Learn to Play Keyboard - 3 Things You Must Know to Get Started

It can be a lot of fun when you learn to play keyboard, but choosing the right type of lessons can get a little confusing. There are some excellent online resources that will get you off to a great start for very little expense.  But how do you make an intelligent decision about which course is right for you?

Here are three important things that will help you make the right choice:

1.  Choose lessons that are fun and engaging so they capture your attention and interest from the beginning. This may seem a little silly at first. Whoever said that piano keyboard lessons were supposed to be fun, and how do you do pick lessons like that anyway?

When I was growing up with traditional piano lessons, you first worked hard at all the drills and scales so that one day you could play stuff you actually liked. If there was any "fun" involved, it was probably getting that ice cream cone from Mom as a reward for practicing hard all week. Don't get me wrong: there is definitely a place for learning scales and doing exercises, but if that's the focus in the beginning, both children and adults can lose interest quickly.

Fortunately, there are online resources today which help you learn to play keyboard in a fast paced, results-oriented manner that really is fun. Where do you find those? Look for lessons that emphasize learning chord and rhythm patterns first, instead of traditional teaching which focuses on sight reading and memorizing other peoples musical compositions. (I can still hear my first instructor's stern voice saying, "No, you have to memorize 'Merrily We Roll Along' and 'Frere Jacques' before we go any further!")

2.  Choose lessons which help you play what you want to play right away. In the beginning, most of us want to learn to play keyboard with some favorite songs as soon as possible. With new chord and rhythm pattern teaching methods, students can do this. Both adults and children feel good about early success like this, and they are motivated to learn more and progress more rapidly.

3.  Look for extensive audio and video lessons to be part of the course. It really speeds up the learning process to see and hear what is in your lesson book, and to be able to repeat it as many times as you want to pick up fine points you might have missed the first time around. When learning a certain chord pattern, it is a huge help to have a video to see how the fingers are placed, and to watch how they move from key to key. When you are learning a new rhythm pattern, it makes a big difference to hear it and be able to repeat it instead of just trying to read it from the book.

It is really possible to learn to play keyboard quickly and easily if you find the right instruction. Pick methods which first teach you chord and rhythm patterns. This helps you build a great foundation for more complicated techniques later, and you will have a lot of fun while you learn to crank out those favorite tunes.