Before you begin...
As crazy as it sounds, some students find level 5 easier than level 1. Seriously! Check it out. It might be a better starting place for you than level 1.
1 - Find The Letters On Your Piano
Use the piano cheat sheet to help find the letters on your piano. Here are 3 hints:
1 - Only the white notes have letters. The black notes are called "sharps" or "flats", and you won't use them very much for level 1 songs.
2 - There are only 7 letters in the musical alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Then it just starts back over again. So the letter after a G is an A...then a B....then a C...and it keeps going until it starts back over again after G
3 - The most important note is a "C", which is the white note JUST to the left of any group of 2 black notes. You can use the black notes to find other notes too. For example, the note just to the right of a group of 3 black notes is ALWAYS a B! (Eventually it will be helpful to have the notes memorized, so you can name any random note you look at on the piano.)
2 - Find The Letters For The Song
If you're following along with the level 1 music from KidsLearnPianoLive, you should see a letter on top of each word. Sometimes a word will have two or more notes. Just sing the song as you normally would, but press the letter on your piano or keyboard that goes with each word you're singing. It will take some practice, but it will get quicker and smoother with some practice. Then you're playing the song!
3 - Play Each Note In The Right Octave
As you know, there are several of each letter on your piano: there are lots of A's, lots of B's, lots of C's, etc. You can START the song pretty much wherever you want, but then you have to pay attention to whether the notes sound like they up (to the right on the piano) or down (to the left) when you sing it. If the note sounds like it's going up, you have to go to the right! When it sounds like it's going down, go to the left! That means that, for example, sometimes going from A to B means going DOWN (left) from an A to a lower B. We've connected the notes with a straight line to help you know which direction to go. Just pay close attention to which direction you have to go to get to the next note. Every note is either up (right), down (left), or the same.