#1 - Find Your Way Around The Piano

FOR PARENTS OF BEGINNERS

When a new Piano student is introduced to the instrument for the first time, it is helpful to show them how to find notes on the keyboard easily and with confidence. Here, in two simple and fun lessons, you will be able to have your child know their way around the keyboard in a matter of minutes!

When you look at a Piano keyboard, you can see a repeating order of the black keys: two, followed by three, followed by two again, and so on. We can use this to create two anchor points that will allow your child to quickly find any note on the keyboard.

Some students find it helpful to have a sheet with the music alphabet written, so they can know what letter comes before or after another. This in included in the Piano Orientation sheet below.

LESSON 1

1) Ask your child if they see anything that repeats itself in the keyboard.

2) If their answer did not reference the black keys, ask them: “how about the black keys? How many do we have here? (pointing to two black keys) And here?” (pointing to three black keys?). Continue until they see this pattern for themselves and are excited by the realization. 

3) Next, tell them that C is to the left of two black keys. Ask them to tell you which hand is their left one, so you can make sure they know the term and the correct direction. 

4) Then, ask them to find all C’s on the piano. 

5) Once they feel comfortable with that, repeat steps 3 and 4 for F (to the left of three black keys).

LESSON 2

1) Tell them you are going to play a game, in which you will call out the names of either C or F, and ask them to be creative and go all over the keyboard. The game will go as: “Give me a C! Give me another C. Great! Now, give me an F”, etc. 

2) Once you notice that they understand this well, surprise them by naming one adjacent note to an anchor note – for example, D (one up from C).

3) If they name a note in the opposite direction (for example, B instead of D; or, G instead of E), show them the order of the musical alphabet on the Piano Orientation sheet, and ask: “what letter comes before F? What letter comes after C?”.

4) Continue calling out C’s and F’s, and surprise your child again with another adjacent note – for example, E (one below F).

5) Keep going until you covered all notes. 

Your child should now be able to find all the notes on the piano at will, and is ready to learn how to play their very first song!