Learn Piano! Play Songs, Chords, Scales and Learn About Music Theory, 18000 Piano Students!

Here's what is included in the course, and below that, you can read something about your piano teacher in this course: Mark from PGN Piano, the largest piano teaching YouTube channel of Europe! 

Chapter 1

1.1 Piano Note Names

It's important to start at the piano basics, and we will do so in this course by having a look at the piano note names first. Once you have learned what the notes are called, it will be easier to refer to them in the rest of this piano course. Keep in mind, these notes exist for other instruments as well, therefore the music notes can be applied on guitar, as well as anywhere else, not just for piano playing.

1.2 Learn Your First Piano Song

In this lesson we will immediately start by learning to play a piano song: Sea Mist. The reason I decided to teach you a piano song this soon is because playing the piano should be fun. I want to balance the slightly stuffy and boring topics of music theory with some really interesting and fun pieces to play on the piano.

1.3 Piano Major Scales

Scales are very important to understand when playing piano, they are also a helpful tool to practice piano fingering techniques. However, in this lesson we mainly focus on the music theory for piano scales. If you know your piano scales you will be able to play piano with much ease. 

1.4 Play Bach on Piano

I hope you had fun learning Sea Mist in lesson 3. However, wouldn't it be cool to play Bach on piano? A composer that is so well known, played by you after just 3 piano lessons? Maybe this piece is a little too hard for you to play on your piano or keyboard, if you just started out, it does however propose some interesting similarities throughout the entire structure of this piano piece, are you able to notice them? Practice to play this piece of J.S. Bach on piano whilst watching other episodes in this piano course, and you will be surprised by what you can accomplish, learning piano from home!

1.5 Major & Minor Piano Chords

If you thought piano scales are important, how do you feel about major chords and minor chords? Chords are super important to understand when playing the piano, so get to grip with piano chords in this episode!

1.6 Chords in Major Piano Scales

Now it is time to blend your piano training from episode 3 and 5 to figure out which piano chords can be found, in which major scales. You may be surprised to find some minor chords in there too!

1.7 Piano Chord Progressions

Now that you know how to play chords on piano, it is also important that you start to understand the concept of so-called chord progressions for piano. These chord progressions allow us to describe a piano piece in a few letters and notation, rather than having to explain a whole song to someone. If you know the chord progression to a song, and know how to play chords on piano, you can play this song almost instantly!

1.8 Intervals & Transposing

A completely different music theory topic in this lesson! Transposing means, to re-write music another musical key. For the intervals we will look at the distance from certain notes in a music scale from the ground tone, or tonic, also know as the root. I'm curious to see how soon you will pick up the piano theory of this episode!

1.9 Song Structures

Though song structures may seem very trivial to you, we can actually use them to remember how to play a song on piano. It also provides a piano player with good understanding of how a song is built up and structured, providing a calm feeling when playing piano, knowing what lays ahead of us. It saves time by knowing which chord progressions will be repeated, or repeated with a minor change to the chords.

1.10 Piano Finger Exercises

We use our fingers to play the piano and therefore it makes sense to practice our strength and flexibility, as well as the dexterity of our hands when playing piano individually or playing piano with hands together. Let's practice this here!

1.11 Time Signatures for Piano

We are starting to get in the realm of reading sheet music and writing sheet music. However, in this lesson I don't want to put the primary focus on writing music notation, it is mainly a lesson that focusses on recognising time signatures and being aware of the fact that there is such a thing in music theory.

1.12 Test Piano Knowledge of Chapter 1

After learning so many things, maybe starting from scratch, maybe having played piano for a year, and learning more about music theory, it is now time to put yourself to the test!

Chapter 2

2.1 Una Mattina Easy Piano

Well what can I say, known from the beautiful movie Entouchables, the music of composer Ludovico Einaudi is breathtaking. In this lesson we make a start of playing one of his most iconic piano pieces: Una Mattina. I've adapted it slightly so that you will have an easier time playing this beautiful music piece.

2.2 Advanced Piano Chords

In chapter 1 we took a look at basic piano chords, the major and minor piano chords. Now it is time to pull open the black box of 4 note piano chords, 5 note piano chords, as well as crazy chords that sound terrible when taken out of context, are you up to learning some daunting piano music theory?

2.3 Piano Pedals Explained

Some pianos have 1, some have 2, some have 3 and some have none?? I'm of course talking about the piano pedals. But why do we have the pedals on a piano, and how can we use them? Watch this lesson in which I explain how to use piano pedals, and what they do!

2.4 Piano Arpeggios 

Saying the word: 'arpeggio' when combing it with 'piano', makes you sound like a concert pianist or musical connoisseur. In reality though, an arpeggio is not as glamorous as you may think, we are simply talking about broken chords for piano right here, have a look and all will be clear to you soon!

2.5 Read Sheet Music for Piano

Sheet music is one of the most feared topics for people who are starting to play the piano. I'm not a massive sheet music fan myself, but ey, you gotta learn at least a little bit of sheet music in your music theory career. Let's get it over with in this lesson about sheet music for piano.

2.6 Piano Improvising for Beginners

Improvising is a feared topic for aspiring pianists and it was no different for myself. When I started to play the piano I had no idea where to begin making mistake after mistake., Little did I know that when you are improvising on piano, mistakes are not really mistakes, they are merely new opportunities of creating unique music. Let's see how creative you can get behind your piano!

2.7 Sing & Play Piano

You may not want to sing behind your piano. Maybe you know someone who does. Therefore I am teaching you how to play and sing at the same time, or how to accompany a vocalist on piano. 

2.8 Find Chords for Any Song

You are rather familiar with chords, chord progressions and scales by now, but how do you actually find piano chords to play for specific songs? In this video I will teach you exactly how I find the chords for most of my youtube piano lessons.

2.9 Circle of Fifth's for Piano

The Circle of Fifth's is a goldmine for those who seek the treasure of music theory and chord knowledge. It's a very handy tool that will allow you to discover many different patterns leading you to major and minor scales, as well as all type of chords, transposing and much more, all ready to be played on piano.

2.10 Ten Piano Commandments

In this episode it is time to get serious about your piano practice. What are the 'rules' to practice piano properly? It is time to find out if you are cutting corners, or, if you are dedicated to learn the piano properly.

2.11 Nuvole Bianche Easy Piano

It is time to learn yet another song my master pianist Ludovico Einaudi. Today it is time to learn Nuvole Bianche on piano, an easy variant as well. The best thing is that, in order to play this song in it's original way, all you need to do is change some chords to relative arpeggios, which I will explain further in chapter 3 of this piano course.

2.12 Test Piano Knowledge of Chapter 2

After learning many new things about the piano and music theory it is time for yet another test! Are you brave enough to put your piano knowledge to the test?

Chapter 3

3.1 Advanced Piano Scales

You have learned basic piano scales in chapter 1. Right now it is time to expand your knowledge about piano theory and scales belong to that. We will look at pentatonic scales, chromatic scales, harmonic minor scales, melodic minor scales and whole step scales.

3.2 Piano Basics for Pop & Rock

Did you know that when you play rock on piano, or pop on piano, in 95% of the cases you can do so by repeating some simple chord progressions? In this lesson we will discover how rock and pop songs are built up, and how we can play these songs with a melody line in the right hand, and supporting chords in our left hand on piano.

3.3 Piano Modes Explained

If you though the music scales from lesson 1 of this chapter were intimidating, be warned, the piano modes that I will teach you in this episode include the: Ionian mode, Dorian mode, Phrygian mode, Lydian mode, Mixolydian mode, Aeolian mode and Locrian mode. You will have more than enough to think about after watching these modes for piano, so take a rest before and after watching this piano tutorial.

3.4 Intermediate Piano Melodies

We looked at some basic melody structures in lesson 2 of this chapter, however it is time to expand our piano skills to a new level. Let's introduce a mix of melody and chords in the right hand of our piano compositions!

3.5 Combine Left & Right Hand

Ai, this is one of the topics that aspiring piano players avoid as long as possible, yet it is so important to start practicing combining your left and right hand when playing piano, as soon as you get the chance. In this piano lesson I want to implore you to take the right steps to accomplish this: combining left and right for piano explained.

3.6 Reggae Piano Rhythm

Time to try something new. We have been playing some classical and pop on piano. I have also explained the basics surrounding pop and rock songs, but now it's time to hit a new genre: reggae on piano! 

3.7 Una Mattina & Nuvole Bianche

Let's take these songs by the scruff of the neck and play them the way they were supposed to be played, adding piano arpeggios to our easy piano compositions, turning these songs into original piano compositions.

3.8 Canon in D on Piano

Pachelbel never ceases to amaze with his canon. The Pachelbel canon in d is probably one of the most recognizable piano pieces, even today. It is time to have a look, and use this piece to start improvising on piano within a given frameset.

3.9 Piano Midi Files Explained

Midi files are essential nowadays when it comes to learning to play the piano. They are so easy to use. Everybody should familiarize themselves with piano midi tutorial, piano midi files and midi recording for piano. It's just a very useful tool. As I explain in this lesson, I'm willing to create a separate course on how to work with midi, if the demand is there,

3.10 Let's Play Latin Piano

Again another type of piano playing in this lesson. Let's get the margheritas and mojitos ready for a sparkling lesson teachin Latin style piano! 

3.11 Piano Finger Stretching Exercises

THis lesson may sound boring to some, yet is important for all. Ensure that you go injury free when playing the piano. Piano injuries are annoying and sometimes hard to get rid off. Watch this lesson to ensure that you increase piano flexibility, and reduce the risk of injuries when playing the piano.

3.12 Test Piano Knowledge of Chapter 3

I hope you survived the piano tests of chapter 1 & 2. Now it is time to yet again face the challenge of any Virtual Piano Teacher student, testing your knowledge about chapter 3. Make sure to download the resource file and make the test before watching the lesson!

Chapter 4 

4.1 Play By Ear

In this lesson you will start learning how to listen to a song, and play this song on the piano directly without having to look up the notes or chords. This is not an easy thing to achieve for piano players, however with practice comes perfection! 

4.2 Common Chord Progressions

Many songs use Chord progressions that are very common. These chord progressions sound very familiar because they are used in a lot of popular songs. If you can learn to recognise these chord progressions, it will make it easier for you to play these songs.

4.3 Practice your Ears!

Which note is that? Can you hear the difference. Relative Pitch or Perfect Pitch? Relative Pitch is trainable, Perfect Pitch is also trainable yet this is more of a born gift. Give it a go in this lesson!

4.4 Splitting Piano Chords

Did you know you can play a piano chord split over 2 hands? You can simply separate the individual notes and divide them over left and right. Let's have a look at how this is done in this lesson!

4.5 Slash Chords for Piano

Sometimes the left hand plays a different note than the tonic when playing chords. I call these chords 'slash chords' and in this lesson we will practice them on piano!

4.6 Changing Keys

Improvising on Piano? Wanna change from one key to the other? How will you do this fluently? Let's have a look in this lesson on changing keys!

4.7 Jazz Up Songs

As the title says, we are going to have a look at how to make a song sound more jazzy!

4.8 Recognising Chords

In this lesson I want to have a look at how you can recognise chords easier, and remember them better so you can play them with great ease of mind.

4.9 Composing

It's nice to play songs that are familiar to you, yet maybe you would enjoy it even more if you can compose your own songs! Let's introduce you to composing!

4.10 Practise Schedule
How often should you practice? What should you practice? These are important questions so let's have a look at what works best!

4.11 Test Chapter 4
Let's test your knowledge of Chapter 41

4.12 Test Whole Course!
After almost 25 hours of instruction, I wonder what you manage to remember. Put yourself to the test!