- Your posture at the piano is very important. When you sit at the piano, make sure your bench faces the piano squarely. Your knees should be slightly under the keyboard and your feet should be flat on the floor. You can put your right foot slightly forward or you can do what I do. I put mine on the pedal and just rest it there. Sit up nice and tall and let your elbows hang loosely from your shoulder.
Your fingers are numbered to help you when you play and for reference. Your thumb is your first finger and then they're numbered consecutively from there. Two, three, four and five. It's important to keep your fingers curved when you're playing the piano. When your fingers are straight, each one is a different length. By curving them we, in essence, make each finger the same length. Curving the fingers also does something else that's important, it keeps your thumb in position.
With your fingers curved, you'll be able to pass your thumb underneath the rest of your fingers. (piano music) Also, be sure to keep your joints firm so that they don't collapse like this but stay rounded. One thing that will help you do that is to keep your fingernails short. When your fingernails are long, it's very difficult to have a curved hand position.
When you play a key on the piano, a hammer inside touches the string. You can control how loud or how soft you play by how you use the weight of your arm. Dynamic markings are used in music to indicate how loudly or softly you should play. f is forte and we use Italian words for our dynamic signs. Forte means to play loudly, like this. I'm going to use more weight to do this.
(piano music) Mf is mezzo forte and this means moderately loud. Your arm will be a little lighter for this. (piano music) And finally, there's p for piano, which means to play softly. Your hand will feel light on the keyboard. (piano music)
Released
1/13/2017- Practicing proper hand technique
- Practicing proper seating position
- Practicing the right-hand C and left-hand C positions
- Melodic intervals
- Harmonic intervals
- B for the left and right hand
- A for the left hand
- Using the damper pedal
- Moving up and down the keyboard in 6ths
- Measuring half steps and whole steps
- Progressions and triplets
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Related Courses
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Introduction
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Welcome29s
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1. The Basics
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The keyboard3m 13s
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Right-hand C position1m 43s
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Quarter notes and half notes2m 56s
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Left-hand C position1m 26s
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The whole note2m 25s
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The grand staff3m 3s
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2. Melodic Intervals
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Melodic intervals: 2nds3m 43s
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Melodic intervals: 3rds2m 50s
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Melodic intervals: 4ths3m 20s
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Melodic intervals: 5ths2m 16s
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3. Introducing Harmony
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The sharp sign1m 1s
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The C major chord2m 44s
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B for the left hand3m 28s
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B for the right hand2m 16s
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A for the left hand3m 40s
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The damper pedal4m 13s
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4. New Rhythms and Intervals
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Eighth notes3m 11s
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The dotted quarter note3m 8s
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Intervals: 6ths6m 41s
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Syncopated notes2m 59s
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The flat sign1m 14s
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5. Music Theory
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The major scale2m 30s
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More about chords7m 22s
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About the blues3m 51s
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RH: An extended position1m 46s
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The G major scale1m 23s
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6. Progressions and Triplets
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Triads and progressions6m 51s
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A new style of bass4m 16s
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Eighth note triplets2m 54s
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Conclusion
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Closing and credits1m 44s
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Video: Seating position and proper hand technique