Private lessons · Piano
Piano lessons in Miami
Hammers strike strings, and a touch makes the sound soft or loud. Here is the instrument, and how technique grows from first notes to four-octave scales.
- FamilyKeyboard; strings struck by hammers
- Range88 keys, A0 to C8
- InventedItaly, by 1700 (Cristofori)
The basics
- Pressing a key drives a felt-covered wooden hammer against the strings; releasing it lets a damper stop the sound.
- Most notes use three strings; the bass notes use one or two.
- A modern piano has 88 keys: 52 white and 36 black, from A0 to C8.
- Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy, is credited with inventing it; a Medici inventory shows one existed by 1700.
- "Pianoforte" means roughly "soft and loud": the player's touch changes the volume.
- Two main types: the grand (horizontal strings) and the upright (vertical strings), which is more common at home because it is smaller and cheaper.
- It is used in classical, jazz, traditional and popular music, solo or in ensembles, for accompaniment, composition and rehearsal.
How technique develops
A map of the stages, taken from published exam-board requirements (named below). It is a map of what each stage can look like, not Green Hat's own method; your teacher adapts the path to you.
First notes
ABRSM's Initial Grade starts small: C major and D minor scales one octave with hands separately, then hands together over a fifth, plus a contrary-motion scale and short arpeggios.
Two octaves, hands together
By Grade 2 scales reach two octaves with both hands, and the first chromatic scale (starting on D) and contrary-motion scale appear.
Four octaves and sevenths
At Grade 6 scales run four octaves with hands together, legato or staccato, with chromatic scales, dominant sevenths and diminished sevenths.
Thirds, sixths and whole-tone
Grade 7 adds scales in thirds, legato and staccato. Grade 8 adds scales a sixth apart, whole-tone scales and a chromatic scale a major sixth apart.
In these exam requirements everything is played from memory, in even notes and without pedal.
Sources
Facts come from the sources below; check them if you need exact details.