Piano Lesson One

I have taught many 'Piano Lesson Ones' over the years. The first thing I explain to people is Middle C, which is the C in the middle of the piano.

I encourage people to think about fingering, starting with 'One is Thumb', so they can use all five fingers of both hands when playing the piano. I talk about notes as in pitch and time. The letter names of the notes of the octave, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and back to A again. I talk about the stave; the treble clef played with the right hand and the bass clef played with the left hand. As for timing I talk about time signatures: common time 4/4, waltz time 3/4 and march time 2/4. I also talk about semibreves, minims and crotchets. I don't usually get to talk about the rests at the bottom of the page.