A piano has 88 keys, 36 are black and 52 are white. When depressing the keys, you trigger hammers inside the piano to hit strings, which is what produces the sound. The keyboard has white keys that are tuned to play “natural” notes, and black keys that are tuned to play flat and sharp notes. (This is an over-simplification, but this is an article for pure beginners.) The first key (on the leftmost side of the keyboard) is an A and the final key (on the rightmost side) is a C.

Piano keys are laid out in what are called semitones, or half steps, and are arranged to follow a chromatic scale (each key is one half step away from the adjacent one). You will see alternating black and white keys all the way up the keyboard, except there are no black keys between the B and C or between the E and F because there are no black keys between those notes.

Some people believe that the piano is based on the C scale, but that is not so. The piano can accommodate you playing any musical scale; simply find your starting note, and play the remaining notes of the scale in the correct order. Playing left to right will cause ascending tones to play, while playing right to left has the opposite effect, resulting in descending tones.

You can also examine the octaves of a piano keyboard. An octave is defined as a note that is one full scale higher or lower than the original note (the first and last note of a scale). Even if played an octave apart, notes that carry the same pitch have the same name — so you can play an A, then play another A an octave higher or lower. Notes are measured by their pitch (a specific note or tone). Pitch (hz) is a measure of cycles per second. Let’s look at an A, which is measured at 440hz, then the A above (an octave higher) which measures 880hz. Another octave up the scale, the next higher A measures 1760 hz. The basic framework for the scales and chords is provided by the octaves.

Pianists face many challenges, including developing the ability to stretch their hands and fingers far enough to reach all of the keys needed to play certain groups of notes that produce chords or arpeggios. The required strength and flexibility are built up over time, using certain, specific exercises designed to do this. Sometimes the music calls for all ten fingers to be playing a piece as written. As a basic rule, the left hand is used to play the lower notes that appears on the bass clef, while the right hand is used to play notes on the treble clef. The right hand is usually used to play the song’s melody, while the left hand supports the melody with a harmony of some kind. (Again, an over-simplification.)

It is highly unusual but possible for a portable, electronic keyboard to have all 88 keys. Considering how big or small it is and what it is used for, a portable keyboard can have as little as 24 keys. The keyboard player is restricted by its limited number of keys, and frequently has to adapt the music to it by playing an octave higher and lower than originally intended.

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New pianists learn notes first. An understanding of musical notes and their values is the foundation for learning any instrument. That includes the piano. The values of the notes are easy to remember because their names denote their values.

* Whole note: A whole note looks a bit like an egg on its side. It is round or oval-shaped and not shaded/solid. A whole note is held for four beats in 4/4 time.

* Half note: A half note is so called because it is held for half as long as a whole note. In other words, it is held for two beats. It resembles a smaller version of whole note, but with a line attached to its side.

* Quarter note: A quarter note is held for a quarter of the time a whole note is held: one beat. A quarter note looks like a half note, with one minor difference. While the half note is not shaded, the quarter note is.

* Eighth note: The eighth note is, of course, an eighth of the value of a whole note. In other words, it is held for half a beat. It looks like a quarter note with a curly “tail” at the end of its line. Eighth notes can also be joined together in groups of two, three, or four. If they are joined, they are connected by a bar across the top, rather than having a “tail.”

* Sixteenth note: The sixteenth note is one-sixteenth the length of a whole note when held. It is held for a mere quarter of a beat. A sixteenth note looks similar to an eighth note, but has a double “tail.” When two, three or four are joined, they are connected by a double bar.

There are seven different names for the keys on a piano. If you look at the keyboard on a piano, you’ll see that the keys repeat their order every eighth white key. The names of the keys are denoted by letters of the alphabet. The middle white key on the piano is called “middle C.” Going up the scale from C, the rest are D, E, F, G, A, B, and they start again with C. The notes from any C on the keyboard to the next C make up an “octave.” It is so called because it contains eight keys, or eight notes.

The notes in a song or scale are written on a “staff.” These are the series of lines and spaces that you’ve probably seen on a piece of music. The staff consists of a treble clef and a bass clef. Each line and each space on the clef denote a particular key/note. The notes on the treble clef begin on the bottom line of the staff with E above middle C. The notes on the bass clef begin on the bottom line of the staff with the G below middle C.

Which type of note appears on which line or space on the clef determines which key is played and for how long that key is held. In other words, if a whole note appears written on the bottom line of the treble clef, then the instrumentalist would play an E above middle C. It would be held for four beats. Once the note types and names are learned, the beginner is ready to start playing!

When learning how to play piano, free opportunities present themselves all over the Internet. Most notably, many websites offer quick step-by-step lessons, as well as free online sheet music, which beginning pianists can use to learn how to play piano at no cost. Obviously, like any free service, these should be approached with caution, and many should be taken with a grain of salt.

After all, they are free for a reason. In spite of everything the Internet has to offer, most of the best ways to learn piano still involve paying money to a highly qualified professional instructor of some kind.

Whether you are learning how to play piano using free lessons, or you are using a pay service, any high-quality learning process begins with the fundamentals. It is one thing to show a few diagrams and to instruct the beginning pianist where to put her fingers; it is quite another thing to instill in the pianist’s mind a real understanding of the structures, systems, and theories that every great piano player must have internalized.

Thus, when learning how to play piano, free or through a pay service, make sure that the instructions use real musical terms, rather than downgraded proxy terms. That is, for example, an instruction shouldn’t refer to notes on the piano as numbers or as fingers; instead, the instruction should use the actual names of the notes — C, D, B flat, G sharp, and so on.

In other words, a beginning pianist wants to internalize the fundamentals of music as early as possible. If you feel like your ability to play music is proceeding faster than your actual knowledge of piano and music, then there is something wrong with your instruction. Both the skills and the knowledge should go hand in hand.

When starting out, the budding pianist can expect to be assigned a lot of repetitive tasks. She will have to play a lot of scales, arpeggios, and simple songs that are designed to help piano students master the complex methods of keyboard fingering. This is normal, and in fact, it is necessary. Any piano lesson program that doesn’t involve a lot of repetitive tasks is probably not the best way to learn how to play piano. Free lesson plans are often guilty of this.

This repetition is what leads a lot of beginning pianists to give up very early, but for the more persistent, things do get better. After a while, when you have internalized the fingering techniques that every pianist must master, songs will grow more complex, and then the repetition becomes a joy. For pianists who are a little further along in the learning process, there is nothing more pleasurable than opening a book to a seemingly incomprehensible notation and working at it until it becomes a beautiful piece of music.

For now, though, most of the songs played by beginners are relatively simple and straightforward, not involving a lot of sharps or flats, and not requiring the pianist to move her hands around a lot. In fact, most songs will be in the easiest key — C major — and won’t deviate from standard hand positions.

Of course, this will all change when you begin to learn about more complex chords, more difficult keys, and more convoluted melodic structures. Once the basics are learned, it won’t take long before these fun elements come into play.

In short, what I have been driving at is that starting to learn the piano rarely offers instant gratification. When learning how to play the piano, free services tend to offer unrealistic, quick goals. In reality, learning piano is a gradual process that involves lots of practice, lots of repetition, and a strong commitment on the part of the pianist.