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Beginning Piano Lessons

Lesson 4

Learn to play piano fast with free and easy beginning piano lessons! In this lesson we will use what you have learned in the previous beginning piano lessons in a couple of folk songs, and learn a very easy way to improvise.

I find folk songs are great to work with as you begin to learn playing the piano.

Folk songs are often in interesting modes- or tonalities, and frees you from "should" and "have to" playing in a particular style.

With that I mean when you play a famous song, popular or classical- jazz or blues, you are "bound" by certain rules regarding sound and style of playing.

And as a beginner there are so many things to think about anyway!

So to "free" your imagination and help you not to feel afraid to improvise-(do not leave that only to the professionals!)- we will use simple patterns and tone material to let you explore what you can do yourself.

And it sounds great too!

Lesson 4: Let's Improvise!

Let’s play some folk songs in 5 finger position using a fifth as accompaniment, and make a very simple, feel-good improvisation:

What you have learned so far:

The five black keys are a pentatonic scale. Great for improvising!

We can use different 5-finger positions on the piano to learn to use all fingers quicker as well as easily finding basic piano chords .

Using only white keys with 5 finger positions from d and a gives us a minor tonality, from c and g- a major tonality.

Intervals gives us more patterns to play with! As they are, or as accompaniment.

The interval of a fifth is very useful. Playing either one note at a time or both creates an “open sound” of neither major nor minor- and you can make a very easy accompaniment this way. (For more information about music intervals, go here.)

Have fun! And remember:

"There are no wrong notes when improvising- just interesting ones!".

Get serious about learning the Piano

Continue to Learn How to Read Notes:

After these introductory lessons, you are more than ready to start reading sheet music! In just two easy, and free, lessons you will understand how to read piano music:

Learn To Read Piano Music 1

Learn to Read Piano Music 2

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