Looking at the Piano
Before you begin to play the piano, you need to become familiar with what the instrument is. Some pianos are upright pianos, which are usually large, heavy, tall vertical boxes. These are anywhere from 36 to 51 inches tall. Spinets are the shortest upright pianos, at 36 to 39 inches. A studio vertical is 44 inches or taller.
If you get the chance to play a grand piano, the sound and overall quality is much better. We consider these horizontal pianos that are around 5′ to 9′ in length. Keep in mind the strings are horizontal as well. What about vertical pianos? Well there strings are vertical.
When it’s time to play you will see a music rack right in front of you. It might be a fold down option or some actually slide into a slot, but you will find one or the other. Just sit down on the bench that the piano comes with and set your music in the rack. Just remember to sit at a comfortable distance so you can reach both ends of the piano during your play.
There will be pedals at the bottom of the piano where your feet are. These need not be used by beginners. Once you become more proficient at playing the piano, you can learn how to use these pedals to sustain sounds or cut them short.
The most important part though is the keyboard. You see a variety of white and black keys which run from left to right. Just remember they don’t necessarily alternate white and black throughout the entire keyboard.
If you look closely, you will see that the black and white keys form a pattern that repeats from one end of the keyboard to the other. The pattern consists of 7 white keys and 5 black keys in a particular order. From the beginning of one such set of keys and ending on the beginning of the next set, an interval is formed. Intervals are just the musical distances between two sounds. This particular interval is called an octave.
The keys are lined up on the keyboard in order from the lowest on the left to the highest on the right. Starting at the left and moving to the right, each black or white key is a half step higher in pitch than the key before it. For a full step, it is necessary to go up (or down) two half steps. Try some half steps and some full steps. With a little practice, you should be able to learn the sound of those intervals easily.
It’s recommended that you try other intervals just to hear different sounds. Take a look at the amount of half or full steps you might be taking. Basically just pick out a key and play the next key up in the same position. Eventually you will be able to play those octaves with no problems at all. Remember, this is one of the keys to piano playing.
Learning about the piano is the first step in understanding how to make music. Granted this is only the beginning, but the simple songs will come quickly. It will come down to a little time and effort if you want to get your songs right. However, the first time you start playing all the songs you enjoy, there isn’t a greater feeling in music.