Spend money on books, a teacher and practice until fingers bleed doesn’t seem like much fun. Notes, theory, and Latin based terms have a tendency to discourage many an aspiring student. If one wants to divulge their senses in classical music, this is what it takes. So people ask, how to play piano songs without all that work and time.
Recently there has been some notoriety about a quicker way to learn to just play. The professionals call it lead sheets. But first an individual must at least learn the names of the notes.
The musical alphabet only ranges from A to G. The keyboard is based on octaves because there are only seven notes in a major scale. The eighth note is the same as the first note in the scale only higher or lower in tone.
Take a look at the keyboard. Obviously there are white keys and black keys. Notice that the keys take on a pattern. There are two black keys, each has one white between, separated by two white keys, then three more black keys, with a white between each, and two white. Let’s call the two black keys our two black sisters, and the three black keys the black brothers.
All piano players like the key of C, because it only uses the white keys. The note C is just to the left of the two black sisters. To find middle C you can either count them or look just to the left of the decal that has the name of the instrument.
To form a C chord, place the little finger on the left hand on any C. Then let the rest of the fingers including the thumb, rest one digit each on the four keys to the right. Now all five fingers, beginning with the thumb are resting on the notes G, F, E, D, and C. If the thumb is number one, the middle finger is three and the little finger is number five, press down the keys under fingers one, three and five. These three notes make up a C Major chord.
If the whole hand is moved to the right one key where the little finger is on D, the middle finger is on F and the thumb is on A, a D minor chord is formed. By moving the whole hand to the right another time, an E minor chord is played.
By numbering the notes of a major scale from one to seven, there exists a possibility of seven different chords in a major key. Only the first, fourth and fifth notes will make major chords. The seventh is a diminished and the rest are minor.
A major chord is usually just written by its name. C would designate a C Major chord. Minor chords are abbreviated by the lower case m and diminished chords use the abbreviation of dim. Once an individual masters the chords, all that is left is to pick out the melody with the right hand and find chords that create what a person hears. Practice and its done. How to play piano songs still requires practice but years of lessons are not necessary.
For the best advice on all aspects of learning to play the piano visit How To Play Piano Songs for all you need to know. Alternatively, read How To Play Piano Songs Without Years Of Lessons for more information.