Do I Need All 88 Keys To Learn Piano
For a beginner, 66 keys are sufficient for learning to play, and you can play most music on a 72-key instrument. For anyone interested in playing classical piano, however, a full 88 keys are recommended, especially if you plan on one day playing a traditional piano. Many keyboards have fewer than 66 keys.
How To Play Happy Birthday Very Easy Piano Music
1. Place hands over the notes, with both thumbs on middle C.
2. To prepare, ask the child to play and name the notes C, D, E, F, G with the right hand 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 both up, and back down again. Then do the same with the left hand going downwards C, B, A, G, F and back up again to middle C.
3. Look at the Happy Birthday sheet music and ask the child to work out the first note on Ha-ppy. This is G with the left hand finger
4. As they will know the tune already they should find it quite easy to work out the first phrase, but help them to notice what the jump is on to you. It is a 4th, this means they jump from 4 1 which is G C.
Practice One Phrase At A Time
4. The second phrase starts the same but point out the jump is one step higher from G D, using the right hand fingers 2 -1 on to you. Practice these first two phrases a couple of times.
5. The third phrase starts again on G Ha-ppy in the left hand with 4th finger, but the jump is a whole 8 notes up to the G Birth in the right hand finger 5. Practice finding this jump a couple of times. The right hand then plays 3 -1 on day dear and the left hand plays 2 3 on B A which is where you insert the name of the Birthday boy/girl.
6. The fourth phrase is played by the right hand with the 4th finger on F for Ha-ppy then 3, 1, 2, 1, E C D C on Birth-day to you!
Pick A Key And Transpose
Now, lets use these numbers to transpose our song.
Say C Major is too high for you . Lets transpose everything down two steps to A Major.
Heres the A Major scale:
A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#
So, our I chord becomes a chord built on the first note of the scale. This is the A chord .
Our V chord becomes an E chord .
Next, our IV chord turns into a D chord .
Finally, the ii chord is now Bm .
Thats all there is to it! Try it yourself. Transpose everything in the opposite direction: up two steps to E Major. Then, scroll to the bottom of this article to see if you got the chords right!
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Encountering Black Notes In The Easy Arrangements
The version in G may be easier for your students to play, because with the key of F version, each hand has to deal with a Bb note. In the key of G version, only the right hand has a black note.
However, the G arrangement uses several bass clef ledger line notes! You will have to decide. I think the G version is easier.
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Assign Each Chord A Number
If you want to learn how to transpose, it helps to learn the number system.
Each chord gets a number. Our starting key is C Major, so recall that the C Major scale goes like this:
C-D-E-F-G-A-B
Since our C chord is built on the first note of the C Major scale , it gets the number 1 or I.
The chord is built on the fifth note of the C Major scale, so it gets the number 5 or V.
Our F chord is built on the fourth note of the C Major scale, so its name is IV.
Dm is built on the second note of the C Major scale, so it becomes our ii chord.
So, in number form, our lead sheet now looks like this:
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This Is The Approach I Started With As A Student
My piano teacher began her students with this “bass note, chord, chord” approach, using all root-position chords instead of inversions. This made understanding basic chords and even the 7th chords very easy.
Below is the melody of Happy Birthday as a lead sheet, for any instrument. Verse two uses words I heard in Sunday School as a child, but did not understand until I was an adult!
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
Is Happy Birthday Traditional
This song has BECOME traditional according to Wikipedia, Happy Birthday is the most-recognized song in the English language.
However, the writers are known to history two sisters named Mildred and Patty Hill, who wrote the song in 1893.
Originally the words werent Happy Birthday at all, but Good morning to you, good morning to you. Good morning, dear children, good morning to you!
The links to the early intermediate arrangements for singing & transposing practice:
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Happy Birthday Piano Tutorial
Being able to play any instrument is such a nice skill to have. Especially when it comes to songs like Happy Birthday or Christmas Carols. These songs really do the job on certain occasions. I remember when I first learned Happy Birthday on a keyboard and played it to my mother. She was very happy and it made me feel like Ive spent my time well by learning the song. Thats one of the reasons Ive decided to share my collection of piano notes on the Internet.
Playing The Whole Song
With each individual section mastered, its time to put the whole thing together.
As always, I recommend fingering and saying the notes before playing it.
This lets you worry only about the fingers and not also about the air.
Once you have it down, congrats! You now know how to play Happy Birthday on recorder!
For those who prefer to learn by visuals, check out this video I made on it.
COMING SOON!
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Happy Birthday Recorder Sheet Music
Here is the sheet music for Happy Birthday.
Notice the song is in 3/4, and we see the F# in the clef. This means every note on the bottom space is F# instead of plain, old F natural.
You may also notice the song starts on the 3rd beat of the first measure.
Its more of an anacrusis or pickup note.
Check out the sheet music and notes here:
This is for soprano recorder, but all types of recorders can play it! Check out our article to learn about the types of recorders.
Learn Happy Birthday Cocktail Jazz Piano Style
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Have you ever been at a friends birthday party with a piano nearby, and you thought, I wish I could play a nice jazz rendition of Happy Birthday?. Well, today Im going to teach you how to play Happy Birthday in a classy Cocktail Jazz Piano style. Youll learn how to color the chords, add chord extensions, alterations, use guide tones, rootless voicings, and more!
Lets dive in.
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Top Songs By Same Actors
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Singer
About Happy Birthday to You
Listen to Happy Birthday to You online. Happy Birthday to You is an English language song and is sung by Happy Birthday and Geburtstag. Happy Birthday to You , from the album Happy Birthday Songs, was released in the year 2021. The duration of the song is 1:11. Download English songs online from JioSaavn.
1m 11s · English
Happy Birthday Tune On Piano
- .is used for mandra saptak swars eg-
- _under score is used for komal swars.eg
- here is used for showing teevra swar .
- is used for stretching the swars according to the song.
- Swars written in this manner means they are playing fast or two swars on one beat.
- here is kan swar or sparsh swar and is mool swar.
How to play Happy Birthday song on keyboard,Piano, Harmonium ,Flute,Violin, Guitar.
Happy / Birthday / to / you
May / God / Bless / You / Dear
/ / / / May / God / Bless / You / Dear
/ / / / -/ /May / God / Bless / You / Dear / One
/ / / / /
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If Youre Happy And You Know It
This is one of the most fun keyboard songs for beginners. The tune gives your little musician the chance to clap and dance while playing. The only tricky part of this song is the inclusion of B flat.
This note is the small black key located directly between the A and B keys. If you are using a toy piano or xylophone, you may not have this key and can leave it out.
If youre happy and you know it, clap your handsC C F F F F F F E F GIf youre happy and you know it, clap your handsC C G G G G G G F G AIf youre happy and you know itA A Bb Bb Bb Bb D DThen your face will surely show itBb Bb A A A G F FIf youre happy and you know it, clap your handsA A G G G F E E D E F
Heres another helpful tutorial:
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Take A Sneak Peek Of The Song Happy Birthday
Patty and Mildred Hill were born in Kentucky in 1868. Mildred wrote the music and Patty wrote the lyrics. They were both inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1996.
Happy Birthday is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the song that is sung the most in the world! Its easy for beginners and a really useful song to be able to play.
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Happy Birthday Piano Chords The Easy Version
The easiest way to play Happy Birthday is to play the melody on your right hand and the chords on your left. Weve written our lead sheet in C Major, but pay attention the song actually starts on G!
If youre new to chords, you may want to scroll through Chording 101 or, if youre more hands-on, try Chord Hacks, our free intro to chords course.
Otherwise, here are all the chords youll need in root position.
Before you go further, we recommend practicing the easy version of Happy Birthday a few times first. Get to know these chords.
If you find this key too high or too low to sing, keep reading to learn how you can transpose it.
How To Play Happy Birthday On Piano
How to Play Happy Birthday
Time Needed :10 minutes
How to Play Happy Birthday in 3 easy steps!
Watch this short video and sing and play along1. Sing out the lyrics of the song row by row. 2. Sing out the numbers of the song. 3. Look at the keyboard diagram to see what piano keys to play.
Optionally, you can apply Numbered Notes piano keyboard stickers to the keys.Simply match the numbers from the Happy Birthday sheet music to the numbered piano keys.
Tools
- Either use the piano app at the top of the page or a piano keyboard at home.
Materials
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How To Play Happy Birthday On The Piano
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Playing this famous tune is fairly simple, but before we get started, you will need to know the basics of a piano. The notes of the piano are straight forward. They work from A-G, in alphabetical order. This piece of music uses the right and left hand, no sharps or flats to worry about. Once you get the basics, you are ready to start.
Whats The Best App To Learn Piano
7 apps for online piano lessons
- Skoove great for helping beginners get started and learn a complete set of piano skills.
- Simply piano very popular and gives a solid foundation.
- Yousician where the emphasis is on fun!
- Piano academy great encouragement for kids.
- Onlinepianist a focus on great song selection.
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The Meaning Of Verse Two
Happy Birthday to you Only one will not do!
Born again means Salvation How many have you?
Below is a version for brave beginners who want to be able to play all of Happy Birthday themselves, even to the octave stretch and the chords.
It is pretty easy, but kids need a bit of background in chord-playing first, such as.
Happily for young players, this is one of those easy chords songs:
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
With these small chords, I like to tell my students This is a D pinch chord . This is a little C chord .
Color Chords With Extensions & Alterations
Now that we have more interesting chords and a left hand accompaniment, youll want to color your right hand melody with chord extensions and alterations.
Here are the first few bars of the arrangement with colored chords:
Notice that we dont play an ordinary F major chord. We add the 6, 7, and 9 to the chord . This adds a ton of color to Major chords! Next, we dont play and ordinary Ab7 chord. We add the 9 , and the 13 . Finally, we dont play a regular G minor 7. We add the 9th, the A.
Its extremely important to understand which notes can be added to each of these chord types .
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Can Piano Marvel Help Me Learn To Play Happy Happy Birthday
Piano Marvel has developed specific tools and techniques to help you learn to play Happy, Happy Birthday on the piano. In fact, we have created custom learning paths for thousands of popular piano songs! Most of the songs you will find in Piano Marvel are analyzed by a music teaching specialist to provide the most logical learning path for individuals of any skill level.
Hundreds of helpful video tutorials are at your fingertips showing specific instruction on individual songs in Piano Marvel.You can create a free account to explore all of the ways Piano Marvel will help you to learn to play piano faster.
Make Your Happy Birthday Even Fancier
So far, weve been playing all our chords in root position. But you can mix up the order of notes in your chords using inversions.
Youll notice I play a G7 chord in 2nd inversion at the end. That is, the G7 chord is ordered D-F-G-B. Can you see how I get to move less by using this inversion? Inversions can help us transition smoothly between chords!
You can learn more about inversions here and how to use them as shortcuts here.
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Add Jazz Chords Using The 2
The next step is to make your chord progression more interesting by adding chords to the arrangement. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to add the 2-5-1 chord progression throughout the arrangement. Here is a basic 2-5-1 in the key of C Major:
As you can see, we can target a C Major chord by adding a D minor 7 , and then a G7 . The 2-5-1 is one of the most common chord progressions in jazz, so it will automatically make the arrangement sound more jazzy.
What is a secondary Dominant chord? A secondary dominant chord is a chord that can be added in front of any chord, and it is the dominant 7 chord built on the note a perfect 5th above the target chord. For example, if we go back to our 2-5-1 chord progression, there is a chord we can add before the 2 chord, the D Minor 7 chord. If we follow our secondary dominant rule above and we play a dominant 7 chord built a perfect 5th above the D Minor 7, then this is an A7 chord. Therefore, here is how we could use a secondary dominant chord before the 2-5-1 chord progression:
Now, with these two concepts , here is our new chord progression:
As you can see, measures 2-4 is a big long 2-5-1 in the key of F . The Ab13 on beat 3 is a dominant 7 chord with an added 13. Why does this chord work? It is a substitute chord for the secondary dominant chord D7, which leads us to Gm13. Specifically, it is a tritone away from D7, and we call this a Tritone Substitute chord.
Chapter 6 Play Your First Piano Melody: Happy Birthday
We now come to the 5th chapter of this ultimate pianists guide, dedicated to the first real melody youll play on piano Happy Birthday! In this chapter, we will build on what we have seen in the previous chapters, especially Chapter 4 Piano Basics and Chapter 5 Basic piano chords.
We will work together on the notes you need to play, one hand after the other, so that you can play quickly one of the easiest piano songs: Happy Birthday.
Note: you can learn Happy Birthday very easily and at your own pace on our application dedicated to online piano learning for beginners.
Joris, the author of this article, recommends the following resource: Piano tutorials: learn the 10 easiest songs
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