Piano

View:

Sorted by:

Perfect Piano-Playing Hand Posture

Hand posture and comfort are vitally important while playing the piano or keyboard. Poor hand posture can cause your performance to suffer for two reasons: [more…]

Trembling Tremolos on the Piano

Although piano tremolos and trills sound much the same, there are differences between how they are notated and how they sound. A trill occurs when you flutter your fingers very quickly between two notes [more…]

Frédéric Chopin: Polish Piano Virtuoso

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) was a thin, frail virtuoso pianist from Poland (see Figure 1). Chopin ("sho-PANH") single-handedly revolutionized the world of piano music. He changed everybody's idea of what [more…]

Finding the Right Spot for Your Piano

Whether you bought a piano or an electric keyboard, the first thing to do when you get your new baby home is to find a spot for it to live. This spot doesn't have to be a permanent resting place — pianos [more…]

How the Piano Changed Music

The concept of using dynamic markings (which indicate the relative loudness of different sections in the music) in sheet music came about around the same time as the piano — for good reason. Before the [more…]

How Musical Notes Are Constructed

You couldn't read or write music without notes. If you think of music as a language, the notes are like letters of the alphabet. If you know how to recognize the notes, you can learn the language. [more…]

How to Read the Rests in Music

Knowing when not to play notes during a song is as important as knowing the notes you do play. Understanding how to read rests will help you keep up with the beat and pacing of the music. Sometimes the [more…]

How to Tune a Guitar from the Piano

One of the most common ways to tune a guitar to a standard pitch is to use a piano. You need to know how to tune a guitar using a piano or some other fixed source if you want to play with other instruments [more…]

Common Musical Symbols and Terms for Playing the Piano

When you’re learning to play the piano, or any instrument for that matter, it can be hard to remember all those different musical terms and symbols — bass or treble clef, whole notes or half notes, confusing [more…]

Piano Keys and Their Corresponding Notes

The names of each piano key and each key’s location on the keyboard can be difficult to remember when getting started playing piano. Print this page (the notes are large enough to see easily from a distance [more…]

Piano For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Learning to play the piano takes a lot of practice. For that practice to be productive, though, you need to make sure your hands are in the right place to get the notes you want and that you correctly [more…]