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Category Archives: Piano

Piano – here are the exercises to learn to play the black keys (part 2)

Learning to play the black keys

What are the risks of learning to play the piano from videos and without a master?

The only risk is the one of not doing the exercises learned correctly as there is no-one to check and correct you.

However if you know in advance which are the most common mistakes made in starting to study these exercises, you can avoid this by making sure you don’t make the same mistakes yourself!

The first thing that I will show you today is exactly which are the most common mistakes to avoid in begining to study the exercises which we learned the last time and how to correct them.

But this is only one of the several things you will learn today, including:

How to do the exercises studied in the last lesson as best as you can thanks to the use of different angles
How to do a new exercise with the black keys
How to organize as well as possible the study of all exercises when you have little time available.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	24 mins
1. The most common mistakes: exercise on white keys	7m 33s
2. The most common mistakes: exercise on black keys	4m 51s
3. A very important variant of the black key exercise	6m 16s
4. How to do all exercises on pianoforte having little time available	5m 51s

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Here is how to read pitch and duration of notes at the same time

How to read pitch and duration of notes at the same time

In the last lesson we saw staf and clef which represent graphically the pitch of a sound and are very important.
If we put together both pitch and duration of notes, we are able to read written music perfectly.

Today we will see how to read pitch and duration of notes at the same time, firstly through theory and then with some practical examples.

After this lesson today, you will be able to make the big step which will bring you into the world of music reading.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	24 mins
1. How to read pitch and duration of notes together	1m 48s
2. How to find the beats on staff	4m 22s
3. Time signature: how to use it	2m 52s
4. Practical exercises for identifying beats 1	7m 06s
5. Practical exercises for identifying beats 2	8m 09s
+ 1 pdf files

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Piano – here are the exercises to learn to play the black keys (part 1)

How to play the black keys

Up to now, in our piano lessons we have used only white keys which correspond to natural notes (corresponding to C major scale).

Obviously we often have to play a written sheet music with some sharps or flats key signature. Even if these accidentals are not written in key, they may sometimes appear during the piece.

This happens very frequently.

It is necessary to begin to play the black keys immediately in order to make sure that in the future we don’t find ourselves not being able to play something in which the use of these is required.

As you will surely have noticed, the black keys are very different from the white ones. It is therefore necessary to understand how to use them and most importantly of all to have an exercise which applies the technique of using black keys

This is what we will learn in this lesson although it will not be the only topic.

I will in fact teach you another important exercise to be applied to the white keys and which will enable you to start playing more notes with the same hand and at the same time.
Moreover this excercise will allow you to avoid the main mistake which people make when starting to play the piano.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	17 mins
1. Two new exercises	3m 47s
2. The white key exercise to practice playing more notes with the same hand at the same time	4m 49s
3. The exercise to learn the correct technique of playing black keys	5m 00s
4. Some considerations on new exercises	3m 32s

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Do you want to know how to read notes in all clefs?

How to read notes in all clefs

Up to now, in our study of reading and writing music we have seen in-depth how to represent the duration of a sound.
Today we will finally get to understand how it is possible to represent the pitch of a sound. We will therefore learn to understand how the pitch of a sound can be represented by introducing two fundamental elements: the staff and clef

In this way it is possible to write the notes with their right pitch. However we will not stop here.

After this lesson, you will be able to read all notes

in treble and bass clefs
all other F clefs (baritone clef) and C clefs (soprano, mezzosoprano, alto and tenor)

So you will be able to recognize all notes on any music sheet!

Furthermore, we will learn to understand two essential concepts:

How to find an absolute reference sound (C4) on the music sheet
What are ledgerlines and how to use them

Finally, you will be able to find a pdf file containing all written notes in treble and bass clefs.

After this lesson you will be able to read music!

Learning material of this lesson

7 videos	45 mins
1. How to name the notes and distinguish their pitch	7m 55s
2. What is the staff?	8m 23s
3. What are the clefs?	5m 35s
4. How to read the notes in treble and bass clef	6m 21s
5. The other F clefs and the C clefs	5m 24s
6. How to read the notes written above and below the staff	6m 04s
7. We find a reference sound in order to play any instruments in all clefs	5m 51s
+ 1 pdf file

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Piano, which are the nine most common mistakes that are made when starting to play the piano and how to solve them

How to solve the most common mistakes

Do you remember the lesson of starting to play with hands together?

It is an essential lesson in learning to develop a correct piano technique and its importance can be compared to that of the foundations of a house. Without solid foundations it is impossible to build something stable and long-lasting.
The same applies to piano technique. It is not only important to do this exercise but also necessary for it to be done in the correct way.

For this reason, in the lesson today I want to show in-depth the most common mistakes which are made in starting this exercise or when the first pieces are played at the piano.

Most of all I will show you how to avoid this.

In the lesson today I will provide you with all you need to identify errors and understand if you make them, moreover help you to correct yourself and develop a correct technique.
I have tried to analyse in a schematic way the nine most common mistakes. I can assure you that this is crucial!!

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	39 mins
1. Introduction and the 1′ mistake	9m 59s
2. The 2′ and 3′ mistakes	7m 07s
3. The 4′, 5′ and 6′ mistakes	8m 57s
4. The 7′, 8′ and 9′ mistakes	13m 03s

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Reading notes and rests practice (part 2)

Mixing notes with rests

In the last lesson we did several exercises to learn how to read notes of different duration. As you may have noticed we have not yet seen a fundamental element of music which is the duration of rests.

Today we will introduce this important element and learn how to read it correctly. Moreover I will teach you a very effective system which you can learn now and which will help you gain a clear idea of the duration of rests in reading notes.

In today’s lesson and through the exercises you will learn to mix notes and rests and read them correctly.

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	40 mins
Intro	1m 53s
1. Why it is important to read rests correctly	9m 38s
2. Examples of reading rests	9m 41s
3. Exercises with figures of different duration 1	9m 47s
4. Exercises with figures of different duration 2	4m 40s
5. Exercises with figures of different duration 3	4m 16s
+ 1 pdf files

Intro

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Piano, let’s learn to play a piece (part 5)

How to play a piece using dynamics and slurs

As I mentioned in the presentation of this cycle of lessons, the study of this music piece will allow us to introduce a series of very important new topics for playing the piano. In this final lesson, we will try to make our performance as musical and pleasant as possible. Therefore we should learn to understand all the signs on the music sheet which we saw in the first lesson and be able to apply them to the piano. These new features will help you interpret the piece in an optimal way.

Even few notes played well, with the right attention (to the signs in the sheet music) can be very effective and make a big difference.
However we must not forget that these lessons have also been useful as a method of study for the future and which can be applied to all the pieces that you want to study, even the most difficult ones.

It is for this reason that in the last video I wanted to summarize in a schematic way this really effective study method which pdf you can find at the bottom of this page. After 5 lessons you are now really into the world of piano and the keyboard.

You will see that the journey in front of us will, lesson after lesson be more and more exciting!

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	45 mins
Intro	5m 15s
1. Introducing the slur	6m 43s
2. How to perform using dynamics	6m 54s
3. How to increase the performance speed and how to make our performance even more musical	11m 51s
4. Detailed explanation of the method of study to be applicable to any piano piece	14m 01s
+ 1 pdf file

Intro

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Reading notes practice (part 1)

How can we read notes with the right rhythm?

In the previous lessons we learnt the most important symbols to represent the duration of sound.

Now we have to put into practice what we have learnt.

So how do we read notes? When we find a series of notes of different duration, how do we read them with the right rhythm? Today, through a series of exercises, we will learn to read of one or more bars while keeping time.

You will also learn other fundamental notions including:

how to read and play written notes, starting immediately with a right and precise “tempo” (speed)
how to find the right “tempo” to practice and perform.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	32 mins
Intro	2m 48s
1. Basic practice 1 (crotchets, minimes, semibreves)	7m 15s
2. Basic practice 2 (quavers and semiquavers)	3m 32s
3. How to find the right “tempo” to practice and perform	8m 47s
4. Practice with other rhythmic figures	9m 27s

Intro

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Piano, let’s learn to play a piece (part 4)

How can we change fingering?

After this lesson you will be able to play a complete piano piece with all its notes! We will in fact study the piece first hands separate and then hands together.

However this is not the only thing we will do! You will learn lots of things in this lesson and I would like to list some of these:

interpret fingering
change fingering in order to be able to perform the piece in a confident and effective way
study the piece hands separate and then gradually hands together
a much more effective way to study the more difficult passages hands together
etc.

At this point you will be able to play the whole piece.
In order to transform this first performance in real music and make it more musical and pleasant to listen to, we will have to take the next crucial step.

It is what we will learn in the next and last lesson of this cycle.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	37 mins
Intro	1m 49s
1. How to find the correct fingering	13m 42s
2. Play the piece hands separate	7m 50s
3. How to study the most difficult passes when you play hands together	13m 13s

Intro

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Piano, let’s learn to play a piece (part 3)

How to read notes in bass clef

Today’s lesson is really very important! First of all we will learn to read notes in bass clef, something that is always rather tricky and difficult for those who are starting to play the piano.

I will show you a very simple way to identify the corresponding note to middle C and from this find all the other written notes in bass clef. At this point , once that you are able to read all notes in treble clef and bass clef, we will go onto identify the notes of the music piece which we have to play.

We will try to read them with the right rhythm. In this way, every detail written on the sheet music will be perfectly clear and so we will then be able to bring all this knowledge to the piano.

We start playing our piano piece

We are now ready to play our music piece. To do this, we still need to learn one thing: how do we identify middle C on a piano? I will therefore teach you different ways to identify middle C both on the classic piano and on a five octaves keyboards.

In this way, you will be able to start playing a music piece on any type of keyboard or piano. For any other music piece you want to play, there will not be any doubt on how to refer to your fundamental note (nota fondamentale di riferimento): the Middle C.
From now on we are able to start from middle C, identifying all the notes of the music piece on the keyboard. This is exactly what we will do in the last part of the lesson!

As you can see, apart from showing you how to play the music piece which we are studying, these video lessons progressively give you the necessary knowledge to be able to play other pieces

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	30 mins
Intro	1m 17s
1. Learning read the notes in bass clef	5m 47s
2. now we can identify all the notes on our sheet music	8m 03s
3. Reading the notes of our music piece with the right rhythm, duration and pitch	8m 59s
4. How to identify Middle C on any keyboard and piano	2m 46s
5. Finding all the notes of the music piece on the piano	3m 09s

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