In today’s video I share a simple piano noodling exercise designed to show piano learners how easy it is to start improvising at the piano. You do not have to be an experienced improviser. In fact, this exercise is doable even for beginners!
Here are the steps to your first piano noodling exercise:
- Practice the left-hand chords: C major (consisting of C, E, and G) and D minor (D, F, and A).
- Place your right hand with the thumb on middle C, giving each other finger a white key to the right of it. You should have your fingers in “C Position,” or on C, D, E, F, and G.
- Slowly play one note at a time with the right hand, moving freely about the notes from C to G. Meanwhile, at your discretion, move the left hand back and forth between the two chords C major and D minor.
See the video below for a demonstration:
As I write in Chapter 11 of “Play Piano: A Learner’s Guide to Playing, Reading, and Creating Music,”
[Piano noodling] is simple and non-threatening. Anyone can do it, regardless of their piano-playing experience. By noodling, you engage in creative play. That is exactly what improvisation is! Not only is creative play fun, it generates curiosity, which leads to learning. Great improvisers grow their skills from years of such experimentation.
Benefits of piano noodling include:
- It is a simple entry point into improvisation. Even the non-assuming word “noodling” makes it accessible with no pressure.
- It’s an effortless way to explore and experiment, as described above.
- It is easy to integrate into your piano practice, either as a warm-up or as a break from more “serious” things.
- It is fun!
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