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So……You’ve always wanted to take piano lessons? You’ve dreamed of sitting with a group of friends, and out of nowhere you start playing your favorite songs.

Commence the ooohhh’s and aaahhh’s

Everyone is completely amazed…… They never knew you could play the piano.

My name is Eric Rader, and I have been playing the piano for over 20 years. I am a self-taught piano player with years of experience  teaching myself how to play the piano.

I have learned a lot about playing the piano over the years, and have done my best to include what I have learned in the piano lessons on this site. The purpose of this site is to help you reach your goal of playing the piano.

The fact that you came to this site shows that you are dedicated to learning the piano. But even with dedication, you are still going to come across some roadblocks.

That’s why I created these Free Lessons. So that you can master the piano in the quickest and easiest way possible.

Most people think that in order to play the piano they need years and years of lessons. That couldn’t be any further from the truth. With some basic music theory and some practice, you will learn to play the piano.

I personally believe that everyone can learn to play the piano! I also believe that you can do it right from your own home.

You don’t need to invest tons of time and money into private lessons.

All you need to do is follow my Free Online Piano Lessons and you will be on your way to playing the piano like you’ve always dreamed!

The Five Step Formula
For Mastering The Piano 

If you are really wanting to play the piano there are a few basic steps that you need to follow. It’s just like most things in life, you have to walk before you can run.

It’s important that you master each of these steps to be successful at playing the piano. Each of them build one on top of the other.

During the learning process it’s important that you follow the steps below so that you don’t miss anything. My piano lessons follow my step-by-step method to help you master the piano.

So here it is. The Five Steps To Mastering Piano.

Step One:
Learn the Layout of the Piano Keyboard.

The very first thing that you need to do is understand the layout of the piano keys.

The keys on the piano are set up in a very specific manner that is actually pretty easy. It’s absolutely essential that you understand where the keys are, what makes a key higher or lower pitch, and the pattern of keys.

This is the first step for any piano player. You must take some time to learn the piano keys. And really not as hard as you might think.

It’s also helpful to know the type of piano you actually have. There are so many different types of pianos and keyboards out there that knowing the one you have can be difficult. So learning the layout of your particular piano keyboard is very important.

You can find out exactly which type you have here. You will also see how the layout for each of these keyboards is different, and how you can determine the pattern for the one you own.

Step Two:
Set Up a Practice Routine

Once you know the layout of the piano, and the type of piano you have, you need to set up a good practice schedule.

I know that practicing doesn’t sound like the most fun thing in the world, but it is an essential element of piano lessons.

This is probably the most overlooked piece of the puzzle for most people. They get very excited about learning to play that they practice for hours. Then after about a week or so their excitement fizzles off.

After the first wave of excitement is over it’s hard to get yourself motivated to get back at it.

So make sure that you set up a solid schedule that you know you can keep to. If you only have twenty minutes per day to practice, that’s fine.

Force yourself to make a set schedule you can stay dedicated to at least five days a week.

Practicing for twenty minutes per day for a year is much better than practicing 3 hours per day for a week.

To get the most out of each practice session make sure you follow these tips.

Step Three:
Master Scales

Scales are really the foundation of piano lessons. Most of the musical theory that you learn in the future will be based on scales.

That’s why I have included them in these five tips. You need to take the time to learn some of the most common scales so you can start learning to play chords and improvisation.

The first type of scale you need to focus on in you piano lessons journey is the major scale.

This is the most common scale and will be used in every style of music.

Learning the major scale will make a lot of the music theory you learn in the future make a lot more sense.

You will also be able to imporvise in songs when you learn scales. Each song is made up of a certain scale, once you learn that scale you can play nearly every note and it will sound good.

So learning scales will allow you to add more of your own personality into a song by letting you improvise on your own.

Step Four:
Master Chords

Now we come to the bread and butter of playing the piano. If you have been playing piano for any amount of time I’m sure you have heard of chords.

Chords are the foundation of any song. They allow you play a song without actually having to read any sheet music. It’s like you are able to play a shortcut version of any song you ever wanted.

This is probably the area in your piano lessons which you need to focus the most of your time. If you can master chords, then you will be able to play nearly anything.

But where do you start?

The major chord is the most common chord on the piano. Nearly every song on the planet has at least one major chord in it.

Once you learn this chord you can start focusing on some of the other common chords.

These chords will get you playing the piano quickly because they are used in most popular music.

Learn to master chords and you will learn to master the piano.

Step Five:
Train your Ear

Training your ear is a crucial skill that any musician needs. After years of playing the piano I still take time to practice ear training to help myself get a better ear for music.

Ear training simply means to intently listen to intervals, chords, and other parts of music so you can later recognize those elements while playing.

A lot of people think that they can’t play by ear because they don’t have an ear for music. Everyone can become better at ear training.

You need to expose yourself to a lot of music and listen very closley to the different parts of a song to get a better ear.

Rather then just listening for pleasure, you need to focus on chord changes and interval changes. When you first start you’ll notice this being pretty hard. But as you practice you will find that it gets easier and easier.

Make sure you take time to train you ear to hear certain parts of music. As time goes on you will see that recognizing these parts of a song will become second nature to you.

Where Do I Go From Here?

Now that you know the five step formula for mastering the piano, you need to start implementing these tips into your piano lessons.

Make sure you take full advantage of all of the lessons on this site. Each lesson is set up for easy navigation from one lesson to the next.

Even if you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced, you will find important information to help you further your playing skills.

I’m not saying that you will magically be able to play overnight, but with determination and practice, you will be able to play like you never thought you could.

Keep Playing, Keep Practicing, Keep Making Music!

Wondering Where To Start?
My Top 5 Piano Lessons

Lessons #1 – Layout of Piano Keys
This lesson explains the layout of the piano. It gives a detailed description of the notes and where they are located on the piano.

Lessons #2 – Learn The White Piano Notes
Learn the names and location of all the white notes on the piano. Shows how to identify all the notes on the piano in just a few minutes.

Lessons #3 – Learn The Black Piano Notes
You will learn the names of all the black keys on the piano. You will find a quick and easy trick to quickly name these notes!

Lessons #4 – Piano Fingering
This lesson shows the correct fingering when playing the piano. Shows the numbering of each finger. This lesson keeps your hands spread out so they are not jammed together.

Lessons #5 – Major Scale
Here is one of the most important parts of any piano lesson. Once you learn the major scale, you will see how people can play any song in any key!

I hope that you enjoy my site and that my lessons are helpful to you.

Teaching the piano is my passion and I want to see you succeed. I strive to provide the best piano lessons possible to help give you the best results possible.

So, please enjoy the lessons and enjoy your experience of learning the piano.

Eric Rader

Reading music rhythm is very important to piano playing. It opens up a new array of things that you can do on the piano.

Rhythm is made up of three types of notes: Whole Notes, Half Notes, and Quarter Notes.

What is Rhythm?

Rhythm is the heartbeat of music. It is the pulse of a song that the musician must follow that keeps the song moving.

It has a steady beat that repeats throughout the song. This steady beat is the pulse of the song.

How To Read Music Rhythm

Now that you know what rhythm is you can now start to read the notation of a song.

First you need to understand the concept of measures or bars.

A measure is a segment of music between two bars, that contain a certain number of beats. The most common number of beats in a bar is 4. There are other amounts of beats in a measure like 3 and 6, but for this lessons we will focus on 4 beats per measure.
Look at the image above and you will see the bar lines. These lines are what tell you where the 4 beats start and where it ends. There must be four beats within each of these sets of bar line.

Note Duration

Whole Note

To fully understand how to read rhythm of notes you need to think of them like a pie.

Remember when you learned fractions in school? It’s the same thing but a lot easier.

A Whole Note would be the whole pie, or the whole measure. To play a whole note you would play the note and hold it out for four beats.

IMG Whole Note Counting

A Whole Note is a circle with a hole in the middle. Try and remember that it has a “Hole” in it. It has no stem.

Half Note

A Half Note holds out for 2 beats per note. If a whole note had one note in the measure, then a half note would have 2 notes in a measure.

A half note looks like a whole note with an added stem.

Quarter Note

Quarter notes are given 1 beat per note. There would be four of these notes in one measure to complete the full measure.

The quarter note looks like a half note. But instead of having a hole in the middle of the circle it is filled in.

Understanding How Notes Work

Music Rhythm works by dividing the notes in half. Starting with the whole note you divide it in half to make 2 half notes. You then divide that in half and you then have four quarter notes.

You can divide those even further down into eight notes and sixteenth notes. These will be in another lesson.

Study the image below to see how these notes divide to make a faster rhythm.

Counting Rhythms

The best way to practice rhythms is to count them as you read them. As you read the note count out every beat in that measure. Make an emphasis on the note first beat of that note and little emphasis on the other beats in the measure.

For example if you were to count out a whole note you emphasize the 1 and give less emphasis on the 2, 3, and 4.

For a half note you would emphasize the 1 with less emphasis on the 2.

For a quarter note you would give emphasis on the one. The quarter note only has one beat per note so you emphasis that beat.

Conclusion

Reading Music Rhythm is the most important part of reading music next actually reading the note name. It’s important to know all note values quickly and easily. The reason is because the pulse of the song doesn’t slow down. The rhythm of the song rarely ever changes you need to know the note rhythms so you don’t get lost in the song.

Click to go to Lessons #12 – The Grand Staff (Playing With Two Hands)
Back To Lesson #10 – Sight Reading
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Naming piano notes may seem like a daunting task. Eighty Eight different keys and each of them have a different name?

Luckily that’s, not the case.

When naming the keys on the piano you are going to be looking for patterns. You will see that many of the keys repeat themselves.

Take a look at the image below and find the two sets of black keys that are labeled.

Once you’ve found any two black keys you can now look to the key that is to the left of these two and you will find C.

Looking at the diagram above you will notice that there are two C’s in the picture. This is because every time you find a set of two back keys together you will always find a C to the left.

This is because there are multiple C’s on the piano. So if you can remember to find the two black keys you will always be able to find a C.

Now that you are able to easily locate C you will be able to locate all of the white piano notes.

In order to label the rest of the piano you now have to simply count up the musical alphabet until you reach C again.

Musical Alphabet

The musical alphabet is similar to the traditional alphabet with one small difference. The musical alphabet only ranges from A to G.

So the musical alphabet will look like this. A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

Once you get to G it starts all over again back on A.

So look at the keyboard below and find C again. Now go through the musical alphabet on all the white keys to find the names of these keys.

Remember, that once you get to G you must start over back on A.

Now that you can label the keys from one C to the next you can name all of the white notes on the piano. Find any C and simply count up or down the musical alphabet until you find the note you are looking for.

Conclusion

Being able to quickly recognize the notes and their names on the piano is crucial to becoming an accomplished piano player. Now that you know how to find the notes, take time to practice naming them.

Remember, if you get confused just find the set of two black notes, find the one next to them, and you have found C.

Count up the musical alphabet to name the note you are looking for. It will take time, but with practice, you will be able to find and recognize notes and their location on the piano.

Lesson #3 – Naming The Black Keys
Back To Lesson #1 – Piano Layout
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Analyzing a piano keyboard diagram can make almost anyone run in fear. Don’t let the beast scare you away.

It’s really not that bad. Trust Me!

There are so many notes to learn it can seem almost impossible to completely understand it all.

Not for You!

The piano keyboard is really not all that difficult. There is an easy to follow pattern throughout the entire piano that makes it easy to learn every note fast.

We are going to take an in depth look at the piano keyboard and find an easy way to make sense of it all.

I have included an easy to use piano key chart that will help you practice and master the notes on the piano.

Labeled Diagram

There are two types of piano keyboard diagrams; labeled chart and unlabeled chart. Each of these has their own specific use.

The labeled piano diagram is helpful for the beginner piano player.

When you are first learning piano notes you can use this piano note diagram to help you easily find any note on the piano.

Each note on the keyboard is labeled giving you a complete visual guide of all the notes. This is very helpful for the beginner, but it can cause some lag in the learning process.

Beginners tend to “over-use” these types of recourses. They feel as though they need to rely on the piano keyboard diagram rather then only using it when its necessary. It’s important to know when to put it aside when as start feeling more comfortable with the piano.

Blank Piano Note Diagram

The unlabeled piano keyboard diagram is very useful for the piano instructor, or when quizzing yourself once you become more familiar with the notes on the piano keyboard.

It is also very helpful if you don’t have a piano close by.

This diagram is a complete blank slate of the piano.

Having no note names on it whatsoever is helpful because it can allow you to quiz yourself.

Remember in school when your teacher made you copy everything off of there board? Writing things down is a form of learning that helps reinforce a concept.

You can use the piano keyboard diagram to help reinforce and review the notes on the piano keyboard by writing the notes on a blank diagram.

This exercise is great for kids! It can also be very helpful for adults.

Piano Keyboard Diagram

Below you will find all of the piano note diagrams available. Each of them can be used in a unique way to help you better read the notes on the piano. Use the ideas above along with any other ideas you may come up with to help you better understand the layout of piano keys.

Included are diagrams starting with one octave, all the way up to four octaves.

When starting out I would recommend using the one octave diagram. This will help you learn the notes A through G much easier. It will focus only on those notes rather than on the entire piano keyboard.

Focus on learning one octave. When you have that perfected you can then move on to a larger chart.

Once you are more comfortable with the one octave you can then move on to more octaves. This way you are not overwhelmed at first and you can focus on learning the notes without getting lost.

Click Here To download the Labeled Piano Diagram

Click Here To Download The Unlabeled Piano Diagram

Here is the list that contains every piano keyboard diagram.

I hope they are helpful. If you can think of more creative ways to use these charts, contact me and let me know.

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Labeled

1 Octave

2 Octave

3 Octave

4 Octave

Unlabeled

1 Octave

2 Octave

3 Octave

4 Octave

Dissecting The Piano

The keys on the piano are organized in a pattern that repeats itself throughout the piano keyboard.

The first thing that you notice is the white and black keys. The white keys represent natural notes and the black keys represent sharps and flats.

To easily understand the order of the piano keys you must first find the sets of black keys.

There is a set of two black keys, and a set of three black keys. Once you locate the set of two black keys you can easily find a C note. Locate the white key to the left of the set of two black keys, this is C note.

Notes on the Piano

Now that you can easily find C, you can now name any white note on the piano.

Using the piano keyboard diagram you can now label the rest of the white notes by counting up the alphabet. This means that the white note next to C is D, the note next to D is E, and so on.

Continue up the alphabet until you reach G. Once at G you start back over at A.

See the pattern?

As soon as you reach A, you have now started the pattern that will continue throughout the entire piano keyboard.

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