The getting started challenge

Conclusion and Takeaway

To conclude, I want to give you something to think about and try out on the piano before we move to the next section.

Exercise Overview

We'll be developing both hands to play:

• A pulse
• A phrase

And then we'll swap halfway through.

Experimentation

You can try this with:

• White keys
• Black keys

I recommend exploring a variety of options. Feel free to move your hands to different parts of the piano.

For this first section, I will keep my hands in the same position that we were exploring with the white keys and develop a little piece of music.

Creating Music

I don't even know how it will sound quite yet, and it will be the same for you. Here's my approach:

• Left Hand: Gives the pulse
• Right Hand: Provides the phrase

Then, I'll swap:

• Left Hand: Fifth finger for the pulse
• Right Hand: Thumb for the pulse

The goal is to create one contained piece of music. Let's see how it sounds!

Building Blocks of Music

So there we go! We're already making music and thinking about those fundamental building blocks of musical performance:

• Pulse and Phrase: The heartbeat of music.

We've sorted our hand positions and are using our fingers in different orders. These are the kinds of skills we would normally develop through 10 or 20 piano exercises, some of which may not be the most interesting to play.

Moving Forward

Bypassing all of that, we're jumping straight into the exciting business of performing something beautiful at the piano while simultaneously learning the necessary technical skills.