The time that it takes you to learn piano is dependent upon the time and effort you are willing to put into it. In order to progress quickly and easily, you are going to need a teacher who is willing to push you to learn.
That is not to say that you can’t teach yourself- you are more than welcome to try teaching yourself, just know that you’re going to progress quite slowly and you may not get the results that you wish to have. Following are a few things you must keep in mind when you’re trying to figure out how long to learn piano.
Understand the Way it’s Set Up
Once you have figured out the notes that correlate to the piano keys, you’ll find that you’ll be able to play proficiently in no time at all. The very first step to learning to play the piano is finding “middle C.”
This is the key that is at the center of the piano’s keyboard. The notes on a piano are grouped into octaves and “middle C” is the beginning of the 4th one. The notes of each octave are C-D-E-F-G-A-B and the next key, which will be “C” begins the next octave.
One great way to start learning to play the piano is by naming the notes and octaves as you go up and down the keys of the piano. If you spend time practicing at least 30 minutes each day, within a week, you should be fairly proficient at locating all of the keys and octaves on the piano.
Shortcut for Learning to Play the Piano
You will be able to learn and play songs within a short time by taking the time to learn piano tablatures. A tablature, referred to as a tab, is truly an easy way to grasp reading and writing music.
As mentioned, piano keys are set up in groups- called octaves- and each key in the octave is given a name (a letter). When you look at a piano tab, you see that it shows the sequence of keys that need to be pressed by giving you a number and a letter to show the octave in which the notes should be played.
One example of what a piano tab would look like is here: 6-A-C-E-F-A. This means that you need to go to the 6th octave and play “A”, then play C, E, F, and another A.
Music Notation
The most difficult part of learning to play the piano is learning to read the sheet music and taking what you are reading and translate it to music on the piano. Musical notation refers to notes that are written on five lines that are parallel and evenly spaced.
On the first line, you will find “E”, the second line will be “G”, the third line will be for “B”, the fourth line will be for “D”, and the last (5th) line will be “F”. This is on the treble clef, which is played using your right hand. One easy way to remember this is “Every Good Boy Does Fine.”
Next, the spaces between the lines also represent certain notes. Starting at the bottom of the lines, the space between the first and second line will be for “F”, then, going up, the next space will be for “A”, the third space will be for “C”, and the last space will be for “E”.
As you can see, this spells FACE, which is an easy way to remember the notes as you are reading a piece of sheet music.
Now, you are equipped with the tools that can help you learn to play the piano. The rest of learning to play is up to you. You must be willing to put forth the effort and spend time practicing so that you can get the dexterity and the knowledge that you need to play the piano properly and well.
Of course, this is something that most piano players will spend the rest of their lives figuring out. If you’re willing to increase your piano practice to an hour (or more) each day, you’ll find that you’ll see more gains in your ability than you would have ever expected.
So- how long does it take to learn to play the piano? That really depends a lot on you and the effort you’re willing to put in it.
