Introduction
Learning to play the piano is one of the most rewarding and enriching journeys you can take in music. Whether your goal is to play classical pieces, accompany yourself singing, or just enjoy a relaxing hobby, the piano offers a solid foundation for musical growth. But if you’re just starting out, it can feel overwhelming—where do you begin, and how do you make real progress?
The good news is that learning the piano doesn’t require expensive lessons or advanced tools right away. In this blog, I’ll walk you through a practical path to learning the piano using resources and websites that are the fastest and easiest way to improve.
Getting Started
Youtube Videos
I only ever recommend this if there is no other option. If you scan down this page at the other options, and see anything else that you can do, then that is definitely better to learn from. However, if not, then YouTube tutorials where the notes fall down from the top are a way to learn. This is the way that many piano players, including myself, began playing, as it only requires following the notes as they fall.
Unfortunately, there are just so many downsides that it’s just not worth spending time on anyone other than a complete beginner learning this way. For a full list of the problems and disadvantages, click here:
This is the type of YouTube that I’m talking about.
Music Books
Music Books are great when it comes to having a large volume of songs for you to work on. Having a few grade 1-2 books is a good starting point, and even if you grow out of practising them you can always keep them for sight reading practice after you have moved beyond the easier one. You cant really go wrong with a few music books so get as many as you can. For a complete beginner you should be looking for grade 1 or 2 books.
Websites: (MuseScore and MusicNotes)
The last way to learn music is by using different websites. By far the best is MuseScore! It’s free, has a massive amount of music that is posted by the community, and has decent tools for searching for music. I highly recommend anyone who has passed grade 2-3~ and doesn’t have a teacher to take advantage of the range of songs on MuseScore.
Another website you could use is MusicNotes, it costs about $5-$10 for the sheet music of a song you want, so it’s a lot more expensive. Typically, these songs are far higher quality and have had real professional-level work put into making them, sometimes worth it. I usually don’t believe that it’s worth paying per song, and apart from a few occasions where I wanted a specific song, I have never personally used it. There are multiple websites like this for the piano and all work in a similar way.
That’s all for now
That’s all I’m going to cover in this blog as it focuses more on the beginner to intermediate level, where everything. If you have read all of the options above, you should be able to search for and learn any type of music you want at any level.
Book piano lessons now in Cambridge and Te Awamutu
If you are interested and you’re located in Cambridge, Hamilton or Te Awamutu, feel free to have a look at my home page or book now using the link below.