Wondering what the best piano applications for kids in 2022 are? Let’s explore a list of the best apps to start learning piano.

Learning to play the piano through an app can be fun for kids and a time-saver for their parents. Instead of spending a few hours a day running kids to piano lessons across town, your kids can use that time to practice piano. 

Apps are designed to be fun and friendly. Most of them prepare material in simple soundbites. The child can play through different skill-building exercises and piano pieces, then move on when they master a lesson. 

If your child loves playing video games, a piano app can be a fun and motivational tool for learning to play the piano. We’ve put together a list of the best piano applications for kids today.

How to find the best piano applications for you.

With so many piano apps for kids available, the choices can be overwhelming! Different piano apps focus on various skill levels and learning goals. Some are more game-oriented, and others put a greater emphasis on piano notes and theory.

The good news is there are plenty of options to choose from! The following criteria can help you narrow down your choices.

The five best piano applications for kids today.

1. Simply

The Simply Piano app is a well-known app popular with children and adults. The music selections range from pop songs on the radio to the classics.  You can learn where the notes are on the piano, how to read sheet music, and how to play the treble and bass clefs. 

This app is compatible with acoustic pianos, electric keyboards, and digital pianos. It uses a microphone to listen as you play and gives you valuable real-time feedback. This can help you recognize and correct your mistakes as you go. 

If you don’t have a piano yet, this app can still walk you through the basics. The Touch Course allows a phone to serve as a backup piano that a child can take with them on the go. 

With the Simply Piano app, you can even purchase a family package. The whole family can learn piano on personalized profiles at a reduced rate.

Playing the piano has never been easier with this piano app. With over ten million downloads, Simply Piano is one of the most popular apps on today’s market. 

2. Flowkey

Flowkey is a simple yet comprehensive learning platform for kids. This app includes piano theory, some history of the instrument, and a good selection of tunes to play on the piano. 

Flowkey is helpful for both beginning piano students and those with more advanced skills. Kids can build their repertoire as they play and master various songs in the program. 

Whether you have an acoustic piano or a MIDI keyboard, this app can keep your fingers on the right keys. It uses a microphone to listen to the notes you play and lets you know when you strike a wrong chord. 

You can watch videos to learn more about the piano and play along with the music on your device. The Flowkey app works on both Android and iOS devices and is a great supplemental learning tool for children enrolled in piano lessons.

3. Pianokids

Pianokids target a younger audience. It uses simple practice exercises to teach kids notes —breaking down simple music lessons with educational games and puzzles. 

Young children play music and games directly on a tablet or phone. You can also print off worksheets from the app. The Pianokids app inspires a love of music in children and teaches them short soundbites of information. 

If you are looking for a way to introduce your child to music early, this app can be a fun-packed way for a kid to learn.

4. Gismart Piano

Gismart Piano can be a fun tool for kids who love to learn through play. This app turns a phone into a piano keyboard and uses games to teach your child piano.

 Even if your child isn’t familiar with music or keyboards, they can still play along with the app’s guidance. Kids can choose to play games or record their own songs. 

Gismart Piano allows a child to experiment with sounds in different octaves on the piano or other instruments. Some sounds that the app includes are the grand piano, guitar, harpsichord, organ, and accordion.

This app is more of a game than an instructional program. However, through games and experimentation with sounds, your child can develop a love for music that can spark a life-long interest in the piano.

5. Playground Sessions

With Playground Sessions, kids start in Bootcamp to learn the basics. Bootcamp takes a kid from ground-level skills to advanced levels. 

Once kids succeed in a level, they can unlock more learning tools and games to advance. Each child gets a score and points for their performance to mark their progress on a level. Your kid can even compete against others as they level up.

This app includes the opportunity for supplemental courses, in-depth theory, and improvisation. 

It can be a good fit for kids who love a challenge and competition.

However, unlike other apps, Playground Sessions is exclusive to MIDI keyboards and is incompatible with acoustic pianos. 

Download an app, and your kid can start playing today!

Apps can be a fun way for kids to learn piano. These kid-oriented platforms allow kids to succeed without the fear of failure. You can combine an app with in-person lessons or allow your child to be the master of their progress. 

For more ideas on encouraging your child’s learning experience, you can also check out this Ultimate Guide to Beginner Piano Lessons for Kids. 

Download your app of choice, and your child can start learning to play piano today! 

FAQs.

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If you’re new to the keyboard and want to learn how to play, these keyboard lessons for beginners set you out on the right foot. 

You don’t always need face-to-face lessons to learn a new skill. If learning to play the keyboard is on your bucket list, this article will be a dynamic way to start. These keyboard lessons for beginners include critical first steps and tips like practice habits, hand placement, and connecting notes to the keys. Let’s help you lay a good foundation for your keyboard journey.

Understanding the positions of keys.

Each note on a keyboard has a name–a letter between A and G–that you need to know by heart. Music sheets or charts tell you which notes to play using symbols and letters. 

A keyboard’s layout consists of a few sets of octaves. An octave constitutes seven white and five black keys:

• White keys are whole notes.
• Black keys are semitones higher or lower than the white ones they’re next to. 

There are two groups of black keys in an octave, one with two black keys and the other with three. These are flats and sharps, and we use ‘♭’ and ‘#’ respectively to refer to them in music notation. 

There is a letter for each whole note in that set. Sheet music and chord charts tell you which of those notes to play. The faster you learn the name of each key, the quicker you can start reading music on a page.

An effective way to start is by labeling each key. Here’s how you figure out each one’s letter:

1. Look for a grouping of two black keys anywhere on the keyboard 
2. Find the white key to the left of these black keys
3. Label this key C
4. The first four keys to its right are D, E, F, and G
5. The next two are A and B
6. Then you start from C again 

So, you can quickly identify any C note by simply looking for a group of two black keys and playing the white key to the left.

The notes to your right get higher in pitch, while you’ll find the pitch gets lower to your left. After labeling all the notes, you’ll see a C more or less in the center of the piano. This is middle C. 

Learning chords.

Playing music also requires an understanding of scales and chords.

Scales are sequences of notes that explore the tonality of a key. Each note is either a whole or a half step up from the previous one. You’ll find major scales most commonly in music. They are as follows:

• A major: A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A
• B major: B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A#, B
• C major: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C
• D major: D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D
• E major: E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E
• F major: F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, F
• G major: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G

You play a chord when you push down two or more notes simultaneously. In most cases, a chord consists of three notes–a triad. The three notes in a chord are the:

• Root note–the first note in the scale, giving the chord its name
• Third note–the third note in the scale (for major chords)
• Fifth note–the fifth note of the scale

There are different types of chords, with rules that stipulate how one should create the chords in that set. Common types include the major chords and the minor chords. The latter is simply changing the third of the chord by one half-step or a semitone.

Based on these rules, here’s a summary of major and minor chords you’ll use most often.

A chord sheet tells you which chords to play, or you can see a visual representation of what to play when playing from a musical staff on sheet music. Often, you’ll play a chord with your left hand while playing a melody with your right. 

Practicing hand and finger position on a keyboard.

Knowing how to place your hands over the keys is as important as understanding music theory. When correct placement becomes a habit, you advance quicker in learning to play the keyboard. 

For one thing, your hands are in the right position to reach notes far from each other. Also, many sheet music and chord sheets include guidelines about which fingers to use, so you need to understand what they refer to. 

First, place your hands palms-down in front of you. Starting at your thumbs and moving outward, number each finger from one to five. Now you know which fingers a keyboard exercise or sheet music refers to. 

Part of keyboard exercises is to help you become comfortable pushing down the keys. Here are a few exercises.

Exercise 1

With your hands on the piano, put your right thumb on middle C and label it number one. Now play C, D with finger two, E with finger three, and continue up to five. Vocalize which note you’re playing each time you press down to start memorizing their names. 

Now play the sequence backward until you reach middle C again. Do the same with your left hand, playing downwards towards the lower tones and back to middle C.

You can continue practicing by moving your right hand one key to the right, so your thumb rests on D. Using the list of scales above, play the first five notes in that sequence. You’re playing a part of a scale! 

Now do the same with each note in the octave.

Do the same with the left hand; as you feel more comfortable, you can do the exercise at a higher tempo. But don’t rush too much–you need to ensure proper form at all times:

• Curve your fingers
• Relax your wrist
• Line up your pinkies with wrists and elbows
• Relax your shoulders

Exercise 2

Practicing scales is also essential as part of piano lessons for beginners. Once again, play the entire sequence using the list of scales above.

For the C major scale, from C to C, use the following fingers, with the thumb going underneath the other fingers to play the fourth note in the sequence:

1 – 2 – 3 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

Do this going forwards and backward on both hands. This is how you improve speed, get to know your scales, and improve the independence of your two hands. 

Practice coordination between your left and right hand.

Part of becoming a great keyboard player is having your left and right hand do entirely different actions. They need to function independently of each other. 

Start practicing this by playing your C major scale using both hands, but in opposite directions. Your right hand moves up the keys, and your left hand goes down before returning to middle C.

After you feel comfortable doing this, play the scale with both hands moving in the same direction:

• Your right thumb starts on middle C, while your left pinky starts on an octave lower
• The right hand plays the scale as usual
• The finger sequence for your left hand will be 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – 3 – 2 – 1, ending with the left thumb on middle C
• Then, do everything in reverse 

For more exercises, you can use our article on the Best Piano Books for Beginners to find some excellent keyboard piano lessons for beginners to practice both hands. 

A keyboard is a versatile instrument, and if you’re not sure yet which one to buy, our article on the Best Keyboard Piano for Beginners will be a great help. We cover more keyboard basics for beginners and review a few keyboard models. 

Do you have any other questions to get your keyboard career started? Please leave a comment!

FAQs

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Should I label the piano keys or will this learning tool become a crutch? If you are asking these questions, you are not alone!

Learning styles differ from person to person. If one student can find their hand position and learn the notes without labels, great! However, if labeling the piano keys helps a beginning student grow in knowledge and gain confidence, why not?

The Simply Piano app has no right or wrong answer regarding labeling your piano keys. We believe that learning music should be fun and accessible to all students.

Want to know how to label piano keys? Let’s dive in!

The music alphabet.

The music alphabet has seven letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. In written music, these letters hang out on lines and spaces on the staff. 

Middle C is dead center between the bass clef and treble clef. From C, you can head up the treble clef with D, E, F, G, and so on. Or, you can back down the bass clef, reciting the alphabet backward with B, A, G, F, etc. 

Similarly, the piano has a very linear layout. The first white key will be A if you start at the bottom of an 88-key piano. So on the white keys, you just go up saying “A, B, C, D, E, F, G” over and over until you reach the last key or run out of breath. 

Sharps and flats.

The black keys can be a bit trickier. These five black keys have ten different names! You can read the names as sharps if you go up the scale. If you start from middle C, your first black key will be C#, then D#, F#, G#, and A#. However, you can read these same keys as flats: D♭, E♭, G♭, A♭, B♭. 

Most popular ways to label piano keys. 

So now that we’ve gone over some note names, how do you label piano keys for beginners? There are four popular ways to go about it. (And, no, writing on your grandmother’s ivory keys in a permanent marker is not on this list.) 

1. The dry-erase marker

A dry erase marker is the simplest way to put note names on keys. Plus, it’s a temporary fix that wipes off easily. However, as you play, the letters may wear off too easily and disappear altogether during practice. 

This means you will need to rewrite the letter names again and again. 

But hey, the repetition could help you get those notes down!

2. Sticky labels with letter notes

Writing the note names on sticky labels is probably the most common method for matching letter names to piano keys. You can use white dot stickers or cut-up sticky name tags to fit your keys. 

Some beginners choose only to label the portion of the piano that they will be using in their pieces. This can be the starting hand position or the octaves below and above middle C.

Other students want to label all 88 keys to get the big picture.

3. Color-coded dots

Color-coded dots can also be a great way to find notes on the piano. This is especially true for younger students learning their letters. 

The trick to this method is consistency. 

Choose one color to represent all the As, another to represent the B notes, a different color for C keys, and so on. 

Some music notation software even allows you to color-code the written music notes to match! 

4. Pre-printed labels with letter notes and staff notes

If you want to go all out, you can choose labels that show the letter names, sharps, flats, and the note as it appears on the staff. If you find it way too time-consuming to write all these out on tiny stickers, you can buy them ready-made on Amazon. 

These piano stickers for beginners may be helpful for detail-oriented students. However, some students may find a load of information a bit overwhelming.

How to label notes on a piano keyboard.

To start labeling your piano keys, we’ll give you a few simple indicators to help you find the right notes. On a standard 88-key piano, you can start at the first white note at the bottom, A, and work your way up. However, this method is ineffective if you have a keyboard because the lowest starting note can vary. 

Finding middle C is key.

Another way to label your keys correctly is to use middle C as your guiding star. Just like written music, the piano focuses on middle C. 

You’ll find that both your thumbs rest on the middle C key for the beginning hand position. This white, L-shaped key can be your ‘key’ for finding all the other keys. So, how do you find it on the piano?

You’ll notice groups of two black and three black keys on the piano. Find the pair of black keys and look to the left to find the C note. This note is C. 

On a regular 88-key piano, middle C is often called C4 because it’s the fourth C key on the piano. Middle C is the closest C to the middle on an 88-key piano. 

What a coincidence, right?

Those tricky black keys.

The ABC note names are as easy as ‘123’ once you catch onto the pattern. But, the black keys can get a little trickier. If you want to label the black keys, remember that each has sharp and flat names. Which name you use will depend on which key you are in.

You can include both names on your piano key markers (like C# and Db). Or, you can just remember that going up from a C is C#, and coming down from a D is Db.

Label your piano for the starting hand position.

Not interested in labeling all 88 keys on your piano? That’s okay. More isn’t always better. You can begin with just a few notes and build out from there. 

For starting hand position, you will rest your right thumb on middle C and your pinky on G. Your left thumb can also rest on middle C with your pinky on F in the bass clef. 

Start labeling just the white keys until you know these notes by heart. Then, as you get comfortable, add in more notes.

Learn the piano keys & play with both hands!

Memorizing the note names on the piano can be tricky, but labeling the keyboard keys can help. 

We are here to support you in your journey if you are looking for more ways to build confidence in your skills.

Most beginner students who enroll in our programs learn to play songs with two hands in less than two weeks. Music is our passion, and our goal is that students learn the piano and have fun along the way.

FAQs.

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