How to sit at the piano and find middle C

After this lesson you can sit at the piano, find every C on the keyboard, and play middle C on a steady beat with either hand.

Your first piano lesson is not about reading music. It is about getting comfortable: where you sit, how your hands rest on the keys, and how to find your way along a keyboard that at first looks like one long, confusing row of black and white. By the end of this page you will be able to find any C in a second and play middle C in time with a steady beat.

Sit so your arms can move

Start with the bench or chair. Sit on the front half of it, not right at the back. This leaves your arms free to travel left and right along the keys, and it lets your body lean very slightly towards the keyboard instead of slumping away from it.

Check these four things:

Your forearms are roughly level with the keys, neither reaching up to them nor dropping down.
Your feet rest flat on the floor, or on a firm box if they do not reach.
Your shoulders are loose, not lifted towards your ears.
You sit close enough that your elbows are a little in front of your body when your fingers touch the keys.

If the seat is too low, your wrists sag below the keys; add a folded blanket or a firm cushion. If it is too high, your wrists bend downwards. An adjustable bench is ideal, but a kitchen chair with a cushion is perfectly good for a beginner. The guide to sitting at the piano goes into more detail.

A gently curved hand

Let one hand hang loosely by your side for a moment. Now lift it onto the keys without changing its shape. The fingers curve naturally, as if you were holding a small ball. That relaxed curve is what you want. Flat, straight fingers are weak and slow; tightly clawed fingers get tense. Keep your wrist level with the back of your hand and play on the pads of your fingers, just behind the tips.

Finger numbers

Pianists number their fingers so that music can show which finger plays which key. The thumb is 1, the index finger 2, the middle finger 3, the ring finger 4 and the little finger 5. Both hands use the same numbers. That surprises many beginners: the left thumb is also 1, even though it sits on the right-hand edge of that hand.

Hold both hands up, palms facing away from you, and wiggle each finger as you say its number aloud. Then call the numbers in a jumbled order, such as 3, 1, 5, 2, 4, and wiggle the right finger in both hands at once. It takes a few days for the numbers to become automatic, so repeat this whenever you sit down. The finger numbers guide has more ideas.

Black keys come in twos and threes

Now look at the black keys. They are not evenly spaced. There is a group of two, then a group of three, then two again, then three, all the way along. Every piano and keyboard follows the same pattern, whether it has 25 keys or 88. These groups are your map: once you can see them, you never need to count white keys from the end.

One group of two black keys and one group of three: this pattern repeats along the whole keyboard

The other thing to know is direction. Keys to the right sound higher; keys to the left sound lower. Play a key near the left end, then one near the right end, and you will hear the difference at once.

Every C sits just left of two black keys

Find any group of two black keys. The white key immediately to its left is C. Slide along to the next group of two and there is the next C, higher up. Every C looks exactly the same in relation to its pair of black keys, but each one sounds higher than the C to its left.

Each C is the white key just left of a group of two black keys; the one nearest the centre is middle C

Middle C is the C closest to the middle of your keyboard. It makes a good home base: a great deal of beginner music starts from it, and both hands can reach it comfortably.

Feel the steady beat

Music has a pulse running through it called the beat. It behaves like a ticking clock: even and steady, never hurrying or dragging. Before you play, tap your knee at a calm speed, about one tap per second. If you own a metronome or a metronome app, set it to 60, which is exactly one click per second.

How to practise

Sit on the front half of the seat and check your forearms, feet and shoulders.
Starting near the left end, find four different Cs, moving right. Say "C" aloud each time you press one.
Find middle C and rest your right thumb (finger 1) on it, with the other fingers curved lightly over the next white keys.
Count "1, 2, 3, 4" steadily aloud and play middle C on every number, eight times in all. Let the key rise fully between notes.
Swap to your left hand. It sits to the left of middle C, and the left thumb plays the same key.
Finish by playing a low C, middle C and a high C, one per beat, and listen to how the same letter can sound deep or bright.

Right hand: thumb (1) on middle C, the other fingers resting over the white keys to its right

Left hand: the thumb (1) plays middle C, with the rest of the hand over the keys to its left

Common mistakes

Jabbing the key. A piano key needs very little effort to sound. Let your finger and arm drop into it rather than poking.
Rushing. Most beginners speed up after a few notes. Counting out loud keeps you honest.
Collapsing fingers. If the top joint of a finger bends backwards, slow down and reshape the curve.
Sitting at the back of the seat. You end up reaching forwards with stiff arms. Shuffle forward.

Try it in Pianuvo

The first lesson of Unit 0: First week at the piano turns all of this into short scored exercises: finding every C, playing middle C with each thumb along with a click, and a short piece called Bells in C, where you play C in three octaves over gentle chords. It listens as you play, whether you use the on-screen keys, a MIDI keyboard or a real piano through your microphone, and tells you how steady your beat was.