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Once you learn the basics, you will be able to play almost any song you come across. You can even begin writing your own.

Now that you have established the desire to play piano, you must establish the ability. Before you can even learn chords, you must have a basic knowledge of how to play beginner piano notes. Here are a few tips to get you started.

The first thing you need to know is that, of the 88 keys on a piano, there are really only twelve piano notes to learn. These notes repeat throughout the keyboard at various pitches, or octaves. The seven basic notes are known as A-note, B-note, C-note, D-note, E-note, F-note, and G-note. The C-note is considered to be the beginning of an octave, and the various C-notes can be determined by looking for the white keys directly before a grouping of two black keys. Similarly, the F-note can be seen as a white key that is directly followed by a grouping of three black keys.

The remaining five notes of an octave are represented by the black keys of the keyboard. These notes are known as sharps, denoted by a “#”, and flats, shown by a “b”. You should familiarize yourself with these notes, but you should not make it more difficult than it needs to be. When looking for sharps and flats, remember that a sharp note is the black key directly following a base note, and a flat note is directly before a base note. Once you understand this concept, you will realize that sharps and flats are much easier than they seem. For example, you will notice that a C# and a Db are actually the same note, just like F# and Gb, and so on.

When learning how to play piano notes, the final thing you need to know is that the C-note directly in the middle of the keyboard is known as the middle C. This is important for two major reasons. First, knowing where to find middle C will tell you which set of keys to use, depending on the octave noted in the sheet music. Second, middle C will act as a divider between the right and left sides of the keyboard. Any keys to the right of middle C should be played with the right hand, and anything to the left is, of course, played with the left hand.

Once you have a firm grasp on key location, you should begin working on fingering. It will take practice to train your fingers to work as they should when you are playing the piano. You will need to make all of your fingers work in unison. This will be much easier, once you have learned how to play piano notes, because you will be able to identify the notes more easily.

First, find middle C. This will give you a basis to find the other notes that you will need. In most piano lessons, you will notice that keys will be numbered 1-5. This corresponds to finger positions, with 1 being the thumb, 2 being the forefinger, 3 the middle, and so on. The thumb of your right hand should be on middle C, with the rest of the fingers falling on the following keys, D, E, F, and G. Similarly, the pinky of the left hand should be placed on the C-note of the next lower octave, with the rest of the fingers falling on the following keys of that octave.

Once you have found the correct finger position, you should begin by running through the keys, one at a time, to train your fingers to work both independently, and together. If you begin slowly, then speed up gradually, your fingers will soon be able to play the correct notes without confusion.

Copyright 2009 Lauren Paltrow (Stage Pianist)