If you are learning a musical instrument, then you know it is hard to keep your motivation going every day. Learning an instrument is tough work, and you can easily put it down for a day or two, and have it turn into a month. However, doing small things every day to work on yourself and your craft can improve your musical abilities dramatically.

By developing routines that will make you both learn your instrument quicker and master your skills, you will be well on your way to becoming the musical genius you have always dreamed of. Apply these five habits in your life and see the progress immediately!

1. Exercise Every Day

The odds are unless you are a professional musician on stage every night, the amount of energy you will spend playing your instrument is minimal. This can lead us to believe that we do not need to be in top shape to play music. This is mistake number one. You are constantly utilizing your muscles when playing, and you have to make sure they are ready for the demands you will put them through!

See Also: 3 Ways Playing an Instrument is like Working Out

2. Practice. Practice. Practice!

It is not a popular idea for everyone, and it can be tedious, but the best way to become a musical professional is to put in the work. There are tons of different exercises for any instrument in order to work on different skills related to playing. From fundamentals to speed to technique, practicing can take your musical ability to new heights.

See Also: These 7 Great Songs Make Piano Practice Fun Again

3. Learn About Your Instrument

One of the most important things for any musician, and one that is easy to overlook when learning how to play, is to familiarize yourself with the instrument you are playing. The best way for you to get started is to learn everything you can about the tools of your trade. Some of the best music that has ever been made came from artists who pushed the boundaries of their instruments. Find out the sounds you can produce, the different styles you can play, and get started on your musical experimentation.

4. Get Back to Basics

One of the easiest ways to develop poor techniques and musical habits is to skip the basics course and forget about the essentials of playing an instrument. Basic skills can be developed early on, but are hard to maintain after some time. Skills such as timing, pacing, rhythm, and keeping a constant beat can seem unimportant, but can make your music sound a million times more refined when done right.

5. A Different Style Every Day

The best way to expand your musical horizons is to explore new sounds and styles while journeying into different genres. In order to truly push your learning, you should also make sure you are working outside of your musical comfort zone as often as possible. Even if you do not necessarily like the music you are listening to, you can always learn something new by paying attention to skilled and talented musicians from every genre.

Get started and develop these habits to take your music skills to the next level!  

The post Learning an instrument? Successful musicians build these habits appeared first on Learn to Play an Instrument with step-by-step lessons | Simply Blog.

Want to get your witch on? We’ve broken down some of your favorite musical themes from Harry Potter for beginners. 

The Harry Potter feature films are filled with magical music. They’re crafted with just the right amount of charm and suspense, drawing you into a world where broomsticks fly, potions make you fall in love, and diaries carry evil spirits. 

Musically, the Harry Potter soundtrack is complex, especially for beginners. But with your natural knack for sounds and sorcery, you will surely succeed! Pull out your wand and wander into the wonderful world of wizardry with this guide to Harry Potter sheet music for piano. 

Hedwig’s Theme.

Here is an excerpt from the sheet music for Hedwig’s Theme–one of the most popular musical motifs from the Harry Potter films. 

As you can see, this music is in the ⅜ time signature3/8, meaning that there are three eighth notes per bar. It’s also in the G major key which includes the following notes: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#.

Before diving into this sheet music, it’s essential to practice the fundamentals. Here is an exercise that trains your brain and your wand (I mean, fingers) to play in G major and 3/8:

1. Place the metronome on 125bpm in the time signature 3/8.
2. Now play the G major scale in time with the metronome–one note per click.
3. Once that feels comfortable, change up the pattern. Play three notes in a row, and then go back one note. For example, GAB, ABC, BCD, CDE, and so on. 
4. When this is sitting well, take the metronome up to 140bpm. 

Nimbus 2000.

This is one of the more upbeat and light-hearted themes in the Harry Potter films. To play this theme with the right energy, we have to learn about two musical terms: staccato and accent. 

Staccato means ‘detached’ in Italian. On the piano, this is when you play each note short and sharp, lifting your hand off the keys between each one. In music notation, it gets a small dot above the circle or head of the note. You can see them pictured on all of the notes below:

An accent is when you emphasize a note with volume and intensity. You can see it in the above sheet music with a small arrow symbol above the note head.

We recommend isolating these music techniques before you start to learn the Nimbus 2000 theme. Try the following exercise to practice playing notes staccato and with accents:

1. Put the metronome on 100 bpm in a 4/4 time signature. Play a C major scale with your right hand, one note per click.
2. Now play it again, this time making the last four notes of the scale staccato. Press lightly, but with presence, on the keys. Lift your hand slightly between each note.
3. Now turn the tempo up to 120bpm. Play the whole C major scale staccato. 
4. Play it again, accenting the first and fifth degrees of the scale. Press a little harder on these notes, and lean into the key more. Make sure the notes before and after are shorter and gentler but still staccato. 
5. If that feels comfortable, try accenting every second note of the scale. Then, every third note. 

Potter Waltz.

There’s nothing like a waltz to get your wand waving! This is a classic Harry Potter theme from the fourth movie, famous for its appearance in the ballroom scenes. A waltz is a musical form that is always in a 3/4 time signature and follows a specific pattern. 

Looking at the bass clef (lower staff) in the sheet music excerpt below, you can see that the left hand is playing a broken chord, with the root note on the first beat, and two other notes on beats two and three. 

This is a simple pattern to practice and an essential one for playing any kind of waltz. Here is an easy exercise for mastering this musical style:

1. Let’s play in the key of D major because this is the key of the Potter Waltz. We can choose four chords from the D major scale: D major, G major, E minor, and A major. 
2. Play each chord on its own, in root position (eg: D, F#, A or G, B, D).
3. Put your metronome on 100bpm in a 3/4 time signature. Now play the whole chord progression in time, playing each chord three times along with the metronome clicks. 
4. When this feels comfortable, separate the lowest note of each chord from the upper two. Play the low note on beat one (with your thumb), and the upper two together on beats two and three (with your middle and pinky fingers). For example, the chord D major would look something like this:

5. If this feels good, take the tempo up to 120bpm. Then, try it in your left hand. 

Don’t forget to sing your incantations.

The best way to learn and internalize music is to sing it aloud. Reading notes and understanding musical symbols is essential, but this shouldn’t come at the expense of developing our musical ear. 

Make sure you listen to the Harry Potter themes you want to learn, practice singing them back, and even sing along while you play. This will make your playing more musical, and more intuitive and help you acquire useful tools so that your Harry Potter experience carries through into other music you want to learn. Don’t just make a wish–say a spell! 

Find more cinematic sheet music on our Simply Piano app, that practically sits with you at the piano and teaches you to play.

The post How to Play Harry Potter Music for Beginners appeared first on Learn to Play an Instrument with step-by-step lessons | Simply Blog.

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

The post Keyboard Lessons for Beginners appeared first on Learn to Play an Instrument with step-by-step lessons | Simply Blog.

Not to fear! The following songs are easy to learn, fun to play, and more importantly, are a good way to reinforce important fundamentals without driving you to tears!

Sara Bareilles – Love Song

A fun blast from the 2000s past, “Love Song” is a fun and catchy tune with a deceivingly easy piano part. The song is heavy on staccatos, or short, defined notes that give it a bouncy feeling. Staccatos are great ways to make parts of songs pack more punch, just like Beethoven’s fifth symphony!

Coldplay – Clocks

Another pop classic from 2004, “Clocks” is a great song to introduce yourself to triplets and the basics of arpeggios. These groups of notes that are played together, but separate from other notes are another key fundamental of music.Triplets are a great way to make a basic four-beat time signature sound unique and cool.

OneRepublic – Counting Stars

Another great song to master arpeggios, “Counting Stars” is a terrific, energetic piece that features some awesome riffs and nice changes of pace. The song is also a great way to practice playing different beats on both hands since the left is playing a steady beat all the way through.

The Beatles – Hey Jude

Every musician should know at least ONE Beatles song. “Hey Jude” is a simple track to learn, and doesn’t change much throughout, which is a great way to practice maintaining a steady beat the whole way through a piece of music. The building climax is also a great way to practice playing piano at different volume levels (piano, forte, and so on).

Avicii – Waiting for Love

For those more electronically inclined, Avicii’s “Waiting For Love” is another fantastic song to help master those tricky staccatos. The song’s easy piano structure makes it a quick learn, and you get to impress your friends with your piano-DJ abilities!

Alicia Keys – Fallin’

A phenomenal song for someone looking to master arpeggios, the piece’s wavy piano riff is entirely made of arpeggios, a great way to practice basic skills. It is also easy to learn and has very few different chords and notes.

Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth – See You Again

A cool song with a catchy piano-driven chorus, the simple piano riff of “See You Again” is a great way to familiarize yourself with multi-finger chords, and the simple chord progression makes it easy to catch on quickly. It’s also a fantastic way to start practicing using your left hand to accompany melodies.

These awesome songs are easy to play and put the “fun” in learning fundamentals!  Want to learn how to play songs like these? Check out JoyTunes.com for more info! 

The post These 7 Great Songs Make Piano Practice Fun Again appeared first on Learn to Play an Instrument with step-by-step lessons | Simply Blog.