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Lesson 5.1: Books And Hand Practise For the finishing touch to these lessons, you need to go to your local music store and purchase a book. Or, you may know someone who will lend you the kind of book I need you to get. I want you to find a small song book of very simple songs. The songs should not be any harder than the ones you have seen in these lessons. You are looking for a beginners song book. It only needs to have songs in it and nothing else. From my personal experience and most of my students, following are a couple of books worth getting: One of my students introduced me to this DVD which I think is great for beginners and intermediates. It is a little expensive but it's worth the money:
I want you to set some time aside each day (30 minutes or so) to pick one song out of the book and practice playing it. If you have followed these lessons faithfully, you now have the skills to do this with confidence. I want you to set some time aside each day (30 minutes or so) to pick one song out of the book and practice playing it. If you have followed these lessons faithfully, you now have the skills to do this with confidence. Look for a book that has 4/4 time signatures. It may have some songs that have 3/4, 2/4, and 6/8 time signatures. We will be learning these too so don't worry if you see these in the book. However, most of the songs should be in 4/4 (have a 4/4 time signature).
Lots of work in this lesson? Yes there is. This is the next to the last page. We need to talk about technique. Remember our discussion on assigning each finger a number? This was a way to help you so that your fingers don't trip over each other. There is another part to this problem. It is called "Hand Placement." Your hands need to be in the correct position in order to work with the finger numbering system.
Look at the two figures above. Figure 1 shows the correct placement for your hand. Figure 2 shows the WRONG placement of your hand. The top of your hand should be parallel with the keys on the piano. The yellow line shown in each figure is parallel with the keys. Place your hand on your keyboard as shown in Figure 1. Notice that your forearm is now also parallel with the keys on your keyboard. When you are ready to strike (play) a note on your keyboard, keep in mind that your wrist is the hinge point. Your elbow is not a hinge point. And, your knuckles are not hinge points. The only movement used to strike a note is at the wrist and of course, your finger joints. The action is similar to scratching the top of your leg. Try it. Here are some other tips for body technique in relationship to playing the piano. * Your fingers should remain slightly curled under your hand. * You should sit up straight similar to sitting and typing a letter. * You arms should be generally relaxed at the elbows. * Your right foot should be placed ahead of your left foot (your heel helps support your back).
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