Most of us have been raised to believe that learning to play the piano is a complex and arduous task, requiring dedication, study, and that intangible quality called talent. In actual fact, nothing could be farther from the truth! Even if you’ve never touched a piano in your life, you can be playing actual songs, (and knowing everything you need to know to sound good doing it), in fifteen minutes flat. It really is that simple!
The Very First Thing You Need To Know
Like most things in general, the basics of playing a piano are very simple. There are only about five things you need to know to be playing piano right now! Of course, playing classical piano would require years of study, but if you want to start playing immediately, right now, you’ll know everything you need to do that by the time you finish reading this article. So the first thing you need to know is this:
It really is that simple
Now, there are a few things you’ll need. If you’re not one of the fortunate people that have a piano lying around, don’t despair! One of the inherent advantages to playing piano, (rather than, maybe, trumpet), is that digital keyboards are plentiful and cheap! In fact, I’m not exaggerating when I say you could teach everything on a board from Toys R’ Us that you could on a Boesendorfer grand piano! So, if you don’t have a piano-style keyboard handy, now would be a great time to get one.
Next, you need a blueprint of a project to start working on, so your next step will be to select what song you want to begin with.
If you bear these two points in mind, it will make selecting “that first song” both simple, and as productive as possible. First, start simple! You have to walk before you can run, and a huge proportion of popular music from the last half-century really is built on three or four different chords. So, choose a piece that doesn’t have too many changes.
And second: choose a song that you really, really want to be able to play! I know that sounds obvious, but one reason we’re all intimidated at the prospect of learning to play is that we’re led to believe we have to learn “Turkey in the Straw”-type songs “because we’re familiar with the melody”. Well, I’m a firm believer in not learning anything unnecessarily! If you’re going to go to the trouble of learning it, you may as well enjoy the ride. Also, learning on a song you choose will make everything you learn much easier to remember.
As to the blueprints themselves… any music store will have “fake books”. These are generally books of multiple titles of songs grouped by artist, genre, etc. If you choose to buy one, make sure the music in the book is printed with “chord indicators”. This is a letter printed above the staff, somewhere between “A” and “G”. (The letter may be followed by the symbols “#”, sharp, or “b”, flat, as well as numbers. They too will be explained).
But, as long as you’re looking at a computer screen, the Internet is chock-full of sites that have charts available. I recommend using a site such as the On-Line Guitar Archives, where they provide “chord charts” for thousands of titles, free of charge. (Chord structure applies to guitar exactly the same as it applies to piano).
So, you now have selected a song to learn, you have the chart handy, and you’re sitting at a piano-style keyboard. Now, I remember being in third grade music class, and being told where a “C” was on a piano, as well as what letters applied to the lines and spaces of a staff. Do you?
If not: “C” is the note immediately to the left of the two black keys next to each other. Any two black keys sitting by themselves will have a “C” note next to them. There are five lines and four spaces. The spaces are, (starting from the bottom, “F”, “A”, “C”, and “E”. The bottom line is “E”, followed by “G”, “B”, “D”, and “F”. The easiest way to remember which line is which is the memory device “every good boy does fine”.