When to start playing the piano
How to play piano: The basics, Piano Lesson #1
[Music]
yeah so this video is for someone that
is an absolute beginner panner they have
no idea anything about piano but music
but they've always you know been
interested maybe you've been interested
Lena have by piano or you just like
music and you wish you could play music
yourself or maybe you're trying to
you're getting older and you're looking
for a new hobby to pick up or maybe even
you just want to use it for the like
brain benefits because I mean playing
how to play piano actually it's proven
to make you smarter because it actually
improves neurological connections in the
brain and develops it and works it out
and many different ways and prevents
like later on brain disorders like
dementia and whatnot and it basically
just Tunes everything up kind of like a
pianos in tune Oh
so let's tune your brain up okay so I'm
gonna be sharing the basics and it's
sort of an ongoing lesson series which
will I'll start really really basic so
even if you have know a little bit about
piano before but you just don't have any
clue for later stuff just use this as a
review a couple few lessons will
probably be most people know but if you
don't that's fine
this is what this is for it's for the
absolute beginner if you have never
taken beyond in your life and you just
want to learn and then eventually it's
gonna go on and show you things that you
probably don't alright so let's get
right into it so the first thing you
want to cover is fingers your finger
numbers so your fingers actually have
or names so that we can know which
finger we need to play on the piano by
rating it on the sheet music later on in
later lessons I'll teach you guys how to
read shoot me as I kind of stuff like
that so but for now let's just leave
that that's what we use it for is to
tell I can be able to communicate which
finger you want on which instead of
going like oh well that finger on your
right hand goes there and it'd be too
big so how it goes it's pretty simple
just look at your fingers like this or
like that whatever and all you do is
your thumbs are gonna be called one
pointing fingers or two three four five
just outward so one two three four five
one two three four five pretty easy
right
yeah so that's it just 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2
1
so both thumbs are 1 2 3 4 5 one thing
is if you playing scales you want to be
thinking from left to right so now you
notice look the left side of my left
hand is my fifth finger and the left
side of my right hand is my first finger
so don't let the numbers confuse you
okay
it's think left to right some when
you're playing together okay so that's
finger numbers the next thing we're
gonna do is alright so here we are at
the piano so we're first gonna learn all
the names of these keys now I know what
you're thinking Andrew there's a lot of
keys here are you sure we're gonna have
time to learn all the names alone yes we
are actually because there's actually
only seven names for all these keys so
what would the names be based off of
well it's actually the English alphabet
so a-b-c-d-e-f-g that's it so there are
actually 88 keys in this whole piano so
somehow seven letters can't
you know 788 there's something wrong
here unless they just repeat don't they
so this actually repeats from here to
here so on a standard piano like a
full-size standard piano like a grand
piano like this or a full standard
regular piano there's 88 keys other
keyboards have different amounts of keys
but this one just has 88 okay all right
so at the very bottom of an 88 key
keyboard is an a so it starts at the
first letter with the first note because
this is actually the first note because
it goes this way in China it's always
going from left to right just like when
you read so this is the bottom and
that's the top so the bottom note is a
and it goes a B C D G so if you ever get
lost that's all you do you just go down
to the bottom you can when you go ABCD
efg and then you find whichever note
that you're looking for and do that okay
so that's the bottom of the keyboard now
up at the top the top note is actually a
see now how do I know that well I know
that because of the Black Keys the Black
Keys there's two of them and then three
of them three - three - and they're all
throughout the piano and what do they do
they actually tell me where I am at the
piano because these Black Keys could
have easily just been made into white
keys and then pushed into the spaces in
between right the whole point of these
is to actually be able to determine
where you are playing because imagine if
someone's just like okay well I'll play
the you know the seven you want to key
up here the Sun you not 7170 first it's
any first key and then like the 29th and
the 38 together or something like that
how would you really know right because
there would be no way to count that this
is a or C or whatever unless you have
these because that actually shows the
shape of the key and it gives you an
idea of where you are so that's actually
how you find the key you're looking for
when you're playing on the piano now
this is the easy way like the
fail-safe ways to go
cdefg and then I have a couple tricks
for learning how to memorize those keys
so to find a C which is the most
important key basically well it's not
really the most important but it's the
most centrally used so there's the C up
at the top the at the bottom now in the
middle we have what's called middle C
and that's middle C right there all we
do is we look for two Black Keys and
then to the left of that not C now if
we're gonna find a so a would be you
find three Black Keys and then go to the
middle one of the three and then go to
the right three middle now we go
somewhere else three at all right that's
an A these are all a's and those are all
a's okay so a starts that if you ever
want to find you know you want to just
count up the letter e of the alphabet
you just go find those three Black Keys
and go hey ABC ABCD efg so that's how
that works
now there's other ways to memorize them
because eventually we want to make it so
that you can just look at a key and know
it's note name so I've done that with
people in my lessons like the first
lesson they know all the keys on the
piano and they can hit the keys so it is
possible to learn it very quickly if you
just want to the biggest predator piano
just like anything else is the amount of
determination you have to learn it so
it's mainly up to you and how much you
practice and then the information I give
you you can use the tools to speed up
your progress okay so this is C that's a
so a is to the right of the middle black
key and C is to the left of the two
Black Keys now we have another one
called F so we go three black keys to
the left so look at this C and F look
very similar don't there they almost
look like copies of each other if you
only had two black keys here and two
black keys here they'd look identical so
what we actually have to do is we have
to see the difference between this is
two black keys and that's three so
people can get those two confused so
that's why I try to teach them at the
same time to explain the differences so
that they don't get confused so C has
two black keys and F has three that's
the only difference because they look
exactly the same
okay now the other two look-alikes are
the e key and the B key so E and be
funny so he has two and B has three
that's basically a he's got two B's got
three and that's all you can do so you
go back and forth between those try
testing yourself like that okay now the
next key is d so D goes right in the
middle or right in between the two black
keys
now the reason D do you sort of be
actually easier to understand and other
ones because well remember not
understand but it's because they're
going right between the two black keys
right here
so D is sort of like I'd end I'm gonna
get into the done here coos yep and
watch some TV with my whatever if I was
that bad crate I could just do to do set
up my TV there I could have like a nice
plasma up against the wall there
although I think LCDs are better than
our anti anyway oh yeah that's a bit
off-topic but yeah so D is for it like
it done so that's me you just look for
two black keys and then go pretty simple
right
and now we knew a was there so G is just
the key to the left of it
so G is to the left of the middle marks
and look at this they sort of look like
mirror images of each other you don't
that right if you put a mirror in the
middle I'd be like they're mirror images
of each other
so just remember G's on the left and a
is on the right okay so those are the
keys all right so next up here is hand
position so I'm going to show you how to
move your hands in the right way and how
to play the keys now that you know what
all the keys actually are so they just
repeat up and down on the keys and with
our fingers what we actually want to do
we actually want to create kind of semi
circles with their hands and we're gonna
play with the side powder right on like
this right there and that just plays
down into the key and when we play the
key we need to always make sure that we
go right down to the bottom of the key
we don't want to do this because then no
sound actually happens we have to play
right down to the bottom of the key what
makes it louder or softer is how fast
you depress the key if we go it's loud
if we do it slowly it's softer so just
think of pushing more weight in to get
it louder and then just just letting the
arm weight of your hand just do that we
work for you if you're trying to get a
soft sound okay so that's how you press
the key now that's with your thumb your
thumb is actually the most awkward
finger you have probably some of the
best ones the best fingers for playing
passages are these ones your second and
third finger your strongest two fingers
and then you fourth and fifth they're
kind of together and they're a little
bit weaker so they take more training so
you're probably gonna find it easiest to
play with these three fingers because we
use them the most because how often do
we ever like use our fourth and fifth
finger to like open up a bottle of milk
like never right so they need a little
bit more training to get the
neurological connections you know
created and stronger in those areas so
if you're finding oh my fingers aren't
listening to me I just can't play piano
don't worry about it
I'll all come together soon you just
gotta practice and I'll view
it'll be fine in no time okay so when we
play on the piano we actually need to
keep our hand very mediocre we don't
want to do this with our wrist we don't
want any wrist up or wrist down we just
put it in the middle we don't want to be
pushing our hands way up in the air or
way down we don't want to be playing
like this like this is for a playground
that's just very very bad posture and
it's not good so what we want to do is
keep our hand kind of level with the
floor so we're not gonna have a dip in
the wrist anything too crazy but the
main thing here is not to get a stiff
wrist you don't want something that's
deaf we don't wanna get stiff we want to
just be relaxed so it should feel like
your hand is like light and feathery
okay
so keep your hand level with the floor
and then your fingers are sort of like
bridges or archways and you're just
gonna transfer the weight into those
fingers so what you can think of is you
can think of a bridge and there's like
green grass on one side and green love
the grass on the other and then there's
like this cobblestone bridge and it's
going over these sparkling little
streams and everything or like a river
and it's going right through the little
valley and then there's people on top of
the bridge this would be the bridge the
finger and they're looking down and then
whenever you do this the bridge breaks
and everyone's like loose and they fall
into the river and then alligators eat
them up so we don't want to feed the
people to the alligators by doing this
keep it rigid like nice and strong only
for the time then you're actually
hitting the note and then relax as soon
as you've done so an exercise to do that
is to play loud as quickly as you can
play quiet okay that I'll train you to
relax your fingers quicker okay so
you're gonna push down into the key
thread it with the arm weight that's
already in your arm and I'll get into
more detail with that in a later lesson
so keep the fingers curved never do this
that's very bad cute like that
okay and we're not as well you just want
let your hand drop and see how my
fingers have a natural curve that I just
let them kind of go onto the piano and
they were good so keep them very relaxed
okay now I'm going to teach you how to
do a C major scale so the C major scale
is one of the most basic things you can
do so we're gonna start off with a five
note finger pattern C major scale why is
it called five because I have five
fingers so we're just going to play five
notes so we start on guess what note
first E major scale C so you find two
black notes put our fifth finger on C
okay and then we're gonna play four on D
and we're just gonna go up
[Music]
okay now we actually want to be able to
get to here though that's a full scale
right there we need to get to the next C
so we start on a C and then we end on a
C so to do that we actually have to do
something called the TOC so we're going
to do the first five notes and then as
we do this we're actually going to keep
our hand like this and move it over and
I'm gonna slide underneath and as you do
this you have to keep your hands flat so
it shouldn't be kind of doing this like
a whole flopping motion or I'm shouldn't
be moving up and down it's just gonna be
a barre
[Music]
okay all right
now keep in mind that what I'm doing
this I'm also trying to film at the same
time so give me a break if my posture or
something is wrong with the fingers
that's how it should look
so the tack can be the trickiest part
for some people and they have some
problems with that so what I suggest for
an exercise for that is do this
so you're gonna play your second finger
then your thumb and then you're gonna
move over so it should be a very very
kind of like this kind of motion not
like this it's sort of very horizontal
not vertical so horizontal you take your
hand squishes up like an accordion and
then this much moved I don't know
just like that and then that's how it
works so it comes in and then your thumb
goes under sort of like it's going into
a cave
[Music]
and that's a c-major scale goes from C
to C okay so when you're doing it you
should aim for a nice tone so all the
all the notes should sound even you
don't want this
you
okay and also should be study so nothing
like that's just horrible
so it should be study
and all about the same volume that'll
create a nice singing tone like you want
to aim listen to your plane while you
play because it's very important that
you judge how are your notes are
sounding
[Music]
okay so that's that that's a c-major
scale now we're gonna learn truncal
twinkle so twinkle twinkle little star
has two main themes or sections the
first one goes like this that's the
first thing I'll play it one more time
okay now it starts on the C with your
thumb and then we're gonna move our
pinkie like that because otherwise it
gets into this weird crossing finger
pattern and I don't want to do that on
the first last one okay so that's that
now the second theme goes like this so
you just repeat playing each note twice
so like G now and I'm actually doing
this I'm not thinking the actual letter
names I'm just thinking down down down
cuz I'm just going down and up and down
and up so try to think of direction
instead of the actual note names only
think is a note you're starting on and
the note you end on that'll cut down on
the amount of work your brain has to do
and I'll simplify everything okay so now
that we know those two themes we just do
it in this order we do one like team one
team two theme to team one so watch this
team one again
[Music]
just adding in a little extra there for
you okay so that is trunk will talk a
little start yeah
so one thing I want to point out before
we finish here is I know I taught you a
song here but the main purpose of these
piano lessons isn't to teach you a bunch
of songs you know why okay people
probably heard this parable or slipped
dry before give them out of fish you
feed him for a day teach a man how to
fish and you feed him for a lifetime
so my whole philosophy or goal here with
the piano lessons isn't to like feed you
fish into your mouth or songs like
here's another song for you here's
another I'm just eating all these things
because then what happens is you have to
be dependent on me to give you another
song and then that puts you in a system
of where I have to teach you the songs
and then you can't learn whatever song
you want to on your own which kind of
sucks because then what happens is you
want to learn a song and I'm teaching
this song so what happens you want to
learn the song but I'm teaching this one
because I don't know what song do you
want to learn because it could be
anything all people are different so my
whole goal is to teach you how to learn
the song yourself so this song the
twinkle twinkle little star song is
something that I know we like everyone
knows it's familiar and it's kind of
like yeah it come play a song now so
just start off I don't see any harm in
showing you a couple songs but as the
lessons go on I won't be showing you any
more songs pretty much it'll just be
giving you techniques on how to do
different things and
more advanced ways so that you can learn
the songs that you want to and because
piano basically is just a song as a as a
whole bunch of different techniques and
kind of like tools put together or
functions and then you just if you know
all those different functions like you
know how to do Pali rhythms and you know
how to do a chord then you can play that
piece if that's all the pieces made up
so what I do is I give you all the tools
and the mechanisms I teach you how they
all work and give you tips on how to do
them then you practice them and then you
can go and you can learn any song that
you want to and then that way you can
have fun with music and just enjoy it
and you guys can all learn the songs
that you want to and like the whole the
whole world hopefully can expand the
music community and more people can
enjoy piano and just have fun with music
because music is an international
language you can go anywhere and just
play music for people on will be like
that's math so I'm trying to share that
with you guys because there's just
something in my heart that just wants
people out there like you who's watching
wants to give you guys a chance to enjoy
music even if you've never had the
chance before in your life because maybe
you didn't have a teacher you don't have
books or stuff like that so I'm gonna
keep going with the lessons of God this
is actually a retake on all old lessons
that I did before over the past two
years so I'm going through the old
lessons with the same plan but trying to
improve upon them with my new teaching
skills and higher quality and better
like lighting and everything so
hopefully I can match what I did in my
previous videos and I hope you guys
enjoy all the videos coming out so take
care happy practicing and I look forward
to seeing you in my next videos
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