Beginning piano can be daunting for novice students. Thankfully, YouTube provides many structured piano lessons specifically aimed at novice learners.
These channels focus on teaching beginners the fundamentals of playing piano while making it enjoyable, teaching basic music theory concepts as well as popular songs. Perfect for beginner piano students and great complement to traditional lessons!
Basics
As soon as you start learning the piano, it is vital that you build up a solid knowledge of music and its instrument. This will allow you to move forward and eventually play your favorite songs. There are various YouTube tutorials that offer beginner piano lessons such as learning the keyboard, chords and scales with some covering basic music theory as well. However, please keep in mind that these YouTube tutorials won’t offer immediate feedback and guidance that a private teacher would offer.
Hoffman Academy YouTube channel is an excellent way for beginner pianists to learn their craft. Their video lessons focus on teaching you popular songs step-by-step, using an instructor that uses step-by-step explanations of new concepts – making learning the piano fun and straightforward!
Tim Gross created another popular YouTube channel known as Piano Genius to cut through all the unnecessary and confusing typical piano teacher curriculum and get you playing songs immediately.
Jacques Hopkins YouTube channel offers another great resource for those wanting to rapidly learn the fundamentals of piano quickly. Their videos focus on teaching users popular song arrangements and can easily be watched on any device.
Beginning pianists must practice often and diligently if they are to advance in their abilities, while remaining motivated to continue doing so. Furthermore, it is vitally important that one has an in-depth knowledge of all the notes on a keyboard: for instance knowing which number corresponds with which thumb: one for thumb number one and five for pinkies number 5. Furthermore, remembering that black keys come in three groups, with one being at the middle and two at either end being considered “top keys” may also prove beneficial when starting out playing piano.
Chords
Understanding piano chords is the foundation of music, and learning them quickly will enable you to memorize songs faster. Chords consist of more than one note and can either be major or minor in terms of sound – the distinction is important as this will affect its sound; major chords consist of three notes (root note, third and fifth) played simultaneously for a solid chord while broken chords feature only one or more additional notes at any one time – it all depends on what works for your preference!
Your keyboard can help you quickly locate chords on its own or you can purchase books with chord symbols for each line of lyrics. Most songs can be broken down into four or five piano chords that can be practiced until they flow together smoothly, speeding up learning time significantly. Furthermore, practicing while singing along may provide even more practice and improve accuracy while playing.
If you’re reading sheet music, look for chord symbols with color-coded chord symbols to determine whether the chord is major, minor, augmented, or diminished. Common chord types include major and minor; these serve as the building blocks of most songs. To make a minor chord simply shift down half a step the third note – the difference will be immediately noticeable when listening closely – giving an air of sadness or melancholyness.
Another type of chord used to add tension in rock and pop songs is an augmented chord, most commonly found in rock music but also found occasionally in pop tunes. To play one, start with a major chord before shifting its third down by half step for minor. Finally, you could also add diminished chords for an unnerving sound that is less frequently heard but nonetheless present in some songs.
Scales
Scales are alphabetically ordered groups of notes whose intervals, or distances between them, follow a specific pattern. There are various kinds of scales; some (like C major ) have six tones connected by half-steps and whole steps between each note; other scales contain more than six tones with various intervals between them – like Lydian scale’s unique sound often used by film composers to convey feelings of magic or mystery.
Scales can help beginners navigate the keyboard, learn music reading skills and understand how chords and melodies work together; thus enabling improvisation. Therefore, learning scales should be one of the first lessons a beginner pianist learns.
Some beginning pianists view practicing scales as time wasted and prefer learning songs instead. But learning scales is essential to becoming an accomplished musician: scales help you understand harmonic structures of songs and give a thrilling sense of control over the keyboard.
Scales can also help with improvising, and will enable you to collaborate more easily with other musicians. When practicing scales it is essential that they are done gradually rather than trying too fast too soon; trying too fast too soon could cause tension, making accurate playing more challenging.
Practice scales regularly, and you will notice results over time. Evenness is more important than speed – faster playing means it will be harder for your mistakes to be heard by an audience – so using a metronome for rhythm practice may prove valuable in creating an even rhythm.
Improvisation
Improvising with piano can be one of the most engaging musical experiences you’ll have. Improvising is an enjoyable way to spontaneously compose music based on any chord progression, rhythmic idea, scale or arpeggio pattern – or whatever comes to mind. Furthermore, mastery of improvising can also help you more quickly learn songs!
As you begin improvising, begin by finding one key that feels comfortable to you – this will lay down a foundation for everything else you do. After this step has been completed, try playing some basic chords and improvising over them – it will become much simpler to play these songs once your improvisation skills have become second nature!
When improvising, try thinking of each phrase like you would an actual conversation: each must include an introduction, body and conclusion – these can build off each other for greater realism and help create structure to your improvisations. This approach will make them sound more natural!
Integrating extra notes into your chords is another excellent way to add variety to your improvisation. If you’re playing G, try adding B or D notes as well for an unexpected yet jazzy flair. Or you could switch octaves – though more challenging at first but rewarding once mastered!
Interested in elevating your improvisation skills to the next level? A great way to do so is by mastering jazz melodic minor scales – not only can these provide some added variety in your improv, but they’re also great for creating melodies that fit with swing rhythms!
Music Theory
Music theory is an indispensable skill for piano players. It helps them to understand the notes they play and how to combine them to form melodies, as well as read sheet music easier when learning songs. Without an understanding of music theory, progress beyond beginner stages will likely prove challenging.
Music theory begins with learning how to read the notes on a piano keyboard. Each key contains both white and black notes, organized in groups of two or three up and down the keyboard. For instance, look at the middle row of keys on your piano; C, D and F are three consecutive black notes with an apparent pattern; to read them properly find their corresponding white counterpart that immediately precedes it as this will indicate your key.
Mastering piano music theory also involves understanding how to utilize sharps and flats. This can be accomplished by placing either a flat (b) or sharp symbol (#) before any note that requires adjustment – using either will change its pitch – with flat making the note lower while sharp will raise it higher.
Do I Need To Learn Music Theory? That depends on your goals and style of piano playing. If your aim is simply to perform preexisting pieces of music, music theory might not be necessary; however if improvising or writing original tunes are your goals then music theory becomes invaluable.
Harmony is also crucial to piano music and understanding diatonic triads and sevenths will allow you to hone in on narrative content of pieces of music more quickly and efficiently.