The Key to Learning Piano Most Instructors Don’t Teach

Some things are a well kept secret while others are not very well known. Such is the case in respect to teaching piano. There has always been the traditional method of piano instruction that focuses solely on reading music from day one.

If you're among the many former traditional piano students who once took lessons, you'll remember that reading music is all about notes. However, the key to learning piano that most instructors don't teach goes beyond notes.

Traditional piano lessons teach you how to become a good note reader and eventually a good note player. There is value in being a proficient reader of traditional sheet music.

But it doesn't provide the knowledge that one needs to understand the structure of music. I too once was a note reader and note player. Notes seemed so random to me and I could never get my skills of making real music off the ground. I was stuck on notes.

We've Got Your Number

The reason most piano instructors teach note reading, is that they themselves were taught this way. The piano is a formal instrument by nature. It doesn't have the same informal personality as some other instruments such as guitar. But if you want to fast forward through those formalities that most piano students have to suffer through, learn the number system.

First of all, I'm not suggesting that the Number System is devoid of all lettered notes. I'm saying that numbers that correspond with each lettered note in a key is among the greatest of tools to learn and play songs from.

But if you had traditional piano lessons such as myself, you would never know it ever existed. It's pretty easy to understand why the number system isn't ingrained in piano instruction. One reason, is that it's not as old as the concept of written music. I'm referring to it as the number system but more specifically, it's the Nashville Number System.

The Nashville Number System was developed in the late 1950's by studio musicians to allow for easier flexibility and communication of the keys of music, chords, scale degrees and other elements of a songs.

I'll have to say that even though the Nashville Number System is the recognized term for it, it's like many things that evolved over time. Blues and early Jazz players also utilized the number system before the 1950's.

How it all adds up

So how is the number system the key to learning piano? Before we get to that, let's cover some very easy but necessary to understand concepts about music. There are 12 different notes (or tones) in music.

Even though there are 12 different notes in music, you're likely to never hear all of them in a song (unless it's a really weird genre of music). The songs that you and I have heard most of our lives contain only 7 different notes known as a key of music. Sure, those 7 different notes can change (which is known as transposition).

Or, you might occasionally have a note that's not in the key (which is known as an accidental). But you can count on having 7 different notes to draw from within the boundaries of a popular song.

So what exactly is a key of music derived from? The 12 different notes that I just covered has every Major key of music within it. In order to determine any Major key of music, all you need to do is follow the steps of a simple pattern. This pattern consist of whole steps and half steps.

A half step is from one key to the very next key with no key in between them.

A whole step is from one key to the very next key with one key in between them.A Major key of music consist of the following steps:

The simplest way to remember this pattern: Windy Weather Has Worsened While Walking

Even though these Major keys of music have different combinations of black and white keys, the structure is exactly the same with this W.W.H.W.W.W.H. pattern.

We're all in the mood for a melody...in any key

So we have 12 Major keys and each one of them has 7 notes that are numbered 1 through 7. How are these numbers the key to learning piano? At its most basic level, these 7 notes are raw materials for a simple melody. The path of of this simple melody in one Major key will be the same in all Major keys.

"Jingle Bells" in C Major"Jingle Bells" in G flat Major

Notice that even though the melody progresses through different combinations of black and white keys, it is the exact same melody, only it is of course in two different keys of music. Now think about this on a larger scale in which any melody of a song can be played in any other key.

Without the knowledge of the number system, you only have random notes to reference and that will make the same song in different keys seem to be completely different. Even though you'll be familiar with the actual notes that exists within the song, the structure is what creates familiarity of the song in any key.

Perfect Harmony
Melody may be the simplest element of music, but harmony is the element that adds richness to it. The number system clarifies harmony because once again, it's structural also. The simplest harmony in music is that of triads, otherwise known as 3 note chords. Major triads are the most fundamental.

They consist of the 1st, 3rd and 5th tones of a Major key of music.  The first tone is also referred to as the root of the chord.

All you need to discern any Major triad is to follow this first, third and fifth formula. This works with all Major chords.

Minor triads are almost identical but with one simple alteration. Just lower the middle note (the 3rd) down one half step to the minor third.

The crystal ball of harmony

Even though a melody can be structural after it's composed, melody has the nature of being quite random. In other words, there's a lot of freedom for a composer to weave the melody of a song throughout a key of music without any logical path. However, when it comes to the harmony of a song, it is structural. Harmony has the tendency to go through certain paths and can be quite predictable.

Even though the triads that I covered (as well as any other chord) can have a chord symbol to notate it, the number system, when used in it's fullness will utilize roman numerals.

Notice how the roman numerals are upper and lower case. The upper case represents Major Chords (and any chord that is not minor) and the lower case represents minor chords.

If you're familiar with diatonic harmony (the chords that exist in a key of music naturally), the following illustration shows how any musician with the most basic skills in music can play a chord progression or song in any key.