Choose your desired website or use a combination of several websites. Working through one website in particular does have its advantages, as each website has its own course of study, which may not match up with another website's. Choose the website most suited to you to begin with, and check other sites if something is not clear. Alternatively, you can choose lessons from each site to formulate a basic understanding of the piano.
Read a lesson that revolves around getting used to the keys on the piano. Because of the size of the instrument and the sheer number of keys, the piano can be daunting to a new player. Find a lesson that explains that an 88-key piano can be broken down into seven "octaves," each of which consists of 12 notes. Each octave contains one group of two black notes and one group of three, stretching between the white key to the left of the two black notes (C) and the white key to the right of the group of three black notes (B).
Learn the basics of reading music from a website. Many websites can be used to find out about reading music, and this is a very important skill when learning piano, as most exercises will be written as music. The position of the note on the staff determines its value. Any notes resting on the bottom line of a treble staff represent an E, and any in the space above represent an F. The lines represent (from top to bottom) E, G, B, D and F and the spaces represent F, A, C and E. Use games to practice reading music if you have trouble with it.
Find out about the basics of chords. The simplest piano chords are triads, which are made up of three notes. Play C, E and G together to play a C major triad. A triad is made up of the first, third and fifth notes in any scale. In the C major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A and B), C, E and G are the first, third and fifth notes. Minor chords are made up of the first, flattened third and the fifth. Look for the black notes to find the flats. A C minor triad is made up of C, E flat and G.