Five Steps to Learning the Piano Keyboard for Beginners

Have you enjoyed watching a skilled-pianist perform on stage and wonder what it would take to be like him? Or how long it would take you to play on the keyboard with a measure of skill?

If you are reading this then you have started the process the would lead to playing the piano keyboard and I assure you I would not be so difficult, it just require a measure of consistent.

This is me in my studio.

First let me let you know about myself. My name is Kindson Munonye, with the brand name "Kindson The Piano Man" and my objective is for as many as would like to learn having this interesting hobby of playing the piano to be informed right.

I am a Software Engineer by profession and a hobbyist piano player but right now it seems I enjoy my hobby of Piano Playing more that my main profession of building apps. That is why I created this blog, to help you know that you can actually enjoy a really facinating hobby like me!

So let me tell you the five steps you need to take to progress and improve your skills as a beginner of enthusiast piano player.

Step 1: Buy a Piano Keyboard

This is the "On Your Marks" step in your learning process. Buying a keyboard for your home helps you to utilized any spare time you may have for practice.

You don't need to buy a very expensive piano keyboard, that you can do after a couple of years. For me I started with a Yamaha keyboard of about N12,000.00 ( about $22) together with the stand. I have forgotten the Model, but I think its XY series.

It may also help to set up the keyboard in conspicuous part of the house so always seeing it would serve as an incentive to go and practice. I do think, your living room would be a nice place to keep is so that you can practice for a few minutes every evening after work.

Step 2: Buy a Textbook

This is the second most important step as this would be a guide and streamline you leaning process. You may have access to ebooks and videos online but it would be necessary to buy a handy hard copy textbook. For me, my starting textbook was the SmallWood Piano Tutor and it was very helpful as it contains daily practical lessons. There are other textbooks out there you can buy. Do not buy a very big textbook!. The reason is that you will be overwhelmed and maybe abandon the lessons altogether. Start small.

Step 3: Understand the Piano Keyboard Layout

The arrangement of the keys on the piano keyboard follows a definite repeating pattern that you need to clearly understand. 

One thing you can quickly see is that there are sets of black and white keys. The black keys are arranged in sets of two and three.

Note This: A section of the keyboard is made up of 12 keys. That is 7 white keys and 5 black keys totaling 12. This twelve key section is referred to as an Octave. So in the keyboard below we have 3 octaves.

When you want to buy a keyboard, one question you would be asked is "How Many Octaves" and normally the more the octaves, the better, but then the higher the cost.

Figure 1: Basic Piano Keyboard Layout

Step 4: Learn Finger Numbering and Positioning

We have 5 fingers on the left hand and 5 on the right hand. This makes it a total of 10 fingers. From the previous step, we could see that the total number of distinct keys on the keyboard is 12. This is true no matter how long the keyboard is. Same 12 key simply keeps repeating.

Left Hand Numbering

• Pinky: 1
• Ring Finger: 2
• Middle Finger: 3
• Fore Finger: 4
• Thumb: 5

Right Hand Numbering

• Thumb: 1
• Forefinger: 2
• Middle Finger: 3
• Ring Finger: 4
• Pinky: 5

Now that you know how to number your fingers on both hands, the next steps is to know how to position your fingers on the keyboard. To do that, you need to look at the picture below and then position your finger in the corresponding key.
Your right hand need to be in a different section than your left hand.

Don't worry about the black keys for now, I would cover that in a different lesson.

Figure 2: Keyboard Key Names

Step 5: Learn to Match Numbers and Letters with the Keyboard Keys

This is a step that would take you some time to get used to. This would have included matching the Solfa notations with the keys as well. That is the popular Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do.... but we don't normally use it in a formal learning course. You need to know it though to improve you personal skills but here, we would use the number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.... and the letters C, D, E, F....

So If you have a keyboard without Solfa notation or Letters, you can write out the Solfa notations for each key and paste on top of the each of the keys. This would make it easy for your finger to master the position of the keys. Once you are comfortable locating the keys in a short time, you can remove the papers.

This matching is shown in the figure below.

Figure 3: Matching Solfa Notations with Numbers/Notes
So ensure you follow the 5 steps outlined.

Final Notes
We have outlined this five steps. But let me clearly say that, it requires a bit of commitment. If you consistently practice for 20 minutes every day, then in a few months you would be amazed at your progress. Feel free to subscribe to my channel or even leave a comment below to let me know if you have any challenges.

For more lessons you can subscribe to my channel: Kindson The Piano Man
Also: http://www.kttpro.com