When I was a child I started learning to play piano from my Aunt, who was a professional piano teacher. I enjoyed it to start with, but over time it got harder and harder and required more effort from me.
There was lots to learn
– notes on keyboard
– how to read music
– music theory
– piano scales
– piano chords
– time signatures, rhythms
– key signatures
– how to sight read music while you play (I was never any good at this!)
These are the sort of topics you have to work through when learning piano from a professional teacher. It requires dedication and effort but the rewards are enormous. Many of my Aunts pupils became very skilled and could play fantastic classical pieces that I loved listening to. I was in awe of their playing and wished I had the ability to play like that. Sadly I didn’t keep working at it consistently and eventually I gave up.
The Traditional Approach Can Be Tough
For many, the amount of effort for his traditional approach can be too much of a commitment. It’s fine if you have ambitions for playing technically difficult classical pieces, but for many just being able to play popular songs and melodies on the piano is what they are looking for.
So what is the best way to learn piano?
Here’s a Different Way To Start
The best way to learn piano depends on your ambitions with playing, but if you want to start learning and see reasonably quick results, the best way is to start learning chords. Once you have a few chords mastered, you’ll be surprised how many songs you will be able to play. Also, when playing a chord, you can alter the way you play it to produce different musical expressions.
Chords form the basis of many piano learning courses, books and DVDs. The great benefit of taking this approach to learning is that it helps you start playing quickly and then, if you get on well with it, you might decide you want to take professional lessons. Starting with chords is also a more affordable way to get started.
It is important that you have a good structured approach to learning piano, so that you learn things in the correct order. Each step you learn building on the previous steps you’ve learned so that your skills are developed in the most efficient way.
To give you a head start, here is a link to a really nice free PDF Document
You can download this and print it off for your reference. There are a lot of chords listed so you might feel a little overwhelmed by it all. It is best to use it in conjunction with a proper learn piano training course such as Robin Hall’s “Piano For All”. You can also use it with sheet music to find chord patterns related to the song you want to learn. For anyone who wants to see fast results, learning chords is the best way to learn piano.
Which ever way you learn piano, you are going to have to be prepared to put in some work, but the pleasure you will have when you start creating great sounding music is well worth it.
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