How to Play Piano
Piano as a Second Instrument is a 30-page tutorial for beginning players and songwriters. It takes a relaxed approach, and gives you tools to create your own music.
(It’s also free.)
By the end, you’ll be able to play these songs:
- “If I Had $1000000” – BNL
- “When I Come Around” – Green Day
- “Evil Ways” – Santana
- “Praise You” – Fatboy Slim
- “Wonderwall” – Oasis
Download the PDF
How to use it
- You’ll want to read the manual in front of a piano or keyboard, not a computer screen.
Take the PDF file to Kinkos (or another copy shop) and ask them to print it double-sided, staple-bound, on 15″ by 11″ paper folded vertically to create letter-size pages.
Or, if you’re willing to pay postage and printing costs, I’ll mail you a copy. Contact me by email. - Download the accompanying MP3s and put them on your iPod, or on a CD. (If you like, track down the original recordings of the songs above.)
- Find a piano and follow the instructions.
- Leave a comment in the box below. This is a beta book (translation: still in development), and I’ll be using your input to make it better before I think about shopping it around to publishers. There might be a delay before the comment is posted.
March 24th, 2006 at 7:20 pm
Thank you so much.
March 26th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
have you considered a creative-commins license for this?
March 26th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
I’ve considered it, but I want to make sure the licence doesn’t scare away print publishers. I’ll do some research over the next week or so.
March 26th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Of course, I meant Creative Commons.
silly typos.
March 30th, 2006 at 6:53 pm
Very pro. I’m especially impressed with the ebook presentation. How’d you lay that out so pretty-like?
P.S. Don’t make me use this weeks ask.metafilter question on it!
March 31st, 2006 at 9:11 am
Thanks (though you should print it out — it really looks best that way). I did the layout in Word, though I’m going to make another version in FrameMaker in a few weeks. The fonts are Futura and Garamond, with lots of spacing; then I just printed to PDF. (The diagraphs were done in Illustrator — traced a photo of an actual piano key, then duplicated.)
April 3rd, 2006 at 8:28 am
Hi Ben. I first read this guide when you e-mailed it to a bunch of MeFi users. I think it’s very well put-together. I had a few comments, though.
It might be worthwhile to distinguish between voicings and inversions. Inversions are named for which note is in the bass, while voicings are simply different ways of producing a chord. Different voicings may or may not be different inversions. All of the examples you illustrate, however, are different inversions.
The word “first” on page 16 should probably be swapped with “root.”
On page 19 you may want to clarify the sentence “Play C Major, and move the fifth (G) up” by adding “by a whole step.”
The only significant error is on page 28:
“You can also turn a minor chord into a major chord by moving the minor chord’s root up a half-step. Play an A Minor, then move the A to B-flat (a black key). This is B-Flat Major.”
The A minor in the above sentence should be changed to D minor, and “root” should be changed to “fifth.” Then it works.
Cheers,
Steve
April 3rd, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Ouch, that was pretty major; thanks. I’ll make that correction today, and take the others into consideration.
April 3rd, 2006 at 9:48 pm
Alright, I’ve made all the corrections I agree with. =) Thanks!
May 10th, 2006 at 6:35 am
I like your book but I think that the title is not good. You direct this at such a rudimentary level that no prior music knowledge is required.
I’d suggest something like:
“Play That Keyboard* Tonight”
*(the one just sitting there in your room)
I also disagree that pianos are expensive. Many people give away perfectly playable pianos for the price of hauling them away. My own piano a 90 year old Steinway full-sized upright cost only $1,600 and has a depth of tone that electronic keyboards still can’t touch (though they’re a lot better than 20, 10 or 5 years ago.)
May 10th, 2006 at 8:28 am
Only $1,600? You’re talking to somebody who rides the bus, my friend.
But point well taken about the title. I’ve thought about expanding the section on software and calling it “Piano for Producers (and anyone else)” but maybe that, too, would unnecessarily limit the audience. Hm.
April 17th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Thank You
January 4th, 2008 at 4:40 am
i m not able to download pdf file. Its giving some error. Do some help i m begginer piano player.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I’m not sure what to tell you — the download works fine on this end. If you want, you can get a copy from http://www.scribd.com/doc/2967/How-to-Play-Piano
May 16th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Thank you Ben. You have presented this very well. *applauds effort*
May 24th, 2008 at 3:27 am
Hi, am downloading all the way from Zimbabwe.
Will give it a try and update. Thanks for the time and effort.
May 24th, 2008 at 4:15 am
No problem — good luck!
June 17th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Gee, you are very humble man. Thank you so much for the free tutorial. I’ve been looking for many many other websites explaining about broken chord C Major. Your info is the only website thats clearly explain C Major that also begin with E & G. So simple but many people overlook. This is the end of my long time searching … I need this to explain to my 6 years old daughter. Very smooth pdf down load. Good luck
July 14th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I agree with John re: the title. I don’t have a lick of musical experience and I had no problem understanding what you wrote. Thanks a lot for your effort.