Playing the piano is a popular hobby enjoyed by people all over the world. Perhaps you would like to learn how to play, or you would just like to improve your skills. The good news is that there are only a few basic tips you need to follow to play the piano today.

The following tips are the basics and something all successful pianists have in common. However, it is up to you to follow them immediately. Just reading about them will do nothing to make you a better player; you have to take steps to make that happen.

Tip #1 – Practice… practice… practice. This is the biggest difference between bad and good pianists. Sit at the piano and play every day. The more you practice, the better you will become. The key here is to strive for consistency. In other words, you can’t “bank” your practice time of 30 minutes a day and practice 210 minutes once a week. It is much more effective if you play for a short time every day than to play a marathon session.

Tip #2 – Learn the notes. Take the time to purposefully learn the piano keyboard notes. When you’re just starting out, you should spend some of your practice on note recognition. You can do this by reading sheet music for simple songs, or you can get piano lessons online to make it easier. As time goes by, start adding harder songs to your repertoire.

Tip #3 – Let go. Yes, you need to practice, and much of that practice time needs to be structured in a formal way. But don’t forget to have fun too. Go ahead and let yourself go from time to time. Get in the groove and have fun without worrying too much about hitting every note perfectly. This is a great way to start learning to improvise by playing the piano.

Tip #4 – Build your confidence. Being a confident pianist means you’ll be able to play in front of others so they can enjoy your music too. When you learn to play the piano, a lot of your shyness will go away (if you have it). So what is the best way to build trust? The best answer is to practice, learn the notes, and loosen up from time to time.

Tip #5 – Take lessons. If you want to play the piano today, then you need someone to teach you. If you want to wait, you can pay for private lessons and make an appointment. If you want to get started right away, online piano lessons are your best bet.