will learn more about this in later chapters.
Right now, just play some keys on the piano. Try the following:
1.Play some white keys, then some black keys. Do you notice any difference in the tone or quality of sound?
2.Play the lowest note on the keyboard, then Middle C, then the highest note. Do you think that many songs use a piano's full range?
3.Play a group of consecutive keys (keys that go one right after another, including the black keys.) Can you hear the progression in pitch?
The Fingering System
Now, try some exercises to practice the fingering system on the keyboard. Right now, we'll just use the two black keys above Middle C.
1. Using your left hand, play the two grouped black keys just up from Middle C.
2. Now, play the same keys using your left hand and the correct fingers. Play the highest note first and the lowest note second.
3. Now, do Exercise 2 again, this time with the right hand.
4. Play R.H. 2 then R.H.3.
Now, we will do the same thing, but on two of the groups of three black keys. Use the three black keys below Middle C for the left hand, and the three black keys above Middle C for the right hand.
1. Play L.H. 2, L.H. 3, then L.H. 4.
2. Now, play R.H. 2, R.H.3, and R.H. 4
Reading Music
Before we start playing any songs we need to briefly look at reading musical notes. Music consists of a pattern of tones of varying lengths. Each tone is written down as a note. The word note can have several meanings:
A tone of definite pitch.
The symbol for such a tone, indicating pitch by its position on the staff and duration by its shape.
The key of an instrument, such as a piano.
If you want to play a note, you need to learn how to read notes from a musical score and play those notes on the piano. You must learn how to read music if you want to play the piano. Think of a musical score as your instruction manual. It will tell you everything you need to know about playing a piece. Once you have the musical score memorized, you will be able to play songs easily without the sheet music (as is done in most solo recitals).
Rhythm
Right now, let's focus on understanding the length of a note. Knowing how long to play each note is essential to capturing a song rhythm. The shape of the note will tell you how long the tone should be played for (its duration).
A note can have many different shapes.
Each shape has a specific name and corresponds to a certain value (measured in beats). By looking at these notes on their own, you do not have any idea of the pitch of each note. In other words, whether the note is Middle C, a higher note, or a lower note. The only thing that the shape of a note tells you is its duration. You will have to look at the notes position on a musical staff to know its pitch.
The Quarter Note
The standard note is the quarter note. It lasts for one beat, or count.
Musical rhythms are not just described by note lengths. You can also talk about rhythm in terms of measures. Measures are indicated by bar lines.
Can you guess the number of beats per measure?
4 quarter notes x 1 beat per quarter note = 4 beats
The Half Note
A half note is twice the length of a quarter note. It lasts for two counts:one, two.
Two quarter notes make a half note.
+
Whole Note
A whole note is four beats. It lasts for four counts: one, two, three, four.
A whole note is equal to two half notes OR four quarter notes
Now lets try for a song!
So now we'll put the two aspects of the hands on the black keys and note values together to make a song. Here you can see that the fingers are on the black keys either side of middle C on your piano. Enjoy!
Click on the following link to hear this piece played. Play this audio track
You've now come to the end of your first free Rocket Piano Beginner Course Lesson. Thank you for your time, we hope you did well with this lesson and had fun. Before we close for today let me tell you about our fantastic new music theory learning game Jayde Musica.
Jayde Musica takes the boredom out of learning how to read music. It is an exciting and challenging new game, and best of all, it's FREE!
Introducing Jayde Musica, the Fun Way to Learn How to Read Music!
Jayde Musica brings enjoyment to the otherwise monotonous task of learning how to read music. Watch as musical notes fly across the screen and do your best to identify them! This game goes from beginner to advanced levels, complete with a high scores table.
Jayde Musica is so easy to set up and use that you have fun learning how to read music in seconds. You will find this to be the easiest, most effective way to learn how to read music. You will be amazed at how quickly you will learn using Jayde Musica. Have a quick game now and if you like the software you can download a copy for yourself!
| "I've just been using your music note game this morning and I have to say I'm loving it. I'm going to pass it on to my friends. It really is a big help."
- Chris Danaskis, via Email |
Features and benefits of Jayde Musica:
Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty levels included.<
Clefs including treble, bass, alto and tenor.
The option of turning on/off various clefs, so that you can isolate a specific area of music theory that you wish to work on.
Fast Learning. Jayde Musica is a great way to accelerate your learning. It will have you self-correcting and trying really hard to remember the various notes displayed, so that you can progress further and gain a record score or even clock the game!
Simplicity. No flashy gimmicks, so easy to play that you won't feel like you have to learn a whole new game. In fact it has the familiar game play of space invaders.
Unlimited use. You can use Jayde Musica as many times as you want for free and it won't expire.
It's as easy as 1,2,3. Just play the game, start making mistakes and learn from them! As you get higher and higher scores, you'll be surprised at how dramatically quick your music reading proficiency level will improve.
This program is so simple to use, all it takes is 10mins a day!
It's free. That's right, you can keep on using this program and it won't expire.
I just wanted to let you know that I'm really enjoying Jayde Musica. After searching for ages, I have finally found some music training software that is actually fun to use. Thanks a bunch!
|
I have arranged for you to receive a FREE copy of Jayde Musica via instant download. That's right, it's yours FREE as a gift from The Rocket Piano Team.
CLICK HERE FOR WINDOWS or CLICK HERE FOR MAC to download Jayde Musica Now for Free! (Approx. 1.4 mb in size).
Download Jayde Musica now and learn to fluently read all the musical notes on all the staves in just a matter of days!Jayde Musica will never expire - you can use it all you like!
Important Privacy information: There is no spy-ware contained in this program, we do not monitor your actions or email. When you register this program, we will not give your email address or personal details to anyone.
Operating Systems:Jayde Musica runs on all Windows and Macintosh operating systems.
I hope you take us up on this offer of a free copy of Jayde Musica. It's the besy way to learn all those musical notes and be able to sight read them with ease! CLICK HERE FOR WINDOWS or CLICK HERE FOR MAC and Start Learning with Jayde Musica for Free Today.
FOR MAC USERS: To use JaydeMusica please visit https://flashplayer.fullstacks.net/ then follow the instruction on video below. Adobe stopped supporting Flash Player beginning December 31, 2020
Don't forget to practice what you have learned over the next few days. I'll be sending you your next free lesson in four days.
See you in a couple days!
The Rockstar Recipes Team
