English

Piano

Learn piano

9 steps from the keys to the first piece, each with a page that computes rather than claims: reading music, chords, inversions, pieces. Free, no account.

This is not a video course but the order in which the reference pages and tools on this site make sense when you start from zero. Every step has a page; skip what you already know.

The path

  1. 1The keysTwo black, three black, the white ones between — C lies left of the two. Tap to hear.
  2. 2Reading musicTreble clef for the right hand, bass clef for the left: which line is which key.
  3. 3Note values and timeHow long a note lasts and how to count — then the time signatures, with metronome.
  4. 4The first chordsEight chords without a thumb on a black key, chosen by use. Add the root with the left hand.
  5. 5The first piecePieces that need only white keys and one hand position — with notation, sound and note names.
  6. 6InversionsThe same chord, a different note at the bottom — the hand hardly has to jump.
  7. 7ScalesC major first, then one key further round the circle of fifths — each with fingering.
  8. 8Chord progressionsThe progressions you can accompany any song with, written out in every key.
  9. 9Ear trainingHearing intervals and chords — the practice ground that holds all of the above together.

And then

After that a teacher helps more than any page — for posture, the hand, the sound. What is here takes the theory off their plate, not the lesson.

Anotona does this for you

Photograph a page of sheet music or play the melody — Anotona finds the key, engraves the notes and transposes them into any other. Free.

See Anotona

Every note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.