How to Learn Piano With A Computer and Piano Keyboard

If you have a computer and a piano or keyboard, there are many alternative ways to learn piano.

The best way to learn the piano is from a teacher who can give you the benefit of her experience while helping you build on your strengths, eliminate your weaknesses and perform at a level you might not have thought possible. In today's fast-paced world, however, it can be easier and less expensive to learn piano from professionally produced websites, CD-ROMs, DVDs and book-and-CD packages. If you have a computer and a piano or keyboard, you can learn everything you need to know, and at your own speed.

Things You'll Need

• Computer with CD-ROM, CD and DVD player (optional)

Instructions

Learn Piano with Free Online Piano Lessons

1. Go to the Zebra Keys website, which provides over 50 free piano lessons for various levels of student. Each piano lesson is accompanied by visual flash animations that allow learners to view and hear songs as well as play along with the animations on their own piano keyboard.

2. Visit PianoNanny.com, which offers detailed piano lessons. Each session includes text, keyboard images to help you visualize what the teacher is talking about, and even mini-apps like a "student note pad" to take notes.

3. Take lessons at PianoByChords.com, which aims to keep music theory and sheet music to a minimum while showing users the building blocks of chords.

Learn with CD-ROM Piano Instructional Packages

1. Buy eMedia's "Piano and Keyboard Method," which has over 300 step-by-step, full-screen lessons and more than 70 video demonstrations. One feature, "New Instant Feedback," even listens through your computer's microphone or MIDI interface as you play melodies, then telling you whether you're playing correctly,

2. Use eMedia's "Piano for Dummies," which helps you learn to read music notation with the help of recorded audio, variable-speed MIDI keyboard tracks and colorful MIDI accompaniments. The instructional CD-ROM also includes a digital metronome.

3. Buy Alfred's "Teach Yourself To Play Piano," which covers the fundamentals of piano playing by using features on subjects such as rhythm, chords, finger aerobics, technique. The enhanced CD contains audio accompaniments you can play on your stereo and doubles as an interactive and fun multimedia learning tool that works on any Windows-compatible PC.

Learn Piano from DVDs

1. Learn from "Piano Lessons On DVD," which gives you 52 weekly lessons on DVD videos.

2. "Watch & Learn Introduction to Keyboard DVD," a 60-minute video for the beginning keyboard or piano student, covers all the basics of playing, and students play along with a full band on 12 familiar songs. Split screens show both hands, as well as onscreen notation for all of the music, with a bouncing ball type pointer showing each note as it is being played.

3. Try "Learning Piano With Pete Sears," a three-hour-long package covering everything from proper posture, scales, chords and progressions to modes, theory and improvisation.

Learn Piano from Book-and-CD Packages

1. Choose one of Hal Leonard's many piano instructional book/CD packages, which cover a wide variety of styles, levels and material.

2. Try one of Alfred's basic "Premier Piano Course" books. Each book teaches note reading, rhythm reading, sight-reading and technical workouts. Each piece on the CD is performed and recorded at performance tempo and at a slower practice tempo.

3. Check out the "Play Piano Today!" beginner's pack, published by Hal Leonard, which offers a complete guide to the basics, including: songs, chords, and scales; left- and right-hand fingerings; playing tips and techniques; bass and treble clef notation; and more. The accompanying CD has 95 full-demo tracks, as well as a DVD with even more instruction and demonstrations.

References

• eMedia: Piano and Keyboard Method
• Alfred: Teach Yourself to Play Piano CD-ROM
• Piano Lessons By Video
• 2Kool4Skool: Watch & Learn Introduction to Keyboard DVD
• Amazon: Learning Piano with Pete Sears

Resources

• ZebraKeys: Free Piano Lessons
• PianoNanny: Free Piano Lessons
• Piano By Chords
• Hal Leonard: Educational Piano
• Alfred: Premier Piano Course