How to play the piano

The steps in this instruction are to help you to learn the basics of playing the piano.
The Piano is one of the most used instruments in music because of its variety and the fact that it can be used in so many different musical contexts.

Step 1: Buying a piano

If you don't already own a piano (or have access to one), you will need to buy one.
Because a high quality piano can often cost thousands of dollars, you could instead buy an Electronic Keyboard.
Whatever type of piano you choose to learn on, make sure that it is in good working condition.

Comments

[jffdvs]

my sight reading improved when I found these http://pianostudies.angelfire.com/

[pedrotome]

Step 1- Do NOT buy an electrical piano. Either you want to play synth or piano. If you need cash, wait a little more and buy a Yamaha upright.
After almost 10 years with an electrical Roland piano, I finally have a Yamaha C2 (a grand piano. oh, how beautiful it is. ) and it's just NOT the same thing. (well, that's obvious). No matter what people say, an electric piano doesn't compare to a real upright and a real upright doesn't compare to a grand.
If you buy an electric piano, you will not improve as much as you would with a real piano.

Step 4 - "Every octaves goes from c to c." That's not true. E2 - E3 is an octave.

Step 5- I've been playing for 10 years and I still don't know how useful these 'pseudo chord progressions' are. How on earth are you going to play that if you have absolutely NO IDEA of what the rhythm is? It's just like guitar tabs!
Just play the real deal: sheet music.

[martypapa]

To improve sight reading and note recognition, I've created a free online game. You can test it out at:
http://martypapa.blogspot.com/2009/06/fast-keys.html
Hope this helps!

[Flumpkins]

Very good! If you don't mind, can you check out my instructable on piano?

[hammer9876]

I took a class in college to learn to play the piano. The first day of class the lady taught us how to find and play middle C, so I think this is perfect as a first lesson. I wish I had the Internet when I was a kid. :-(

[lasersage]

"Most pianos have three pedals"? you must hang out with some fancy pianists. I always thought only grands (baby grands and upright grands too) had three pedals. Right for sustain, left for mute and the third middle pedal (only present on some pianos) for practice, permanent semi mute. I'm sure you know all this because you're instructable is pretty nice and complete but I thought I'd mention it all just in case anyone reading it wanted to know. Nice 'ible

[The Jamalam]

my upright electric clavinova has 3

[carrige]

My upright piano has three pedals, and so do all the other ones I've played on (they're not grands... if only...). Right was sustain, middle was permanent damper/mute and left was 1-string shift.

[macmaniac]

On the more expensive grands you find the middle pedal is a sostenuto pedal which only sustains the note(s) pressed at the same time as the pedal is initially pressed. Because of it's relative obscurity, very little music is composed with this pedal, and most uprights use the middle pedal for practice mute.

My own addition after playing for 8 years would be that "It's all in the wrists". Seriously, wrist posture and movement separates the newer (or worse) players from the more experienced, better players. As old-fashioned as it may seem, putting a penny on the back of the hands when playing scales is a useful exercise.

[lemonie]

There's an awful lot more of "How to play the piano" you could have put in here. L