Discover 10 Popular Songs to Learn On the Piano As a Beginner

Here are 10 popular songs to learn on piano, especially for beginners

1. Pachelbel's Canon - This is a famous song, originally written on strings, but also very famous and popular to play on the piano. It comes in a variety of arrangements for beginners up to advanced players, so it is a great one to learn as a beginner then a lovely piece to come back to at a later stage when you are more advanced.

2. Imagine by John Lennon - This is one of those songs that most people know, and would go down well at a party, or a sing-song! It has a great chord accompaniment, and is a good one to improve your playing technique and to incorporate the use of chords in your playing.

3. Drunken Sailor - This classic folk song is a great piano song to put a smile on people's faces, and it only requires a simple bass line as the right hand is the leading section with two simple chord patterns.

4. Let it Be by The Beatles - This is another classic song, written and made famous by The Beatles. It is in a simple key signature, has a nice piano arrangement which will suit a beginner perfectly.

5. Annie's Song by John Denver - This is a popular song with a lovely melody in which its lyrics fit perfectly. It is in a simple key signature, has a beautiful melody to be able to play as a beginner and one song that you will continue to play through your piano years. As you become more advanced it allows you the freedom to bring more into it with a variety of arrangements produced for piano.

6. Fur Elise by Beethoven - This ever popular classical piece written by Beethoven, has a great sound and feeling to it. For a beginner listening to it, you could misjudge it and think it is difficult to play, but in fact it is the opposite. It is in a simple key signature, is repetitive with only a couple of different sections to master and is available in a variety of levels. It also sounds great too, so is a way to impress your audience.

7. Amazing Grace originally written by John Newton is a classic popular Gospel song. It has a lot of feeling and emotion to it which is portrayed well when played on the piano. It suits all levels of pianists but is particularly a good one to start with as a beginner, as it is in a simple key & time signature. You can even download this for free of some music websites on the internet.

8. Clocks by rock band Coldplay. This is a modern song made famous by international rock band Coldplay. It features lovely simple chords. These are played in the right hand to take a lead, with a simple but effective bass line, which complements this song well. This will put playing chords into practice, and show you how it is all linked into music.

9. Piano Man by Billy Joel - The title says it all with this song. It is a very popular song and written originally for the Piano. This is a great song to add to your repertoire as a beginner. It is in a simple key, and is in a waltz time signature, so it will develop your timing skills by introducing a waltz rhythm into your playing. It is also a song that most people will know, and sounds terrific when played on the piano.

10. Candle in the Wind by Elton John - This is one of Elton John's most famous hits, and arranged for Piano. It was originally written in the key of E Major, but there are some easy piano arrangements produced which are in a simpler key. This makes it a perfect song choice to learn as a beginner. It is a simple melody to pick up, but sounds fantastic.

There are some great free courses to teach anyone from complete beginners to advanced pianists to Learn How to Play Piano. A great way for beginners to learn is to start off with some really Easy Piano Songs which will get you started and help build that all important confidence.

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Discover How to Master Co-Ordination on the Piano

Co-ordination on the Piano is one of the hardest tasks you will come across as a beginner, but once you have learnt this skill, it will be with you forever. It's like when you first learn to ride a bike, it's a bit tricky to start with, but with a little bit of practice you finally click and then there is no stopping you.

See below ten tips to help and improve your co-ordination skills on the Piano: -

Make sure you are 100% confident of what each hand needs to play. Practise hands separately until you can play it with your eyes closed or not looking down at the keys. This will engage your senses and help you use other senses to detect where the notes are, i.e...Touch and Feel senses.Break your song down into small sections, so after learning each part hands separately, start playing it hands together in sections, so try the Intro, then once happy with this, move onto the Main Verse, and so on. Once you are happy with two sections, bring those together and then move forward.Keep the song slow, lots of people try to run before they can walk, but what happens with playing too quickly is you lose the technique and you are likely to make easy mistakes, so take your time. You can increase the speed once you've learnt the song correctly.If you are struggling with one particular section when trying to put it hands together, break it down even smaller, so maybe just one bar, and repeat this about 20 times. The old saying practice makes perfect is true.Try the following exercises to warm up: -

Play three chords in your right hand, so C Major F Major and G Major are a good easy example, and play each chord twice holding them for one beat at a time,

A pattern like this will work well: -

C MAJOR X2/F MAJOR X2/G MAJOR X2/F MAJOR and repeat this.

For your left hand, play C F and G, so when you change chords in the right change your bass notes also.

For a bit of variety you can change the rhythm of the bass, so from holding it for 2 beats, like the above exercise, play each bass note for 1 beat each, and then you could change it and speed it up to half beats.

6. With co-ordination it is also very important to make sure you are using the correct fingering, so beware of this if you are teaching yourself and avoid getting into bad habits by using just a couple of fingers.

7. Listen to an original version of the song you are learning. This will help you pick up how the rhythms fit in hearing it by ear.

8. Try playing along to a copy of the song. See if your teacher can record a copy of the Piano version for you with it broken down into Left Hand & Right Hand sections and then together. This will really help you with your co-ordination if you can actually hear what it should sound like

9. Get yourself a scale book, The Associated Board of the Royal School of Music - Scales arpeggios and Broken chords are a good place to start, along with Hanon Exercises. These are great for improving your technique and your co-ordination.

10. The most important tip is to do lots of practice. But do it little and often, so practice every day for at least 20 minutes at a time, have a break then do another 20 minutes. Set yourself out a realistic practice plan to follow.

There are some great free courses to teach anyone from complete beginners to advanced pianists to Learn How to Play Piano. A great way for beginners to learn is to start off with some really Easy Piano Songs which will get you started and help build that all important confidence.

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Discover How a Pianist Can Improve Their Sight-Reading With 10 Great Tips

Sight-Reading is one of those skills that you will develop over time as a pianist, and the longer you have played the better you will become at it. It requires discipline to improve your sight-reading, and you need to dedicate at least one practice session a week to doing this to develop your skills. In the long-term it will bring you lots of benefits, and could even open up job opportunities such as accompanying singers or Ballet classes. If you can pick up a piece of music and just play it, then it's an indispensable skill that will reward you in the long-term.

Below are ten useful tips on sight-reading: -

Get yourself a basic sight-reading book. The Associated Board of the Royal School of Music do them and have different abilities, ranging from Grade one which would be a beginner up to grade 8 which would be for the more advanced player.If you don't want to use a sight-reading book, then pick out some songs from song books you have that you haven't already learnt and ones that you are not familiar with.Set yourself a realistic time limit for each piece. If you are choosing songs from normal books, then just do a small section of the song. A suggestion would be half a page.If new to sight-reading, or if you want to improve, then A suggestion would be 2 minutes to look through your piece of music, try bits out and look for patterns e.t.c.When playing a sight-reading piece look out for the following:The Time Signature the piece of music is in, scroll your eyes through it and check for any changes in the rhythm.The Key Signature - Make sure you are familiar with this and how many Sharps or Flats are in the piece of music, look out for natural signs, as these can often be sneaked into songs and catch people out!Look for any reoccurring patterns, most songs are repetitive, so look out for these, play through a couple of these and get use to it.Look at the tempo the music suggests, if it's a fast song, then it's better to do it slowly and accurate than fast and make mistakes.Look at the start and ending of the song, or section you are sight-reading up too, and familiarise yourself with this, you will probably find they are very similar with the start and end on similar notes or chords.

There are some great free courses to teach anyone from complete beginners to advanced pianists to Learn How to Play Piano. A great way for beginners to learn is to start off with some really Easy Piano Songs which will get you started and help build that all important confidence.

View the original article here

Discover Basic Scales for a Beginner to Master on the Piano

Scales that are great for beginners to learn are contrary motion scales. These are the best ones for a beginner, as your fingers are changing at the same time. With most major and minor scales with a few exceptions, there is a fingering pattern that they follow.

Below is an example of the fingering for a contrary motion scale: -

The fingering for your right hand is: -

Ascending: - 123/1234/123/12345

Descending: - 54321/321/4321/321

Left Hand

Descending: - 123/1234/123/12345

Ascending: - 54321/321/4321/321

Can you see the connection - So when doing a contrary motion scale your fingering changes are at the same time. A good way of memorizing this to help you learn it is to say the fingering as you are playing it.

This is how a 2 octave C Major Contrary Motion Scale looks: -

RIGHT HAND ASCENDING

C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C/ B A G F E D C B A G F E D C

1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 (Fingering)

LEFT HAND DESCENDING

C B A G F E D C B A G F E D C/ D E F G A B C D E F G A B C

1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 (Fingering)

So as you can see this is a great scale to start off with, and it will really help improve your technique for your fingering and co-ordination. Once you are happy with this, try moving on to C Major Ascending Scale. Get yourself a scale book, and you will be able to see how this works. The notes are the same as the Contrary motion scale, but your hands start two octaves apart, so your right hand starts on Middle C, and your left hand on the C two octaves below middle C.

Once you have learnt C Major Contrary Motion, and C Major Ascending Scale, why not try out C Major Arpeggio, and C Major Broken Chord. These can all be found in the ABRSM Scales Arpeggios and Broken Chord books. Get yourself a system going, so you cover all the different types of scales. It is crucial for your development on piano to learn some kind of scales. They really do train you to use the correct technique, and get you into good habits. When you go to buy some piano books don't forget your scale books.

You can sometimes find scales on the internet to download for free so take a look and find some for yourself. Use them as your warm up exercise before playing your music.

There are some great free courses to teach anyone from complete beginners to advanced pianists to Learn How to Play Piano.
A great way for beginners to learn is to start off with some really Easy Piano Songs which will get you started and help build that all important confidence.

View the original article here

Discover How to Train Yourself to Play by Ear on the Piano

Learning piano is a great hobby, and anybody can learn to play if they put their mind to it. But what makes a pianist stand out from the crowd, is if you have that little extra sparkle in your playing by having the skill and ability to perform and play by ear. When musicians play by ear, they have a lot more freedom and expression in their playing, and people can connect more to the music, rather than just reading from a musical score sheet.

If this is something you would like to achieve below are some top tips on helping you learn this skill. In the long-term it will make you a more rounded musician and performer.

If you have been learning for a little while then take yourself back to one of your first complete pieces of music you'd learn from a score. Make sure it's a song you are very familiar with and you are 100% happy with how you are playing it.

Run through it a couple of times with the music, and then break it down into the main sections, so intro verse and chorus.

Try and memorize each section without the music. Look at the music, then close your eyes and try to play. If you prefer just look away from the music. Keep doing this until you have mastered it.

Another suggestion is to get a copy of the song and play along to sections of it, joining in where you can but without relying on your music.

Listen out for extra parts you could put in, from the original song, to make it more expressive and colourful. You do find sometimes with sheet music that they simplify the song a little and make it sound a bit bland, so try to listen out for anything additional that you can add into it.

When learning a new song, try not to rely on the music. Have the original song on CD that you can refer too, and use the musical score as a reference. When you then go to perform a song, you will find that it is more expressive and that you have a better connection with your audience.

To master playing by ear, the trick is to learn the song in small sections and avoid looking down at your hands or at the music. If you are disciplined enough with yourself you will soon learn this skill.

There are some great free courses to teach anyone from complete beginners to advanced pianists to Learn How to Play Piano. A great way for beginners to learn is to start off with some really Easy Piano Songs which will get you started and help build that all important confidence.

View the original article here

Discover Ten Great Reasons to Learn Piano

If you are fortunate enough to get the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, then do so, as it is very rewarding, and can really add a sparkle into your life.

It is great fun and you never stop learning. There is always a new song you can learn.
Music surrounds you and to actually be able to play and be part of that world it's a great feeling.
It opens up endless opportunities for you, including performing in public places such as pubs, parties and charity work.
There is a great social side to playing piano. You will meet other musicians and you may have some friends that play different instruments. It will help to bring you new confidence, if you are a little shy at times like we all are, and really help boost your confidence. Music simply has a great feel good factor about it.
You could advertise to set up a new band, and share your passion of music with others who you can relate too.
Once you learn one instrument and can read music, you will find it a lot easier to pick up another instrument. With Piano you have two clefs to deal with, so if you were to learn guitar or a woodwind instrument for example, you would only have to contend with one clef, and would find it a lot easier. So you can add to your talents and continue on your musical journey.
Turn your talents to song writing, being able to play piano is a great base for writing songs.
Playing piano will make you feel happy and relaxed. A lot of people use music to express their selves, and if feeling stressed it's a way of releasing that stress and turning negative thoughts into positive vibes, and will help you release the stress that we all incur in our busy lives.
You can take musical exams in piano if you wish to do so; this will be a great sense of achievement and give you a qualification out of something you love to do. The Associated Board of the Royal School of Music and the Trinity Board are both exam boards you could take your piano exams with.
Finally any music makes you feel good. For example if you go to a party and get up and dance and have fun, it just puts a smile on your face. People that play piano or any musical instrument get the same satisfaction out of this.

There are some great free courses to teach anyone from complete beginners to advanced pianists to Learn How to Play Piano.
A great way for beginners to learn is to start off with some really Easy Piano Songs which will get you started and help build that all important confidence.

View the original article here