Your First Piano Lesson

The piano looks like it has a bajillion notes, but it's really just seven notes: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. And then they just repeat. A, B, C, D, E, F, G going up the entire keyboard. That's it.

Look for any group of two black notes on your piano. The note in between those two black notes is always the note D. It's easy to remember because it actually looks like a dog with two ears and a snout. Dog, D.

Take your right thumb and put it on the note C. Then take your left pinky and put it on the note C just below your thumb. The rest of your fingers just line up on the next four notes. So you have C, D, E, F, G, C, D, E, F, G. Your hands are gonna stay in this C position for the rest of the video.

To smooth it all out, all you have to do is mash down the pedal with your foot and just hold it down the whole time. If you have a piano with three pedals, mash down the right-most pedal. Then it's gonna sound smooth.

With your hands in C position, play these four notes going up the keyboard. Left hand: pinky, thumb. Right hand: thumb, middle finger. That's it. Play them one after another, smoothly, and repeat.

Pattern 2 is the exact same as Pattern 1, except instead of playing your middle finger in your right hand, you just play your pointer finger. That's the only change. Left pinky (C), left thumb (G), right thumb (C), then right pointer finger (D).

Pattern 4 is the exact same as Pattern 1, except your right hand plays your ring finger on top instead of your middle finger. Same start: left pinky (C), left thumb (G), right thumb (C), then right ring finger (F). Pattern 3 is the exact same as Pattern 1, so you already know it.

Play each pattern 4 times in a row, then move to the next. The sequence is: Pattern 1 (x4), Pattern 2 (x4), Pattern 1 again (x4), Pattern 4 (x4). Keep the sustain pedal held down and play smoothly. Start slow. Speed comes with practice.

Now that you know the patterns, experiment. Try playing them starting on a different C, higher or lower on the keyboard. Move your hands to start on G instead of C for a completely different mood. How cool is that? You can also play all 4 notes of a pattern at the same time to create chords instead of melodies.

If your goal on piano is to play your favorite songs from the radio, pop, country, rock, jazz, blues, you do NOT need to learn how to read sheet music. You will save years of time learning piano if you learn to play with chord shapes instead, like the patterns you just learned. If your only goal is to learn classical music, you are going to have to learn to read sheet music.