Get started with piano!

Summary

Mix and match activities to create a fun lesson on the basics of playing piano.

🎲 What’s included in the activities:

• Understanding the differences between an upright, grand, electronic and digital pianos
• Learning to distinguish between the right and left hand
• Understanding finger names for piano playing
• Finding the middle C key on piano
• Understand what is a chord
• Building and playing the C chord on the piano
• Playing the C chord on the piano in a popular song

💻 Materials:

• Solfeg.io web app best used with Chrome browser
• Projector or computer and access to Wi-Fi
• Pianos or Keyboards for students

What kind of piano are you playing today?

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Get familiar with different types of piano
• Understand the differences between an upright, grand, electronic and digital pianos
• Get students to apply their knowledge about types of piano in class

🎲 Activity:

• Ask your students to look at their piano and describe it with different words that come to mind.
• Ask if this is their first time seeing a real piano! You can also tell them about your first experience playing a piano.
• Tell them about different types of piano:

Upright piano - this is an acoustic piano which means that it does not need any electricity, batteries or an on/off button to be ready to be played on. It has a keyboard and a vertical “box” behind it - hence the name “upright”. The box contains little hammers and strings which help to make a sound mechanically. The upright piano is usually placed against a wall.

Grand piano - also an acoustic piano - no electronics needed. However, grand pianos have a much longer backside to make room for the hammers and longer strings. These are the “big” pianos usually seen in concert halls.

Electronic or Digital Pianos - these pianos are smaller than upright and grand pianos. Some of them can even be easily lifted up and transported from one place to another. These pianos need a power source to work (e.g. electricity). The sound is usually more “artificial” than from an upright or grand piano; however, you can also make cool sound effects with these and even change the timbre.

Toy Pianos - a smaller version of electronic/digital pianos. They are light to pick up, and they usually have no more than 20-30 keys.

• Ask your students - What kind of piano are you playing on today?
• ‍After a short discussion, give them the correct answer.

Let's get handy!

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn to distinguish right and left hand
• Understand finger names for piano playing
• Apply finger name knowledge in class
  

🎲 Activity:

• Tell your students to lift up their right hand. Then, ask them to lift up their left hand! If any students have problems distinguishing, you can ask them to put different stickers on each hand to differentiate between them or use any other visuals that help. This should diffuse any confusion between “right” and “left”.
• Ask you students to look at their fingers. Explain that in piano playing, fingers are usually numbered. Thumb is the 1st finger, index finger is the 2nd finger, middle finger - the 3th finger, ring finger - the 4th finger, pinkie - 5th finger.
• Now, lift up one of your hands and one of your fingers and ask students to say which finger are you holding up, for example:

The teacher is holding up the 2nd finger of the right hand;

The teacher is holding up the 4th finger of the left hand.

Do you C the black key pairs?

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Understand tips on how to find the C key
• Find the middle C key on piano

🎲 Activity:

• Point the students' attention to the repeating pattern of the black keys.
• Ask students to find all the places where two black keys are in pairs.
• Explain that the note C is located to the left from any of these black key pairs.
• Ask students to play all the Cs on the keyboard one after another with their right thumb.
• When they have found all the Cs, show them where to find middle C - towards the middle of the keyboard.

Build the C chord

🕐 Time: 3 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Understand what is a chord
• Build and play the C chord on the piano

🎲 Activity:

• Now, it's time to play with more fingers simultaneously.
• Explain to your students that when you press 3 or more keys on the piano at the same time, it is called a chord.
• Teach the first piano chord to the class - the C major chord! To play this chord, students should place their right thumb or 1st finger on middle C, then skip one white key, place their 3rd finger and, after skipping one more black key, press their 5th finger.

Use the keyboard on the screen as a hint.

Make sure your fingers are curved and your palm is lifted, not laying flat on the keys!

• Let students practice playing the C chord for a while.

Ho Hey, let's play!

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Play the C chord on the piano in a popular song

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

• It's time to try to play the C chord in Ho Hey. Tell your students that they will have to play the C chord when it shows up in the notes or lights up in the piano shown in the song player. Other chords should be disregarded.
• Try to play Verse 1 to your students as an example. If needed, you can loop this section and repeat multiple times.
• Next, invite your students to join you! Try playing Verse 1 together with them. Again, you can loop this section if needed.
• If the students feel confident enough, you can also play Verse 2.

Reflection

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Reflect on the learning process

🎲 Activity:

• Ask these questions to the class and have a short discussion

How did you like piano?

What was fun when you played piano?

What was challenging when you played piano?

What other songs would you like to learn to play on the piano?

‍Homework assignment

🕐 Time: 3 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Practice the C chord on the piano
• Find and learn more songs with the C chord present

🎲 Activity:

Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by…

• Asking students to suggest more songs to play on piano which contain the C chord;
• Students can learn the basics of piano playing by completing Solfeg.io 10-day program on the mobile app!

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