← Classics at the Keys RU
No MIDI keyboard connected
Computer keyboard: C4–F5
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A S D F G H J K L are white keys from C, W E T Y U O P are black. Z and X move an octave down and up, C and V play softer and harder. Space is a tap in rhythm exercises. Any keyboard layout works.

A mini-course from zero · piano and synth

Classics at the Keys: read music and play five pieces

Eleven lessons for adults who do not read music yet. You learn to read the notation and play real classics right away. Each of the five pieces comes twice: first an easy arrangement, then the full version. The same notes, and you see how far you have come. The examples are on the Yamaha EZ-310, but any piano or synth will do.

Start with lesson 00 → Repertoire Note by Note
  • 11lessons
  • 5pieces
  • 2steps
Connect your EZ-310 A USB cable is welcome but not required. With it the site hears you play and checks the notes and the rhythm. Without it the on-screen keyboard, the computer keys and checking by ear all work. Lesson 00 shows how to connect and says plainly where MIDI does not work in the browser. How to connect →

The shelf: five pieces

Each piece has two marks. "Easy" is set when you have played the easy arrangement through, "Full" when you have played the full version.

The course map

Three parts: getting started, the easy versions, the full versions. The order is a suggestion, not a lock: every lesson and every piece is open. A tick appears when a lesson is read and most of its exercises are passed.

0

Getting started

00

Keys, fingers, EZ-310

Where C is on the keyboard, what an octave is and how to number your fingers; the first phrase of the Ode to Joy by finger numbers. And the EZ-310: the piano Voice on, the cable checked, and the site taught to hear you play.

≈ 35 min 🎯 7 exercises
1

Step 1: the easy versions

01

Ode to Joy: the first notes

The five lines of the staff, the treble clef and five notes under five fingers; quarter and half notes and counting to four. By the end the right hand plays the whole Ode from the page.

≈ 45 min 🎯 7 exercises 02

Schumann, Melody: two hands

The bass clef, two staves at once, rests and the repeat sign. Each hand on its own first, then both together; by the end of the lesson the whole Melody sounds with two hands.

≈ 50 min 🎯 8 exercises 03

Minuet in G major

A dance in three, an F♯ by the clef and running eighth notes. The right hand goes beyond five keys: it changes position and crosses a finger over the thumb.

≈ 50 min 🎯 7 exercises 04

Old French Song

Minor and two flats by the clef, 2/4 time and a note before the first bar, slurs and dynamics from pp to mf. Tchaikovsky's song teaches you to shape a phrase: connected, quiet and rising to its top.

≈ 50 min 🎯 7 exercises 05

Für Elise: the theme

Signs by the notes themselves and the natural, a two-eighth pickup, a repeat with two endings. Beethoven's theme teaches you to move the hand and keep the eighth notes even.

≈ 55 min 🎯 7 exercises
2

Step 2: the full versions

06

Ode to Joy: the full version

Letters over the notes, three notes at once in the left hand and an arc across the bar line. Beethoven's Ode in D major, a tune with an accompaniment.

≈ 55 min 🎯 6 exercises 07

Schumann's Melody: the full version

The left hand in the treble clef, eighth notes made of broken chords and the tune on top of them. Schumann's Melody as it is printed.

≈ 60 min 🎯 5 exercises 08

The Minuet: the full version

The left hand has a line of its own, and the hands go now together, now apart, now in turn. The whole Minuet, both halves, as it is printed.

≈ 60 min 🎯 5 exercises 09

Old French Song: the full version

The same tune, but the left hand has a bass and a line above it, short notes with dots, and chords. The whole song as it is printed.

≈ 55 min 🎯 4 exercises 10

Für Elise: the theme with pedal

The same theme as it was printed: in 3/8, in sixteenth notes, with the left hand's arpeggio and the pedal. The last lesson of the course.

≈ 60 min 🎯 4 exercises

How a lesson works

  1. The wall: a fragment of the piece that you cannot play yet. It sounds, and a cursor runs along the notes.
  2. Reading: one or two new elements of the notation on small examples.
  3. Playing: the same elements under your fingers, with a hint of which finger goes where.
  4. The piece: bar by bar, hands apart first, then slowly, then in tempo.
  5. On the EZ-310: which buttons to press so that the instrument helps the lesson.
  6. The summary: what you can read and play now, and a new wall.

Deeper: Note by Note

This course stands on its own. If you want to understand where notes, rhythm and chords come from, and to train your ear, the site has a big course, Note by Note. It is optional.

🎹 Open Note by Note →