When learning the piano, formal instruction may not be necessary. If a person wants to play classical music, they must learn the traditional way. Get a teacher take multiple lessons per week and practice. But playing piano does not have to be this laborious.
To play from sheet music, books and classical music professional instruction is required. Instruction books will need to be bought and an hour a day of practice will take a person far. The amount of time and dedication depicts how much time it will take to become proficient.
Theory instruction is mandatory to play classical music or other music by notation. Reading notes, dynamics, timing, and musical terminology is required. This is the only way people can play a musical piece exactly the way it is written. This will also allow the player to perform with other classically trained musicians.
Classical training is not really necessary if a person just wants to play music they love. The musical scale is made up of only twelve notes. This scale is referred to as being chromatic. This scale uses all the white and black keys. The intervals in this scale are all half steps. If a key is skipped it is a whole step.
The major scale consists of seven notes plus one more called the octave making eight total notes. An example of this is the C scale. C on the piano is the white key just to the left of the two black keys. Middle C is located just to the left of the decal that displays the name of the piano.
The musical alphabet scale starts on A and ends on G. Then the scale starts over. So a C major scale is C, D, E, F, G, A, B and the octave C. The last note is called the octave because it is eight notes above or below the root or the tonic of the scale.
The C major scale uses no black keys. When you look at the keyboard, notice that in two places there is no black key between the white keys. Starting on C and counting the keys up the scale, a person will notice that there is no black key between notes three and four as well as between notes seven and eight. These intervals are half steps. So a major scale can be found in any key by counting the notes, playing in whole steps except between the third and fourth and the seventh and eighth tones.
Learning the piano can be done without formal training if classical music using notation is not the goal. Many people can play a song when they hear it and other people cannot. If people can play what they hear and learn a little number theory, they really don’t need formal instruction.
For more information on all aspects of piano playing visit Learning The Piano or check out – Learning The Piano