Before you begin to play the piano, you need to become familiar with what the instrument is. Some pianos are upright pianos, which are usually large, heavy, tall vertical boxes. These are anywhere from 36 to 51 inches tall. Spinets are the shortest upright pianos, at 36 to 39 inches. A studio vertical is 44 inches or taller.

If you get the chance to play a grand piano, the sound and overall quality is much better. We consider these horizontal pianos that are around 5′ to 9′ in length. Keep in mind the strings are horizontal as well. What about vertical pianos? Well there strings are vertical.

When you sit on your stool, there will be a music rack that allows you to place your sheet music on it. There are various styles that range from ones that fold down or possibly slide into a slot. When it’s time to play just place your sheet music there. Obviously you will be sitting on some sort of bench that allows you to reach the keys at any part of the piano. Be careful though, if you sit too far or too close, you might not be able to reach them all.

There will be pedals at the bottom of the piano where your feet are. These need not be used by beginners. Once you become more proficient at playing the piano, you can learn how to use these pedals to sustain sounds or cut them short.

Above all else you have to understand the keyboard. After all, this is where your music will come from those white and black keys running left to right. However, they don’t alternate every key, which is something most people mistakenly believe.

If you look closely, you will see that the black and white keys form a pattern that repeats from one end of the keyboard to the other. The pattern consists of 7 white keys and 5 black keys in a particular order. From the beginning of one such set of keys and ending on the beginning of the next set, an interval is formed. Intervals are just the musical distances between two sounds. This particular interval is called an octave.

The keys are lined up on the keyboard in order from the lowest on the left to the highest on the right. Starting at the left and moving to the right, each black or white key is a half step higher in pitch than the key before it. For a full step, it is necessary to go up (or down) two half steps. Try some half steps and some full steps. With a little practice, you should be able to learn the sound of those intervals easily.

It’s recommended that you try other intervals just to hear different sounds. Take a look at the amount of half or full steps you might be taking. Basically just pick out a key and play the next key up in the same position. Eventually you will be able to play those octaves with no problems at all. Remember, this is one of the keys to piano playing.

If you can get a better understanding for the piano in the beginning, it will be much easier to learn how to make music. In a short amount of time you will see yourself being able to play simple songs. All it takes is a little effort and drive on your part to make it all happen.

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