Home  |  Music & Dance  |  Instruments  | 

The Piano

Play the Piano - The Layout of the Keyboard

To properly view this site, javascript must be enabled and Flash version 9 or higher must be installed.
Get the latest Flash player
Alex Wasserman
www.ismw.org  
(301) 657-0763

Alexander Wasserman is a professional pianist and pedagogue whose performances include Suburban Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland, “Pianofest” , Peabody Institute, Los Angeles. He is on the faculty at the International School of Music (ISM) in Bethesda, where he teaches piano to all ages, levels, and styles. With a distinguished faculty of 55 teachers, ISM provides students with a rich music education experience. The ISM faculty’s friendly personalities, insightful approaches, and individually tailored teaching methods have helped students become complete and versatile musicians. ISM provides an atmosphere that is warm and supportive so every student can achieve his/her best.

Play the Piano - The Layout of the Keyboard

In this video, professional pianist and pedagogue Alexander Wasserman from the International School of Music describes the techniques needed to get started playing piano. The video is designed for the beginning piano player, but includes a variety of tips and technics that would be useful to intermediate players. This video series includes an overview of the basics, how to sit properly at the piano, have correct hand position, how to get the sound on piano, how to get loud and soft sound, how to play certain music examples and much more.

This series: 64,222 views

Download - Coming Soon!
Tags:

Piano

,

Basic

,

Keyboard

,

Play

,

Hand

,

Fingers

,

Keys

,

Blackk

,

White

Comments:

0 (Read Comments) (Add Comment)

Print

Transcripts

Alex Wasserman: Hi, my name is Alex Wasserman. I am a pianist and a piano teacher. I teach right here at the International School of Music in Bethesda, Maryland. I am here today, to talk to you a little bit about how the piano works and the basics of playing the piano. The first thing I would like to start out with is the layout of the keyboard. As you can see, the keyboard has a pattern to it. There are white keys all the way across and in between, we have black keys. They are setup in groups of two, three, two, three, two, three and so on all the way up to the top of the keyboard. This helps the pianist navigate around the keyboard. If they were all white notes, it will be very difficult to tell which note is which, but with the black notes, it helps our eye orient itself to know where each note is on the keyboard. For instance, if I were to play a middle C I know that this note, the C is directly to the left of a group of two black notes. Now this is not the only C on the entire piano. Anytime I see a group of two black notes, I know that the white note directly to the left is a C. That would mean that this is a C, this is a C, this is a C, this is a C, C, C. Another example would be with the group of three black notes. Let's say, let's take G for example. G is the first white note in between the group of three black notes and by knowing that, I can play every G on the piano. This is a very logical way to organize the piano. Although, it might seem very confusing at first, it becomes easy to navigate around the piano when you see it in terms of a pattern of black and white notes. Next, we are going to be talking about the dynamics of the piano.

Other Videos

  • Beginning Bass Playing

    Beginning Bass Playing

    These series of videos will take the beginning student from purchasing the correct bass to playing and practicing the basic techniques and exercises to get the student out and playing in a band situation. These lessons explain the proper hand and finger positions as well as basic scales used in all types of music. There are right and left hand techniques that are demonstrated and applied to show how to implement them in a song. These lessons are designed to get the beginning player out and playing in a short amount of time. Have fun and practice, practice, practice. "Remember practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect."
  • Beatbox Bass Drum

    Beatbox Bass Drum

    This video will show how to do the beatbox bass drum.
  • Ballroom Dancing - How to Foxtrot

    Ballroom Dancing - How to Foxtrot

    In this video, Terry teaches the basic patterns and techniques of the Foxtrot, and provides the fundamental knowledge you need to get started with this smooth dance of the forties, reminiscent of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. This video series is designed for the beginner, but there are techniques that the intermediate dancer will find useful as well. Terry demonstrates exercises to help get ready your body for dancing and teaches the basic pattern of the foxtrot. He shows the techniques that provide the charm and allure of the foxtrot, and finally adds variations that will make dancing the foxtrot quite enjoyable.
  • How to Bollywood Dance

    How to Bollywood Dance

    This video series will show you how to bollywood dance. If you've seen even one Bollywood movie from India, chances are the thing that stands out is the dancing. In this video, experts at Dhoonya Dance will teach you the basic dance steps so you can become an expert Bollywood dancer.
  • The Psalm 150 Project

    The Psalm 150 Project

  • How to Restring an Electric Guitar

    How to Restring an Electric Guitar

    This video will show how to restring an electric guitar.