Better Concerts and Music

If you have decided to teach yourself piano at home instead of going to a professional piano teacher then you will probably have purchased a home study course off the Internet or a piano learning Dvd or video. The first thing you will learn is how to locate all of the notes on the keyboard and how to play a few simple melodies. Soon after you will have lo learn several basic chords…  Once you can play melodies and chords then you are well on your way to playing identifiable music. In nearly all cases this occurs pretty quickly.

For up to date and detailed video reviews on the best home study piano courses see the Piano Review website. 

The essential piano chords are in fact all that you need in the beginning and they are not that complex to play. The easiest piano chord consists of only 3 notes. Also, in its simplest form the base or first of these three notes is the note of the name of the chord itself. Therefore for a chord of C the base note would be C etc. The subseqauent notes are quite simple too…  Just go two notes up and two notes up once more. This means that from the root of C for instance, you move up two notes to the E and then two more up to the G. So the chord of C consists of the notes C, E and G. You might also check out the following site for supplementary information on learning piano at home: Piano For Beginners

This becomes somewhat more difficult when it comes to other keys because the use of sharps and flats is included too. When you are playing in the key of D for example the F note is always played as F sharp so this makes the notes of the D chord, D, Fsharp and A. The pattern of this fundamental chord though will stay the same. Play the Note of the chord or the bass note then miss one and play one, miss one and play one and thats it.

To these newly discovered chords you simply need insert a bass note and a little rhythm and before long you will be playing identifiable music. You will find it quite easy to remember the patterns of each chord but just to be certain you get it right there is is a chord sheet available on my blog to set you straight. This will indicate the notes contained in all of the chords. There is a video review of the most popular piano course available here:  How to learn piano

After having spent weeks on your piano playing it can be just a little demoralizing to realize that after all your hard work you do not appear to have got any better. A lack in progress is the single most common reason that people give up learning to play the piano, this is above all true in children and younger people. Here are a few tips to help you with your own personal practice sessions which ought to help you to make progress more quickly. There are some evaluations of the greatest home study piano courses and some free beginners guides available at the Learn Piano web site.

Organize your practice time and make a daily routine to make the most out of your practice time. This will be a bit different for each individual based on the sort of music they are learning and the style they are intending to play in.

The first thing to do when you sit down to practice is to warm up. This can be done very successfully by practicing scales and arpeggios which aside from loosening up the fingers also serves in becoming more at ease at playing in all keys.

As soon as you have fInished the warm up you can then start working on your pieces. You will know where the difficult passages are in the pieces that you are studying. Go directly to these sections at the beginning of your practice sessions. Separate the hands and use a few moments playing each hand individually. First the right hand and after that the left hand but do keep swapping over so as not to let the other hand get cold. Now trry the difficult passage with both hands together. You could also see the following site for extra information on learning piano in the home: How to learn piano

Now you can go onto practicing the entire piece and feel more comfortble when it comes to that difficult part you have just practiced.

Always use a metronome when you play your scales and arpeggios and use it for your pieces too if they permit it. To start with set the metronome at a slower tempo so that you can practice the piece more correctly. Over the space of a few days you can slowly begin to increment the speed of the metronome until you are playing it at speed. You might even benefit from practicing the piece quicker than it should be just to get your fingers really working and used to the piece.

You need to learn how to relax at the same time as you are playing. Relax your fingers, your back and in fact your whole posture. It is so hard to control your fingers and hands if you have tension in your body which often comes when you feel uneasy doing something. This is a little bit like learning to ride a bike or drive a car. At first there are so many things  to think about that it is all so difficult but once you can start to trust and relax then you will find that it all starts to flow a lot easier. There is a video review of the top piano course available here:  How to learn piano

Daily practice by itself is not really enough to learn the piano properly but a steady and structured practice routine will definitely give you an advantage.

Up until only a few years ago the only way to learn piano was to go to a piano teacher for lessons. These would probably be hour long sessions once a week and they would probably be in the teachers own residence or piano studio. You can nowadays download entire piano courses off the internet which will show you how to play the piano from an absolute starter level and will teach you right up to a high intermediate level all on your own without having to go to a traditional professional piano teacher. There is a video review of the best piano course available here:  How to learn piano

These courses consist of a set of video and audio files with examples of what you have to be playing and how to play it. They usually come with a book or manual which can be viewed on your computer containing all of the lessons and exercises with references to the video and audio files.

Being taught to play the piano by using one of these programs has quite a lot of advantages such as being able to program your own tuition without having to go for for lessons at a set time each week..In addition you are not tethered to a certain lesson. If you become ready to move onto the next lesson then you are free to do so, and on the contrary, if you are having difficulty then there is no hurry to move onto more advanced lessons until you are truly ready to go ahead.

If you don’t possess an ipad then you will almost certainly find it a bit difficult to position your monitor so you can read the music and play the piano or keyboards at the same time. I myself generally print off the lesson and all of the examples and set them on the piano just as I would a piece of sheet music.

A lot of the home study programs suggested at the learn piano blog below include a software metronome. This will provide you with that all familiar clicking for you to play along with so as to learn how to keep in time. There are some critiques of the top home study piano courses and some free beginners guides available at the Learn Piano web site.

Another useful benefit of playing with the computer nearby is the ability to record yourself. It will be surprising to you when you listen to yourself playing I can promise but it can really teach you where you need to put in more attention and effort in your practice.

You might also want to consider playing some pieces that are not a part of the program you are learning with. This will expand your capabilities and will give you the chance to select some pieces that you like and will enjoy learning to play. On the learn piano blog below there are a list of some internet sites that offer free piano sheet music for newbies.You might also see the following site for supplementary information on learning piano in the home:
Piano For Beginners

You will comfortably be able to get to an intermediate level of playing by using a home study course and in general they are a great way for anybody to master piano by themselves.