Sometimes the composer notes parts of the dynamics on the piano sheet music. A composer may technically write anything they want in the score to suggest how you should play the piece on you piano. Some markings, however, you’ll continue to see all the time. Typically, these are written in Italian, so you can always translate directions on the web.

Tempo- at the beginning of the piece you’ll see one of these suggestions, sometimes with a metronome setting added by the editor:

Adagio — rather slowly, erect (literally, “at ease”) (66–76 bpm)
Allegro — literally “joyful”, brisk (120–168 bpm)
Largo/Lento — slow (40–60 bpm), like lento
Moderato — moderate (108–120 bpm)
Presto — a very quick clip (168–200 bpm), (prestissimo- as fast as you can)
Vivace — fast and lively(≈140 bpm)

Volume

f – forte (loud)
ff – fortissimo (louder)
fff – fortississimo (really loud)
mf – mezzo forte (medium loud)
p – piano (soft)
mp, pp, ppp – like above

There are also several different types of markings which go along with single or multiple notes. The first is a slur, which means to play the notes in one phrase without lifting between:

The next are several different types of accents, which means to give a certain note more weight:

Finally, we’ll look at a cresendo and decresendo. This means to slowly change your volume over time.

There are many other types of dynamic markings, but knowing these should be good while you’re a beginner. To Play Piano Now, these are the ones you’ll need.

In most pieces of music, there will be small numbers above notes in tricky passages indicating which finger should be used to play the note. Consider this short excerpt from Mozart’s Third Piano Sonata:

The small numbers above the notes (below for the left hand) indicate which finger should be used to play each note. While it’s okay to use different fingers, it would be nearly impossible to play this passage any other way. So as you’re learning a new piece, pay close attention to the indicated fingering and don’t practice any other way. If you learn the wrong fingering, it can be very difficult to correct later. Nothing will screw up a run like running out of fingers before you get to the end.

It really worked for me. I was playing simple melodies the first time I sat down. After a week I could play with both hands and do simple accompaniments, and within the first few months I was playing some of my Rock and Roll favorites. Today, not quite a year later, I’m learning to play the great piano works of my favorite composers: Mozart, Beethoven, Field, and Brahms. For Christmas I’m planning to play a mini-concert for all of my family, with mostly popular Christmas music, and have a carol sing along.

Now I admit that I still don’t play nearly as well as many of my friends who play the piano. But they also practiced the piano for two hours every day since they were five, spending hours playing boring, miserable scales. They probably payed a teacher $60 per hour to do it too! And while that method is tried and true, I just didn’t have that kind of time or money. So I learned on my own, and in another year, I’ll be playing as well as the kids who have been playing since childhood.

When I look back, I can’t believe that I waited so long to start playing the piano. However, I’m so glad that I eventually decided to learn. I can’t tell you how well an hour at the piano relieves stress, or how good I feel when I hear a song on the radio and I can sit down right away and play a basic version of it. If I want to play like a pro, I just buy the sheet music for five bucks and go for it.

So anyway, this is what worked for me. It didn’t make me a master overnight, but it definitely got me started on the right path on my schedule with my budget. I still have to practice, but most days I look forward to that half hour all day long.

I’ve decided to start with Mozart because he probably the most famous composer of piano music. Mozart’s music is very catchy, and usually very light and fun to play and listen to. It’s usually written for a pretty quick tempo, but it’s also pretty simple, so not to be extremely difficult for the beginner piano player.

Even those of you just learning to play piano probably know Mozart’s story. Mozart was the most prodigious composer, probably the most prodigious person, to ever live. He wrote his first compositions at the age of 3, and was playing for royalty at 6. By 17 he was the court composer in Salzberg. He was dismissed from that position, and moved to Vienna, where he spent the rest of his life and composed his most famous operas, concertos, and symphonies. Although he never had trouble finding work, Mozart was terrible with money, and died young and poor. He left his most famous work, a Requiem Mass, unfinished.

I then decided that I wanted to start making music with my friends, so my sophmore year in college, I joined the choir. It took me the rest of my time in college to learn to read music, but I still really enjoyed learning to make my own music. That’s one of the reasons I decided to make this site. There is no reason that it should take anybody three years to learn to read sheet music.

After my experience in choir, I decided that I want to play music without a hundred other people. So around a year ago, I started to learn how to play piano. This time I got smart and decided not to learn to play keyboard on my own, but rather find some real help and get the job done right. Now I want to pass some of that information on to you.