How to play the Piano – here are the things you need to know (Lesson 1)

Read this article in order to understand the logic behind how to play the Piano. Being able to play the Piano is not as difficult as you might think.

There are 6 Major Building Blocks that the creative activity of playing the Piano revolves around. These Building Blocks are:

1. Musical Notes – Musical Notes are used to describe or denote musical sounds. Each Musical Note has a particular pitch. Pitch is an attribute of sound that indicates how high or low a particular sound is. The black and white keys on a Piano or Keyboard can also be called musical notes. So, each key on a Piano or Keyboard can be called a note.

2. Rhythm – In Music, Rhythm can be described as the pattern of the movement of a piece of music or a song. Rhythm also indicates how fast or slow a piece of music or a song is.

3. Tonality or/and Atonality – Tonality is the arrangement of musical notes in which one musical note becomes the central/main note for the other musical notes. A Major/Minor Scale or any other type of Scale is a set or group of ordered musical Notes. Major and Minor Scales were created through the concept of Tonality. Atonality is music that lacks a central/main musical note.

4. Melody – A Melody is a sequence of musical notes that the listener perceives as one entity. A Melody also consists of Rhythm.

5. Chords and Harmony – A Chord consists of 3 or more musical notes that are played simultaneously (i.e. at the same time). In certain musical contexts, a Chord might only consists of 2 musical notes that are played simultaneously (i.e. at the same time). For example, a Power Chord only consists of 2 musical notes that are played simultaneously (i.e. at the same time).

The musical notes that make up a Chord can also be played one after the other to form a type of Chord that is known as a broken Chord. A broken Chord is a sequence of notes that the Chord consists of. A broken Chord may repeat some of the notes of the Chord. An arpeggio is a type of broken Chord in which the notes that make up a Chord are played in an ascending or descending order.

Harmony is when you play 2 or more musical notes simultaneously (i.e. at the same time).

6. Chord Progressions – A Chord Progression is a sequence of Chords.

There are 12 musical notes on a Piano. These musical notes can be played with any type of Rhythm and in any order. The musical notes can be played in a way that will make what you are playing to lack a central/main musical note; playing like this will create what is known as Atonal Music.

Alternatively, the musical notes can be played in a way that will make what you’re playing to have a central/main musical note; playing like this will create what is known as Tonal Music. Any music or song that is based on or created from a Major or Minor Scale is known as Tonal Music.

Tonal Music sounds pleasant to the ears and it also sounds like the kind of music that makes sense. Most of the songs and music that you hear in this world is Tonal Music.

What does it mean for a piece of music or song to be based on or created from a Major or Minor Scale? It means that most or all the musical notes that were used to create that piece of music or song comes from a particular Major or Minor Scale. A few musical notes that are outside of the Major or Minor Scale that the music or song is based on could have also been used to create the song or music and if this is the case, these musical notes will be referred to as accidentals.

Musical notes can be used to create Major and Minor Scales. A Scale is a set or group of ordered musical notes.

Chords can be formed by using different musical intervals. A Musical Interval is the difference in pitch between 2 musical notes. Chords can also be formed from Major and Minor Scales by using different Musical Intervals. The Chords that are formed from Major and Minor Scales are known as Diatonic Chords.

Chord Progressions can be formed from Chords. A Chord Progression is a Sequence of Chords.

Musical notes can be used to create Melodies. Musical notes can also be used to create Songs.

You can use Chord Progressions to play Songs and Melodies.

Melodies and Songs can also be created from Chord Progressions.

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