Piano Guidance
Photo by Mikhail Nilov Pexels Logo Photo: Mikhail Nilov

What should I learn first for piano?

The Musical Alphabet Each of the white notes has a letter name. These letter names make up the musical alphabet, which is one of the first things a piano player should learn. The letter names of these notes link the piano to all other instruments and also to written music.

What is a Baroque sonata?
What is a Baroque sonata?

Sonata: Used to describe several types of pieces in the baroque era, the term sonata most commonly designated a work in several movements for one...

Read More »
Why do piano stools have no back?
Why do piano stools have no back?

There is a reason why piano benches do not have backs. Sliding forward, so that the legs are completely free and not necessary to stabilize the...

Read More »

Interested in how to play piano? Learning to play piano is easier with our help! Learn piano tips below, including information on the piano keyboard, musical alphabet, and songs There’s so much to learning the piano, it can seem a little overwhelming at the start. Let’s hit a few basics on how to play piano to get you going!

Learn Piano with the Piano Keyboard

The first part of learning piano is that it has a truly fantastic feature: the keyboard! The piano keyboard makes it super easy to learn to play the piano as well as to visualize and understand the relationships between musical notes. The clear, pattern-driven layout of the piano keyboard is one of the things that makes the piano a wonderful first instrument for anyone to learn. So how does learning to play the piano keyboard work? Music is made of various notes, sometimes called pitches, which can be higher or lower. The piano arranges all the pitches in order from the lowest on the left of the piano to the highest on the right. Every time you move one key to the right (black or white), you’ve gone one “half step” higher in pitch. If you have a piano at home, try starting at the far left and playing every key one at a time. You’ll hear the pitch getting higher and higher as you move to the right.

Learn Piano with the Musical Alphabet

It may look like there are a million different notes on the keyboard while learning the piano, but there are really only twelve! The seven white and five black keys make a repeating pattern of twelve notes. Each of the white notes has a letter name. These letter names make up the musical alphabet, which is one of the first things a piano player should learn. The letter names of these notes link the piano to all other instruments and also to written music. To help you learn the letter names of the keys, watch Mr. Hoffman’s “Piano Street” videos, C D E, F G, and A B, for a simple story that will make the names of the keys easy to remember while learning the piano. So what about the black keys? Those keys are named for their relationship to the white notes around them. For example, the white note G has a black key just to the right of it. That black note is called G sharp. There’s also a black note to the left of G. That note is called G flat. You might have already figured out that all black keys have two names. For example, G flat can also be called F sharp. You sometimes hear the whole collection of black notes on a piano called “the sharps and flats.”

Who has the IQ of 1000?
Who has the IQ of 1000?

Marilyn vos Savant Born Marilyn Mach August 11, 1946 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Occupation Author columnist Spouse Robert Jarvik ​ ( m. 1987)​...

Read More »
How do I force a key to work?
How do I force a key to work?

Simply grab a can of WD-40, silicon-based lubricant, graphite spray, or a dry lubricant and spray it into the keyway. Once it has been sprayed,...

Read More »

Now that you’ve been learning the piano keyboard, have met the keys and know their names, it’s time to make some music!

It’s Easy to Learn Piano Songs

The next thing you should know is that you can learn to play a simple song on the piano in only a few minutes. Give our piano lessons for beginners a try! With this video lesson, you can learn to play “Hot Cross Buns.” Hoffman Academy’s ear-based method makes it easy for beginners to learn songs and start making music right away. If you’d like to try learning some more fun and easy songs on piano for beginners, here’s a list of super easy popular songs to get you started learning piano.

Express Yourself with Improvisation

Another really fun thing you can do right now on the piano, whether you’re a beginner on the piano or you have more experience, is to improvise! When you improvise, you play something new that you’ve never heard or played before. Don’t worry if it’s going to sound good or not. You just do it, like you’re having a casual conversation with a friend. Try this improvisation activity while learning to play piano. Put the damper pedal down and play only on the black keys. To get you started, you might want to think of an emotion you want to convey, like happiness, or maybe anger, or something in nature you want to imitate, like waves on a beach, or a thunderstorm. The Hoffman Method encourages improvisation from the very beginning as a natural way to explore music and express yourself on the piano. Interested in improvising while learning to play the piano? Check out this video lesson where you’ll get a chance to improvise a melody with Mr. Hoffman.

How much does a full set of piano strings cost?
How much does a full set of piano strings cost?

between $250 to $400 Piano strings usually run about $2 per string, and they can be even less if they are created by a technician from piano wire....

Read More »
Who was the first black woman to play guitar?
Who was the first black woman to play guitar?

Her 1945 hit "Strange Things Happening Every Day", recorded in late 1944, featured Tharpe's vocals and resonator guitar, with Sammy Price (piano),...

Read More »

Learning to Play Piano is for Anyone!

Finally, the last thing for you to learn right now is that ANYONE can learn to play the piano. Don’t let the negative voices in your head talk you out of trying to learn piano. Voices like:

I’m not very musical

I have no sense of rhythm

I don’t know if I have a talent for music

I’m too old to learn piano

I’m not coordinated enough for learning piano

I feel clumsy with my fingers

Instead, tell yourself:

I enjoy music

Anyone can make music

It’s fun to make my own music

It’s never too late to learn something new

Doing something always makes it easier

Learning piano for beginners is possible

If I learn to play the piano, I’ll be better at it tomorrow! You’re learning to play the piano so that you can have the deep satisfaction of making music for YOURSELF. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Set all those negative voices aside and commit to the JOURNEY of learning to make music at the piano. At Hoffman Academy, we want everyone, everywhere to be able to learn how to play piano. We will teach you good posture, technique, how to sight read, play by ear, compose, improvise, appreciate music, play beautifully, be awesome, you get the whole deal! Give lesson one a try to start learning piano today. All the best to you as you begin your journey of how to play piano!

What singer broke their finger?
What singer broke their finger?

Chris Stapleton Reveals Broken Finger Caused Tour Postponement | Billboard – Billboard. Jun 2, 2017

Read More »
What is the 7 in chords?
What is the 7 in chords?

A seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chord's root. When not otherwise specified,...

Read More »
What's the difference between a list and a set?
What's the difference between a list and a set?

The main difference between List and Set is that Set is unordered and contains different elements, whereas the list is ordered and can contain the...

Read More »
What are awake shifting methods?
What are awake shifting methods?

Most reality shifting methods involve falling asleep. ... The next step is to envision your DR in detail, incorporating all of your senses....

Read More »