When one thinks of piano music, the first adjective that comes to mind is ‘classical’. While this is an apt word to describe music composed and played by this instrument, there is so much more to it than that. To appreciate the melodious quality, one must explore the diversity of playing such a beautiful contraption.

Legendary character Maria from the musical The Sound of Music said it best when she said: ‘Let’s start at the very beginning; a very good place to start’. To master the art of playing the piano, it’s best to start with the basics to guarantee a solid foundation.

Here are a few pointers to give you a head-start. Initially a challenging instrument to learn, once you get accustomed to playing the piano, it will become second nature to you. When you get to grips with these basics, you will surely look at piano lessons as an enjoyable learning experience!

Noting the Notes
Piano keys actually follow a repetitive pattern made of white and black keys. The white keys go from A through to G, with C considered the ‘starting point’, and the set of 8 notes repeats consecutively. Each 8-note set is called an octave, and each octave is different in pitch (high and low). The farther you go to the right, the higher the notes will sound, and the farther left you go, the lower they will sound.

Notes can be natural (♮), sharp (♯), or flat (♭). The difference between keys are called tones or steps, and semitones or half-steps. From one key to the next, you are going up or down a semi-tone or half-step, while if there is another key in between, you are going up or down a full tone or step.

The general “rule” is that from a white key to its closest black key, you have a semi-tone, and from a white-key to another white key, you have a tone. There are a few exceptions; for example: between white keys E and F, there is no black key, meaning they are a semi-tone apart, and not a full tone.

The same applies for naturals, sharps and flats. Black keys are sharps and flats, but it’s not necessarily the other way round. A sharp is always one semi-tone to the right, while a flat is a semi-tone to the left. This means that the black key between C and D, for example, is both C♯ and D♭ simultaneously.

To learn more about all the keys on the keyboard, book your piano lessons with our qualified teachers in Guernsey.

Chords and Scales
When you play more than one note at the same time, you get a chord. The difference between scales and chords is that every note in a scale is played individually, while every note in a chord is played simultaneously.

Chords and scales can be divided into two main categories; major and minor. You can immediately hear the difference between these; major generally sounds ‘happier’ while minor is thought to sound more ‘sad’.

So if you want to enrich your life with music, we highly recommend that you take up music lessons in Guernsey, at the School of Popular Music. Our instructors strive to provide their students with a solid foundation of learning how to play the piano. Click here to get in touch today.