This course was an experiment in which I tried guide beginning students to learn and practise some fundamental aspects of piano playing without the need to learn to read music notation. I can't say that I fully endorse this course any more. There are certain aspects of it that I think people have found confusing, and the progression of difficulty is probably not as well suited to a beginner as I would have liked. However, I have decided to keep it available for now on the off chance that someone finds it interesting of finds some value in it.
In Step One you practised counting and keeping time. Step Two will introduce you to the layout of the piano keyboard. Of course, this could be done in just a few sentences but, as the saying goes; “Easy come, easy go”, and if I were to simply explain the layout of the keyboard to you it would go against the philosophy of this course; that music is best learnt by playing music. So that is what we are going to do.
There are six lessons in this step, each focusing on a different part of the keyboard, and, just as in Step One, each lesson will feature some music for you to play. The music in these lessons will generally be longer and have more complex patterns to play. This step, therefore, serves not only to introduce you to the layout of the keyboard, but also to strengthen and expand on what you learnt in Step One.
Once again, I will also limit the information I give you directly. I could, of course, explain each lesson in detail, giving you the precise notes and rhythms to play, how to count in each piece of music, how many times each pattern is repeated and when it changes, etc., but the benefit you would derive from this approach would be minimal in comparison and would detract from the time you spend actually playing the music, which, if I assume correctly, is why you are here.
When necessary, however, I will alert your attention to difficult points and suggest ways to approach them. As always, the lesson videos will be available to view should you need more help or should anything be unclear.