Learning the piano is arguably the least complicated part of familiarizing yourself with the instrument. The hardest part is practicing with it to learn how to sight-read or to play melodies by simply listening to the music.

{How To Start}

It is never too late to start learning the piano. Piano lessons come in different formats, often matching the age of their intended users. What is important in learning how to play this instrument is your level of interest.

All piano lessons begin with familiarizing yourself with the instrument, how the keyboard is structured and the importance of its structure to how you would play. For starters, keyboards, no matter the number of keys, only comprise of 12 notes. The musical alphabet only goes from A to G, and each white key correspond to these letters alone. The black keys, meanwhile, take their names from the white keys they follow. These are then marked as flat or sharp depending on the white key that is used as the basis of reference.

Another important concept in piano playing, or for playing any musical instrument for that matter, is the chord. A chord is simply a group of notes that are played at the same time. Each chord is comprised of notes varying from 2 to 5 notes. While very commonly used nowadays, chords are actually more considered the building blocks of modern music and not of classical tunes. If you are learning the piano to be able to play a range of different music, mastering all the different kinds of chord could prove very helpful for you.

{Finding The Chords}

Mastering the chord can’t be emphasized enough. In playing modern music, chords are often all you need to follow the tune. Now, each chord is composed of a few different keys. While intimidating at first, the combination of keys are actually quite easy to learn.

It is very important to remember that there are three basic groups of chord – the major chords, the minor chords, and the 7th chord. Major chords has the pattern of root key, 4 halftone key, and 3 halftone key. What do root keys and halftone keys mean? Remember that half tones are the smallest possible interval between two tones in the piano. This is the distance between C and C#, D and D#, and E and Eb. Interestingly, keys that don’t have black keys between them are also considered as halftones, the distance between E and F for example as well as B and C. Going back, say you want to look for the chord C Major, you should first look for the root key which is the C, followed by 4 halftones down, which is the E and followed by 3 halftones, the key G.

Minor chords, meanwhile, follow the formula – root key, 3 halftones and 4 halftones. Now, look for the keys of the chord C minor. You start with the C key, followed by a key 3 halftones away, which is D#, then followed by a key 4 halftones away, which is G. You should have the combination of C, D# and G!

The last most commonly used chord group is the dominant 7th or the 7th chord. This group comprises of chords that are written as the root key plus the number 7, for example C7. Seventh chords has a very different chord pattern – root key, plus 4 halftones, then 3 halftones then another 3 halftones. So with this chord, you have to play four different keys at the same time. So if you are looking for the C7, you should first look for the root key which is the C, then count 4 halftones down, which is the E, then 3 halftones, which is the F and then count 3 halftones more which is the Bb.

{There you go}. With these basics, learning the piano can be much easier and much faster than learning individual notes.

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