Category: beginner
This is a lesson for beginners which sets the foundations of understand written music.
Remember: it is possible to be both musically literate (i.e. being able to read and write music) AND be able to play by ear and find songs, melodies and chords just by hearing them.
Contrarily to widespread belief those two abilities do not go against each other, but rather support and complement each other. By learning to read, write and play by ear, you will get the best of two worlds, which is what you deserve for the time and work you put in your practice.
Follow the video lesson, then download the FREE practice sheets in PDF:
Plenty of practice is provided for you to learn to recognise notes on the staff quickly and effectively.
When you are done with this lesson, proceed to the next lesson which is going to teach how to find notes on the piano keyboard.
Have fun.
My recollection of this exercise goes back to my first few piano lessons I took when I was a small kid.
My old teacher advised me to practice free falls on a table whenever I could in order to strengthen my fingers, and I still do it when idle sometimes, for example when I’m waiting for the next stage of my videogame to load 🙂
Try it out! It works
Five finger technique
In this lesson I go into quite a lot of detail on the technique behind an effective legato.
Five finger exercises are the staple of beginning students and the importance of QUALITY of technical foundations cannot be overstated; please watch this a couple times if you are starting lessons.