How to Play the Piano

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By Marty Alan McGill
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Piano Lesson

You dont have to read music to play music! Think about this ... someone, somewhere made music without a written note. The writing came afterward, as a way to share, and/or remember the music. I started playing guitar 40 years ago, I plucked away at it until I started making music.

I have never learned to read musical notes, and I doubt I ever will. I have recently (4 years ago) taken up the piano, and I want to share my method with anyone who wants to have fun on the piano ... and do it in this lifetime.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

piano or keyboard
at least 3 fingers
ability to count to 8
practice time

Step 1

There are 88 keys on a piano, but only 12 notes. That's right, 12 notes that repeat over and over in sequence. The first note is a white key, it is an A-note, the next white key is a B-note. And after B comes C, still on white notes, D,E,F,G. Then they repeat, A through G, and again and again.

You're probably thinking "that's only 7 notes" ... the other 5 are the black keys. They are the sharps and flats, if you play the black note to the right of a G note it will be G-sharp, or if you are playing from the A note, the same G-sharp would be called A-flat. This can be confusing, but for this lesson it is unimportant.
Step 2

The Home Key on a piano is the middle C. The C note is the white note to the left of the two black notes. If you are confused about this, start at the first note on the piano and do your ABC's on the white notes, and you'll figure it out. The middle C is the C note closest to the middle of the piano ... duh. That's where we'll make our first chord.
Step 3

Put the thumb of your right hand on the middle C, count that as number 1. Count the keys to the right, white and black up to 5, that is second note in the C chord, if you did it correctly you should be on the E note ... put your middle finger there. Continue counting white and black notes to 8, that's the final note in the C chord, a G note ... little finger goes there.

If you play all three together it should make a beautiful sound, assuming you got it right and the piano is in tune.
Step 4

Using this 1, 5, 8 sequence you can make any natural chord on the piano. You can start on any note and count 1,5,8 making sure to count white and black keys, and make the chord for that root note. If you start on F note, it will be an F chord, B note, B chord, and so on. It works with sharps and flats as well. If you start on A-sharp, you make an A-sharp chord, etc..
Step 5

Once you start practicing finding these chords without counting, you will be on your way to learning the piano. If you drop the number 5 note to a 4 you will make the Minor chord for that note. Say you playing C chord, move your middle note one key to your left, and you will make a C Minor. Try it and you will hear the difference, it makes a very dramatic, haunting sound.

Of course if you're tone deaf, you're probably not going to master any instrument. But if you can hear the notes and the differences in them, I'm convinced you'll have fun on the piano. And that's what music should be ... fun.