How to Play the Piano
The piano, you may know it as just a sizeable instrument, dissimilar to any string or acoustic musical object. In fact, the piano is both a string and percussion. The piano is listed as one of the most challenging instruments to play (Fernandez 3). Most people consider the piano a former instrument and think that it is not used today, but the piano is very important in today’s times. I will be teaching you about the history of the keyboard and the steps to start playing the piano.
The first piano was genuinely created by Bartolomeo Cristofori in the early 1700s. He preferred to call it the “gravicembalo col piano, e forte” which means soft and loud in Italian. Bartolomeo was born in Padua in the Republic of Venice. He served as an apprentice to the grandson of the violin inventor, Nicola Amati. After being an apprentice, he worked for Prince Ferdinando de Medici. It is told that Prince Ferdinando was a curious man who was fascinated by anything mechanical, this includes his collection of over forty clocks. Bartolomeo worked on many other instruments, and that is what compelled him to create his own instrument, the piano.
Pianos are made of superior materials, you might think it’s for looks, but it’s also for the outcome of the sound. The first part and most noticeable part is the rim case. It is created by bending wood, not always cutting. Next up is the frame, it is a cast iron plate below the strings. Attached to the frame is the pinblock. If you open your piano up, you may notice small pin-like items on the frame; those are pinblocks. Pinblocks are made of sturdy wood. The bridge is an essential part of the piano; it conveys sound to the soundboard below the strings. The strings are made of steel wire and are a variety of lengths across the piano. The identifiable part of the piano is the keyboard; it is the small rectangular keys in the front of the piano. The keys are made of lacquered wood, but in the olden days, they were made of ivory. The action is the part of the piano that has the most unrecognizable name. This compartment travels the energy of a key to a hammer that strikes a string to make an abundance of noise. Lastly, the pedals at the bottom. The three pedals at the bottom are used for different sounds. The right pedal is called the damper pedal. In the middle of the three is the sostenuto pedal. This pedal can preserve specific notes for longer. The left pedal is named the soft pedal because it softens merely the notes by hitting two strings instead of three.
Have you ever taken a look at a piece of sheet music and was terribly confused? I’m here to tell you that it isn’t. Once you learn eight notes, you can understand everything else. The piano has 88 keys but only eight notes. These notes are A, B, C, D, E, F, G and each letter has a sharp and flat. Sharps and flats are the black keys above the whites ones. If you play a note like G, the sharp will be to the right of it, and the flat will be on the left.
After understanding the notes, you will have to know where your hands are placed. First off, in sheet music, you know where your hands are set because of the grand staff. The grand staff is the first thing in sheet music. The grand staff contains two clefs, the treble, and bass, also known as G and F clef because those notes are right in the center of the clef. The treble/G clef is for your right hand and the bass/F if for your left side. Usually right next to the clefs will be a time signature. The time signature signifies how many counts are in a measure. A measure is anywhere between two and eight beats. A song is made up of many measures.
There are multiple types of counts for notes. To denote how long the note is you will identify what type of note it is. Notes don’t just tell you what note they are they also justify how long you hold them. The most obvious note is called the quarter note. The quarter note is a small black oval with a short vertical line on the right or left side of it. The quarter note is played for one beat. A half note looks the same as the quarter note, but the oval is not filled in with black. The half note is worth two beats. Another primary note is the dotted half note. A dot is placed near the note on the right side, making it three beats. The most extended note is named the whole note. The whole note looks like a half note without the vertical line. The whole note is considered four beats.
Dynamics is the set volume for a measure. Dynamics can range from exceedingly soft to tremendously loud. To control how loud or soft you play, it depends on how hard or soft you hit the keys. The harder you hit a key, the louder the sound is. The weaker you hit the key, the softer the sound is. In musical language and sheet music, dynamics are expressed in Italian. In Italian, piano means soft, and forte means loud. On sheet music, the dynamics are often written as P or F. P stands for piano and F stands for Forte. If the sheet music has an MF or MP, it translates to mezzo forte or mezzo piano which means moderately loud or soft.
The next step to playing the piano is getting the right type of books. Piano books and a piano teacher is the key to success. There are multiple types of books out there to fit what kind of music you want to learn. Such as classical, ear playing, jazz, contemporary, and many more. Be sure to start with what you want and what level you are. Most books go by level starting at level one A and going all the way up to nine. Piano teachers will help with your prosperity by assisting with the outcome of your piano schooling.
Learning music theory and playing the piano is the importance of today’s society. Music is a language expressed in all cultures and continents. The piano plays a vital role in almost every art. Musicals, movies and dance can all include piano and other instruments in some way. You now know the history and basics of piano theory that can be transferred to all different kinds of instruments.