Playing

Exercise nº 1 · part 1

Exercise Nº1 Cmaj — original composition by Mario Maurano.
© 2026 Mario Maurano. All rights reserved.

What you are going to do: play a short ten-bar piece with both hands, using your computer keyboard. You do not need to read music, and you do not need to have played an instrument before.

How long it takes: about twenty minutes, unhurried. What you need: a computer with a browser and sound. There is nothing to install.

And after that: in part 2 of this exercise you write the same piece on the staff, so you can hear it, print it and keep it.

Open COSMIC KEYBOARD

The COSMIC KEYBOARD shortcuts. Opens in AXIOMATIC mode. The notes are sequential, starting on Z = C (Do). An octave higher A = C (Do), and Q = C (Do).

Check: press Z X C V B N M, one after another. You should hear a scale going up, note by note, from C to B. If nothing sounds: turn the volume up, and click once inside the Cosmic Keyboard window so that it receives what you type.

TIP: use the same fingering as on the piano — fingering means which finger plays which note: thumb = 1, index = 2, middle = 3, ring = 4, little finger = 5. It is a suggestion to keep your hand from tangling, not a rule.

See all the keyboard shortcuts →

Press the “pulse” button to open the Pulse Metronome and set your own tempo for this exercise.

Click on the “tap” button a few times to set your tempo. The light shows the beat that you can hear setting ON the click button and modify its volume and tone.

TIP: start slow, BPM = 30 — two seconds per beat. You will use it with the table just below: each cell of the table is one click of the metronome.

How to read this table

Each row: is one bar: a group of four beats. Column M is its number.
LH · RH: LH = left hand, RH = right hand. Four cells for each hand.
Each cell: is one beat: one click of the metronome.
The big letter: is the key you press. Two letters together (GD) = both at once.
The small number: is the finger: 1 thumb, 2 index, 3 middle, 4 ring, 5 little finger.
x 4 · ídem: x 4 = repeat that cell four times. ídem = same as the row above.
The blue line: (NUM PAD, NEGRA, CORCHEA, REDONDA) is only needed when you write it in the Score, in part 2. For playing, ignore it.

Example, the first LH cell: it says Z with a 2 underneath → press the Z key with the index finger of your left hand, and hold it for one beat. The next three cells say Z again: bar 1 is four Zs in a row, one per beat.

M	LH · left hand				RH · right hand
1	NUM PAD Z 2	5 Z	QUARTER Z	NOTES Z	NUM PAD GD 3-2	4 GD	EIGHTH GD	NOTES GD
2	Z 2	4 times			HF 3-2	x 4	times
3	idem				JG 4-3	JG	JF 4-2	JF
4	Idem				KD 5-2	KD	KG 5-3	KG
5	Idem				EG 2 - -3	x 4
6	Idem				RH 2 - 3	x 4
7	Idem				TJ	x 4
8	Z 4	B 2	V 3	C 4	EK 2 - 5	ET 2-3	YR 2-4	YR 2-4
9	X 5	V 3	B 2	B 2	IU 5-4	YU 3 - 5	IU 5-4	YU 3-4
10	NUM PAD Z 5	7	WHOLE NOTE		NUM PAD I E 2-5	7	WHOLE NOTE

TABLE EXERCISE Nº1 playing from your computer keyboard

How to practise it

Do not try both hands at once. This order is the one any pianist uses, and it works:

Right hand alone (the four RH columns), no metronome, as slowly as you like. Repeat each bar until it comes out without thinking.
Left hand alone (the LH columns). It is the easier one: almost the whole exercise is the Z key repeated.
Both hands, one bar at a time. A single bar, many times, before moving on.
With the metronome at 30, start to finish. When it comes out clean, go up to 40, then 50.

Check: the exercise is right when you can play it all the way through, with both hands, without stopping to look at the table more than once per bar. Speed does not matter; stopping in the middle does.

Congratulations: you have just played your first exercise

Carry on with part 2 — Writing, where this same piece is written out on the staff.