Starting to Play

AT THE KEYBOARD
Sit facing the middle of the keyboard, as explained on the previous page, while you continue to read. Your piano stool should be correctly placed, and you should sit in the proper position for playing, but with your hands resting on your knees for the moment. Make sure you feel comfortable sitting at the piano, because you will learn more quickly and play better when you are relaxed.

All the notes on the piano are arranged in a regular pattern of white and black keys. The white keys run right across the piano without stopping, the black keys are in alternating groups of two and three keys. Look down at the keyboard, and count each group of black keys from left to right. See how the black keys make a regular pattern of 'two-black, three-black' among the white keys.

The regular 'two-black, three-black' pattern of the black keys is very useful, because it helps us find all the different notes on the piano, for example:

The white key to the LEFT of every group of TWO BLACK KEYS is called 'C'

Find any C on the keyboard and play it with the tip of one finger. Then look for and play all the different Cs on the piano.
Use a right-hand finger to play the higher-sounding Cs to the right of the keyboard, and a left-hand finger to play the lower-sounding Cs to the left. Play with your fingers slightly curved, as shown at the top of the next page.

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