Ready To Learn How To Play Piano?

Have you wanted to learn how to play the piano but don’t know where to begin? Learning the piano is an incredibly engaging and fulfilling hobby that you can enjoy for your entire life. But, it’s important that you get off on the right to make the most of your time and to ensure that you’re learning the right way.

Here are some steps you can take to turn your dream into a reality.

Set Personal Goals For Learning Piano

If you think about it, playing the piano is a pretty broad goal. There are so many styles and approaches that you could focus on. Thinking through your personal goals will help clarify the path you will take on your journey to learning the piano.

For example, maybe you just want to sit down and play songs from a book or read your favorite music. If this is your goal, you want to find an approach that emphasizes sight reading and learning musical notation.

Related: How To Improve Your Piano Sight Reading Skills

Or, maybe you want to play your favorite video game music. In that case, you might find that many traditional approaches to learning piano won’t work for you. Learning by rote may be the most effective method, and there are some great online programs will help you learn this kind of music.

If you want to be able to play chords to accompany yourself singing or to play along with your favorite music, you’ll want to learn a bit of music theory to understand how to build chords.

So, before you jump into playing the piano, it’s important to have a personal goal in mind to give your learning some direction.

What You Need For Learning Piano

The most essential thing you need to begin playing the piano is a good instrument to practice on.

You can get either a digital or acoustic piano. Make sure your instrument has 88 full-size weighted keys in working order.

Also Read: Acoustic Vs. Digital Pianos

A lot of beginner piano students will start with an old family heirloom piano or an inexpensive keyboard. This might be okay on a short-term basis, but it’s not a good idea for the long-term.

Imagine playing soccer with a balloon. That is a bit analogous to learning on an inferior piano. Playing on old pianos or a low-quality keyboard can result in a very frustrating experience.

Learn more about different kinds of pianos in these posts:

• The Ins and Outs Of Buying A Piano – Introduction
• Keyboards and Portable Digital Pianos
• Buying an Acoustic Piano
• The New Digital Piano In Town – Inovus i88
• My Favorite Keyboard For Beginning Piano Students

As you progress, you’ll likely discover apps, books and other things to help you on your journey, but you don’t need much to get started.

If you learn with a teacher, your teacher will be able to recommend books and resources to use at the piano.

Find a Teacher Or Online Course

Some pianists are self-taught, but it can be very hard to learn the piano independently. If you are on your own, you could easily overlook some important details that need to be considered in order to progress in your playing.

If your budget and schedule allow for it, find a teacher who can help you get off to a solid start. A teacher will answer your questions efficiently, help you build a strong foundation, and keep you motivated. Many teachers offer online piano lessons, or you might look into local teachers in your area.

If working with a teacher isn’t an option right now, there are many online programs and apps to help you get started. Here are some that I recommend:

• Beginning Piano For Adults – This is my own online piano course that I created for adult learners just like you! It’s fun and simple and will give you a solid start to learning the piano in just 8 weeks. Click here to get started now.
• Flowkey – Flowkey is an interactive app with tons of tutorials for well-known music. It offers a variety of levels and includes some online lessons if you need a boost getting started. Click here to learn more.
• Skoove – Skoove is another piano learning app. Like Flowkey, it uses well known songs to teach you piano skills. However, you’ll find that Skoove offers more regimented lessons that are helpful if you want to understand music theory and concepts beyond learning how to play the songs. Click here to try it out.

don’t give up

The piano is not something you can learn or master overnight. Progress will feel slow and inconsistent, especially at first. If you put the time and energy into practicing, however, you will see improvement over time.

Many pianists spend their entire lives perfecting their skills. Learning the piano is a continuous journey as there is always more to absorb and ways to improve.

As you embark on this journey, think about how you can stick with it through the different seasons of your life. If life gets crazy or if you don’t feel like you have much time to practice, find ways to squeeze it in, even if it’s just 5 minutes a day or a few times a week.

Developing good habits will add up to big progress over time and help you to continue moving forward with your goals.

Looking For Books And Sheet Music To Help You Get Started?

• Eight Black Key Piano Tunes + Eight More Black Key Piano Tunes – These are my ebooks of songs that can be played using only the black keys of the piano. The songs are familiar melodies and they are super simple to play. The ebooks include play-along audio files so that you can learn to play along with the background music.
• Middle C Success – These ebooks are similar to my Black Key Piano Tunes books, except that they use the notes surrounding middle C on the piano. These are also all very familiar and simple songs that are easy to figure out.
• Beginning Piano For Adults – My 8-week online course includes a 30+ page ebook full of songs and exercise to help you learn the piano quickly and efficiently. I recommend checking out the full course, but you can also get just the ebook here.
• Returning To The Piano by Wendy Stevens – This book assumes you took piano lessons previously, but it starts easy and progresses to more difficult music throughout the book. It is filled with tons of great information about music theory and music concepts that will help you learn quicker.
• Beginner Notes from musicnotes.com – Beginner Notes arrangements can be found for all kinds of familiar songs that adults enjoy learning. These arrangements show the right hand notes notated on the staff, including note names. They give simple chords to play with the left hand. These arrangements are very doable for adult beginners.