First Steps In Learning Piano

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First Steps In Learning Piano

First Steps In Learning Piano

Learn Piano Notes, The Scale of C and A Simple Tune
Prepared by Phil Dell

You are free to make copies of this report report and give them
away to anyone you know who wishes to learn to play piano.

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First Steps In Learning Piano

Introduction:
Hello Future Pianist.
I always like to stress that playing music is not nearly as difficult as it
seems. It does not take a genius to be a good musician. You can learn to
do amazing things with your hands. It just takes the desire and
motivation to do so.and dont forget practice! Practice makes perfect.
Think about it, to excel at any profession, activity, hobby, sport etc. it
takes a lot of practice. For example, Footballers practice like CRAZY
every day of the week for hours to maintain their ability
Good News!
This introduction to playing the piano does not require an insane amount
of practice. By the end of this report you will have a good idea of how to:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Determine which notes are which on a Piano

Play notes on the Piano
Play a major scale in the Key of C
Play a simple song

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First Steps In Learning Piano

The Notes On a Piano

This is a Piano Keyboard with the NOTES written on each key.

Let me break it down for you. There are ONLY 12 notes in existence
and they repeat themselves over and over again in what we call
Octaves Pronounced (Octives). An Octave obviously refers to the
number 8 (Oct.)
Musical Notes are identified by letters of the alphabet. The letters in
music are A, B, C, D, E, F, G. There is No H. After G, it simply starts
over at A again (see above).
How can you have more than one A? The TONE of the note sounds the
same, but the PITCH is higher or lower.
There are many As on the piano and many of the other letters as well.
The lowest A will sound extremely low like a Bass and will not be very
distinguishable. The highest A will sound very high pitched like a flute or
piccolo. The best example of an Octave I can think of is in the song
Happy Birthday.
In the middle part where you sing Happy BIRTH-day to so and so, the
word Happy is a C for example, and the word BIRTH is also be a C
note but one octave above. Its a big stretch, a whole 8 notes! So its 8
notes from A to A and C to C and so on. Thus, its called an Octave.
So, back to my original point. Did you realize what I said? There are
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First Steps In Learning Piano

ONLY 12 notes in existence! This makes music a lot easier than you
thought doesn't it.
EVERY SONG YOUVE EVER HEARD WAS MADE UP OF A COMBINATION
OF THESE 12 NOTES.
No matter how complicated a piece by Mozart is, there are only 12 notes
to choose from:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G and then back to A.
The Black Keys are in sets of 2 and 3. I call them twins and triplets.

To the left of the Twins is the note C. To the left of the triplets is the
note F.
The twins and triplets repeat themselves over and over again and the
note at the beginning of them will always be the same.
In front of every pair of twins the note will always be C.
In front of every pair of triplets the note will always be F.
This will help you memorize which notes are which, without writing the
notes on each key!

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First Steps In Learning Piano

What do the # signs mean?

The # sign stands for Sharp.
So if you see A# that means A Sharp. C# = C sharp and so on.
The Sharps (#s) are the black keys. The very next key to the RIGHT
of any given key is the Sharp of that note.

On the piano, the distance between any note to the very next note
(whether the next note is a black key OR white) is called a half-step. So
from A to A# is a half step. From A# to B is also a half step.
NOW NOTICE B and C. There are no sharps in between them but
they are still considered a Half-Step. This is very important to
understand because a lot of people think that if you go a half-step from
one letter the next note will be that letter Sharp. This is true for MOST
notes except for B to C and E to F. If you look at the piano above youll
see that E goes right to F and they are both white keys and the same for
B to C. These are STILL HALF-STEPS. There is no B# because B#
would just be called C. An E# would just be called F. These are the
TWO exceptions.
If you skip a half-step and go directly from lets say, A to B, it is called
a Whole Step. Remember those exceptions now! The difference from B
to C is NOT a whole step. Remember, from B to C is a HALF-STEP
because they are right next to each other. So from B to C# would be a
WHOLE-STEP. Same goes for E to F (half step). From E to F# would
be the WHOLE STEP.
The reason why people get confused with this is because from every
other white key to the next white key is a WHOLE STEP because there is
a black key in between which is the half step.
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First Steps In Learning Piano

Learning The C Major Scale

Scales are a very important fundamental of music. The Scale makes up
the sounds Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do. Its called the Major Scale and it
is one of the MAIN modes of music.
There are major and minor scales. The major scale sounds more
happy while the minor scales sound sad. Every song youve ever heard
was either in a major or minor key.
OK so your RIGHT hand is numbered as followsYour thumb is finger
number 1, index finger is number 2 , middle finger is number 3, ring
finger number 4, and pinky finger number 5.
Your LEFT hand is the same. Thumb is finger number one, and so on.
They go opposite ways but the thumb is still number 1 and so on.
We are going to learn the scale of C with our RIGHT hand first. The right
hand is the lead hand in the piano and plays the important lead melodies
of a song.
The left hand is an accompaniment and plays chords and bass lines.
The C Major Scale is as Follows:
C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C
Moving from LEFT to RIGHT. Finger number One will play the first C.
Then finger number 2 plays D followed by Finger #3 which plays E.
NOW PAY ATTENTION: On the FOURTH Note which is F, you will cross
your thumb underneath your middle finger (finger #3) and play the F
with your THUMB! This allows you to finish the rest of the scale with the
rest of your hand using fingers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
In case this was confusing, the fingering for C. D. E, F, G, A, B, C would
be fingers: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
After the third note; E you CROSS your thumb UNDERNEATH your
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First Steps In Learning Piano

middle finger (which is still on E) and play the next note to the right of
E which is F with your Thumb.
Now, when you come back down the scale(to the left) you play every
note that you played on the way up the scale AND with the SAME
fingers.
So, the scale would be C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, B, A, G, F, E, D, C.
Fingers are: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1.
The Bold letters and numbers are going up the scale which is left to
right. Then on the way back down the scale, (not bold) it is right to left.
Up refers to UP IN PITCH. and Down refers to DOWN IN PITCH.
When you play notes from left to right you will always be going UP in
pitch from a LOW sound all the way on the left, it gets higher and higher
as you move to the right and all the way on the right is the HIGHEST
pitched note. Therefore, when you play to the right you are going up.
I have prepared a video to show you what the C Major Scale looks and
sounds like! I play it slow at first, then medium, then fast. Click the link
below and a page will open in your web browser with the video.

Scale of C Major

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First Steps In Learning Piano

How To Play Other Scales

There is a Major scale for EVERY key.
There is an A Major Scale a B Major Scale, even for the #s. A# Major
Scale, starts on a black key A# for example.
They ALL sound like Do-Re-Mi but they just start on a different pitch.
But dont worry, I HAVE A SECRET WEAPON! Everyone loves the C
Major Scale because it is ALL white keys.
Every other scale has a black key in it, whether its one, two, three or
more!
Instead of memorizing EACH of the 12 Major Scales, which would take a
lot of time, you can use a secret formula that will allow you to play any
major scale based on a pattern. Anything you can do in one spot on the
piano, you can do in another spot.
Remember I talked about Whole Steps and Half Steps?
Well, if you look at the C major scale you can see that there is a pattern
to the scale.
After the starting C, the next note is D. The distance between these
notes is a Whole Step.(because you skip over C# and go to D)
Lets call a Whole Step W and a Half Step H.
The pattern of the C Major scale is:
W, W, H, W, W, W, H.
Pretty easy to remember if you see the pattern: two whole steps and
then a half step followed by three whole steps and a half step.
This holds true for EVERY MAJOR SCALE!!! That makes it A LOT
EASIER.

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Lets test this outThe next Major Scale, the D Major Scale would be
D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D.
This obeys the rule! After the first note D it follows the pattern:
W, W, H, W, W, W, H.
D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D
1st W, W, H, W, W, W, H.
The first note can not be a whole step or a half step because you need to
be referring to the distance between TWO notes to have a whole step or
a half step.

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First Steps In Learning Piano

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Learn a Simple Song

Scales are so important because EVERY song that is in a Major key will
be made up of ONLY THE NOTES OF THE MAJOR SCALE. So, if the song
is in C Major such as THOUSANDS of songs arethe song would consist
of ONLY THE NOTES OF THE C MAJOR SCALE!
Example:
The song Mary Had a Little Lamb is in the key of C Major. This means
that every note in this song will be a note in the C Major Scale.
Here are the notes for Mary Had a Little Lamb.
3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 3, 5, 5
E, D, C, D, E, E, E, D, D, D, E, G, G
3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 3, 2, 1
E, D, C, D, E, E, E, D, D, E, D, C.
The numbers are the fingers you should use.
The letters are the notes on the piano. The numbers
are right above the corresponding letter.
I have prepared a video to show you what the song looks and sounds
like! Click the link below and a page will open in your web browser with
the video.

Mary Had A Little Lamb

Congratulations!
You have learned the basics of playing the piano, the Major Scale of C
and your first song!

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First Steps In Learning Piano

Time To Get Serious About Playing The Piano

If you really want to learn to play piano quickly then you need the
course Piano For All by Robin Hall. You can read my review of the
course here:
Piano For All Review
Or Click on the Image below to find out more about the course

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