Piano for Beginners

I’ve written before about how my online piano course is a great way to learn how to play piano songs.  It offers flexibility, I said.  I don’t have to try to make it to a piano lesson.  I don’t have to worry about whether I have made enough progress in any given week to keep the teacher from yelling at me.  If I am busy with kids or work one week, I may not practice as much.  If I have a it a little bit lighter with kids or work another week, I can practice more.  I can learn to play piano songs my way, on my schedule, without negotiating with anyone else.

I didn’t mention another great convenience when I wrote about it before.  Learning to play keyboard online spares you the embarrassment of being bad at something in front of anybody else.  That sounds like a silly little concern.  But it isn’t silly for me.  And it probably isn’t silly for a lot of people.

I mean, it’s not like I don’t have lots of opportunities to be embarrassed in the rest of my life.  I have plenty of opportunities to be embarrassed.  And sometimes what is at stake is crucial, or at least pretty important, so I can’t just drop it to avoid embarrassment.  For example, I had to bring the car in for emergency surgery a couple of weeks ago and didn’t have time to vacuum the crushed potato chips out of the back seat. 

And besides times when I am embarrassed, there are lots of times when I need to manage expectations, deal with disappointment (no, we can’t go to McDonald’s), and otherwise juggle demands.  So I really don’t need to be embarrassed any more than I already am.

It could be enough to dissuade me from learning how to play piano songs.  It could be, that is, except that I have a way of learning piano that is completely anonymous and doesn’t expose me to public feelings of inadequacy.  I do it online, in the privacy of my own home.  My teacher doesn’t slap my knuckles with a ruler.  She is online and on audio files and will never know when I make a mistake.  Learning piano online is the perfect solution for a shy, sensitive, easily embarrassed person like me.

I am looking forward to the day when I have made enough progress in piano that I can play in front of others confidently and without fear of inadequacy.  That day hasn’t yet arrived, but I am sure it will.  In the meantime, I am having a ball and learning a lot with an excellent online piano course that not only teaches me how to play piano songs, but also saves me from embarrassment.

If you are ready to take the plunge without embarrassment, you should try Rocket Piano, too.  If you aren’t sure whether you are ready to take the plunge or not, dip your foot in with the free 6-lesson course.  You have nothing to lose with a free course!

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Here are a couple of very informative blog posts about learning jazz piano:

• How to comp chords – comping chords on the piano – I got this question from a student: “I am struggling to comp rhythmically & unpredictably while improvising or playing from a lead sheet. I can comp chords in my left hand to a pattern (i.e., 4 to the floor or on the 1 & 3, …

• The Circle of Fifths (part 2) – Learning harmony using the Circle of Fifths. Using the circle of fifths, it is easy to learn diatonic harmony. Looking at the example below, you’ll notice a yellow rectangle around F-C-G and a red circle around the C. …

For any busy person who wants to learn how to play piano songs, finding an appropriate online piano course is a great idea.  Learning piano online offers value and flexibility that just aren’t available with a private piano teacher.  But once you have chosen to learn how to play piano songs online, you need to decide how to choose the right online piano course for you.

Doing the research is not hard.  After all, these courses are all available online.   Of course, you need to have a certain skepticism while you read the sales material.  But you can do it all from your computer.  Here are some tips for doing research for an online computer course:

1. Does the website look professional?  Be sure it does.  The site should inspire confidence and respect.  The best sites have a complete description of their product, testimonials from real-live people who have actually used the product, and a way to contact them with any questions you have before you make a purchase.
2. What is the target audience of the program?  Some online piano courses are geared toward beginners and some toward more advanced students.  Some courses highlight pop music and others stress classical.  Some classes are great for kids; some just aren’t geared for kids.  Some courses anticipate that their students want to be professionals; others expect that their students only want to play for their own enjoyment.  Make sure that your own personal needs and interests are met by the course you are considering.  If not, move on.
   
3. What learning styles are stressed?  Some people learn best by memorization, some by a thorough explanation of reasons behind a lesson and others by a playful approach to learning.  Some people like to play scales and exercises; other people want to learn how to play piano songs.  In my opinion, a comprehensive piano course should be suitable all sorts of learning styles.  Reading music should be taught both by charts and by an interactive game.  You should get a thorough explanation of certain fingering techniques as well as lots of ways to practice the techniques.  There should be sound files available for you to hear what a passage is supposed to sound like, as well as the sheet music for it.
4. Is the price right?  Shop around for price.  But, as whenever you are considering price, make sure that you are getting the type of course you need from a professional, well-organized company or you will be paying too much, no matter what the price. 
   
5. Get a free sample.  The best online piano courses are proud of their product and want you to see it before you buy.  So most of them offer a free lesson or even a short introductory course.  Take advantage of it.  You will learn a little both about piano and about the course you wish to buy.

You have a lot of choices when it comes to purchasing an online piano course.  If you choose wisely, you will have hours of enjoyment learning how to play piano songs. 

And can confidently advise you to consider Rocket Piano. 

You can read what other bloggers have to say here:

• Learn to Play » Blog Archive » Keyboard Lessons Online Await … – Duane Shinn is the author of the popular online newsletter on piano chords, available free at “Exciting Piano Chords & Chord Progressions!” learn to play keyboard. Spread the word – share – save – subscribe – email – print …

• Free Online Lessons » Blog Archive » Did You Accomplish Something … – Links to and info about free online lessons. Also you can use the search box to look for video lessons in the subject area that interests you. Are you planning to take a piano course, or are you already having one? Do you want to take your skills to the next level? Are you practicing very well to play for your family or friends in recitals? Or you want to learn for your enjoyment? Whatever plans you have in mind in taking piano lessons, each learner must have their own sensible outlook upon doing so.

You may be taking up piano for beginners simply for your own pleasure.  It may be a strictly recreational pursuit.  But for playing the piano to be truly rewarding, you will need to apply yourself so that you gain mastery and artistry.  So, although I hope you will always have fun learning and playing piano, I certainly advise you not to treat your piano playing casually.  On the contrary, you should apply yourself to learning how to play piano songs the same way you would to any learning experience:  with a great attitude, determination, discipline, perseverance and passion.  Applying those five habits to your piano playing will enhance your joy of music.

1. Attitude.  Know that you can do it.  You can learn to play the piano.  Beyond that, you can learn to sight read, play by ear and accompany other musicians if those things interest you.  There are lots of piano players out there who aren’t as smart as you are.  If they can do it, you can, too.  And there are a lot of things that you have accomplished in your life that are harder than learning piano for beginners.  If you did those things, you can learn how to play piano songs, too.
2. Determination.  You have decided to learn piano for beginners.  So learn.  Keep playing even if you don’t want to.  Keep playing even if, at the moment, it’s not fun.  Just keep doing it.  And then do it again.  You will succeed in learning what you are trying so hard to master.  And then you will be able to go on to be determined about the next harder thing.
3. Discipline.  Discipline is a cycle.  When you apply yourself to learning how to play piano songs, you increase your capacity for discipline.  Your increased capacity for discipline allows you to apply yourself to a greater degree.  Applying yourself to a greater degree increases your discipline even further.  And so it goes.  So get on the treadmill.  Apply yourself, increase your discipline and succeed.
4. Perseverance.  If you encounter a difficulty, try another way.  If something doesn’t work, do something else.  But never lose sight of your goal of mastering piano for beginners.  Keep practicing.  And keep loving it.
5. Passion.  A great attitude, determination, discipline and perseverance will all fire up your passion.  When you are doing something you love, well, you love it.  But when you excel at something you love, you become truly passionate about it.  And your passion for learning how to play piano songs will, in turn, fuel your attitude, determination, discipline and perseverance.

So use your best habits when it comes to learning piano for beginners.  And you won’t be a beginner for long.

Do you want to learn to play keyboard online?  I use and love Rocket Piano.  Not convinced?  Try the free six-lesson course.

And in other news . . . what will they think of next:

• virtual piano turns any surface into a keyboard – digital information development (did) has developed a highly portable virtual piano that is played with a keyboard consisting of projected laser beams. the box-shaped device measures about 10 x 3 x 3 cm (4 x 1 x 1 in. …

• still alive performed on gmod piano – stay with me here, i had to look a lot of this up myself: crazy emmer effer called fptje on youtube has used the valve source engine and gmod (yeah grandma, that’s like, a sort of sandbox add-on thingie built using the source …

“Mom, stop!”  That’s what my kids say when I am practicing the piano, learning how to play piano songs. 

Learning piano as an adult requires many things.  Determination to fit your practice times into your busy schedule.  An understanding that you don’t ever have to stop learning or growing, even as an adult.  Oh, and a willingness to be humiliated.

You can’t learn anything without making mistakes.  And you can never master any skill without going through a stage in which your lack of mastery is apparent.  If you want to learn how to play piano songs, you have to be humble.

But it’s worth it.  

First of all, if you abandon your sense of embarrassment, even the practice is fun.  Learning to play the right notes, then to play them at the right tempo, then to play them like you mean it, is a great experience.  During your practice sessions, who has the right to judge?  Your kids?  Your spouse?  Let them live through the wrong notes.  And learn that by making mistakes, you can learn to make music.

Secondly, you aren’t going to be making mistakes forever.  Your playing will start to sound better with practice.  If you practice a lot, it will sound better soon.  So practice.  Play. 

Are you sitting in judgment of yourself?  Forgive yourself.  How many people do you know, adults with responsibilities, busy schedules and commitments, are endeavoring to learn an instrument?  Just you?  I thought so.  If you are learning to play piano songs as an adult, you are already succeeding in a way that most folks don’t even attempt.  Congratulate yourself on that.  Then keep practicing.

You may never be a concert pianist.  Maybe all you want to do is play Beatles songs or Christmas carols.   You are already closer to that than ever before.  Now go practice.  And tell the kids to live with it.

And don’t forget to check out Rocket Piano for a great online course.  You’ll learn to play keyboard fast!

On the other hand, if you want to feel hopeless, read these blog posts about kids who do things better than you ever will:

• top 10 kids who prove we’re all pathetic – there is nothing to make you feel more pathetic than a kid that can kick your ass at something. and i’m not talking about the accidental “i win” in a game of soccer in the front yard. i’m talking about a good spanking from a kid who can …

• Top 10 Child Prodigies – Listverse – Throughout history the world has been blessed with the occasional appearance of children with great talents, many of whom go on to become some of the most important contributors in their field. This is a list of the ten greatest child …

Now that I have been studying piano for beginners online for several weeks, I would like to say a few words in appreciation of the internet.  Because with the internet I have a chance to learn piano much more consistently and successfully than I would ever be able to learn with a teacher.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’m all for full employment for piano teachers.  I think piano teachers, like all teachers, should be paid more.  And other people, like professional basketball players and bankers who send the global economy plummeting off a cliff, should be paid less.  But that’s a discussion for a different blog.

As I was saying, I am fully in favor of learning piano, especially piano for beginners, from a real live teacher.  But I would never be able to do it myself.  There are two rather significant things standing between me and private piano lessons:  time and money. 

I am a self-employed single mother of two school-age kids.  I juggle as much as I can as well as I can.  During the school day, I work on my business.  After school, we’ve got basketball practice and basketball games, speech therapy sessions, help with science projects and homework, the church youth group . . . well, you get the idea.  Schedule a weekly piano lesson?  Not for one of the kids, mind you, but for Mom?  I just don’t see that happening. 

But that great force of democracy, the internet, gives me the flexibility to study online.  I can take my lessons when and as I can.  I don’t have to make an appointment, reschedule an appointment, break an appointment or get frazzled trying to get to an appointment on time.  I don’t have to cut into my work time to take an online piano lesson.  Nor do I have to worry about how to take care of the kids during a lesson scheduled for an afternoon, evening or week-end.  Some weeks, I have a little more time on my hands.  I can practice as much as I want and progress with lessons as I go.  Often, that’s in the evening after the kids are in bed.  Other times, I have less time available.  But even then I don’t experience the anxiety of staring down a piano teacher who gave me an “assignment” that I didn’t finish.

So the time factor is a definite reason to learn piano for beginners online instead of with a living, breathing teacher.  Then there’s that other factor:  money.  As you know, I am studying with the Rocket Piano course.  Well, the first six lessons are free.  You can’t get more economical than free.  Then, once I had finished with the free course, I purchased the premium course.  The price was remarkably reasonable, considering everything you get.  And it was a one-time fee, not a weekly or monthly stipend as with a private teacher.  As I said before, I fully support fair wages for piano teachers.  But, frankly,  I wouldn’t be able to pay them right now, even if I had the time to take private lessons.  Yet, by learning online with Rocket Piano, I have been able to handle both the time factor and the money factor.  And here I am, learning to play the piano!

So I am adding yet another voice to the chorus in favor of the power and reach of the internet.  And yet another reason:  because of the internet, I’m learning how to play piano songs.

Read more about learning how to play piano songs:

• Teach Yourself Piano – Yes You Can! – I certainly do not believe there is anyway that someone could sit in front of a piano, and after a few hours become a major piano legend. Here is the original: Teach Yourself Piano – Yes You Can!

• teach yourself piano – why being unique is a good thing | Piano … – As a beginner, when you start to teach yourself piano, it becomes crucial to realise the importance of being unique. It is normal to be a rote learner.

A piano is a costly investment.  Even a modest piano can be the most expensive piece of furniture in the house.  But it is more than furniture; it is a complex musical instrument.  So any piano owner must be concerned with caring for her piano, both to enhance the beauty of her piece of furniture and to maintain the quality of her musical instrument.  You should learn how to care for your piano just as you learn how to play piano songs.

The first and most important thing to do is to make sure the piano is located in an appropriate place in the house.  For a piano, heat, moisture and light can all cause damage.  Those conditions can damage the finish, cause the piano to go out of tune and even cause the wood to swell.  Your piano should be located away from radiators or heating vents, fireplaces and air conditioning units.  It’s also best not to place the piano against the outside wall of the house.  Be sure not to expose it to sunlight for long periods of time.  If the piano is located near a sunny window, keep the curtains drawn.  Sunlight can damage the finish and affect the tuning.  If at all possible, keep the humidity levels and the temperature even, to limit the expansion and contraction of the wood in the piano.

You paid a lot for your piano, and you work hard learning how to play piano songs, so don’t scrimp on care.  A neglected piano never has a good sound.  Have your piano tuned and regulated twice a year.  “Regulating” a piano means that a piano technician will examine all the moving parts for breakage or wear and fix or adjust them as needed.   You owe it to the piano as a piece of furniture and as a musical instrument.  And you owe it to yourself as a musician.

Since moisture is an enemy of a well-kept piano, keep liquids away from it.  Don’t bring a cup of tea or a glass of water to the piano when you play.  Find another place for your potted plants or beautiful bouquets of flowers.  Move the fish bowl.  It is as crucial to keep spills away from a piano as it is to keep moisture in the air under control.

Use a feather duster to clean the cabinet.  It will remove dust particles, so the dust won’t scratch the surface when you polish it with a cloth.  And just use a soft cloth to polish it.  Don’t use wood polish, because polishes can in fact damage wood.  And use soft, slightly damp cloths to clean the keys, one cloth for the white keys and a different cloth for the black ones.  Be sure to go back and remove any residual moisture with a clean, soft, dry cloth.

Your piano is too valuable for you not to treasure your investment.  An important, even imposing piece of furniture as well as a complex and intricate musical instrument, you should take as much care in the maintenance of your piano as you do in your efforts to learn how to play piano songs well.

And are you working hard at learning how to play piano songs?  Don’t overlook Rocket Piano, the best, most autoritative piano method course on the internet.

Want to read more about playing piano?  Have a look at these blogs:

• What Kind Of Learning Piano Is the Best – Do you want to learn how to play piano? If so, this article was written for you. Specifically, we are going to talk about how to teach yourself to play piano, whether you need a professional teacher, and how to use the Internet to teach …

• How can I learn to play piano by ear? | Learnin’ To Play Piano – Filed under: how to play piano. I’m not the best with sheet music and it’s so hard to find… To be completely honest, some people are able to play piano by ear, some people aren’t. If you’re a musical learner or play other instruments, …

No one has ever accused me of being musically talented.  But I love music and I decided to learn to play the piano.  For beginners, mind you.  Even though I am quite a lot older than most people are when they first take up an instrument, I wanted to learn to play the piano.  Okay, so it isn’t a piano.  In the absence of a real live piano, I bought an inexpensive, portable electronic keyboard.  And I’ve been goofing around on it a little bit. 

Now, my life is busy and my schedule is packed, so I knew that private lessons wouldn’t work.  You have to practice according to the lesson schedule.  You have to get to the lesson.  It wasn’t going to work so I didn’t even try it.  I thought I could teach myself piano for beginners with a method course either from a book or online.

I looked into a couple of methods and I am making my first attempt with RocketPiano.  One of the reasons that I wanted to try that course is because they offer a six-lesson trial package.  It comes to you via email right after you sign up (you need to confirm your subscription) and the email has a link to the instruction page.  They send out a new lesson every four days until your trial period is exhausted. 

Well, I just took the first of the free lessons.  This is piano for beginners, real beginners, and they start you out with instructions on how to sit at the piano.  Practice it.  The reason it is important is that you need to be able to reach the whole keyboard, you need to be able to sit and practice for hours (well, maybe . . . ) without muscle or joint stress and you need to be pain-free or, surprise, you won’t want to practice.

After the lesson on good posture, RocketPiano moves on to show you a numbering system for your fingers.  It’s sort of like a type of shorthand for them to be able to tell you what finger to use for the note when you are playing. 

Only after they have dealt with your posture and your fingers do they turn their attention to the keyboard.  Frankly, I found that conversation illuminating.  Of course, I always knew that the piano keyboard was a series of black and white keys.  But I had never seen a pattern to them before.  It turns out that the black keys are grouped in sets of two and three keys.  A set of two, plus a set of three, plus the adjacent white keys all together make an octave.  Octaves are repeated one after the other right down the keyboard.  The “C” is the white key that comes before a set of two black keys.  Every time you see a set of two black keys, you can find a “C” right before it.  That knowledge sure helped me to get my bearings on the keyboard.  Exercises, using just one hand and then another, help you just to get the feel of the keyboard. 

Next we moved on to discuss reading music.  No discussion of pitch at all right now.  The first thing they teach you is rhythm and the relative number of beats of whole, half and quarter notes.  This is piano for beginners, after all.  So we start out a step at a time.

And then we get to play a song.  No, I’m not kidding!  I actually learned how to play a piano song in my first lesson.  I played two lines of “Mary Had A Little Lamb.”  What fun!  It’s possible to do if they tell you where on the keyboard to place your fingers, they use the finger-numbering system to tell you which keys to press and they write out the music so you can tell how long to hold each note.  I learned the song pretty quickly, then spent several minutes playing it over and over again.  It was really a lot of fun to play a song on the piano. 

The lesson finishes up with a little present.  They give you a free download of a computer game, Jayde Musica.  As a staff of music passes along the screen, you need to identify it.  Like other games, you progress from one level to the next harder one.  It’s kind of fun.  And it’s free with the free course.

The second free lesson comes via email in four days.  I’ll write more then.

In the meantime, these articles might interest you:

• Teach Yourself Piano With Online Piano Lessons Download – In this article I shall discuss how to teach yourself piano with the help of online piano lessons download and why they are becoming so increasingly popular by the day. Offline classes or taking piano lessons from a flesh and blood …

• How to teach yourself piano? | Easy Piano Lessons – To teach yourself piano the first and most obvious requirement is that you have a piano or an electronic keyboard to learn on. Ideally you should.

I’m really enjoying Jayde Musica.  Jayde Musica is an interactive online game that is intended to help you learn to read music.  And of course, you need to have good music-reading skills if you are serious about learning how to play piano songs.  As you play Jayde Musica, a little piece of a staff moves from right to left across the screen.  There is a note, or more than one, on the staff.  You click on the letter that corresponds to the note as it passes.  If you go too slowly, you might get reminded to speed up.  Okay, so I know that from experience!  If you get enough of them right, you progress on to the next level, which is harder.  In upper levels, the staff moves faster and there is more than one note on the staff. 

It’s a lot of fun, but most importantly it’s really an excellent teaching tool.  Without this aid, I would approach learning to read music very passively, staring at a line of music and expecting somehow for it to sink in.  But Jayde Musica offers a more active approach.  You have to stay alert and move fast enough.  And when you click on the letter, you commit to an answer.  In those ways, it mimics the way you need to read music when you are learning how to play piano songs.  It’s really fabulous for learning to read music.

Jayde Musica is a free download that is available from Rocket Piano when you purchase the program, or even if you just sign up for the free six-lesson trial.  Since you want to learn how to play piano songs, you have to be able to read music.  Just to have access to Jayde Musica is enough to make it worth your while to sign up for the free trial.  After all, what have you got to lose?

If you try it, leave a comment to let me know how you like it.

Read more about piano for beginners:

• Different Ways of Learning Piano for Beginners by Brian Shelton by … – Piano for beginners taught through the chord based method is enjoyable for student and teacher alike. Could you imagine listening to nothing by scales for hours each day? A teacher that instructs their students to use chords can hear …

• How to learn piano for beginners | Piano for beginners – Not all preople are equally musical orientated, but do not stop you to learn how to play piano.Many tricks of the trade exist that can have you playing the.