How To Play Faster Piano Notes

Beginner Piano Lesson 3

In Beginner Piano Lesson 2 you learnt how to play some notes using your left hand, whilst reading Bass Clef.

In this lesson you are going to:

1. Play a faster piece with more notes
2. Learn how and when to change the volume of your playing

In this lesson we are going to jump straight into learning the piece.
Let’s have a look at the sheet music score:

Now, the approach we need to take to this piece is exactly the same as in the 1st 2 lessons:

1. Have a look at the time signature at the start – this tells us that there are 4 beats in a bar (so we will be counting in 4’s).
2. There is a Treble Clef at the start and so we know we are working out the notes using the Treble Clef.
3. There are notes with different lengths (this piece contains quarter notes, half notes and whole notes). We can use these to work out the rhythm.
4. There are fingering markings (for the right hand) which show us which fingers to use.

Using this information, we can have a go at practising the piece.
Remember, just try a couple of bars at a time until you can play them well, then move onto the next couple of bars.

Here is what the piece should sound like:

Play Lesson 3 Piece Demo

There are 2 other bits of information that we are given in this score that I want you to focus on:

1. The word “Allegro” appears at the start of the piece.
This is a tempo marking.
You should find a tempo marking at the start of a piece of music to tell you how fast/slow to play a piece of music. They are usually in Italian – the word “Allegro” means fast. (You will sometimes find metronome markings at the start of the piece instead – for more information about these read my music theory lesson on tempo).

2. At the beginning of the piece there is also the letter f.
This is a dynamic marking. It tells you how loud to play.
“f” is short for Forte which means loud.
Can you see how later on in the piece there is a p?
This is short for piano (pronounced pee-ar-noe) and means quiet.
So, at this point in the piece you need to play quietly.
A few bars later, the f returns – this means you should play loud again. (You can hear this change of dynamic (volume) in the demo).

Now try playing the piece at the correct tempo (speed) and changing the dynamic (volume) when the f and p letters occur.

Playing With The Backing Track

As always, I have produced a backing track for you to use. This lesson’s piece has a laid-back dance music feel to it – hope you enjoy playing it!

Here is what it should sound like:

Play Lesson 3 Dance Music Piece Demo

Now it’s your turn:

Play Lesson 3 Piece Backing Track

Extension Task

This lesson’s extension task is building on the work we did in Lesson 2 with the Left Hand.
I want you to have a go at trying to play the same piece, but with your left hand!
I have produced another score for it using the Bass Clef (notice how you are playing the same piece, but an octave lower than you were in the right hand).
This is a real challenge for your left hand playing and your Bass Clef reading – hope you enjoy it!

Play Lesson 3 Piece Backing Track

Hope you enjoyed this lesson.
Click Here For Beginner Piano Lesson 4

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