To spot them in sheet music, look for notes with two or more flags or that are connected with two or more beams (like those highlighted in the image below.) How can you tell if a piece contains finger movements that would be too quick for a beginner? As a rule of thumb, you should avoid songs with many sixteenth notes or higher. As a beginner your fingers are still getting used to quick movements, so it's best to start slow and pick up the pace as you get more comfortable with a song. Tricky rhythms contain lots of off-beat notes or odd note values, such as dotted notes or triplets (as seen in the example below.)Įasy piano pieces usually don't require you to play at a fast tempo. Here's an example of an easy piano song: it has a low range of hand movement and simple chord patterns.Īnd below is an example of a difficult piano song with a broad range of movements in both hands.Ī piece's rhythmic pattern is another factor that sets easy piano songs apart from difficult ones. Are they close together or are they widely spread apart? As a beginner, aim to find songs where the notes you have to play aren't too far apart from each other. You can identify hand jumps by looking at how notes are spaced on sheet music.

The more your hand has to jump around or stretch throughout a song, the harder it is to play. Look for songs that have few notes or chords on the bottom staff: these will be easier for beginner piano players to learn. When you look at sheet music, the top staff shows you what notes are played with the right hand and the bottom staff shows you what should be played with the left hand. Easy piano songs tend to have a simple accompaniment in the left hand that uses single notes or a few basic chords. Most of the time, your right-hand plays the melody and your left hand adds accompaniment. Hand independence is all about getting your hands to do different things at the same time when playing the piano. Now, if you're thinking that spotting these signs in a piece of sheet music seems more like deciphering hieroglyphics, don't worry! Here are four specific factors that help you identify an easy piano song and how to look for them in sheet music. When you're starting out on the piano, it's also best to avoid music that has you stretching to reach large intervals or hitting lots of chords. In general, you should look for songs that are relatively short, with a steady tempo and simple rhythm.

The good news is that this isn't tricky at all, once you know what you're looking for.Ī simple page of sheet music tells you everything you need to know about a song's difficulty level. Bad news first: you're going to have to read some sheet music. When it comes to figuring out if a piece of piano music will be easy for a beginner to play, there's bad news and good news.

Between the bars piano chords