Learn How To Play The Piano In This Piano Lesson!

When you first sit down at a piano keyboard, it can be a bit

daunting. In front of you, there are 88 keys. Some are white, some

are black. Whenever you are beginning something new, it is helpful

to have a starting point. The starting point for learning to play the

piano is a single note, Middle C. In this lesson, I'm going to take you

from playing that simple note to playing a short chord progression.

Don't worry if you don't know what a chord progression is right

now, I will explain it a little bit later.

For now, sit down at your piano and find Middle C. The video will

show you where it is at. From middle C, I am going to show you

how to play a complete C Major Scale. The C Major Scale is an easy

one because it consists entirely of white keys. So, let's just play the

white keys in order, starting at Middle C. The note directly to the

right of Middle C is a D. As we continue moving to the right we

play E, F, G, A, B and then finally return to C. That last C is an

octave higher than Middle C. This collection of notes is the C Major

Scale. The scale doesn't need to begin on middle C, it can start and

end on any C on the keyboard.

Now that you know a scale, you have an important building block to

music. Scales are used to create melodies and to construct chords. A

chord is a collection of three or more notes, all played

simultaneously. Go back to Middle C and play it. From there skip a

note and play the E, and then skip another note and play the G.

Those three notes form a chord known as a triad, which simply

means that there are three notes in it. Now that you know the notes

of the C chord, play them all at once.

Music wouldn't be very interesting with just one chord, so I'm going

to show you two other chords that can also be played with just the

white keys. Let's start with an F chord. You remember where the F

key is right? Good, hit the F key now and follow the same pattern

we did to create the C chord. From F, skip a note to A, then skip

another to C. Play them all together and you have an F chord. Now

I'm going to show you the G chord. Where do we start the G chord?

You guessed it, on the G key. From G skip a note to B, and skip

another to D. Play those three notes together and you have learned

three chords.

If you play those three notes in order, you'll find they have a choppy

sound to them. We can smooth that sound out using what are called

chord inversions. Play a C chord. Now, keeping your first finger on

the C, move the other two and play an F note and an A note. Take a

look at the notes you have just played. C, F, A. Remember an F

chord is made up of the notes F, A, and C. What you just played is

an F chord with the C on the bottom instead of the top. Moving the

notes around in this manor is called inverting the chord. Another

way to invert a chord is to take the root note and put it on top. If we

do that to the G chord, we end up with the notes D, B, G. Play that

inversion of the G chord from the F inversion that I just showed you.

Now when you play all three chords together it sounds much more

smooth and melodic because your hands aren't jumping around the

keyboard as much. It is also slightly easier to play.

But playing the piano is more than just your right hand. Now I am

going to show you what to do with your left hand. As you play a

chord in your right hand, play its root note with your left. The root

note is simply the note that the chord is named after. C for a C

chord, F for an F chord, G for a G chord, etc. Play a C note with

your left hand and simultaneously play a C chord with your right.

Now an F note with your left hand and F chord with your right. G

note with your left hand, G chord with your right. When we put

chords in an order like this, we are creating a musical phrase. This

particular type of phrase is called a chord progression, because we

are progressing through a serious of chords. C-F-G-C is what we call

a 1-4-5 progression. I'll explain what that means in the next video, so

stay tuned!

Learn To Play Piano With Nate Bosch!

In the last lesson I told you that I would explain what I meant by a 1-

4-5 progression. In order to do that let's backtrack a little to when we

learned the C major scale. In learning the scale, we gave the notes

names. The notes can also be numbered. The first note of a any scale

is its root. In our case, the first note is C. If we count from C we'll

get to seven when we get to the B note. The scale repeats itself at 8,

which is the same note as the root, but an octave higher than where

we first played it. Chord progressions are given as numbers so that it

is easier to transfer them into any scale. Our 1-4-5 progression is

made of the chords based on the first note, the fourth note, and the

fifth note of our C Major scale. Those notes are C, F, and G. Chord

progressions are normally given using roman numerals and that is

how they will be represented for the remainder of the lessons.

Now that you know what our I-IV-V progression is and how to play

it, I am going to teach you a simple song. Going as slowly as you'd

like play a C chord twice, followed by an F chord, the C chord twice

again, followed by a G chord, and finished with a single C chord.

Play around with that set of chords for a little bit. You can add

variations, such as playing the left hand note twice instead of once

before moving on to the next chord, or playing each individual note

of the chord separately instead of all at once. When you feel

comfortable with the song you can begin to experiment with simple

melodies.

You may be wondering how one even begins to experiment with

melodies. We've all heard toddlers pounding away at toy pianos and

making horrible noises; how can you be sure what you play will be

pleasing to the ears. The truth is, I've already given you the secret.

The notes in a scale automatically complement each other, and the

notes of a chord automatically sound well with that chord. Play the

song again. This time use your left hand to play the root as before,

but with your right hand instead of playing the chord or playing each

individual note of the chord in order, play the notes of the chord in

any order that appeals to you. When you find a pattern, or melody,

that you like, continue through the chord progression and play that

pattern of notes with the notes that make up the chord you are

playing.

In just a few short minutes you have went from looking at a piano

keyboard and wondering where you start, to learning where Middle

C is, the C Major scale, a few chords, a chord progression, and

finally a simple song. As you learn more scales and techniques you

will be able to expand on what you've learned and create more

complex music. So, play around with what you have learned today.

Get comfortable moving between the chords that I have taught you

so far and then come back and see what I have in store for you in the

next lesson!

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