[FREE] Starter Piano Course For Beginners
Welcome! Below is a series of 20 video Piano lessons I’ve made for YouTube within the last few years, that I’ve arranged in a specific order for complete beginners. There is a brief explanation about what’s covered in each lesson, and the focus of these hand-selected videos is on chords, technique, theory, and some creative encouragement. This series of free Piano lessons should start you on your merry way if you want to begin learning how to play the Piano, but aren’t sure about going down the learning-how-to-read-music route (although I highly encourage you to try!).
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1. Your FIRST Piano Lesson – Here is your FIRST Piano lesson aimed at complete beginners. This piano tutorial will explain a few really important things that ideally should be learnt FIRST on your Piano journey! If you’re asking yourself “What to learn first on Piano”, or “How to start playing Piano”, then this first piano lesson is essential to get you started on the right track.
2. Tips / Adjustments to Improve Technique – How to improve your overall technique with these simple things, so you don’t pick up bad habits. General advice for beginners, or for any level! Hopefully you should notice a difference in how in control you are over what you’re playing – dominate the piano with these easy tips!
3. Introducing Triad Chords – A piano tutorial on how to figure out any chord from any key with a simple formula. In this piano lesson I show you how to work out major and minor chords on the piano starting on different keys, to show just how easy and simple it is!
4. How to play an Arpeggio – A piano lesson on how to play Arpeggios, using the knowledge from the previous lesson. Learn how to play arpeggios on the piano, where you will begin to navigate around the keys in a different way. I also demonstrate how you can use them to compose your own beautiful music (like Ludovico Einaudi!).
5. Inversion Chords on Piano – A piano lesson on how to play inversion chords. What are inversion chords? – this lesson teaches the theory of them, why they’re important and how useful they are. Don’t get into a rut of playing chords in the same way every time – music is more diverse than that! Have fun experimenting with different ways you can play chords on piano.
6. How to transition chords quicker and smoother – A piano tutorial on how transition from chord to chord on piano, for smoother, faster and easier transitions. I give you a few ways in this piano lesson to help you play chord progressions with ease!
7. A Chord-based Creative Improv Exercise – A piano lesson on how to play epic and beautiful piano music using a simple exercise. Compose minimalist piano music that sounds epic, beautiful and atmospheric. If you’ve always wanted to compose piano music and not sure where to begin, this may help inspire some ideas, encouraging you to play around with shapes and patterns.
8. Diatonic Chords in a Scale – This Piano lesson explains how to know which chords to use in songs, and how to know which chords sound good together. Explaining the diatonic chords in a scale, and looking at the common I-V-vi-IV and vi-IV-I-V chord progressions, giving examples of which popular songs use them.
9. How to put Chords to a Melody – In this piano lesson, I teach you the easiest method of matching piano chords to a melody, following on from the previous lesson. Whether it’s your own melody or one you have figured out, if you’re not sure which chords to use, then this method is a good place to start adding harmony!
10. Playing Chords to Popular Accompaniment Rhythms – Six Piano accompaniment rhythm patterns every piano player should learn. In this lesson, I demonstrate different ways to play the same chord progression, by just changing the rhythm pattern. If you’re unsure of how to accompany yourself or someone else on Piano, hopefully this piano tutorial will give you ideas!
11. Finger Piano Exercises that help dexterity – A piano lesson teaching 5 Finger Exercises to give your fingers/hands a work out. These effective and varied piano exercises will help strengthen, coordinate and move your fingers around the piano in different ways.
12. Seventh Chords on Piano – Time to expand chord knowledge/theory by introducing seventh chords! Learn what Seventh Chords are on the Piano, how to play them, how to work them out and how 7th chords can be used.
13. Chord Symbols and How to Interpret Them – This piano lesson is about how to interpret and understand the chord symbols above the lyrics that you see in chord charts or lead sheets. I explain the most common chord symbols and what they mean when you see them above music or lyrics. I demonstrate how you can read and play the piano chords.
14. Simple Jazz Piano Improv Idea – How to play simple Jazz piano, using a few basic ideas based on seventh chords that will instantly sound gratifyingly Jazz. The style of Jazz I demonstrate in this Piano lesson could be likened to background Cocktail Jazz, and also has a Studio Ghibli-esque feel.
15. All About Diminished Seventh Chords – I teach you what the theory of diminished 7th chords are, how you can play them, how to use them, before I demonstrate them. These dramatic sounding chords are used a lot in Classical music, and sound really effective when arpeggiated or played in patterns.
16. All About Augmented Chords – In this piano lesson, I teach you what the theory of augmented chords are, how you can play them, how to use them, before I demonstrate them. I give examples of songs that use augmented chords that you should know!
17. How to Strengthen Fingers; Inner-hand coordination – A piano lesson how to improve finger strength and coordination using three exercises. If you struggle to move your fingers independently and lack coordination between your fingers, then these three Piano exercises to make your hands stronger will help!
18. Why EVERY key on the Piano is a Sharp / Flat – A piano lesson explaining why ALL Piano keys are sharps and flats, not just the black ones. If you’ve ever seen a B#, Cb, E# or Fb, this Piano lesson explains the theory behind WHY, and should help clear up any confusion. And it doesn’t stop there, I also explain what double-sharps and double-flats are, as well as what enharmonic notes are…phew!
19. How to use the Piano Pedals – A piano tutorial on how to use the Sustain (Damper) Pedal on the pedal to achieve “legato pedalling”. If you’ve ever asked yourself “what are the pedals for on the piano?” or “what do the 3 pedals do on the piano?”, here I show what all of the three pedals do on my Piano, and demonstrate how they are used. The main focus of the lesson is on the sustain pedal, where I explain the general rule-of-thumb of how to use it.
20. Compose a Simple Piano Piece – If you’d like to explore composing your own Piano music and aren’t sure where to start, this simple idea should help you write a minimal but effective Piano piece. Putting theory/knowledge from the previous lessons into practise to get creative and write something that’s your very own masterpiece!
That concludes all the lessons that currently feature in my Starter Piano Course playlist! I hope you enjoyed them and found this order of lessons helpful. Happy playing!