Unlock the Secret: A Comprehensive Guide to How to Play Piano Fast Without the Overwhelm

Looking to learn how to play the piano by yourself? You’re at the right place, my friend.

I know it can be confusing and overwhelming to look for the information you need on the internet to help you learn the piano.

You might be asking, “Which video tutorials should I be watching first? What is the scale? Do I even need to learn that? Or do I need to learn music theory first before I start playing the piano?”

I know exactly where you’re at. In this article and video, I’ll help you get started on everything you need to know about how to play piano.

So, if you’re ready, let’s dive right in!

Download your free Piano Chords Chart and Notes Sheets below:

The best way to learn how to play piano is with chords

Now, before we begin, I want to share with you just a little bit of my background and my experience and why I know what’s best for you as an adult who wants to learn to play piano by yourself.

When I was 5 years old, my parents sent me to a “traditional” piano lesson and I graduated with a Grade 8 Merit Certificate from the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) when I was 16 years old.

No doubt, I could play all the difficult classical pieces from Bach to Chopin you name it but I soon realized I realized that I couldn’t play anything on the piano without having the piano pieces in front of me.

If someone were to randomly ask me to play something on the piano, I couldn’t do it. I didn’t even know where to begin.

I came to realize that it was not just me who had the same problem.

Many pianists who learn piano the traditional way, can’t play piano without referring to a piano sheet.

That’s when it hit me. How can I be a certified pianist yet I can’t play anything someone requests me to?

That’s when I discovered piano chords.

You can download the chords chart for all major and minor chords below.

With my musical background, I was able to learn how to use chords to play songs that I love on the piano by myself.

This method is the easiest and fastest way to learn to play piano for beginner adults who are just starting out.

So if you’re game for this proven method, read on.

So, how do we use chords to play piano?

Now, you might be asking, “So, Kaiyen, since you said that chords are the best way to learn to play the piano, how do I go about doing that?”

Glad you asked, ma’ friend :D.

First, there are 2 ways we can use chords to play piano:

1. Chords as an accompaniment
2. Chords for the melody

Let’s take a look at them one by one.

Chords as an accompaniment

The most common way piano chords are used is as an accompaniment to singing or other musical instruments.

So, if you’ve always wanted to learn how to play piano and sing the songs you love, this is for you.

To begin, we need a chords sheet of the song you want to sing or accompany.

This is an example of the chord sheet for the song You’re Beautiful by James Blunt. Oooo… this is a beautiful song, isn’t it? Here, I’m using the verse and chorus as an example.

You’ll notice that there are alphabets written on top of the lyrics, right? These are chords.

Here you can see C, G, Am, and F. These are the things you need to get used to looking at in the world of chords.

Capital letters only are major chords, while capital letters with a small “m” next to them are minor chords. So you’ll see C major chord, G major chord, A minor chord, and F major chord in this chords sheet.

If you’re just starting out and wondering which chords should you learn first, be sure to check out my post THE 4 MUST-KNOW PIANO CHORDS FOR BEGINNERS where you can learn the exact four chords that can help you start playing tons of songs fast!

How to play this song on the piano step-by-step

1. Start by playing the first chord on your right-hand side once and count the beats (4 beats for this song) before switching to the following chords. Do this for the rest of the song.
2. Once you get the hang of the chords switching, add bass notes of the chords on your left-hand side. For example, for C major chord, the bass note is C, G major chord, and the bass note is G. You get the picture.
3. Once you’re confident with chords switching with both hands, start singing! You can also accompany other instruments such as a violin or a guitar which can play the melody of the song.

Chords for the melody

I get it. Not everyone wants to play the piano and sing. Some would want to play the melody of a song rather than sing it. If that’s you, then this section is made for you, my friend.

First, let’s talk about how to play the melody of a song on the piano and then we’re gonna learn how to incorporate chords into the melody.

There are 2 methods to do this. Let’s learn how to do each one of them one by one.

1. Play the melody with lead sheets

If you’re a beginner and you want to learn how to play the melody of a song on the piano fast, then a lead sheet is your best shot. This is also something I strongly recommend to play the melody of a song on the piano.

First, what is a lead sheet?

Take a look at the picture below.

A lead sheet consists of the treble clef, the key signature/s (either a sharp/s or flat/s but in this picture there’s none because the song is in C major), the time signature, the melody line, chords, and lyrics or no lyrics.

The treble clef tells you that the pitches are above the middle C (usually and not always play with your right-hand side).

The key signature lets you know the key of the song. For example, this song is in the key of C major, so there is no key signature. This means that all of the pitches are of white keys unless otherwise stated. But if the song is in the key of G major, you’ll see an F sharp written here which means whenever you stumble upon the note F, you need to sharpen it to F sharp.

Then we have the time signature which tells you the number of beats in each bar and the type of note representing that beat. In this example, there are 4 beats in one bar and the beat is represented by a quarter note. Thus, the time signature here is written as 4 over 4.

Then we have the melody line for the pitches that make up the song, chords to accompany them, and the lyrics for singing or no lyrics sometimes.

Playing the melody of a song with a lead sheet requires you to read simple notes and it’s not as difficult as you imagined it to be.

I have prepared a Notes Sheet for you to learn how to read notes. You can download it for free below.

Let’s use the same song You’re Beautiful by James Blunt again as an example but this time we’re going to play the melody with lead sheets.

This is the lead sheet for this song. I’m using the verse and chorus of the song as an example.

Do check out the video in this post to see how I play this song with the lead sheet step-by-step.

How to play this song on the piano with lead sheet step-by-step

1. This song has 4 beats in each bar. Tap or clap the beats of the song first to get the hang of it.
2. Play the melody first with your right hand, segment by segment, or verse by verse according to the beats. This is how you practice effectively.
3. Once you can play the melody confidently for a verse, try adding the bass notes of the chords on your left. For example, the first chord is C chord, so you play C note on your left and the second chord is G chord, so you play G on your left hand, and so on. Do this for the rest of the song.
4. If this seems too easy for you, you can play the chords on your left-hand side to accompany the melody on your right.

If you would like a complete step-by-step process to help you play the melody on the piano with chords and learn how to play beautifully on the piano, I have a signature course called Chordspro. It’s a proven method and you can check it out here.

2. Play the melody by ear

Now, you may have heard of playing the piano by ear. So what does mean exactly?

Instead of reading notes to play the melody on the piano, we use our hearing to “find” the pitches that make up the melody of the song we want to play.

Let’s use the same chords sheet as an example. Say this time you want to play the melody of the song. Now we only have the chords sheet without any melody line to refer to.

How to play this song on the piano by ear step-by-step

1. Start by playing the first chord on your right-hand side once and count the beats (4 beats for this song) before switching to the following chords. Do this for the rest of the song.
2. Once you get the hang of the chords switching, add bass notes of the chords on your left-hand side. For example, for C major chord, the bass note is C, G major chord, and the bass note is G. You get the picture.
3. After playing the chords this way, you’ll start to get the key of the song. Start humming the melody of the song as you play the chords.
4. Hum the first line of the song to find the first pitch of the song.
5. Once you identify the first pitch, the rest is easy. Continue to hum the melody as you find the pitches to match that melody you just hummed with your right hand. Do this verse by verse to not overwhelm yourself.
6. Once you get the whole melody for the verse, add the bass notes of the chords together with the melody. Use the lyrics and chords to guide you.
7. Continue to do the same for the rest of the song.

Tips for chord switching

I know that when you’re just starting out, it can be a challenge to switch or change from one chord to another.

Don’t worry, this is completely normal.

I recently learned the guitar by myself and found that the challenge of switching from one chord to another is the same on the piano.

To overcome this, the first thing you must do is to get yourself familiar with playing the individual chords.

Familiarize yourself with the notes that make up the chords and play them as simultaneously as you can and as only one sound (not multiple sounds from the different notes that make up the chord).

Once you do that, play one chord and count 4 beats and while you’re doing that (counting the beats), start to think of the next chord. The point here is to think of the next chord before it happens not while you’re at it, if that makes sense.

So similar to me playing the guitar, after I’ve just played a chord, I gotta think of which strings to press for the next chord that I’m about to play.

Just keep being aware of the next chords while you’re counting the beats and you’re good to go.

Conclusion

Just a recap of what we’ve covered in this post.

We’ve learned how using chords to play piano is the best way to go for beginner adults.

We also learned how chords are used as an accompaniment to singing or other instruments and to play the melody of a song.

We’ve looked into each of the methods to play the melody of a song which is either by lead sheets or by ear and how chords are used to support the melody we play.

You also learned what chords you can start on the piano with immediately and learn how to switch from one chord to another effectively.

I hope this post gives you a clear understanding and helps you kick-start your piano-playing journey.

If you find this post and video useful, I truly appreciate it if you could share it without someone who would benefit from it.

Leave me your thoughts or questions on how to play piano in the comment box below and I’ll be glad to answer them. 😀

Have fun and keep playing!