Free! Learn How to Play Beginning Piano

I am finally making one of my childhood dreams come true. I started taking piano lessons! My aunt was going to give my parents a free piano but due to "no room" they declined. I was devastated! Last year I was lucky enough to bid on a piano that a gentleman donated to raise money for the American Cancer Society. I was the grateful winner! I wanted to share what I learned from my first lesson in case you or your child are interested in starting your dream, too.

Get a good piano book. Bastien Piano Basics Piano Primer Level or Suzuki Piano Book 1. Buy a notebook for your teacher to give you directions, helpful information, and homework. Or print out this page and each lesson I give you to practice. We can learn together! The piano teacher did recommend getting a CD or tape for children to listen to at first as they learn. You can find the CD on the link to the Suzuki Piano Book 1 and Bastien Piano Basics I have given you.

First sit up straight at the piano. Feet flat on the floor. If your child cannot reach the floor it is helpful to have a footstool or books to rest his or her feet on.

Each finger has a number. Fortunately it is the same number for each hand. The easiest way for me to remember is thumb is one as it rhymes. Index finger is number 2, then 3, 4 and pinky is number 5.

Hold your fingers in a nice curved shape. A good analogy is to think of how you curve your hands while using a computer. You should be playing the piano on the very tips of your fingers. Something that is difficult for me to get used to even though it comes natural for me on the computer. (And it was my idea to think of a computer keyboard which I told my teacher. Sometimes our minds do not match our hands!)

Next find the middle C key which is white on your piano. Find the name brand of your piano in the middle of wood. Look for two black keys. Right before the two black keys is the middle C key. Another way to find the middle C key is to count from the left end and it is white key number twenty four.

For the first week I was to only practice on my right hand. On the middle C key start with thumb and play piano! Use thumb, finger 2 and 3, then thumb under middle finger which is finger 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Congratulations! You have just played the octave C scale! Practice at least five times.

Now to change your brain thinking we are going to play the C scale going down. Start with pinky number 5 on the key you stopped with when doing the scale going up then, 4, 3, 2, 1, then third middle finger goes over and play 3, 2, 1. Keep those fingers curved! Practice at least five times.

Keep working on that for lesson one. Giving you work already!

The notes are C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C as you type up. Then it starts over again throughout the keys. Something new I learned! (I told you I was a beginner!)

The black notes that are filled in are called quarter notes. The notes that are not filled in are half notes. The circle note is a whole note.

Quarter notes = 1 beat. Half notes = 2 beats. The whole note = 4 beats. My teacher said to think of your heartbeat when counting.

Practice! If you have the Bastien Piano Basics book I mentioned above, practice page 12 to work on curving your fingers. Also, practice previous pages.

Look for lesson 2 when you have this completed. I pay $18.00 for thirty minutes of a lesson. So please use this for free!