Your First Song on the Piano

🕐 5 min - Introduce the song

• Select the song 'Falling Slowly' by Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova from the Song library. Click on 'Piano' under 'Tools' - 'Visuals' so that the keyboard is visible.
• Tell students a bit about the song. You can mention some facts from the song description!
• Listen to the Intro and Verse 1 together!
  • What instruments do you hear? (Piano, acoustic guitar, percussions)

🕐 5 min - Meet the piano!

• Distribute the available keyboard instruments to the class. If there's one for each student - perfect! If not, you could eventually work in groups, asking students to take turns playing one piano or keyboard.
• Show students the optimal sitting position at the piano. The body should be centered around the middle of the keyboard.
• Explain how the piano keys are called - each white key has a corresponding letter from A to G, they are in alphabetical order and repeat all over the keyboard!

🕐 5 min - Exercise 1 - Do you C the black key pairs?

• 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.

🕐 10 min - Exercise 2 - Build the C chord!

• Now, it's time to play with more fingers simultaneously. Explain how the fingers are numbered from 1 to 5.
• Show the chord symbols on the screen - the letters under the staff notation of the vocal lines.
• 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.
• Play the Intro and Verse 1 once again, this time inviting the class to play along - whenever the red line reaches the chord symbol 'C', they should play the chord they just learned (on the first beat of every other bar).

🕐 10 min - Exercise 3 - Add the F chord!

• Ask students what other chord they noticed in the chord symbol line (F).
• Take these steps to teach the missing chord:
  • Ask students to find all the places on the keyboard where there are three black keys in a row.
  • Explain that the note F is located to the left from any of these black key trios.
  • Find the F key right above middle C.
  • Show how the F major chord is played. The pattern is the same as in C chord - should place their right thumb or 1st finger on F, then skip one white key, place their 3rd finger and, after skipping one more black key, press their 5th finger.
• Let students practice playing the F chord for a while.
• Play the Intro and Verse 1 once again, this time inviting the class to play along only the F chord - whenever the red line reaches the chord symbol 'F', they should play the chord they just learned (on the first beat of every other bar).

🕐 5 min - Exercise 4 - Combine C and F!

• Congratulations! At this point, students know both chords that are needed to play Intro, Verse 1, Verse 2 and Post-Chorus in their entirety.
• Invite students to try to play C and F one after another. Give them some time to practice switching the chords.
• Play the song, this time asking the students to follow the chord symbols and play both C and F chords.
  • Alternatively, if the chord switches are not going that smoothly, you could divide the class into two groups and assign one chord to each of them - one half of the class would play only C, the other - only F. The groups can swap the chords around the middle of the song.

🕐 5 min - Discussion

• How did it go?
• What was fun in this lesson?
• What was challenging in this lesson?
• What other songs would you like to learn to play on the piano?

Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by...

• Learning the other chords of the song: G and Am.