If you’re looking for how to learn piano by yourself, you’re at the right article. When you are ready to start learning the piano, you may not be ready to start the lesson. Here’s how you can start teaching basics at home. Interested in starting to learn piano? Start at home! Learn to play the piano using these proven tips and tricks.
With 88 keys to memorize and about 45,000 pounds to deal with excitement, playing the piano is undoubtedly both a physical and a mental task. Although all that hard work is worth it, once the pianist hits those notes and makes beautiful sounds.
That’s not what makes the piano amazing though. According to a survey, learning the piano can help children improve their language skills. Pianists have a different (and impressive) brainpower.
So you want to teach yourself to learn the piano, but don’t know where to start.
Fortunately, you really need 2 things: a piano, and a desire to learn. You can think about things like sheet music later.
The following guidelines will take you through the process of learning, getting acquainted, and practicing your piano.
How to learn piano by yourself in 7 Steps:
Remember that learning any instrument requires a commitment to practice regularly. So if you are willing to learn and practice a lot, let’s get started!
1. Get A Piano/Find Yourself a Keyboard
The obvious foremost step is to acquire a piano for yourself. Set a budget, do your research on different types of piano, and look online and in your community for deals.
Many music stores rent keyboards. If you want to rent a piano/keyboard before you are sure it is right for you, this may be a good place to start.
If any of your friends or family are involved in the music world, get in touch. They may know that someone is dying to sell an old device that is not being used for half of what comes out of a box.
A keyboard is a great option if you can’t find a piano. These are affordable, never go out of tune and have lots of sound and features that can enhance your music. Not to mention, they are much easier to navigate and do not take up much space. A learning keyboard is a good tool for a freshman. These special instruments are illuminated in a certain order to help you learn music faster. Usually, they come up with books and videos that will help you learn the notation of musical instruments. You can always start with a keyboard and then upgrade to a piano.
Keyboards usually cost less than pianos. On the plus side, the keyboard never goes out of tune and takes up much less space than the piano. Whereas, for some high-quality concert grand pianos, acoustic pianos usually cost $2,000 to $10,000 or more.
We have also a detailed review of the top 10 best digital pianos under $500 in case if you want to check that out!
2. Get Familiar with Your Instrument
Now that you have a piano or keyboard, take some time to get acquainted with it. Listen to your new piano. Is it in tune? You might think that someone is tuning it for you for the first time. If you have a keyboard, you can skip this step.
Learn about keys and their names. If your piano brings a book or you choose to buy one, the keys should be in the piano book. If not, here is a novelty just for you!
Make sure you understand the correct hand gestures. Really listen to each of them and notice how they differ from others. Continue practicing until you can tell the difference between them. You want to build good habits from the beginning!
3. Train Your Arms and Hands with Proper Positioning
The first step in learning to play the piano on your own is to make sure that your arms and hands are in the correct hand position. This is the “C position”, which creates a natural cloth shape while hanging next to you. You will also be able to read a selection note from both the bass and treble cliff and you will be able to play some simple piano chords in the left hand.
It should keep you in the same position when you place your arms and hands on top of the keys. When doing this, make sure your wrists and arms are straight.
Run a five-finger pattern across all keyboards, and on different keys. Use the black key a lot! It first learns the geography of the keyboard without notes, then uses notes to navigate using “note landmarks”.
Following the correct hand and finger position is extremely important as it helps prevent repetitive strain injuries. Also, we make out that you want to get how to learn the piano snappily, but know your limits and don’t exercise too important.
4. Learn the Major Keys
If this is your first time learning the piano through self-study or as an educator, you should start learning the main key. If it is easy for you, you can teach yourself through a number system. (1= middle C, 2=D, 3=E, 4=F, 5=G, 6=A, 7=B, 8= higher C).
Some people find it an easy way to learn simple songs that they can play directly from the bat, such as “Mary Lamb at Little Lamb”, which will start at 3-2-1-2-3-3-3.
Scale learning is a way of learning the main keys, and we will discuss more later. Some music teachers recommend that you play with the main keys until you are comfortable with each one.
Focus on one big key each week and memorize what notes are in that key. A little while ago you would feel comfortable enough to recognize which keyboard has a piece of given music written on it.
5. Set A Practice Goal
Start with your ultimate goal in mind. You want to learn the piano, but do you want to play? How long would you like to take?
What material will you focus on? Is the material online or from a book you purchased?
What or what scale do you want to be able to play? When you first started learning the piano, which of your favorite songs was photographed?
Can you play the piano in seven days? What about 14 or 30? You’ve started to learn how to teach yourself the piano, so you probably don’t need more than a month of goals yet. Focus on the first 30 days!
6. Start Practicing
The most important step is to move on to the first three parts. In other words, do you want to learn to touch the piano yourself? Then practice, every day!
Stick to your goal. If you need a break from the same few scales or cords, try some finger motion exercises.
Practice chords and scales. These will form the basis of your piano playing, so be sure to do these every day. Start with the main and secondary cords!
Learn the key. This is important if you want to play with the ears in the end and identify the sounds you make. Simple songs like “Mary Had a Little Lamb” are perfect for this!
As soon as you start playing with the ears, start noticing the patterns. All the songs are made in musical patterns. As you work towards your ultimate goal of playing the piano, you will want to start recognizing and learning these patterns.
The internet can be your friend when you are ready to learn music. On many websites, some of the scores are available for free download.
7. Practice Your Fingers
Now that you’ve got your basics, the next is to apply with your fingers. That way, you can train your fingers to know directly without embarrassment. When you first learn to play the piano, fingering is key. You must know where your fingers should go when you start playing the piano.
A good place to start is the petascale method. Petascale is any scale that contains five (Penta) notes. Since you already know where Middle C is, you can start practicing your finger with the C Major Petascale.
This is one of the simplest techniques of finger practice because it trains all your fingers. Now you want to start slow, so adopt the full note-taking method (count to four beats before hitting the next key). From here, you can go to half notes and then quarter notes.
Once you feel more comfortable, you can climb the ladder of practice to take two notes at once. This means using two fingers as you press two keys simultaneously. It’s a bit complicated, but it will help you prepare for more advanced pieces.
Final Thoughts
In fact, you only need two things to play the piano. Take the instrument in your hand and focus on practicing.
Here’s how to teach yourself a piano:
Start by setting a budget and find the right device for you. Then, get acquainted with your new device.
After you read and watch tutorials on scale and chord and finger postures, determine what you want to learn and how fast. Set a goal for playing your piano!
Finally, start practicing – if you can swing it every day. To speed up your learning, set goals to play around with people after a few weeks. Even if it’s family, it will give you feedback about what you’ve learned and inspire you to keep working.
There are also piano lessons and Google resources in the form of YouTube videos and online courses to help you learn how to play the piano.
Want more tips for learning to play the piano? Whether they are for adult beginner piano learners or for your little ones, you will find more useful posts on our blog!
From buying a new piano to working with a piano teacher, don’t hesitate to contact us if we can help you teach piano. Now, start practicing!
Happy playing!