A piano is one of the most amazing musical instruments. It’s unique and can give you endless joy when you are feeling depressed. However, it’s quite intimidating if you don’t know how to play this exceptional instrument. People who learn to play the piano will always find the skill useful in the future.
Unlike in the past, it is easy to learn piano nowadays. Don’t allow anybody to scare you with some crazy idea that music notes are complex or hard to read. It’s far from the truth. Music notes are interesting; with the right lesson and instructor, you could learn to play piano within a month. That might sound impossible to you. But before reaching that conclusion, read this article to the end and drop your testimony in the comment section.
I can guess what you are doing right now! You are probably staring at your keyword, wondering where to start… Don’t be intimidated; every professional keyboardist was once an amateur. So, you can do this.
Before you learn to play the piano, here are five things you need to know. These things will enable you to start your piano lesson on a good note.
5 Things To Know Before You Learn To Play Piano
#1. Learn the Right Posture
One of the most important basics you should know before you start your piano lesson is posture. You must not sit too low, too high, too close, or too far away. If you do, you will have stiff shoulders and backaches.
Interestingly, you can avoid these poor postures if you are mindful of how you sit at the piano. So, the first thing you should do is to keep both feet planted to the ground parallel to each other. After this, you sit in an upright and comfortable position. Try to position yourself in a way that you can reach the piano’s keys without leaning forward or raising your shoulders.
#2. Avoid Long Sessions
Ordinarily, when you learn to play piano, you start with a lot of enthusiasm. The best way to sustain this enthusiasm is by making your piano session short and brief. If you try to learn everything in one sitting, you will end up having cramped fingers and frustration.
So, you can start by practicing 10 minutes per session; this will enable your muscles to get used to the new movements gradually. As you perfect your skills over time, you can make your session longer.
#3. Establish a Routine
Like every other art, you can’t be a pro in playing piano, if you don’t practice regularly. You can’t learn to play the piano if you don’t establish a routine for yourself. If you can keep track of your routine, your piano skill will significantly improve within a month of practice.
#4. Know the Right Fingering
Fingering is one of the things you should pay much attention to when you start your piano lessons. You may be tempted by the urge to learn the keys so fast; this will make you choose the fingering that seems most obvious to you.
As a rule, the fingering that seems obvious isn’t always the most sensible. And if you don’t understand this, you may be finding it challenging to play a song at its proper tempo. And when your muscles get used to the wrong fingering, it’s sometimes difficult to correct it. So, try to learn the right fingering from the onset.
#5. Always Keep Your Keyboard Somewhere Visible In Your Room
Don’t make the mistake of keeping your piano/keyboard in a remote corner of your room. You may end up forgetting about it. The less visible your piano is, the lower the tendency of you to keep up to your practice routine. After all, out of sight is out of mind.
So, try as much as possible not to keep your piano in cramped corners or packed up inside your wardrobes.
What You Need To Learn To Play Piano
Piano learning is a process, and if you understand the basics, other aspects will be easy. So, here are what you need to start your piano lesson.
Knowing Your Instruments’ Notes
Understanding your instruments’ notes is as important as learning to play the piano itself. If you want to learn how to play the piano easily, you have to focus on learning your piano keyboard notes. Once you create time to digest your instrument notes, every other aspect of the lesson will be easy for you.
Understanding Piano Octaves
Once you memorize and know your piano keyboard notes, the next step is to understand piano octaves. In case you don’t know, an octave is a set of eight white keys.
Understanding these keys is an essential aspect of your piano lesson. If you are familiar with octaves, you can start playing bass notes. Octaves help to add depth to your sound when playing your piano.
If you are familiar with octaves’ work, you can switch them as an improvisation tool. Switching octaves is an easy and effective way of diversifying your sound on the piano.
Playing Chords
You can’t learn to play piano successfully if you don’t know how to play chords. Do you know why? It’s because chords are an essential component of most modern music. They often intimidate beginners because they seem confusing on sheet music and tend to be challenging to memorize. But if you put your mind to them, Chords could be exciting.
How to Learn To Play Piano
Before you learn to play the piano, it’s essential to know the different options you have. I will share some of these options with you in this article. Go through them and opt for the one that best suits your needs.
Without much ado, here are the methods for learning to play the piano;
Traditional Lessons
Traditional lessons are one of the methods of learning the piano. Most people find the traditional lesson very difficult to comprehend. That’s the reason beginners try as much as possible to avoid this method.
In my opinion, learning how to play piano via the traditional lesson isn’t a bad idea. But it requires time, constant practice, and self-motivation. If you learn to play piano using this method, you will learn sight reading, music theory, piano learning routine, etc.
However, this method is not for everybody. You can only opt for learning piano through traditional lessons if you are an aspiring pianist, budding composer, or classical music enthusiast. If you don’t belong to any of the categories mentioned above, I don’t think this method is right for you.
Also, the traditional method is arguably the most expensive method. So, if you have a lean budget, don’t consider learning to play piano through this approach.
Self-Guided Learning
The self-guided learning is another reliable method you can learn to play the piano. But you need to be very disciplined to be able to use this approach. Although this method is a bit new, many people have become professional pianists using it.
It’s easy to learn to play piano using self-guided learning. All you need to do is to search for the keywords “piano tutorials” or “learn to play piano” on Google. Several contents will pop up on the Search Engine Result Page. Choose the video or article that meets your goals.
Again, if you decide to learn piano through self-guided learning, you must have a routine and be consistent with your lessons. With this, you could learn to play the piano in no time.
The challenge with self-guided learning is that there’s no outlined learning structure or learning plan. You may find it challenging to find content that suits your needs because there are several contents online. The beauty of the self-guided learning method is that it’s budget-friendly and offers you flexibility for any schedule.
You can start today by going to Youtube and search for Piano Lessons for beginners. Several videos will popup, choose the one that is most appealing to you. Boom! You are good to go.
Online Learning
Most people often confuse online learning for self-guided learning methods. Even though the learning resources of both methods are online, the structures are different. And online learning is better, but most times it’s not free, you have to pay for it.
Here are some of the things to expect when you learn to play piano using the online learning method;
- There’s one teacher or teaching method when taking piano lessons through online learning.
- The program usually has definite goals at the beginning, and the learning has a specified process that every student must undergo.
- A thought out course sequence tailored towards achieving the expected result
- It’s affordable compared to long-term traditional lessons.
- With an internet connection, you can access your online learning session anywhere in the world.
- You tend to get faster results from online learning compared to traditional piano learning.
- Depending on the online learning platform you are using, there may be online support available if you need extra motivation.
Online learning is arguably one of the best methods to learn the piano, especially if you are a beginner. As amazing as this method is, it is not for everybody. Below are people who will find this method beneficial;
There are several online platforms/apps where you can learn how to play the piano. However, most of these platforms aren’t free, but you will certainly get the best from it. You can learn on Skoove, Udemy, and Flowkey.
People Who Will Find Online Learning Method Helpful
- People who are learning piano casually and need a flexible lesson schedule
- If your busy schedule won’t allow you to be consistent with traditional weekly lessons
- If you don’t have interests in classical music, you will also find this method interesting
- Students who prefer to learn how to play piano via mobile devices
- If you were a former piano student who got tired along the line, you would find this method helpful
- If sight-reading and music theory intimidate you, this method is an excellent fit for you
- Lastly, anybody who wants to learn to play piano without stress can learn with this method.
All three methods of learning to play the piano discuss above are all effective. It’s left for you to choose the method that best suits your needs and goals.
Reasons People Quit Piano Lessons
Many students are always passionate when they want to learn to play the piano. But when they start the lesson, they tend to quit before the end. According to reports, about 80% of piano students quit within the first two years of learning. Here are some of the reasons why people quit piano lessons;
The Lessons Appear To Be More Difficult than They Predicted
The saying “when the going gets tough, only the tough get going” is applicable in piano lessons. Most people often think learning piano is elementary. But when they start the lessons, it becomes a different ball game. And if you don’t have passion for it, you may end quitting the lessons.
Boredom
In the beginning, your piano lessons may seem very interesting. But after a while, they will become boring and lacking excitement. If you don’t have the self-motivation to continue, your interest in the instrument will reduce over time. And you may end up quitting the lessons.
Not Seeing Progress
Lack of progress is one of the reasons why most beginners quit their piano lessons. Don’t allow anybody to deceive you, learning how to play piano doesn’t happen overnight. It requires constant practice; otherwise, you will not see any progress. And when this happens, quitting will be the next thought that will come to your mind.
Low Priority
The more time you spend learning and practicing piano, the more you become interested. However, if you give low priority to piano compared to other hobbies, you may lose interest along the line. And once your passion for it is gone, you can’t keep up with the lessons.
No Connection With Teacher
You can’t learn to play the piano without connecting with your teacher/instructor. The more connection you have with your piano teacher, the more your love for the instrument increases.
But if you don’t have a connection with whoever is teaching how to play the piano, the whole lesson will be boring and uninteresting. If it continues that way, you will certainly quit.
