If you’re starting out learning how to play the piano from scratch then before you begin you need to sit down and think about how you’re going to go about it.

Plan a Strategy: You need to plan a strategy that will enable you to fit the lessons and practise into your daily schedule, so that you can make a success of your new enterprise. Set out how to learn to play piano correctly and success will follow. Get your strategy wrong and you could end up being frustrated and disappointed, and no matter how high your level of enthusiasm you’ll find it much more difficult to make progress.
In the initial stages, how you set about learning how to play the piano is just as important as what you learn. Let’s break the process of learning how to play the piano into its constituent elements, so that we can get a clearer picture.

How much time do you have? Decide how much time you have available per day. There’s almost certain to be a body of formal research on this subject but, even without it, all teachers will agree that several short periods of learning per day are more effective than one long one of equivalent total duration. If you’ve ever sat and watched a very long film, you will have probably found your mind wandering as it progressed.

It’s the same with learning how to play the piano, or learning anything else for that matter – we all have a limited attention span, and the period of most effective learning takes place in the first few minutes of a learning period. Thirty minutes per day, perhaps divided into three sessions of ten minutes each is probably a good number to start with. Even small micro-sessions are very useful, a quick 2 to 5 minutes here and there to quickly practise something recently learned is very helpful in reinforcing the eye-hand coordination that is so crucial in piano playing. Try to spread these micro-sessions throughout the day.

Obviously this isn’t easy if you’re out working all day – we’ll come back to this shortly. But before you start each learning session, take a moment or two to breathe deeply and try to relax. It sounds a bit New Age but if you can clear your mind of other concerns and focus solely on the music then you’ll find it a much more rewarding experience. For the next ten minutes the music is all that matters. If you can do this, you’ll find yourself looking forward to your piano lessons and that your new, relaxed state of mind will probably help you in other areas of your life too.

What sort of lessons? For each of us, learning how to play the piano depends upon what it is we are trying to achieve. Essentially this breaks down into two categories of playing; a) playing by sight reading and b) playing by ear. In my view, playing by ear requires more natural talent than by sight reading. If you want to understand how music is created , what elements are brought together to give life to a piece of music, and why and how to eventually write your own music then the sight reading option will be best for you. Alternatively, if you want to be able to sit down at a piano and turn out a familiar tune or to improvise a short piece, then the playing by ear route is probably more appropriate. Different teaching products cater for both these options – look at the menu options on the left.

Get a teacher or teach yourself? There is no doubt that if you can find a live human to teach you how to play piano then they can be very helpful, not only in providing you with the actual instruction but also in motivating you to continue practising. There’s nothing quite like knowing that next week you’re going to be asked to play perfectly the piece you learned today to keep you motivated. However, human piano teachers are expensive. Obviously, prices vary across the country and with the skill and experience of the teacher, but whichever way you look at it, it’s going to cost you.
It all costs money: As with everything else, value for money is important. I had a teacher whose skills could not be questioned but who was not, I’m sorry to say, a very proficient teacher. Her lessons lacked structure and targets. Both these things are important for someone beginning to learn how to play piano. It’s essential for a beginner to be able to see what they’re aiming for and how they’re going to get there. It’s also important that you get on with your teacher. Chemistry is all-important. If there’s the slightest trace of antipathy between you then this will impede your learning enormously. So, as you can probably imagine, finding a good piano teacher can be a bit of a hit and miss process, and one that, if you get it wrong, could end up costing you a lot of money.

That’s why the teach-yourself option has become so popular. If you stick at it, you can start learning how to play the piano for a fraction of the cost of a human teacher with no danger of having problems in getting on with him or her. If you have the self discipline and a limited budget, then the modern software that we discuss at Piano Detective could be just what you’re looking for!

Filed under: Piano Tuition Products

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