In these times of the Internet, it's never been a better time to learn how to play the piano. Why is that? I hear you ask, because, information on virtually any subject you can think of is available, with a little research on the Internet, and learning to play the piano, is no different than any other subject you might wish to learn.

If you don't have a piano or keyboard then you do need to buy one, but you defiantly don't need to buy a new keyboard. Again, the Internet comes to the rescue. There are thousands of auction listings offering second hand electronic keyboards, electric pianos, in fact all kinds of keyboards. For a beginner, there really is no point in buying an expensive keyboard because when starting to learn to play the piano you will only use a fraction of a piano keyboards features including the keyboard. From a beginner's point of view, you only need between five and eight notes on the keyboard to start learning.

So to recap, if you don't have a keyboard, then borrow one or buy one second hand. It doesn't have to be a traditional piano with a full size keyboard, as a beginner you will only use up to eight notes. It's a fact, that not everybody will take to learning to play the piano, so why spend a fortune on a keyboard when you don't need to. If you don't take to it you haven't lost a fortune, if you do take to it, buy a better keyboard.

Before you start to play the piano properly, you need to learn a few basics, just a bit of theory, nothing too difficult, in fact very easy to pick up, but extremely essential. What are the basics? :The basics are in fact very simple and include

*The Staff

*Notes Names On A Keyboard And Note Names On The Staff

*Note Values

*Bars And Bar Lines

*The Treble Clef

*Time Signatures

If you learn these basics first, you have a better chance of succeeding with your piano playing. They are important because every time you play a piece of music whether as a learner or a professional player you will use every thing that is on the above list. Every time you pick up a piece of music, you will see the staff and on that, you will see musical notes and also a treble clef. You will see bars and bar lines, which are part of the staff and you will see a time signature, which will tell you how many beats there are in each bar. All these things interact with each other and that's why it's important to learn these first.

How long will I take to learn the basics?:

Surprisingly it won't take very long at all to learn the basics. They are very easy to learn. In fact, you could learn all these basics in one day, but, would you remember them. My pupils generally have the whole thing done, memorized in about a month, and once you have learned it, you've got it for life. So before diving in head first in to a complex piano learning course, learn the basics.