In a nutshell… 

Here’s the rundown of our 10-step guide to learning piano! 

1. Choose the right piano! 
2. Sit at the piano comfortably
3. Familiarise yourself with the piano keys  
4. Start with easy sheet music 
5. Learn note lengths and timings 
6. Practise scales
7. Learn some chords 
8. Explore different genres 
9. Practise some easy songs to get started  
10. Keep practising! 

By the end of this, you’ll have a good basis for going forward and playing piano.  

How to play piano

1. Choose the right piano!  

The first step is to choose the right piano for you. Pianos can come in various shapes and sizes and with different features, so it’s useful to think about what you intend to play and where your piano will be.

There are three main types of piano, stage, digital uprights, and digital grand pianos.

Stage pianos are the most portable and they will still most likely have some degree of weighting on their keys. Our SDP-2 is a good example of a stage piano.

Digital uprights are a great option for most people who want a piano as a permanent feature in their home. Our DP-6 is an affordable upright piano for beginners.

Digital grands are the most expensive digital pianos you can buy and have the most realistic sounds and key weighting. 

You’ll most likely be better off with the full 88 keys for your piano; fewer keys can restrict the music you can play. Having said that, smaller pianos might be useful if you don’t have much space or would rather have something portable. Usually, only stage pianos will have fewer than 88 keys.  

The other important thing to consider is keyboard action. This is how the keys feel under your fingers – how much resistance they have when you press them down, how they feel when they spring back up when you release them, and how the material of the keys feels. All of this is important for an authentic-feeling piano. An acoustic piano feels a certain way due to the complex and intricate series of mechanisms inside. Most digital pianos strive to emulate this as much as possible.

Find out about keyboard action in our semi-weighted vs. weighted keys guide.

2. Sit at the piano comfortably

Good posture is key for the best playing technique on any instrument. The piano is no exception. Bad posture can impede how well you can play and could lead to potentially painful and debilitating injuries later in life.

Remember to relax; you don’t want any tension in your muscles when playing as this makes it more difficult to play. Once you become confident, your muscle memory will take over. 

Here are some specific tips for sitting at the piano. Remember, if you find it’s hurting or not working well for you, it’s always better to check with a teacher or other pianist about whether you’re doing the right thing! 

• Sit on your piano stool with your feet flat on the floor. Your wrists should be above the keys and your fingers should be slightly bent into an arc.  
• Bend your arms slightly. There should be an almost straight line from your elbows to where your fingers arc.  
• If your arm has to bend upwards to get at the keyboard, you need to raise your stool. If your arm is bending downwards to access the keys, your stool needs lowering.  
• Remember to sit up straight but keep relaxed. Check your shoulders as they can often tense up without you realising.  
• When pressing the keys, use the whole weight of your arm, rather than just your fingers. This will reduce the risk of you getting tired and help you achieve much more power and sound from your piano.  

3. Familiarise yourself with the piano keys

The key layout can appear complicated but it’s actually quite simple. There are white keys and black keys: white notes are any note without a sharp (♯) or a flat (♭) and the black keys are sharps/flats. 

The first thing you should do is find C on the piano. This is located before the group of two black keys, as shown in the diagram below. Middle C is the most important note you’ll need to find and it sits – you guessed it – in the middle. The logo of your piano’s manufacturer will usually be around this part, so have a look for that to find middle C.  

All the notes between the two Cs make up an octave, which is eight notes. Playing all the white notes from C to C would be a C major scale! We’ll talk more about scales later in this guide. 

The black notes are the sharp of the white note to the left of it or the flat of the white note to the right of it. So, the first black note after C is a C♯ or D♭.  

You can see that between most white notes there’s a black key. We say that between two notes, like C and D, is a full step, or tone. And a C♯, the black key, is a half-step (a semitone) from C or D. Notes B to C and E to F are also known as semitones as there is no black key between them. 

So, why are there no sharps or flats between E and F or B and C? There are two reasons. First, the black notes are grouped in twos and threes as described earlier, which makes it easier to find your way around the piano. Secondly, in a C major scale, there’s only a half-step (semitone) between E and F and B and C. 

4. Start with easy sheet music 

Reading sheet music is a very important skill to have for many types of music.

Music is written on what’s known as a stave, or staff. This has five lines, with notes placed either on the lines or in the gaps.

There are two clefs that you must read on piano: treble and bass. The treble clef is for notes in the instrument’s upper range, and the bass clef is used for the lower notes. These two staves together are known as a grand staff. 

Some notes may be higher or lower than the notes on a stave, so we draw extra lines to place notes on or in gaps. These are called ledger lines. Middle C on the treble clef is on the first ledger line below the stave, middle C on the bass clef is on the first ledger line about the stave.  

Now you know where middle C is, you can work out the other notes. The higher up the stave, the higher the note on the piano. You might find it useful to use some acronyms to help you learn piano and remember the notes on the stave. For example, in treble clef, the four spaces in the stave make up the word “FACE”, so it’s helpful to remember “FACE in space”.  

Sometimes, a mnemonic works too. Every Good Boy Does Fine is a good one for remembering which notes are on the five lines in treble clef: EGBDF

On bass clef, the spaces can be remembered with All Cows Eat Grass. The lines can be remembered with Good Burritos Don’t Fall Apart. These are handy things to use when learning how to play piano, and eventually, you won’t need them. 

When you’re learning to read, you’ll start recognising patterns, such as the shape of a scale or how certain chords look. You won’t necessarily be reading every individual note, much like how you don’t read every single letter when reading words. 

5. Learn note lengths and timings

So, we’ve learned how each note sits on a stave, but we still need to learn how to read rhythm.  

We split music into bars to keep things organised, and each bar contains a certain number of beats. Rhythms are usually grouped within these bars and will repeat. This is how music makes us feel like dancing.  

Many piano pieces for beginners, as well as most popular music, are in 4/4 or common time. This basically means there are four beats in a bar. A beat is known as a crotchet or quarter note. These are solid colour notes.  

A note held for two beats is a minim or half note. These aren’t solid-filled. A crotchet can be split in half by putting a little tail off the side of the note’s stem. This is known as a quaver or eighth note.  

From here, it’s fairly simple to figure out note values, a quaver can be further divided by two by adding another little tail, this makes it a semiquaver or 16th note. Each extra tail further divides the note by two, a 32nd note is a demisemiquaver and a 64th note is a hemidemisemiquaver.  

These really short notes aren’t super common as the music has to be very very slow for such notes to be practical to play.  

You will also encounter semibreves, these last four beats. So, for many pieces of music, that’s a whole bar.  

Another thing to look out for with rhythm is dots. Dots are simple once you know what they do, but can be tricky to learn how to play at first.  

A dot adds half the note’s value onto the note that is dotted. So a crotchet with a dot is equivalent to a crotchet and a quaver. A dotted quaver would be a quaver and a semiquaver.  

6. Practise scales

Scales are important for many reasons. They’re how you compose melodies and know which notes work well together. 

They also help you build your knowledge of music theory and unlock the potential of the piano. Plus, you’ll improve your general playing techniques and become much more comfortable with finding your way around the keyboard.  

So where’s best to start with scales? The first scale we’d recommend is C major, which is quite easy to play. Let’s start with just the right hand. The first thing you should do is get used to the process of playing different keys. So place your thumb on middle C. Then each other finger in your hand should naturally rest over a note up to G.  

Now practice playing from C to G and then back down to C again. Keep doing this until you’re comfortable with using each finger individually to press notes down. Try and ensure each note you play is the same volume.  

Before we move onto the full scale we should first talk about fingers. We usually refer to fingers with numbers to tell people what fingers go where. This is common across all instruments, and piano is no exception.  

With piano, the thumb (on both hands) is your first finger, written as “1” on sheet music. The rest of your fingers are numbered up to five (5) which is your pinky finger. This makes telling what fingers to put where with scales much easier.  

Let’s move onto the full scale! Your right hand is going to have to move to get all the notes in this scale, and this is probably the trickiest part. Instead of playing up to G, like we did earlier, when you play E you need to place your thumb (first finger) on the F key. Then you’ll see that your fingers will line up nicely with the notes with your fifth finger (pinky) on C.   

Coming back down the scale is the same. Once your thumb (first finger) has played the F, then you want to move your middle finger (third finger) to the E below it. Then you can keep going down the scale to finish on C.  

7. Learn some chords

Chords are the basic building blocks of music, most songs are built from a series of chords, known as a chord progression.  

They’re comprised of three or more notes. A three-note chord is called a triad and comprises a root, third, and fifth.  

The root is the key centre of the chord; it’s also known as the tonic. Often, it’s the bottom note in the chord, but not always. The tonic is the most important note of the chord and is most often played in the bass too.  

The fifth, known as the dominant, is the second most important note in the chord. It’s made of the fifth note above the root note. Think of the root and fifth providing the framework for the rest of the chord.  

The third, known as the mediant, is the third note above the root. It gives a chord the unique sound which determines if it’s a major or minor chord.  

Let’s try a C major chord! The root note will be C, as it’s a C chord. Its fifth is a G, as you count five notes from C (C, D, E, F, and G). The third will be E (C, D, and E). This is easy to play with one hand.  

Use your first finger (thumb) to play the C, the third finger to play the E, and your fifth finger to play the G. That’s a C major chord! 

Major chords are often described as “happy” and minor chords are described as “sad”. So, let’s try a C minor chord.  

We now know C major so C minor is easy. The C and the G are the same – the root and fifth never change in major or minor chords. Only the third changes, you lower, or flatten, the note by a semitone.  

So instead of an E with your third finger, play the black key to the left of the E to play an E♭. Now you have a C minor chord. This relationship is the same across all chords; the minor always has a third that is flattened by a semitone.  

Some songs are written with chord charts. These just supply the chords you should play but not much else – you can decide what rhythm/voicing to play! 

C major chords on chord charts would be written as “C” and C minor is “Cm”. You may see other things such as “C7” or “Cmaj7”. These often are asking for extra notes on top of the original triad, so they would be a four-note chord rather than three.  

8. Explore different genres

The range of music you can play on piano is extremely broad. Piano is seen in almost every genre of music and even types of music without piano might include some sort of keyboard instrument, like a synth or MIDI keyboard.

The benefit of piano is that you can play pretty much anything on it thanks to its ability to play both chords and melodies.  

Here’s a taste of what’s out there.  

Classical music is great – you get to play some wonderful pieces by composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, and Brahms. Learning classical pieces is primarily done through reading sheet music, although once you’ve learnt the piece, the music should only serve as a reminder of what you are playing.  

Jazz is another hugely popular music tradition that you may be taught. It can involve much more improvisation than just reading sheet music, so learning your chords and scales is hugely important for jazz as knowing which chords to play and which scales work with them is what makes a great jazz pianist.  

Popular music is another broad music tradition that you’ll recognise immediately as it’s much of what you hear on the radio. From rock ‘n’ roll to R’n’B and hip-hop, pop music has a huge variety that you could play on piano. Like jazz, you might find yourself improvising and reading chord sheets rather than scores, or you may learn by ear.

Learning well-known tunes can also allow you to play in function bands and earn some decent money playing at events like weddings or parties.  

9. Practise some easy songs to get started

Practising some easy piano songs is where you’ll want to start when getting to grips with the instrument. Not only will you have a piece of music under your belt that you can perform to friends and family, but learning an actual tune helps you focus on making music rather than just theory.   

A common pitfall for beginner pianists is getting preoccupied with perfect technique and rhythm, which can lead them to forget to play musically. Learning songs helps with this.  

Here are three songs you should learn to play while you’re starting out. And they’re not just for beginners, they’re also pieces of music performed by professionals in concerts.  

“Chopsticks” is a classic beginner’s piece that is popular because you can play it with just two fingers, making it perfect if you’re just starting out.  

Satie’s “Gymnopédies” is a simple but beautiful piece of music that’s really easy to learn and play. What’s great about this piece is that you can take it very slowly, concentrating on mastering the notes and adding expression.  

Bach’s “Well Tempered Clavier” might seem complex and intimidating but it’s fantastic for beginners. Bach’s music sounds extremely satisfying even if you’re playing it very slowly – a sign of a really well-written piece! It’s also very technical and a great way to learn keys and scales.  

The sheet music for these pieces and more can be found at imslp.org, and most of them are free. Moreover, free chord sheets (and tabs if you play guitar or know any players) can be found at ultimateguitar.com.  

10. Keep practising! 

You won’t be a virtuoso overnight (wouldn’t that be nice!) but you’ll see progress if you keep practising as much as possible.

Even if it’s ten minutes of practice every day, you’ll soon see improvements in your technique.  

Practice is one of the hardest things about playing any instrument.

Some days might be frustrating and you feel you haven’t made any progress, but that’s fine! Every musician, no matter how great they are, will have these moments. It’s perseverance that brings the best results.  

Sometimes structuring your practice can help too. For example, you could start with scales as these are a great way to warm up.

Like with sport, it’s useful to get your fingers warmed up and get yourself in the right frame of mind for some good practice.  

FAQs

Can I teach myself to play piano?

You can successfully teach yourself to play piano – and there are plenty of online resources to help you learn, for example, YouTube tutorials or step-by-step guides such as this! If you’re dedicated, disciplined, and enthusiastic about furthering your skills, you can become an natural piano player.

What is the 80/20 rule for piano practice?

The 80/20 rule for piano practice is that you spend 80% of your practice session focusing on 20% of the score you’re learning. This might seem like a lot of effort for such a small section of music, but repetitive practice on the hard parts that require more skill and focus will mean that you’ll eventually be able to play them smoothly and almost effortlessly. This benefits the rest of the piece of music.

Is it ever too late to learn piano? 

It’s never too late to learn piano, or any instrument for that matter. Learning a musical instrument has a whole raft of benefits to your motor skills and brain functioning that will help anyone, no matter the age.  

Final thoughts 

If you’ve been wondering how to play piano, we hope our step-by-step guide has helped! Once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll be able to impress people with your skills. You can start playing in bands, gigging, or even try writing your own music to express your creativity further! 

If you’re looking for your first piano or an upgrade, have a look at our website – there’s bound to be one that catches your eye. And check out our blog for more useful guides to piano and any other instruments you’re interested in!