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Lesson One: Introduction to Your Piano

Before beginning to play your piano, you should get to know it. First of all, look at your piano/musical keyboard. It is made up of white keys and black keys; the black keys only appear in twos and threes. A typical piano has 88 keys, while a musical keyboard has closer to 61 keys. At least mine does. :)


Now you need to learn how to identify those keys. To the left of the first black key in any pair of black keys is a C. Let's first learn to identify Middle C. Find the pair of black keys at the center of your piano. The white note to the immediate left of this pair is Middle C.





Middle C could be called the most important key on the piano; it is usually the first key that students learn to recognize and is the basis for learning to read music. Before learning anything else, make sure you can find middle C on the piano. Remember, it's to the immediate left of the pair of black keys that is at the center of your piano.


Now find all of the other C's. C is always to the left of a black pair. Always. Identify all of the C keys on your piano or keyboard.





The white key to the right of C (the key between the two black keys) is D. It follows the C key on the piano as it does in the alphabet.





The white key to the right of the D key (and immediately to the right of the second black key in the pair) is, you guessed it, E.





The key following E is F, and the white key after F is G. After G comes A, and the white key to the right of A is B; B is to the immediate left of the C. As I'm sure you noticed, the G and A keys are trapped among the three black keys (remember, the black keys only come in twos and threes).


Those are the only letters of the alphabet found on a piano - only the first seven letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.


Lesson Two: More Keys


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