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Piano lume BetaA step-by-step path from your very first note to reading and playing advanced pieces. Take the lessons in order, or pick your level and jump to what you need.
Stage 1. Start from zero: find the white keys, keep a steady beat, read the treble staff, and play simple melodies with each hand in turn.
Low and high, and the pattern of black keys that maps the whole piano.
Set up your seat, find a relaxed hand shape and learn your finger numbers.
Find C next to any group of two black keys, and meet middle C.
Name every white key from A to G using the black-key landmarks.
Mixed practice and checks on everything in Meet the piano.
Feel the pulse, count out loud and play quarter notes with a metronome.
Hold notes for two and four beats while you keep counting.
Count through silent beats and come back in right on time.
Beats, long notes and rests together, plus a Unit 1 refresher.
Right hand in C position: play Hot Cross Buns, first by the glowing keys, then in time on your own.
All five right-hand fingers on C to G, and Ode to Joy in time.
Hear and play the two smallest moves between white keys, then a new tune that uses both.
Two new tunes in time, plus a rhythm from Unit 2.
Left-hand C position in the low register: mirror finger numbers and your first low melody.
Pass a tune between the high and low parts of the keyboard, like a conversation.
Low melodies, call and answer, and a refresher from Units 1 and 2.
Lines and spaces, the treble clef, and reading C to G up from middle C.
Read quarter, half and whole notes, rests and bars in 4/4, and play them in time.
Notes and rhythm together: read short tunes from the staff and play them in time.
Practice reading unfamiliar notes and rhythms: EGBDF, FACE, written rhythms and a short melody.
Play an original tune made from lessons 1–17: C position, a steady beat and the staff.
The final Stage 1 assessment: keys, rhythm, listening, reading and low notes. Take it whenever you're ready, even early.
Stage 2. The bass clef, both hands together, scales and keys, chords, new rhythms and sight-reading.
The F clef, middle C from below, and the lines of the bass staff: Good Boys Do Fine Always.
The spaces of the bass staff, A C E G, and reading lines and spaces together.
Read short tunes from the bass staff and play them in time with your left hand.
Practice the bass staff: Good Boys Do Fine Always, All Cows Eat Grass and left-hand melodies.
Both staves joined by a brace: which hand reads which, and middle C in between.
A right-hand melody while the left hand holds long notes underneath.
A right-hand melody over a slower moving left hand, read from the grand staff.
Short two-hand pieces: a melody over held notes and over a moving left hand.
Half steps and whole steps, the black keys' names, and the signs that raise, lower and cancel.
The major-scale pattern of whole and half steps, and passing the thumb under to play eight notes.
The major-scale pattern from G and from F: one sharp and one flat.
One sharp for G major, one flat for F major: read melodies without a sign on every note.
Practice sharps, flats, the three major scales and reading with a key signature.
Play an original tune made from lessons 22–31: the bass clef, sharps and flats, hands taking turns and the C major scale.
Build a chord from every other note: root, third and fifth.
Stacked notes: chords on lines, chords in spaces, and playing them straight from the page.
The same chord with a different note at the bottom, so chords can move smoothly.
The three main chords of a key, and a left-hand chord part under a right-hand melody.
Triads, inversions and I–IV–V, played from the staff and under a melody.
Two notes in a beat: counting “1 and 2 and”, reading beamed eighths, and playing them evenly.
A dot adds half: dotted half notes and dotted quarters, and three beats in a bar.
Loud and soft, getting louder and softer, smooth legato and short staccato.
Eighth notes, dotted rhythms, 3/4 time and expression marks, together.
Play an original tune made from lessons 14–41: 3/4 time, dotted notes and both hands together.
Look before you play: key, time signature, patterns and the next note while you play this one.
Play short pieces you've never seen, both hands, at a steady tempo.
Unfamiliar pieces that combine everything from Stage 2.
Play an original tune made from lessons 28–45: chords, hands together, eighth notes and the key of G.
The final Stage 2 assessment: bass clef, both hands, scales and keys, chords, rhythm and sight-reading.
Stage 3. Read from sheet music: minor scales, advanced chords, complex rhythms, two-hand independence, expression and longer pieces.
Stage 3 starts here, read from sheet music. The minor sound, relative minors, and the A, E and D natural minor scales.
Raise the 7th for harmonic minor; raise the 6th and 7th going up for melodic minor.
D and A major and their fingering, with the thumb crossing in the right places.
A chord's notes one at a time across the keyboard: C major and A minor arpeggios, right hand, then hands together.
Natural, harmonic and melodic minor, scales in more keys and arpeggios.
Play an original tune made from lessons 33–48: A minor, waltz time and dotted notes.
Add a fourth note: major 7th, dominant 7th and minor 7th chords.
ii–V–I, I–vi–IV–V, and the cadences that end a phrase.
Broken chords, Alberti bass and waltz patterns under a melody.
Major, minor and seventh chords and progressions recognized by ear.
Seventh chords, progressions, accompaniment patterns and harmony by ear.
Four notes in a beat: counting “1 e and a”, and mixing sixteenths with eighths.
Accents off the beat: notes that start on the “and” and carry across the beat.
Three notes in one beat, and the long-short swing feel written out as triplets.
Two dotted-quarter beats in a bar, each split in three.
Sixteenths, syncopation, triplets and 6/8, read and played.
Play an original tune made from lessons 50–61: seventh chords, the blues, sixteenths and triplets.
Different rhythms in each hand at once: two against one, and held notes against moving ones.
Shifting to a new hand position during a long note or a rest, so the hands travel across the keyboard.
The left hand crosses over the right to play above it, while the right hand keeps going.
Two lines at once: a melody in the left hand under right-hand chords, then two melodies together.
Independent rhythms, position shifts, crossings and layered melodies.
Legato, staccato and accents, and shaping phrases that breathe.
Pedal marks, and changing the pedal cleanly with each new chord.
Getting louder and softer, slowing down and speeding up: rit., accel. and a tempo.
Articulation, pedal, dynamics and tempo marks in real pieces.
Play an original tune made from lessons 37–69: broken chords, inversions, the pedal and dynamics.
Repeats, first and second endings, D.C. al Fine and the road map of a longer piece.
Grace notes, trills and mordents, and 8va: what they mean and how to play them.
Learn a longer two-hand piece section by section, then play it through.
Unfamiliar music with everything in it: prepare quickly, read ahead, keep going.
Longer pieces, ornaments and sight-reading unfamiliar music.
Play an original tune made from lessons 45–74: hand crossing, ornaments, phrasing and everything you've learned.
A minor scale, an arpeggio, harmony, complex rhythms, chords with the pedal, two hands in 6/8 and an unfamiliar piece. Take it whenever you're ready.
Antonio Vivaldi, 1:00
Simplified excerpt · The Four Seasons, Spring, 1st movement
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, 0:50
Simplified excerpt · from The Tale of Tsar Saltan