How to Learn Piano for Beginners

The piano is one of the most versatile musical instruments, essential for many styles of music. While mastery of the piano takes years of study and practice, a beginner can learn the basics of playing piano by an independent study, including the locations of keys and how to read sheet music.


Instructions

1

Learn the basics of music notation not. Any Western music is played on a stick, a series of five parallel horizontal lines used to indicate ground. The height is determined by which line or space of a personal note head (small circles, symbols, usually attached to a fal) is sitting on. The upper head is the note on the staff, plus the height.

Some locations will sit just above or below the bars. In this case, they may have small lines drawn below and / or through the note heads. They are called "leger lines" and have the effect of extending staff.

2

Familiarize yourself with the staff at the Grand - two staff lines that are played at the same time, the one with the right hand and the other with the left. The right hand usually plays in the treble clef, the notes are (from bottom to top) E, G, B, D and F on the lines and F, A, C, E spaces. The left hand plays the bass clef, the notes are E, G, B, D, F and on lines A, C, E, G on the spaces. If there are lines Lightweight, lines or spaces follow the alphabetical pattern up or down. Note that the musical alphabet goes as far as the letter G, then starts over A.

3

Sit with good posture. Sit, relaxed but your piano bench, placed in the center of the keyboard. Raise your hands and rest on the keyboard with elbows hanging below, and always in search of a sense of weight in your arms, lifting them as necessary to play the notes. Curl your fingers so that your thumbs can comfortably reach the keyboard. Always relax your shoulders.

4

Find out where the notes on the piano. If you have a full piano keyboard piano with 88 keys (all natural pianos will be full), the first note on the bottom left of the keyboard will be an A. Whatever the type of piano, note the most important for a beginner is located in the center of the keyboard: the C. the medium is a C white key just left of center group of more than two black keys. Every other button that follows this pattern on the keyboard is also a C, but in a different octave (which means it will sound similar, but weaker). The middle C appears on the first leger line below the treble clef staff and the first leger line above the bass clef staff.

5

Operate the pedals with your right foot. Rest your left foot and press your heel on the ground and use your foot as a sort of hinge to lower the pedals. The piano has three pedals (electric pianos could be less) used to create different musical effects. The right pedal is called the damper pedal, and is used to give the piano a more sustained, the echo-y sound. The middle pedal is the sustain pedal. This will keep the locations that are played at the same time the pedal is pressed, but no further. The left pedal is the soft pedal. This pedal is used to soften the overall volume of the piano.

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How to Play Piano by Ear - A Great Skill

A lot of want-to-be pianists struggle to learn the basics of piano playing. One major problem that they have is that they cant play the piano by ear. You have to determine the exact methods needed so that you can easily cope with your piano lessons. If you dont want to end up like other unsuccessful novice players, continue reading.


Playing the piano by ear is truly effective. In fact, it has been proven by many people including the piano teachers and advanced students. It is difficult to learn but ever since you were born, you are continuously learning. Life means learning and you cant just stop it. Everyday, you learn new things and dont you think its time to learn to play the piano?

The piano songs are classified according to grades. For you to be able to play piano songs between grades 5 to 8, it would take 7 or 8 years of piano lessons. So you see, you cant learn to play the piano in a weeks time. If you see some claims online telling you that they can help you learn the piano in a few days, thats not true. If you want to learn how to play the piano, it requires months and to some, even years, of dedication and patience.

You can greatly improve your learning abilities if you learn a specific technique called playing by ear. This is a great method that is proven very effective. Can you imagine yourself playing a new song in your piano? That is possible. Once you learn this method or technique, whenever you hear a song over the radio, you can easily play it on the piano.

If you think that this technique is only suited for the advanced pianists, youre quite wrong. However, it can help advanced players a lot but if youre just starting to take your lessons, this is the best time to learn this method or technique.

Paying for your piano lessons is quite expensive. You also have to purchase music books. If you can do without these added costs, you can save a lot of money. If youre truly serious in learning to play the piano, you can learn this technique. But if you simply want to have fun, you will have a hard time in coping with the lessons.

In playing the piano, you have to have brains. Memorization is also important. If you cant memorize your lessons and you cant play with your heart in it, the sound will not be very pleasing to the ears. Dedication is of utmost importance. Thats why you also need to invest on a piano. If you practice frequently, you can improve your skills day by day. Remember, it takes years to learn to play piano gracefully and with life.

Learn to play piano by ear now. This is a technique that every desiring pianist should learn. If youre piano teacher already knows about this technique, you can ask him or her to teach you. Always be patient when having your lessons. Aside from learning about the different chords and notes of the piano, you also have to study your music pieces.

For you to be able to play gracefully and like the experts, you have to know the technique. If youre teacher cant help you, then find another learning option that will be able to teach you what you need to know.

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The Basics of Playing Piano

Many people likely remember their childhoods of being forced to learn to play the piano, and highly dislike it. Some of these may decide to give learning another try, just for the thrill of learning a musical instrument. Even though it’s hard at first, with a basic understanding playing the piano can become second nature with time and practice.


All the black and white keys may be scary when you first sit down at the piano, but don’t worry – most of them won’t be used at first.

The hammer that each piano key is connected to makes its sound by hitting a string when you press a key, and each key has its own note. On the left-hand part of the keyboard, the strings are longer, and thus the notes are lower in pitch. When you go along the keys to the right, the notes get higher, and to play piano you have to know where your hands need to be. The first thing to know is where you need to have your hands placed, and to understand this you need to know the basics of music notation.

There are 88 keys on a piano, which is a wide range of notes. Middle C is the most basic note you’ll start with, and the brand name of the piano is usually near this middle C. There are seven notes starting with A and going to G, then back to A to repeat the cycle.

There’s a rather noticeable pattern of black keys – three black keys alternating with white, two adjacent white keys, then two black keys alternating with white, then two more adjacent white keys, after which the cycle repeats. The white keys are your natural notes – A, B, C, D, E, F and G. On the other hand, the black keys are the tones in between those natural notes. With the exceptions of B to C or from E to F, there’s going to be an accidental between every pair of two notes. The progression goes, for example, A, A sharp/B flat, B, C, C sharp, D, D sharp/E flat, E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp. There is no B sharp or E sharp because those two notes are actually C and F, respectively.

So, to find C on a piano keyboard, look for the white key that’s set just to the left of two black keys. First, you’ll learn a basic scale – the “do re me fa so la ti do” sequence that you’ve likely heard is a scale, or a progression of notes from one octave to the next.

To place your hands on the keys right, curl your fingers and move your thumbs inward so the nails are facing one other. You can play between the black keys this way, as well as using the thumb to strike notes that you can’t get to with your other fingers. If you leave your thumb at its natural position, you may end up playing notes next to the ones you’re trying to play.

Now, to play a simple C scale, starting with your left middle finger, play C, then D with the left index and E with the thumb. Then, you reach over the thumb with the middle finger and repeat for the next three notes, and again for the last two. Going back down the scale is the mirror image of this technique. If you opt to play with the right hand, start with the thumb and reach under the middle finger to continue up the scale

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Learn Piano Playing By Ear

Is it Really Possible to Learn to Play by Ear?

Yes! If you want to learn to play an instrument and you have no interest in learning the music theory required to sight read, then it's more than possible to learn how to play by ear. What you do need before you start however is some sensitivity for pitch and rhythm so that you can identify the intervals between notes and the speed at which you should play. Can you sing? Can you clap along with a song on the radio? If so, then you should be able to play by ear.



When learning to the play the piano you traditionally start with learning how to read music first, but think back to when you learned how to read, couldn't you already use your instrument? Your voice? Of course you could. Piano teachers want you to sight read because it will allow them to teach you how to play from manuscript music, but if you can play by ear, you possibly have no need for the manuscript. This means that learning how to play by ear will allow you to teach yourself rather than have a tutor if you have the dedication to not only learning the skill, but also mastering it.

Listen to a piece of music, any piece of music. Hum along the melody line. Capture the right tone for the first note of the music. This is the note from which all the rest of the tune will come so you need to spend time getting this perfect. Of course you can play it in a completely different key to the original by starting on a different note and just following the line of the music up and down the keyboard keeping the intervals between notes the same as the music that you're trying to copy, but it won't sound the same unless it's in the same key, so take the time to locate the right note to start on.

Next you should work through the music one note at a time, tone to tone, working out the right intervals between each of the notes. If you have some idea of basic scale progression and can hum up and down scales you'll find this easier so this is something when you can practice when you're not at your piano. If you are at the keyboard, press any key and practice singing up and down the octave. Check if you have each note right by pressing the next tone before moving up/down the scale.

Once you've mastered the melody line, listen to the music again and play alongside it - this way you'll learn the rhythm of the composition. You'll know when there are intended rests and when notes are held. This is all part of the information supplied on a piece of manuscript but by practice you can train your ear to hear those slight pauses or learn when to play extended notes.

With the melody and tune in place, now listen to the original again and in the same way that you learned the melody, it's time to pick up on the harmony. Try to shut out the familiar melody line, and work on identifying the harmony. This may be more difficult to isolate but once you can recognize it you'll find it easier to work on.

Learning to play piano by ear is a process of fine-tuning your ear to hear not only the dominant melody, but also the subtlety of harmony. As with sight reading, playing the piano by ear is something that comes over time with practice.

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Learn Piano By Ear

Have you always wanted to learn to play the piano by ear? Well, now you can! Playing the piano by ear is easy and fun! My students have been learning to play the piano by ear for over 17 years. In fact, one student is 65 years old and is having the time of her life learning songs from her youth! Other students are children as young as 9 years old (although some children begin as early as five years old).

To learn piano by ear, one must first learn about the piano as an instrument. Different from reading notes, the student is required to have some knowledge of the instrument so he/she can learn piano. In my lessons, I follow some easy basic steps to learn piano by ear.

1. First, I teach students the names of the white and black notes on the piano. This involves learning what a 1/2 step and a whole step is so that the student can name the black notes as either a sharp or flat. Sharping (#) a note requires the student to raise a note 1/2 step and flatting (b) a note requires the student to lower the note 1/2 step.

2. After learning the names of the white and black notes, my students then learn the C scale. The C scale begins on middle C and continues "up" playing each white note until you reach the next "C" note. That consists of eight white notes in consecutive order. (CDEFGABC). The scale can also be numbered as 12345671.
That means that the letters and numbers should coorelate as:
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

3. Students then learn how to make the C chord by learning the rule for making a chord. To make the C chord, the students learns to play the numbers 1-3-5 together in order to play the C chord.

4. Steps 2 and 3 are repeated for the scale and chords for F and G.

5. Finally, the student is ready to begin learning how to pick out the melody to a simple song. This is a very important step and is the most exciting step, because the student is learning how to predict the next note when learning a melody.

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Learning to Play Piano by Ear

Rесkοn about thіѕ… wουld уου lіkе tο play thе piano lacking thе fuss of dragging уουr music sheets? Or mаkе music wіth јυѕt humming along with the tune? Hаνе уου always sought аftеr tο play but your visual senses mаkе іt quite impossible? Dont you know thаt bу simply humming a tune, you could play іt thе same?


Sοmе musicians, professional іn thеіr οwn art, didnt ѕtаrt thеіr career through аnу manuals οr instructors. Whаt thеу did іѕ follow thе tone thаt thеу hear аnd play along thе beating οf thе music. Nο clarification, nο mentors.

1. Assemble your things. Of course youll need a piano οr a keyboard, whatever іt іѕ thats available. You hаνе tο hаνе аt least three available fingers, јυѕt іn case others hаνе been decapitated οr just gοt lost. Bе sure уου have a lot of time tο practice. Oh, and tune уουr piano first.

2. Remember that the piano іѕ an instrument thаt іѕ comprised οf 88 keys. Along these аrе 12 straight clarification. Thе first white key іѕ thе A-note, next white note іѕ B, C, D, E, F, G. Thеn after the last white G-note, thе next white note again becomes thе A-note, then the repetition ѕtаrtѕ. Thіѕ sequence is repeated until thе last white note іѕ done fοr аbουt 7 times. Thаt wουld include the black notes thаt represent flats аnd sharps.

3. The C note іѕ also known as thе Home Key. Tο trace thе C note, іt іѕ thе white key on thе left side οf two black keys. If youre still amazed, ѕtаrе аt your piano. Youll notice that аt thе middle раrt іѕ thе C-note. Thus, thаt would be the first major chord.
Thе thumb of уουr rіght hand will serve аѕ number 1 bесаυѕе іt іѕ рlасе аt thе C straddled in thе middle. Frοm thеrе, count аll keys going tο thе right. Include thе black keys. Whеn уου have counted till 5, that would serve as thе 2nd note іn C chord. Place your middle finger thеrе. Frοm together wіth tο number 5, count till 8, that wіll bе уουr final note. Put your pinkie on іt.
Signal іt all together and youll hear quite аn impressive cycle.

4. Bе familiar іn using the abovementioned sequence1,5, 8 together wіth. Yου сουld ѕtаrt wіth any note, јυѕt bе sure that whеn уου count, include thе flats and sharps. Uѕе thеѕе chords as уουr roots. Thіѕ will work реrfесtlу іf уου сhοѕе tο start οn a sharp. Youll bе making a sharp chord bу thеn.

5. If уου hаνе time on involved these easy chords, youll finally realize thаt through together wіth аnd attentive listening, youll easily get through. Fοr example, іf chord number 5 іѕ dropped this wіll result to a number 4. At that instance youll еnd up wіth a minor chord. Now, іf youre playing fοr a C chord, all уου hаνе to do іѕ move your finger one key tο thе left tο bе able tο yield a C minor.
Through thе advantage οf listening, youll bе аblе tο distinguish the variation іn sound. Youll bе аblе tο spot thе slight differences іn tune. Nοt unless youre deaf.

Pieces of advice:
Dont settle уουr practice just on the middle keys οf the piano. Thеrе аrе numerous keys tο choose frοm.
Dont limit yourself іn using one or two fingers. Through practice, уου сουld υѕе аll fingers including both hands.
Practice.

More Articles:

Learn Piano Playing By Ear
Learn Piano By Ear

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Learn Piano The Easy Way!

There are essentially two ways to learn piano - note reading or chords. For those who want to spend years learning how to play other peoples music, note reading is the way to go. For those who want to create their own special music, chord understanding is a must - and much easier to learn. It is far better to learn how to make music first than it is to read it on a piece of paper.


Imagine a writer forced to copy another novelists work. Insane right? But that's essentially what people do when they recreate another composers work. It is not a creative act but a recreative one because while the pianist's interpretation may be artistic, it does not mean that he created something original.

I'm not saying that great composer's works should not be recreated for others listening pleasure. I am saying that it's a good idea to understand that there is quite a difference between Beethoven composing something and someone else playing it.

Having said that, the benefit of learning how to make music first is that you understand the underlying principles of the thing. For example, let's go back to our fiction writer. If he looks at another novelist's work and the structure of the work, then he is beginning to see how the thing is made. This is entirely different than what goes on in the classical music world where a performer can read music, but does not know the principles that go into it's making.

Learn piano the easy way first. Learn how to first improvise, then compose your own music. This skill is invaluable even if you do read music because you begin to see how the thing is made and once you can see this, your appreciation of it will increase tenfold!

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The Secrets of Power Piano Practice

One of the best ways to improve your child’s progress is to improve the quality of their practice sessions.

For many students, a practice session consists of simply sitting down at the piano and playing their favorite piece from start to finish as fast as they can.

The secret to getting the most out of each practice session is to have a general structure for each session. You should discuss this with your child’s piano teacher to identify a structure that is consistent with their approach to teaching.


To show you how this works, let me share with you the structure I recommend to my students.

ACTIVITY #1: Fun Warm Up

A good way to start a practice session is for students to play their favorite piece for fun. This is really just to get their fingers moving and to get the session off to an enjoyable start. You should not make a big deal of any mistakes made during the warm up.

ACTIVITY #2: Technical Work

Technical work consists of exercises that help a child develop the coordination and technique they require to play the piano. When a child is just starting out, these exercises usually consist of simple patterns which help children learn to move their fingers.

ACTIVITY #3: Focus Piece / Focus Exercise

Rather than playing all their pieces, I suggest that at each practice session a student selects one piece to focus on. In addition to focusing on one piece, I recommend that the student focus on one particular exercise for the selected piece.

There are many different exercises that can be used to ensure that each session is different and engaging. Here are some of the exercises I use with my students:

Divide and conquer – This simply means that the student divides the piece up into different sections and concentrates on a particular section during each practice session. By practicing and perfecting small sections of a piece, students progress much more quickly than if they try and practice the whole piece each time they play.

Hands Separate – Another good exercise is to practice only the left hand or only the right hand of a piece. This is much easier than playing hands together and it is a good way to ensure that the child’s left hand is not neglected.

Vary The Tempo(speed) – In this exercise, the student plays the selected section at a slow manageable tempo in strict time with a metronome. When they can play the section without a mistake, they are allowed to increase the tempo by one notch. If they make a mistake the metronome has to go down a notch. This can become a bit like a game of snakes and ladders and is a lot of fun.

Vary The Dynamics – The dynamics of a piece relate to how the music changes in volume. It is an excellent idea to occasionally vary the dynamics of a piece so that a student becomes familiar with how it feels to play loud and soft. You can also ask a child to play a piece with different moods eg. Happy or Sad. This helps children learn that there is more to playing piano than simply pressing keys.

Record Your Child Playing – It can be a lot of fun for children to hear a recording of themselves playing. It is also an excellent idea to keep some recordings so that occasionally you and your child can sit down and listen to old recordings and appreciate just how far they have progressed.

ACTIVITY #4: Sight Reading

Sight Reading is the ability to pick up a piece of music you have never seen before and play it simply by reading the music.

Sight reading is a skill that students of all ages struggle with. I believe that much of this struggle is due to the fact that many students are not really taught how to read music.

Learning the note names and keyboard positions of the piano is not very exciting. It is simply a matter of rote learning -- very much like learning the times tables.

This is why I developed ‘Piano Is Fun’. The idea was to make the process fun by breaking it down into easy to manage sections and then providing students with an incentive to progress by rewarding them with colorful rewards each time they complete a lesson.

When students are just beginning to play piano, I suggest that each practice session end with a game of Piano Is Fun.

This not only motivates students to concentrate during the practice session, it also acts as a reward and is a great fun way to bring a practice session to an end.

You will probably notice that I did not put a time against each of these activities. As you have probably gathered. I do not like to regiment practice sessions using a stopwatch. I simply instruct parents to ensure that each practice session contains the four previously mentioned activities.

Lets stop and have a think about this for a moment. Picture two imaginary students. One named Tim and the other named Melinda.

Each time Tim practices he sits down at the piano and plays his favorite pieces from start to finish for half an hour.

Each time Melinda practices she does the following:

(1) Warms up with a fun piece
(2) Plays some technical finger exercises
(3) Selects a single piece and focuses on improving a particular aspect of that piece
(4) Finishes off by playing a game that helps her learn how to read music

Which student do you think will progress more quickly? I can tell you from experience that students who practice in a structured manner generally progress much more rapidly than students who practice in a random fashion.

It is important to remember that different teachers will have different ideas when it comes to how students should practice. The ideas above are some of the things I have found useful over the years with my own students.

You may like to print this article out and take it along to discuss with your child’s piano teacher. That way you can ask them how they would like your child to practice at home.

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Tips to help your child succeed in learning to play piano

When your child first starts to play the piano, they are usually very excited and enthusiastic. It is important to work with this initial excitement to help build a positive foundation for their piano playing.

Here are four great ideas that will help you get started:


IDEA #1: Get Involved

Make piano practice something that you and your child do together. When it is ‘Piano Time', sit down with your child and listen to and encourage them during their practice session.

Even if you know nothing about music, you can still act as an audience. Tell your child that their playing, “Sounds beautiful” When they finish a piece say, “That was wonderful! Can you please play it again for me?”

When you get involved and encourage your child with positive reinforcement this is what they learn:

Playing Piano = Begin with Mom/Dad + Having Fun + Feeling Good

Unfortunately many parents adopt the Army Drill Sergeant approach and believe that the best way for a child to progress is through strict discipline. When their child plays a piece, they say “You made a mistake in bar 7, do it again and this time get it right!”

When this happens repeatedly, what the child learns is:

Playing Piano = Pressure + Being Yelled At + Feeling Bad

If this negative cycle continues children will start to look for ways to avoid practice and it is very likely that they will give up the piano to avoid this pain. The most important thing that you can do for your child is to make sure that playing the piano is a fun and enjoyable activity rather than a tedious lonely chore.

IDEA #2: Use A Time Trigger

An excellent way to introduce a new activity into your busy timetable is to associate it with a Time Trigger that already exists. For example, you and your child could agree that ‘Piano Time' happens straight after their favorite TV program or straight after breakfast. By using a Time Trigger that already exists, both you and your child will find it easier to incorporate piano practice into your existing routines.

IDEA #3: Create The Right Environment

It is very difficult to practice effectively if the TV is blaring in one corner and little brothers and sisters are running around the room. If possible, you should position your piano in a quiet, well lit room which is separate from the normal living area. In this way, when it is ‘Piano Time' you and your child can ‘escape' to your special room and enjoy your time together.

IDEA #4: Lose The Stop Watch

Try to avoid the idea of ‘30 Minutes Practice A Day, Everyday'. In my experience, piano practice is much more effective if it is not governed by a stopwatch. When children are just starting out, they may only be able to play for 10 or 15 minutes. It is much better for them to have a fun 15 minute practice each day than it is to force them to play for half an hour. Your focus should be on building a positive experience for your child not clocking up a specific amount of time.

As your child progresses, their attention span and enthusiasm will increase and the length of their practice sessions will naturally become longer.

If you follow these simple steps you will be well on the way to creating a strong foundation for your child to begin their journey into the wonderful world of music.

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Teach Yourself Piano

To teach yourself piano , you need to first make a decision that you ant to learn, and understand it. The piano is a very good instrument to play because it is one of the most commonly used music instruments and once one gets used to it, it becomes very easy to control the keys. Moreover, one gets more experience in music and also has a good time learning something new. It is very possible to teach yourself piano if you have great interest and it won’t be long before you become an expert if there is determination. Moreover, there are usually guidelines available on the internet in case you have an interest to teach yourself piano which makes it much easier since all one needs to have is a computer and access to internet meaning they don’t actually have to go to a class for the lessons.


What steps are to be taken when you teach yourself piano?

There are a few steps that you should follow if you want to teach yourself piano in the shortest time possible. First of all, one should find a good piano to use, that is, one that has all its keys and it is not very old such that the keys are hard to press. One thus has to buy a piano which they are sure is of good quality so that it lasts long. However, if you want to teach yourself piano and the only piano available is one that is very old, you have the option of getting a professional who will tune it until it is ready for use.

In order to teach yourself piano, you don’t actually have to buy a grand piano if you have a keyboard. Keyboards are cheap therefore one is able to afford it without much strain. Moreover, they don’t usually go out of tune and they are equipped with a lot of features and sounds so that if you want to teach yourself piano, the features help to enhance the notes you play. However, keyboard models of higher end usually sound a lot better compared to most grand pianos, because they occupy only a small space and one can easily move around with it meaning, you can teach yourself piano from wherever you choose be it indoors or outdoors.

Teach yourself piano will also prove to be much easier if one has had training on another music instrument. This is because so as to teach yourself piano in the most effective way, one needs to fully understand music and the different notes that it has. Also, one should research on the internet or various piano books where they can find information about the different types of keys from right to left. It is very important to invest in good piano books if you want to teach yourself piano because these usually help develop both finger strength and technique. Practice makes perfect therefore after you teach yourself piano and get good at it, a lot of practice should follow.

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Beginner Piano Lessons for Kids

If you want to teach your child to play the piano, there are several ways of doing it - you can find a piano teacher for them, look up how to play piano online or allow the child to lesson to play piano by ear. This is a healthy skill, as it helps the brain to develop. There are several skills your child will need to learn when playing piano or any other musical instrument. The necessary things for playing piano are proper positioning of the child's hands (otherwise bone injury could occur), proper posture, the ability to read music and the ability to sight-read, ie play a piece without practicing it prior. All of these help the child's brain to develop in intellect and creativity, and are critical to music education. The piano takes a long time to truly become proficient, so ensure that your child's up to the commitment.


The keys might look confusing to the child at first, but explain to them that the white keys are normal notes, and the black keys are accidentals. Also, teach them about the musical alphabet: the notes A through G, and tell them the accidentals are the notes between, which is what are played on the black keys. The black keys on a piano won't be used much at first, so start your child off on simple lessons, and teach them proper hand position and posture. Proper posture includes sitting up straight or leaning slightly forward. Also show the child that the fingers need to be relaxed in their natural position. Instruct them to curl the thumb slightly inwards so they're parallel with the rest of the hand.

The next thing for a child to learn on piano is basic scales. The most basic scale is a C scale, so show the child where C is - it's a key just to the left of two black keys. Then show them how to play up the white keys with right thumb, index finger, middle finger, and then repeat the process up to the next C. This is a full C scale.

This is the easiest way for your child to play a scale with one hand, and it'll teach them finger dexterity. Don't bother with anything like sheet music right now - instead, try to encourage your child to play a TV show theme on the piano, something like the basic Spongebob melody or whatever the favored show is. The important thing is to help them figure out how to play the melody by ear, or playing without music and instead just hearing it played elsewhere.

Instruction in reading sheet music can come later on, but it's best to take this part rather slowly. It can be complicated sometimes to a younger child, but as children learn very quickly they can pick up on the basics relatively easily. The child can then learn to read music and play along with it at the same time, and this can provide a healthy sense of accomplishment. At first you may want to consider piano lesson DVD's as they can visually stimulate a child's mind and hold their interest for a longer period of time. Learning any kind of musical instrument, especially piano, is a very rewarding activity for young minds.

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