Easy and piano don’t always belong in the same sentence. I’m not going to pull your leg here, mastering the piano, which is one of the more difficult instruments to learn to play, is going to take a while. However there are a couple of easy piano lessons that you can keep in mind when you are first beginning to play. You’ve heard of people wanting to learn to play the piano by ear, but that’s probably just going to hold you back later on. It’s better to do the hard work up front and then the rest will just be practice.
So let’s talk for just a little while about developing feel when playing the piano. Having a feel for where your hands are on the keyboard means that you’re not looking at your hands all the time to know where to place them. If you can master feel you will be able to read pieces of music and play them without having any idea what this song is supposed to sound like when you play it. Playing piano by ear is actually a handicap and you really should learn how to read music, but you can start with just learning how to play without looking at your hands.
Most piano teachers will have you begin your lessons by finding middle C. and working on a C. major scale. They do this because middle C. is the easiest note to find on the keyboard and the C. major scale is the easiest to play. By learning the C. major scale you can learn a little bit about reading music, a little bit about fingering, and a touch of music theory when it comes to scales and octaves.
But since the C. major scale doesn’t contain any of the black keys it is also a terrible place to start because it the black keys on the piano are much easier to find. Every octave as five of them. One group of three and one group of two. Each of the black keys since has two white keys on either side of it, if you begin with a scale that uses the black keys instead of C. major you will learn a much better feel for where your hands are on the piano. It won’t take very long before you will be able to feel all of the notes by knowing where your fingers are in relation to the black keys.
You may have seen professional pianists who tend to play with their fingers closer to the black keys, almost playing the white notes in between the black keys. The reason for this is that it makes certain finger combination’s and locating your hands on the keyboard much easier. Probably the best scale to begin with is B natural instead of C. major. By learning a few major scales your fingers will begin to develop a feel for where they are on the piano. It turns out this little piano lesson was easy after all.
