Learn Piano in 45 days (Part One)
Thomas Bazzoon · Learn Piano Fast! Learn Piano for Fun!
A retired-sounding piano teacher walks total beginners through note names, hand position, and two-hand playing across twenty short daily lessons.
"Learn Piano in 45 Days (Part One)" is exactly what it sounds like: a slow, methodical, day-by-day onboarding for someone who has never touched a keyboard. Structured as twenty short daily lessons across four weeks, it builds from finding middle C to playing simple two-hand arrangements of songs like "Good King Wenceslas" and "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In." The teacher, working from a printed workbook that mirrors the video content, favors repetition and call-and-response quizzes over lecture, which suits the audience but also stretches thin material across a lot of runtime.
Structure and pacing
The course follows a clear arc. Week one is note identification and the five-finger C position, using the thumb-through-pinky numbering system to get right and left hands playing "Ode to Joy" and "Love Me Tender" without reading standard notation. Week two introduces actual staff reading, teaching line notes and space notes in the treble clef through the song "Lightly Row," then closes with an ear-training exercise on "Jingle Bells" where the learner has to guess notes by listening rather than watching hands. Week three tackles rhythm and counting (whole, half, and quarter notes, plus the meaning of a 4/4 time signature) and introduces chord theory through the C major triad, building toward two-hand coordination in "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Week four layers in ties, dotted half notes, and pickup measures while adding a second chord (an inverted G major) so the learner can alternate between two chords under a melody in "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In."
This progression is genuinely sound pedagogy for absolute beginners. Notes before rhythm, rhythm before chords, one hand before two: nothing is out of order, and the repeated call-outs ("play me a D," "play me an F") function as real, if simple, active recall drills rather than passive demonstration.
Strengths and limits
The counting method taught late in the course, where measures are counted 1-2-3-4 and then restarted at 1 for a tied note rather than continuing to 5, is a small but genuinely useful trick that removes a common beginner stumbling block. Likewise, the by-ear exercises on "Jingle Bells" and "Joy to the World" are a smart inclusion most beginner courses skip, nudging the learner toward listening skills rather than pure note-reading dependency.
The weaknesses are mostly about pacing and depth rather than accuracy. Everything is anchored to a single five-finger C position, so the learner never has to shift hand position, which keeps things easy but also means the material stays narrow. Explanations lean heavily on verbal description of hand shapes and finger numbers rather than tight visual notation overlays, so a viewer has to split attention between the video and a separate printed handout to get full value. And at 100 minutes for 20 lessons, individual videos are short, meaning progress per session is real but modest.
As a first course for someone who owns a keyboard and has never played, this delivers a workable, low-pressure path to a handful of simple songs and real rhythm literacy. Anyone who already reads music or has band or choir background will find most of it redundant within the first two lessons.
The standout
The measure-based counting method taught in Lesson 4 (counting 1-2-3-4 then restarting at 1 for tied notes instead of counting past four) gives beginners a durable, transferable way to read rhythm in any 4/4 song.
What you will learn
- Naming and locating every white key by its position within the two-note and three-note black-key groups
- Playing simple right-hand and left-hand melodies (Ode to Joy, Love Me Tender, Lightly Row) using the five-finger C position
- Reading line notes and space notes on the treble and bass clef, plus counting measures
- Recognizing whole, half, quarter, and dotted-half notes, ties, and 4/4 time signatures
- Building basic C major and G major (inverted) chords and coordinating both hands together
- Picking out simple melodies by ear using up/down/same-note listening drills
Best for: A complete beginner with a keyboard at home who wants a slow, hand-held, day-by-day path to reading simple notes and playing a first few songs with both hands.
Skip it if: Anyone with prior piano or band experience, or anyone wanting polished production, visual notation overlays, or fast progress toward real repertoire.