Best Beginner Keyboard

Hello again. Last time I left you with the advice to use the exact fingering provided on the Czerny scores. If you thought this seemed superfluous in Czerny-1, you will find Czerny-2 to be bordering on the insane! Here is today’s exercise. Remember, the symbol that resembles a C, after the treble clef, stands for 4/4, and the double line with the dots signifies a repeat sign:

As you can see, every single time one particular note is followed by the same note, the score urges you to use different fingers. Observe, for example, bar 13-16 in the right hand:

Why would you do this? Well:

-          Playing it like this gives you more control and enhances the deliberateness of your playing. If you ramp up the tempo, it will become more and more difficult to play the same notes with the same finger quickly without it sounding very sloppy.

-          This is an exercise, a study. The fingering might not be entirely logical in this particular case (since you won’t be playing it fast enough to see the advantages of using different fingers), but when this situation occurs in more advanced pieces, you’ll know what to do.

In bar 20, you will find this in the right hand:

This is not the number 21, since you obviously only have five fingers on each hand. Rather, it is a 2 and a 1, connected by an arc on the top. It means that you have to play the note with your second finger, and then, while holding the key, switch to the first finger, which puts you in the correct position to play the next note with your third finger. Sounds confusing? Well it isn’t. It should take only a fraction of a second to do the switch. This is another one of those essential techniques that you will find invaluable when coming up with your own fingering when it is not explicitly included in scores.

Practicing each hand separately

This exercise is far from advanced, but it is not exactly absolute newbie territory either. To learn to play this and all other pieces correctly, it is a great idea to practice each hand separately before bringing them together. Most teachers will tell you that practicing a piece that you’re learning for the first time with both hands together is, although intuitive, not very efficient. Play the whole exercise a couple of times, first playing only with the right hand and then only with the left. Only when you are comfortable with both hands separately should you play it with both hands together.

Knowing what it should sound like

Although it doesn’t exactly apply to these pieces because of their relative ease, it can be a very good idea to find a recording or video online (or buy the cd) of the piece you are trying to play. By hearing what it should sound like, you avoid making glaring mistakes which might not always be obvious or audible (a wrong note won’t necessarily sound wrong). Try to find professional recordings, as it is possible that amateur recordings or amateur videos on youtube have mistakes too. For example, at the time of writing this, there seems to be only one youtube video available of this piece, and the person in the video is obviously using the wrong fingering. Regardless, it is definitely a good idea to try to emulate professional recordings.

Practice as much as possible and I’ll see you in the next article!

Czerny’s Practical Method for Beginners on the Pianoforte

In the past articles, I have tried to supply you with the basics of note reading and piano playing without burdening you much with theory. I believe that now you should be ready to begin using Czerny’s Practical Method for Beginners on the Pianoforte.

Carl Czerny lived from 1791 to 1857 and was a famous Austrian pianist, composer and teacher. The studies that are most relevant for a complete beginner are in Opus 599, the complete score of which is in the public domain and can be downloaded freely here. I will use this work as a guide in your further progression as a pianist. You can buy a paper version from your local music store or from a variety of online sources, but you can also just download a pdf from the link above and print out the first ten exercises. I recommend to get either a book version, or paste your printed version on some hard cardboard (or, alternatively, put it in a map of some sorts), because a loose piece of paper will annoy you immensely due to its propensity to fly away at the most inopportune of moments. Regardless of which method you choose to read from the score, here is the first exercise I want you to play:

The first couple of exercises are easy enough, and particularly this first exercise doesn’t offer anything that is significantly new and different from what you have learned in the past articles, so you might feel inclined to brush over them quickly. But these studies are meant to be played again and again until you have internalized all the lessons they have to offer.

Play time vs practice time

If you want your skills to progress quickly, you should aim to spend at the very least 10 minutes a day on pure practice. Of course it’s much more fun to spend your daily allotted time on the piano goofing around and playing things you enjoy more than boring old Czerny studies, but it is absolutely essential to work on your technique. Yes, playing an instrument is meant to be fun, but you will find yourself not strengthening your skills and technique as much as you’d like if you only do things you enjoy. What I always did and still do is divide the time I spend on the piano into “practice time” and “play time”. When you are practicing, you should pay the utmost attention to fingering and hand positioning, as well as uphold a very strict tempo. When you are playing around doing fun things on the piano, feel free to relax and keep it light, so as not to get fed up with the instrument altogether. Maintaining a good balance between genuine fun and real practice for a long time is the best way to get better. So, even though in these articles, the focus will be on the “practice time” of your daily piano session, do not forget to have fun too!

Playing the same note with different fingers

Observe bar 9-10 in Czerny-1:

The notes in the left hand can of course easily be played with the same finger. But remember that these are studies to help you improve your piano skill, not normal musical pieces. I will talk more about it in coming articles, but do play this with the exact fingering that is provided.

Enjoy Czerny-1 and happy practicing!

Hello again. In this article, we’ll cover repeat signs, quarter notes and basic time signature. Let’s get right to it.

Repeat signs

You should be able to read play the notes in the following exercises:

As I mentioned earlier, the score is split up in separate bars, like in the following example:

This example consists exclusively out of rests, so it is probably the easiest piece you’ll ever play. Note that the score is separated into four equal parts, divided by straight lines and ending with a double line. Now look what adding repeat signs does:

With the repeat signs (double line with two dots), you would have to play the first bar twice, the second bar once, the third twice and the fourth once. So basically, you have to play anything that is between two repeat signs twice, but the repeat sign does not have to be explicitly printed in the beginning. For the first example, this means that bar 1-4 must be played twice, followed by bar 5-8 twice, followed by bar 9-12 just once.

Quarter notes

You already know that a half note is half the length of a whole note. Well, a quarter note is, shockingly (not really), half the length of a half note.  Observe:

Here’s another exercise, extremely similar to the first one in this article. But note that the repeat signs are different!

Now, it’s logical to assume that, since quarter notes are half the length of half notes, you’d have to play this twice as fast as the first example. But this is not true. Whether half or whole notes are used does not impact the tempo (speed) of the piece. In most pieces, a tempo, or a rough guideline is included (and I’ll talk much more about it later), but it’s really up to you how fast you want to play any of these exercises.

Time signature

And this finally brings us to basic time signature. What is meant by “time signature” is the 4/4 symbol between the treble clef and the first notes.

 The Virtual Keyboard for piano is the latest innovation for learn piano at home courses. There are several models and types to choose from. Who would ever have thought you would be able to replace the full size piano or electronic keyboard with a simple download to your PC? This product makes it possible for anyone who desires it to learn piano. You don’t need the space a full size piano can use, and you don’t have to haul around a bulky keyboard. Instead, you have your piano with you whenever you have your computer. How cool is that?

There are many of the virtual products for piano available today. Quite a few are free of cost and others that are designed for professional musicians can be quite costly. There are free trials for the person who just wants to try one out before deciding to purchase. The best deals on these keyboards are the ones that you can just download and then they are yours free, although these may not have all of the advanced features a professional musician might require. I had to have it!

I saw the Virtual Keyboard while browsing the internet for the RocketPiano course. To check that out click here. This is a great item if you are taking the piano course.

I just had to download one so I could try those first six free piano lessons. I had a blast! The keyboard allows composing and producing of your own music on your computer. Depending on the features of the keyboard, you can add music from other instruments such as guitar or violin.

More complex models can add whole instrumental sections of additional instruments to your compositions or when you are playing other songs. Some other more advanced models actually type lyrics and print scores, edit and play from scanned sheet music, in addition to allowing you to e-mail music and publishing notes. They even save music notation files and MIDI sequences. With an online plug-in you can even publish your music right on your own web site. This is accomplished by embedding live playable and printable musical scores into your web page.

The keyboard’s operation is similar to the old simple MIDI digital keyboards that were popular several years ago. It is as simple as downloading a free keyboard (about 10 seconds). Next the picture of the keyboard will appear on the computer screen and all you have to do is touch the computer keys to press the keyboard keys. The sound is great, almost like hearing a live piano.

This is a great fun product as well, allowing you to entertain family and friends, educate your children about music, and improvise by adding lyrics or notes to your own compositions or to whatever popular songs you choose. Why not have karaoke at your next party? This is one of those truly useful products that are so much fun to use!

Virtual Keyboard for the piano is also the most cost effective and simple solution for providing a competent  substitute for the piano for beginning students, until they are sure they wish to continue piano study. If you are studying with RocketPiano this keyboard was made for the program; a perfectly matched set. If you have one, you definitely need the other.

With a simple learning curve and easy to use features, the virtual piano is perfect for children and adults. You can always upgrade for a fee if you find that you have outgrown the available features on the free models.  It’s a lot of fun, so download and get to playing today!