How to play piano in 8 easy steps

Have you always had a secret desire to sit at the piano and play a great song to an admiring audience? If this feels impossible to you, read on!

It’s possible to learn to play the piano quickly and easily. You can play using chords, which you can learn very fast while singing the tune. You can also play the chords with your left hand and learn to play the tune with your right hand.

If you want to play a lot of different songs, then you should consider learning as many chords as you can. It’s also a good idea to learn to read music (at least the right-hand notes). This will open up a whole world of possibilities for your piano-playing skills.

Of course, you can find a teacher and take piano lessons. This could be a good idea, but it takes a lot of time and money. If you’re short on time, try the following steps to start playing. Follow these eight easy steps to get started on your piano journey.

Step 1: Learn the layout of the piano keyboard

This is quick and easy to do. Notice the pattern of the black notes. They’re in groups of two and three, throughout the entire length of the piano. If you look for a group of two black notes and then look at the white note immediately to the left of them, you’ve found C.

The piano notes are named like the letters in the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. After G, the pattern starts again. Notice how the notes are always in the same place in relation to the set of black notes; for example, every A is between the top two black notes in a set of three.

Your first step when learning how to play the piano is to play and name all the notes. As you practice, you’ll get quicker at finding them. A good way to do this is to find all the C notes first, then all the G notes, and so on. You’ll be surprised at how fast you remember where they are on the keyboard.

Step 2: Play piano with your right hand

Use your right hand to practice finding your way around the keyboard. Learning how to play is much easier when you are familiar with the keys. You’ll also practice some finger dexterity along the way.

Number your fingers 1 through 5, with 1 being the thumb and 5 being the pinky. Find the C in the middle of the keyboard and place your right thumb on it. Let the other fingers fall over the other notes naturally. When you do this, you should have 1 on C, 2 on D, 3 on E, 4 on F, and 5 on G.

Lift your wrist enough so that you could balance something on it. Next, round your hand a little bit so that you’re playing with your fingertips rather than with flat fingers. This makes it easier to play and move your hand into new positions.

For your first song, play the following fingers. Whenever there is a “—” dash next to a number, hold the note a bit longer:

3 2 1 2 3 3 3—  2 2 2— 3 5 5— 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 1—

Step 3: Play piano with your left hand

To learn piano properly, you need to know how to play with both hands. Place your left pinky on the C below middle C (eight notes lower). You should have 5 on C, 4 on D, 3 on E, 2 on F, and 1 on G. Now try playing these finger numbers:

3 4 5 4 3 3 3— 4 4 4— 3 1 1— 3 4 5 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 3 4 5—

If you heard the same tune, you got it right!

Step 4: Play piano with two hands

Now play the same song with both hands, each hand in the same position you just learned. The top line is the right hand, and the bottom line is the left hand. Notice that your hands are moving in the same direction the whole time:

RH: 3 2 1 2 3 3 3— 2 2 2— 3 5 5— 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 1—

LH: 3 4 5 4 3 3 3— 4 4 4— 3 1 1— 3 4 5 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 3 4 5—

Keep practicing this pattern until it feels comfortable and you nail each note with the correct timing. Once you know how to play with two hands, you can move on to the next step.

Step 5: Learn to play chords

Chords are two or more notes played together at the same time. Because piano chords involve playing multiple keys at the same time, they can feel quite intimidating to beginners. However, knowing how to play basic piano chords is an essential skill.

If you’re still unsure, don’t be afraid — we’ve added some helpful piano chord charts to help you learn. The chord charts show you the notes you should play and what the notes are called.

Build a chord by playing the note with the same name as the chord you want to play. For instance, if you want to play a C chord, you start by playing C. Now skip over the next note (D) and play E. Then skip over the next note (F) and play G. You should have this pattern:

Now build an F chord. Start by playing F, skip a note and play A, and then skip another note and play C. Play all three notes together to get an F chord.

Now try a G chord. It should look like this:

Now play a D minor chord, like this:

Can you hear that the D minor chord sounds different from the other chords? It sounds kind of sad. This means that it’s a minor chord. The other chords you played were major chords, and they sound happy in comparison.

If you use only white notes, an E chord will also be minor:

So will an A chord:

Any minor chord can be made into a major chord by moving the middle note up one half step. In the case of the A chord, the C moves up to the nearest black note, C sharp:

Can you hear the difference between the A minor and major chords? Just like with the A major, any major chord can be made minor by moving the middle note down one half step. We already looked at C major. Here is C minor:

Spend some time finding these chords and try listening to whether they’re major or minor. In every case, the note you build the chord on gives the chord its name, also known as the root note.

Step 6: Play a song with chords

You can find the chords for almost any song online or in a book of songs, whether you want to play classical music or a pop song.

Let’s take “Hey Jude”, made famous by the Beatles. The first four chords are:

G, A, A, D

The first word of the song, “Hey”, comes before you play the first chord. The next four chords are:

G, D, A, D

and then the whole pattern repeats.

You’ll find that most popular songs only have five or six chords in them. Usually, most of the song repeats the same four chords, which is known as a chord progression.

A lowercase “m” indicates the chord should be minor. If there is nothing after the letter name, then the chord should be major. In other words, if the chord is written as “A,” it’s the major A chord. If the name is written as“Am”, it’s the minor A chord.

How are you doing so far? Practice these chords, and then try singing along. If singing isn’t your thing, ask a friend to accompany you or use a backing track.

Step 7: Learn note lengths

To understand musical notation for the piano, you first need to learn different note lengths and how to play them. Different note lengths represent the duration of the sound or silence in music. Once you can distinguish a half note from a quarter note, you’ll know how long to hold each note.

Here’s a basic breakdown of the most common notes:

• Whole note: A whole note is represented as a hollow oval and is held for four beats. This is the longest note duration in standard Western music notation.
• Half note: In sheet music, a half note is a hollow oval with a stem. It’s half the duration of a whole note and is held for two beats.
• Quarter note: A quarter note looks like a filled oval with a stem. Quarter notes are held for one beat, making them a quarter of a whole note.
• Eighth note: An eighth note is represented as a filled oval with a stem and a single flag. Eighth notes are just an eighth of a whole note, or a half of a quarter note. Eighth notes are held for half a beat.
• Sixteenth note: A sixteenth note is a filled oval with a stem and two flags. A single sixteenth note is held for a quarter of a beat.

To better understand note lengths, it helps to think about how they fit together:

• 2 half notes = 1 whole note
• 4 quarter notes = 1 whole note
• 8 eighth notes = 1 whole note
• 16 sixteenth notes = 1 whole note

Learning note lengths and how they relate to each other helps you maintain a steady and accurate rhythm as you play. Timing is key in music, and mastering note lengths will help you feel confident playing with others or with a metronome.

Step 8: Learn to read the right-hand notes

Notes are written on five lines. The noteheads (the round part) can either sit on the line (line notes) or in between the lines (space notes) like this:

It’s easiest to learn the lines and spaces separately. When trying to figure out the notes, use the acronym F A C E for the space notes and the acronym E G B D F for the line notes.

Notes can be written below and above the staff. The note just below the five lines is D, and the note below that with its own line through it is middle C. The space note that sits on top of the staff is G, and the next note up is A:

There are two more important symbols that you need to know: a “flat” (represented with a little b) lowers the note one half step, whereas a “sharp” (#) pushes the note up one half step. The symbols for sharps and flats always appear in front of the note they affect.

Once you have the hang of reading the right-hand notes, try reading the music for a song you like and playing the chords with your left hand. If you want to learn how to play a song on the piano, it’s good to start with something you’re already familiar with.

What’s next?

If you feel that you’ve mastered the basics, start expanding your repertoire of songs and musical styles. Learn new concepts in music theory and you’ll start improving every time you play.

Learn music theory

Knowing music theory isn’t a requirement if you’re looking to just play for fun and to have a good time with your favorite piano songs. However, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the piano as an instrument (not to mention music in general), you want to start exploring music theory.

The Knowledge theme in Yousician is a great place to start. It teaches you many aspects of music theory, such as scales, chords, musical terminology, and more. You can expand your musical vocabulary with our Musician’s Glossary as well.

Learn time signatures

In sheet music, you’ll often see two numbers stacked on top of each other at the beginning of a piece. This is called the time signature, and it tells you how to group and organize the beats in a measure.

In Western music, the most common and recognizable time signature is 4/4, also known as “common time.” This means that there are 4 beats per measure, and each quarter note gets a single beat. If you pick any popular song, it’s likely that the song is in 4/4 time.

Another common time signature is 3/4, where there are 3 beats per measure, and the quarter note still gets one beat (just like in 4/4). 3/4 is often used in waltzes. Other examples of time signatures are 2/4, 6/8, and 12/8.

Get familiar with reading notes and sheet music

Yousician’s Knowledge theme is also a great way to start learning how to read sheet music. Once again, knowing how to read sheet music isn’t a requirement, especially if you’re more into playing pop songs and other similar genres. After all, many well-known musicians didn’t know how to read sheet music. However, reading sheet music, or sight-reading, is a valuable tool for those pursuing music seriously or looking to play classical music. Yousician has three different styles of notation to choose from, depending on your skill level.

Get your own piano or digital keyboard

To make playing the piano more convenient, consider purchasing an acoustic piano or a keyboard. However, buying an acoustic piano isn’t possible for everyone, whether it’s due to cost or lack of room. In this case, a keyboard or a digital piano is a great alternative. Not only can you get quality keyboards for cheaper, but they’re also much smaller and more portable.

Check out our keyboard buying guide for great beginner-level keyboards and digital pianos. There, we’ve listed what to look for when buying a keyboard, as well as a few great recommendations for beginners.

Write your own piano songs

Although you can play the piano with your favorite songs written by others, try your hand at songwriting yourself once you feel comfortable. Writing your own music is a good way to practice scales and learn how to use them in improvisation. Read our guide to songwriting if you’re looking to play your own songs.

Practice and have fun

There are many things that may seem confusing at first when learning piano. Learning how to read sheet music and understanding concepts such as the bass clef, treble clef, flats, sharps, and key signatures may get your head spinning. However, don’t get discouraged. You can’t learn everything immediately. Just find the best learning method for you, and soon you’ll be playing the piano like a pro. It’s even better if you have friends and family to share your journey with!

Learn piano with Yousician

Piano apps and online piano lessons can be a great alternative to live music instructors. Not only is a reliable learning app an affordable option, but it also allows you to learn and practice whenever and wherever you want. Playing music and learning shouldn’t be tied to a particular time and place. That’s where Yousician comes in.

Whether you’re a beginner piano student or a more experienced pianist, Yousician is the piano app just for you. Piano learners can get started by exploring the basics, while more intermediate players can have a great time learning with Yousician’s extensive song library.

Yousician is your personal piano teacher, as it listens to you play and gives real-time feedback. It works with both digital keyboards and acoustic pianos. Get Yousician on your computer or mobile Android and iOS device.