Hello and welcome. I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we're going to be learning a few of the basics about the piano
and by the end of this lesson you'll be playing your first song on the piano.
So let's come over and get started.
First thing you'll probably notice about the piano is wow, a lot of keys here.
Well it's actually quite simple. The further you go to the left the lower the sound.
[Playing piano]
Here we have the low notes of the piano,
and the further we go up to the right, we get to the high notes.
Now, let's experiment with your own piano.
I want you to find a place up in the high range and then one note at a time just keep
playing
each note higher and higher until you get to the very highest note.
And there on my piano is the very highest note.
Good, now let's go back to the low end.
Find a low note on your piano, and let's go one note at a time lower and lower playing
every note
until you get to the very lowest note on your piano.
Good now let's take a look at the patterns of the black keys.
What 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.
Ready two, three, two, three, two, three, two three.
That pattern continues all the way up the piano.
Now let's try going down. Two, three, two, three, two.
Just one lonely black key down here.
It really ought to be a group of three, but they decided to make this the lowest note
way back when they invented the piano, and so that one 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 are ready to learn your first song.
The first song you are going to learn is "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 and they would go around the town selling
bread.
A hot cross bun is a special kind of roll that would have a cross shape on it
And in England back then just like the ice cream truck comes and you hear the sound
of the ice cream truck coming you know you want to go buy some ice cream.
The kids would sing this song around the streets so people would know it was
time to buy bread, and they would come out and buy the bread.
Here's "Hot Cross Buns".
Hot Cross Buns. Hot Cross Buns. One a penny, two a penny. Hot Cross Buns.
Let's sing "Hot Cross Buns" together again and this time
I'd like to show you 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 because it was hot so we are going to go "Hot" and then on the
word
"Cross" we are going to make a cross shape,
and then "Buns" we are going to make the shape of the bread.
Here we go, can you try this 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 the reason I was doing these hand signs is because it shows you when the notes are
high, middle, or low in this song.
This song is made up of three notes.
This one in solfege is called MI.
This note is called RE.
And this note is called DO.
And they are all a step apart from each other on the piano.
Now we are going to sing "Hot Cross Buns" one more time,
and this time we are going to sing the solfege.
This one is MI RE and DO.
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 we are going to practice moving our fingers
the same way we are going to need to play it on the piano.
So can you hold up your right hand?
For "Hot Cross Buns" since we have three notes,
we are going to need just these three fingers.
This finger will play MI, and then we are going to step down to RE,
and then step down to DO like this.
I'll show you once and then you try.
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.
The next part of this song has what's called a repeating note.
A repeating note means we play the same note again and again
and that one is on DO. We do four DO's.
DO DO DO DO. Now you try.
Then it steps up to RE and repeats on RE.
RE RE RE RE. Your turn.
Now my turn again. We are going to do one more stepping down pattern starting on MI.
MI RE DO. Your turn.
Great work.
Now let's look at how all of those patterns fit together to make a whole song.
Now the first pattern in this song is a stepping down pattern with three notes.
MI RE DO.
Then can you think of what comes next in the song?
If you said the same pattern again you are correct.
We have another stepping down pattern next.
MI RE DO.
The next pattern goes DO DO DO DO
and then steps up RE RE RE RE.
What comes next?
If you said another stepping down pattern of MI RE DO you are correct.
MI RE DO.
Now we've drawn the whole song of "Hot Cross Buns".
Now you are ready to try to playing "Hot Cross Buns" on the piano with me.
When you play the piano, you want your finger to feel relaxed.
We'll talk more about piano posture and the shape of your hand in a later lesson,
but for now just make sure instead of using flat fingers that your fingers have a relaxed
curved shape.
Just comfortably place your three fingers on a group of three black keys like this.
I'll play a pattern and then you try.
We are going to start with finger four on MI.
My turn first. MI RE DO. Your turn.
My turn. MI RE DO. Now your turn.
Good. Now it's time for the repeating note on DO.
DO DO DO DO. You try.
Good. Now we'll step up to RE and repeat some more.
RE RE RE RE. Now your turn.
Good. My turn again. MI RE DO. Your turn.
Great job. Now let's try the whole song together.
Play along with me. We'll go a little slowly this first time.
Ready go.
Hot Cross Buns. Hot Cross Buns. One a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns.
Great job. If you didn't play it perfectly, that's no problem.
You can just rewind and practice it again
or press pause and practice it by yourself a few times,
and then try playing it with me again when you're ready.
The last thing I wanted to talk about today is practicing.
You're starting a long journey to become a great pianist.
And it takes daily practice.
If you just do a little bit of practice every day,
you can become as awesome as you'd like to get on the piano.
So I encourage you to practice every day the songs that we learn.
Even when go onto new songs, try to go back and review your old songs everyday too.
From our website, you can also download some activity sheets
and practice instructions that I've created for you
to help your learning go even deeper,
and to help you review the concepts that we've learned.
You can also download an MP3 file of the jazz version of "Hot Cross Buns"
that you can practice playing along with.
As a welcome gift to you for joining our online piano learning community,
I'd like to give you the materials for this first lesson "Hot Cross Buns"
and the practice track for playing "Hot Cross Buns" jazz style for free.
All you have to do is sign up for our newsletter which is also free.
The newsletter will give you weekly practice tips and ideas
to help you make this a successful learning journey.
I really want to support you in your learning and make this successful for you.
We've had hundreds of people around the world using this to learn piano online.
It's a great new way to learn piano, and I'm so excited to be your online piano teacher.
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.
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.