Online Piano Lessons for Kids | How to Play Your First Song on Piano | Hoffman Academy | Lesson 1


online piano lessons for beginners

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Hello and welcome. I’m Joseph Hoffman, and today we’re going to be learning about some piano basics, and by the end of this lesson, you’ll be playing your first song on the piano. So let’s come to the piano to get started. One nice thing about the piano is how visually the keys are organized. These things you push are called the keys, and they come in just two simple colors, black and white, and the further you go to the left the lower the sound they make. So this is the low area of the piano, but if we come up to the right we get the high notes. Now let’s experiment with your own piano. I want you to try this along with me. Find any key in the high area of your piano and play each key one at a time moving to the right, black and white keys, and listen to the sound getting higher and higher until you get to the very highest key of your piano. Did you make it to the highest key on your piano? You’re always welcome, of course, to pause the video if you need extra time to try something. Now let’s go back down to the low area of your piano and this time find a low key, any key, and play each one moving down to the left, one key at a time, and listen to how the sound gets lower and lower, until you get to the very bottom note, the bottom key of your piano. Good, now let’s take a look at the patterns of the black keys. Can you tell me about how the black keys are grouped together? You probably noticed that there are groups of two and three. Let’s say how many are in each group that I point to. Can you say it with me? Two, three, two, three, two, three, good, now let’s try the pattern going down. We have two, three, two, three, two, haha the pattern changes here. This really should be a group of three but way back when they invented the piano they decide to make this the lowest note, so this black key has to be all by itself. Sorry little black key. Now that you know where the high notes and the low notes are, and about the groups of two and three black keys, you’re ready to learn your first song, "Hot Cross Buns." This song comes from hundreds of years ago in England, back when kids used to have to help their families earn enough money to live, the kids might go around town selling bread. A hot cross bun is a special kind of roll that would have a cross shape on it, and you know how these days when an ice cream truck comes and you can hear the sound of the truck coming? You know it’s time to go buy some ice cream. Well, back hundreds of years ago in England the kids would sing this song, "Hot Cross Buns," around the streets, people would hear it, and that’s how they would know it was time to buy some hot fresh bread. Here’s the song, "Hot Cross Buns." Hot cross buns, Hot cross buns, One a penny, Two a penny, Hot cross buns! Now this time can you sing "Hot Cross Buns" along with me? I know you might be thinking, whoa wait a minute, I thought this was a piano lesson, and now you’re asking me to sing? Well, remember that singing is one of the very best ways to develop the musical areas of your brain. You actually become a better pianist faster if you’ll sing each song before you learn to play it, so we’re going to sing "Hot Cross Buns" together, and here are some hand signs to go along with it. If you were to touch some bread right out of the oven you might go like this, hot, and then on the word "cross" we’re going to make a cross shape, and then "buns" are going to make the shape of the bread. Here we go. Can you try the hand signs with me and sing along? Ready, go. Hot cross buns, hot cross buns, one a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns. Good job, now one reason for these hand signs is because it shows you when the notes of the melody are high, middle, or low. This song is made up of three notes in solfège which is a kind of special musical language. This one is called MI. This note is called RE. This note is called DO and they’re all a step apart from each other. Bah Bah Bah. Let’s sing ‘Hot Cross Buns" one more time and this time in solfège. Can you sing along with me? Ready, go. MI RE DO MI RE DO DO DO DO DO RE RE RE RE MI RE DO. Good job. Now as we were doing that did you notice any patterns? Did you notice the place where we did the same note over and over again? That’s called a repeating note and it happened on DO DO DO DO The DO repeats four times in a row. Then we get another repeating note on RE RE RE RE, also four times, but then did we have a repeating note on MI? Nope, after that it goes back to our stepping down pattern, MI RE DO. Now let’s practice moving our fingers to these patterns so we can get ready to play it on the piano. Please hold up your right hand and get ready to copy what I do. For "Hot Cross Buns," since we have three notes we’re going to need just these three fingers. This finger will play MI then we’re going to step down to RE and then step down to DO. Let’s practice. I’ll show you first and then you try next. MI RE DO. Now you try. Good, when you take a turn remember to move your fingers and sing too. My turn again. MI RE DO. Now you try and sing. And now here come the repeated notes. DO DO DO DO, now your turn. Then it steps up to RE and repeats. RE RE RE RE. Your turn. Now my turn again. We do one more stepping down, MI RE DO. Your turn. Great work. When you play the piano you want your fingers to feel relaxed and comfortable. We’ll talk more about piano posture and the shape of your hands soon in another lesson, but for now just make sure instead of using flat fingers, that your fingers have a natural, relaxed, curved shape. For "Hot Cross Buns" we’re going to use a group of three black keys. This black key furthest to the right is MI, this middle one is RE, and this lowest one is DO. Put that together and you can hear it makes "Hot Cross Buns." Now instead of playing with one finger like this we’re going to do a more advanced way of three different fingers for those three notes, so go ahead and get in position on those three black keys. I’ll play a pattern, you listen, and then you try next. My turn first. We’re going to start with finger, this ring finger, on MI. My turn. MI RE DO. Now you try. Sing and play. Good. My turn again. MI RE DO. Now your turn. Good. Now we do the repeating note. DO DO DO DO. Your turn. Good. Then it steps up to RE RE RE RE. Your turn. Good, and then we finish with MI RE DO. Now your turn Great job. Now if you like you can press pause and practice the whole song a few times on your own, or if you feel ready we’re now going to try and play the whole song together. Make sure your hand is in position and now don’t get distracted by what I’m playing. I’m doing this kind of jazzy accompaniment, but your job is to simply play and sing "Hot Cross Buns" just like we practiced. We’ll go nice and steady. First I’ll play an introduction. Wait for me to say go and then begin with "Hot Cross Buns." I’ll sing along to to help. Here goes. Wait for it. One two, ready, go. Hot cross buns, hot cross buns, one a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns. Great job. If you didn’t play perfectly that’s no problem. You can just rewind and practice it again, or press pause and practice by yourself a few times, then try it again with me. Now let me show you a few more fun ways you can try "Hot Cross Buns" for practice. You could try it way up high on your piano, baby style. Hot cross buns. Or you could do it way down low on your piano. When you go low I recommend using your left hand since it will be a lot more comfortable playing that in the low range. So this would be, let’s say, grandpa style. Hot cross buns, hot cross buns. When you practice on your own be sure you’re trying it in both your right hand and your left hand. Pianists need to become comfortable using both of your hands, in fact for an extra super challenge, you can actually try playing it with both hands at the same time, like that, but that’s pretty tricky so maybe don’t try that for a few days or so. First you want to get really solid with the right-hand and left-hand alone, then try that challenge when your ready. Now let’s talk about where you go from here. In fact, if you’re a kid watching on your own, pause the video go and grab your mom or dad and bring them over. Ok, don’t actually grab them, just kind of gently but firmly guide them over to this screen for this important message. For kids, teens, adults, anyone who is learning with me, I created Hoffman Academy to make it so anyone who wants to can learn to play piano. If you work hard and practice every day there is no limit to how awesome you can become at the piano. I really believe that the only thing standing in between you and your piano awesomeness is practice. Daily consistent practice. So please, decide now that you are going to practice every day no matter how busy, no matter how tired. For right now don’t worry about how long you practice, just get in the habit of doing it every day, even if you only have a few minutes. If you do I promise you you’re going to see your skills improve, and the more your skills improve the more fun you’re going to have with this. I hope you enjoyed learning "Hot Cross Buns" with me today. Remember to practice every day and remember to take turns using both of your hands. By the way, if you watch all the way to the very end, most lessons have a little surprise after the credits. I look forward to seeing you at our next lesson. Thanks for watching and happy practicing. Um, hello Mr. One Black Key Down At The Bottom of the Piano all by Yourself, I thought you might be kind of lonely down here so I brought you some hot cross buns fresh out of the oven. Here you go. Enjoy. Call me if you need anything. …

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