In this 6-week beginner course, students will learn how to identify letter names on the keyboard, play basic major and minor triads, and interpret chord charts.  Students will need their own instrument at home, which can be either a piano or keyboard with at least 60 keys.  No prior piano experience is required, although it would potentially be helpful for brand-new-to-piano players complete my class “An Introduction to Piano for Older Beginners” before taking this class.

I am a Kodaly-certified teacher with over 17 years of experience teaching piano, and I have designed my curriculum for this class to coincide with play along resources created by free music education site Music Will (formerly Little Kids Rock) and posted on Youtube, with their permission.  The emphasis of this course is on playing piano first, and using simplified notation to remind us of what we’re playing second.  My philosophy is that learning is best when it’s fun, so in addition to skills, I also include interactive elements in each class.

Over the course of six classes, students will learn:
•	All of the letter names of the white keys on the piano, and how to easily find them in each octave of the instrument
•	How to build triads using those keys as roots, some major and some minor
•	How to read basic chord charts/leadsheets and interpret them
•	How to use play-along tracks to build rhythmic and chord playing skills, and play in the style of popular songs such as "Count on Me" by Bruno Mars and "Can't Stop This Feeling" by Justin Timberlake
•	How to have constructive discussion surrounding each other’s playing, using the “I noticed, I valued, I wondered” framework

Some of the music in this class is in the style of popular tunes, but we will not be focusing on lyrics, complete melodies, or whole songs, so as to stay within fair use guidelines.  We will instead be focusing on how to create accompaniment for a song using its chord structure.  Tools learned in this class will allow students to choose songs they know and love from any genre (especially modern pop, country or rock) and play those songs for themselves.