Most parents think of the piano when they consider enrolling their children for music lessons. It is an instrument that transcends genres and applies to most forms of music. On a lighter note, it is great way to impress people at a party!
While mastering the piano takes ages, there are certain self-help tips that can be applied to teach yourself the piano. These tips have the best effect if you supplement them with piano classes. However they can also be applied by non-learners. Follow these tips in the order that they follow.
Video tutorials to learn notes
Piano notes are difficult to understand if you simply look at a website or read a book. Video tutorials are more helpful to ensure the concepts stick to your brain. YouTube has basic tutorials to understand dynamics, key, tempo etc. This will be a slow process in that you will need to go through a tutorial multiple times to fully grasp the notes.
Try memorizing key positions on a piano
This will take a while, but it helps you tremendously. Once you learn the basic notes from A to G, you automatically memorize the keys that represent these notes on the piano. Following that, you memorize the position of the second octave A key, and then you automatically know the second octave of all keys higher than A. These are some memorization tricks.
Practice finger movement
Finger movement and speed are essential when it comes to playing or composing songs. The best way to practice your speed if by taking a list of 5 songs and continuously practicing those at varying speeds. Hence you may start from, say 0.25x the original speed, and work your way upwards. Try playing a song at 1.25x or higher to trace your improvement.
Practice three finger placements (chords)
Once you can read the notes, have memorized key positions and are comfortable with speed, the next tip is to practice chords. Chord progressions are absolutely essential for a beginner pianist, much more than solo progressions. Use your notes as much as possible, and get the grasp of major and minor chords. Most chord keys follow the same pattern on a piano, so knowing one progression gives you a frame of reference.
If you cannot afford piano lessons or don’t have the time for it, follow these strategies to start mastering the piano. If you have a success story, we would love to hear from you!