In this lesson, you're going to learn: •
How to sit at your piano
•
How the hands are used in playing the piano
•
Introduction to the Piano Keyboard
•
The Fingering System
•
Reading Music Rhythms
•
A new song to learn using only the black keys
•
AND a FREE download of the fantastic learn-to-read-music game Jayde Musica!
Sitting at the Piano When you are seated at the piano, you need to have the correct posture. Without the proper posture, you can experience back pain and stress in your joints. 1.
The first rule of correct posture is to keep your back straight. Your torso may bend towards the piano.
2.
Keep your head up. DON’T crane your neck to look at the sheet music. The sheet music should be positioned so you can see it easily.
3.
Your shoulders and arms should be loose and relaxed. If you need to do some stretches beforehand, feel free!
4.
Your arms should be parallel with the height of the keys and bend at the elbow in an angle of slightly greater than 90 degrees.
5.
Your thighs should be parallel with the floor. To ensure this, you should use an adjustable chair.
6.
Your left foot should be set forward toward the pedals, while your right foot should rest midway between the pedals and your chair.
7.
Keep enough distance between your chair and the piano that you can reach the pedals and keys comfortably, yet have freedom of movement. If your chair is too close, your body will get in the way of your elbows. If your chair is too far away, you will have to bend forward to reach the keys.
How the Hands are Used in Playing the Piano If you know how to type, you know that you need to use a certain finger to press each key on the keyboard. Similarly, when you are playing piano, you will use certain fingers to press specific keys, depending on the hand position. As you start learning the correct fingers to use, it is helpful to think of each of your fingers as having a numerical value. The standard method is to divide your fingers into your right hand (R.H.) and left hand (L.H.), and assign a number from 1 to 5 to each finger, starting from the thumb (1)
and finishing on the pinky (5).
As you work through my lessons, you’ll need to know which number corresponds to which finger, so that when I ask you to play a key with R.H. 2, you’ll know to play the key with the index finger of your right hand. Since this numbering system is standard, you will find that some pieces of particularly difficult piano music will have a number (like R.H. 2) marked above certain notes that are difficult to finger.
Introduction to the Piano Keyboard Today we look at the piano keyboard. A standard modern piano has 88 keys: 52 white and 36 black. Its range will be a little over 7 octaves (one octave is made up of 7 white keys and 5 black keys). You will notice that the black keys on a piano are grouped in sets of 2 and 3. An easy way to remember which key is C on the piano is to remember that the white key immediately before any group of 2 black keys is C:
In the very center of the piano is an important key called Middle C. This establishes the basic pitch and is the key from which all other keys are referenced.
To the left of middle C, the notes become progressively lower. (Hitting a note will cause vibration of the bass strings). To the right of middle C, the notes become progressively higher. (Hitting a note will cause vibration of the tenor strings.) As I mentioned before, the black keys on a piano are grouped in sets of 2 and 3.
As you move up each key in the piano, you are moving up a half-step. You will learn more about this in later chapters. Right now, just play some keys on the piano. Try the following: 1. Play some white keys, then some black keys. Do you notice any difference in the tone or quality of sound? 2. Play the lowest note on the keyboard, then Middle C, then the highest note. Do you think that many songs use a piano’s full range? 3. Play a group of consecutive keys (keys that go one right after another, including the black keys.) Can you hear the progression in pitch?
The Fingering System Now, try some exercises to practice the fingering system on the keyboard. Right now, we’ll just use the two black keys above Middle C. 1. Using your left hand, play the two grouped black keys just up from Middle C.
2. Now, play the same keys using your left hand and the correct fingers. Play the highest note first and the lowest note second.
3. Now, do Exercise 2 again, this time with the right hand.
4. Play R.H. 2 then R.H. 3.
Now, we’ll do the same thing, but on two of the groups of three black keys. Use the three black keys below Middle C for the left hand, and the three black keys above Middle C for the right hand.
1. Play L.H. 2, L.H. 3, then L.H. 4.
2. Now, play R.H. 2, R.H. 3, and R.H. 4
Reading Music Before we start playing any songs we need to briefly look at reading musical notes. Music consists of a pattern of tones of varying lengths. Each tone is written down as a note. The word note can have several meanings: 1.
A tone of definite pitch.
2. The symbol for such a tone, indicating pitch by its position on the staff and duration by its shape. 3.
The key of an instrument, such as a piano.
If you want to play a note, you need to learn how to read notes from a musical score and play those notes on the piano. You must learn how to read music if you want to play the piano. Think of a musical score as your instruction manual. It will tell you everything you need to know about playing a piece. Once you have the musical score memorized, you will be able to play songs easily without the sheet music (as is done in most solo recitals). Rhythm Right now, let’s focus on understanding the length of a note. Knowing how long to play each note is essential to capturing a song’s rhythm. The shape of the note will tell you how long the tone should be played for (its duration). A note can have many different shapes.
Each shape has a specific name and corresponds to a certain value (measured in beats). By looking at these notes on their own, you do not have any idea of the pitch of each note. In other words, whether the note is Middle C, a higher note, or a lower note. The only thing that the shape of a note tells you is its duration. You will have to look at the note’s position on a musical staff to know its pitch. The Quarter Note The standard note is the quarter note. It lasts for one beat, or count. Musical rhythms are not just described by note lengths. You can also talk about rhythm in terms of measures. Measures are indicated by bar lines.
Can you guess the number of beats per measure? 4 quarter notes x 1 beat per quarter note = 4 beats The Half Note A half note is twice the length of a quarter note. It lasts for two counts: one, two.
Two quarter notes make a half note.
Whole Note A whole note is four beats. It lasts for four counts: one, two, three, four.
A whole note is equal to two half notes OR four quarter notes
Now lets try for a song! So now we'll put the two aspects of the hands on the black keys and note values together to make a song. Here you can see that the fingers are on the black keys either side of middle C on your piano. Enjoy!
In this lesson, you're going to learn: •
The Musical Alphabet
•
The Middle C Hand Position
•
What Dynamic Signs Are
•
Song: Merrily We Roll Along
•
Time Signatures
•
The Musical Staff
Piano Lesson One - The Musical Alphabet In this lesson you’re going to learn much, much more about reading music, including the names for each white key on a keyboard, time signatures, the musical staff, and the Middle C hand positions for playing. You don’t have to learn many letters for the musical alphabet. (Hint: You already know one of them: C!) The musical alphabet consists of 7 letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. If you can locate Middle C on a piano, you can figure out the letter for any key on the keyboard. From C, count upwards with one letter per white key: C, D, E, F, G. The white key after G will return to A. Quite simply, the entire keyboard consists of this sequence of 7 letters repeated one after another.
You should memorize the musical alphabet and the location of each individual key. If it helps, you may wish to label each key on your piano with stickers, but make sure that the stickers you use will not damage your keys when you remove them. Middle C Hand Position The first formal hand position that you will learn is the Middle C hand position. In this position, you will use your left hand for every key below Middle C and your right hand for every key above Middle C.
(Both your thumbs should be on Middle C.) Practice the hand position with the following tune. Play the first two bars with your right hand and the final two bars with your left hand. (Hint: the 'f' stands for 'forte,' which is a dynamic sign meaning to play the piece loudly.)
Click on the audio button to hear this piece played. Track02.mp3 What are Dynamic Signs? Dynamic signs tell you how loudly or softly to play a piece. In fact, the piano was invented precisely because musicians wanted the ability to play a note either softly or loudly. The earliest pianos were called pianofortes, which means "soft-loud." Like many words in music, the names for dynamic signs are taken from the Italian.
Exercise #2: "Merrily We Roll Along" Now, try this slightly longer piece. The tune may be familiar to you already: it's called "Merrily We Roll Along." Play the top line with your right hand, then switch to your left hand for the bottom line.
Click on the audio button to hear this piece played. Track03.mp3 Did you notice the letters on the bottom row? Those letters correspond to the note values. Now we're going to learn how to read music on the music staff. Time Signatures To understand rhythm completely, you don’t just need to know for how many counts you should hold each note. You also need to know how many beats per bar. And, to make it even more confusing, the values that you have just learned for each type of note can sometimes change! This is why you need to understand time signatures. A time signature (or “meter sign”) is a set of two numbers that appears at the beginning of every piece of music. Some examples of time signatures include:
The top number tell you how many beats in a bar. The bottom number tells you which note value will get one beat. This can seem a bit confusing. Remember: a quarter is ¼, so a 4 at the bottom means that the quarter note will get one beat. An 8 at the bottom would mean that the eighth note would get one beat, and so on.
The most common time signature is 4/4. It is also called “common time.” All of the tunes you have played so far have been in common time. In common time, there are four beats per measure. A complete measure might be four quarter notes, two half notes, or one whole note.
What is the Musical Staff? Until now, you've only seen notes on a blank background, separated by bar lines. However, musical notes are usually written on a staff. A note may be written on a line or on a space. There are two basic staffs used in playing the piano: the base clef staff (for low notes) and the treble clef staff (for high notes). This is because one staff isn’t enough for distinguishing all the notes that may be played in a song. Two staffs give you twice as many notes. Here is the base clef symbol, with the letter notes associated with each line and space.
For now, all the notes you will play with your left hand will be located on the base clef staff. Let's take the Middle C hand position as an example
The treble clef staff allows you to play higher notes. Here is what it looks like, with the letter notes that correspond to each line and space.
For now, all the notes you will play with your right hand will be located on the treble clef staff. Again, let's look at the Middle C hand position.
For the piano, both of these staffs are put together in what is called the Grand Staff.
ALL piano music is written on a grand staff. The grand staff consists of:
joined by a brace.
The PERFECT way to practice your note recognition is to play the free Jayde Musica game that you downloaded in Lesson One! Now that you know the notes associated with each space and line on the base and treble clef staff, you can practice instantly recognizing notes. Learning to read music is just like learning to read. It may seem difficult, even impossible at first, but the more you practice the easier it will become! Exercise #1 Practice your understanding of the base clef staff with the following tune. Play with the left hand only. Both the finger numbers (see above for where to place your hands) AND the note letters are included to help you.
Click on the audio button to hear this piece played Exercise #2 Practice your understanding of the treble clef staff with the following tune. Play with the right hand only. Again, both the finger numbers (see picture above) and the note letters are included to help you.
In this lesson, you're going to learn: •
What musical intervals are
•
The C hand position
•
The difference betwen harmonic and melodic intervals
•
What chords are made of
What are Musical Intervals? By now, you should know a little about the fundamentals of rhythm, the musical “language” of notes, and how to play the notes that you see on a musical staff. The next concept that you are going to learn is the interval.
An interval measures the distance from one note to another. Intervals come in 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths, and octaves, or 8ths. (There are also minor intervals there's more on that in the Rocket Piano series.)
Harmonic Intervals On the musical staff, 2nds are written: 1. When the first note is on a space and the next note is on a line. 2. When the first note is on a line and the next note is on a space. Here are some examples of 2nds.
On the musical staff, 3rds are written: 1. When the first note is on a space and the next note is also on a space (with a line between them.) 2. When the first note is on a line and the next note is also on a line (with a space between them). Here are some examples of 3rds.
On the musical staff, 4ths are written: 1. When the first note is on a line and the next note is two spaces above it. 2. When the first note is on a space and the next note is two lines above it. Here are some examples of 4ths.
On the musical staff, 5ths are written: 1. When the first note is on a space and the next note is two spaces above it.
2. When the first note is on a line and the next note is two lines above it. Here are some examples of 5ths
More information about intervals can be found inside the Rocket Piano series. C Hand Position Now it’s time to learn a new hand position. You’ve already learned the Middle C hand position. Now I’m going to show you the C hand position. Don’t get the two confused! They are quite different.
Exercise #1 You need to become familiar with recognizing and playing intervals. To help you do so, try playing the following pieces. The first tune uses 2nd intervals, while the second tune uses 3rds. Use the C hand position shown below for both. Practice recognizing 2nds with the following piece. Try playing it without the help of the fingering system!
Practice recognizing 3rds with the following piece.
Click on the audio button to hear this piece played.
Melodic v. Harmonic Intervals The concept of intervals can be applied to notes played separately or two notes played simultaneously. To understand this, you need to know the the difference between melody and harmony. When you talk about a single line of notes, played separately one by one on the musical staff, you are talking about melody. Melody is the horizontal aspect of music, it goes across the page. When you talk about chords or several notes played simultaneously, you are talking about harmony. Harmony is the vertical aspect of music and is shown on the musical staff by notes stacked on top of one another. Therefore, melodic intervals measure the distance between notes played separately on a staff.
Harmonic intervals measure the distance between notes played simultaneously on a staff.
Exercise #2 Now, you're going to try playing both melodic and harmonic intervals with the following piece. Use the C position. Both the finger numbers and the note letters are included to help you.
Click on the audio button to hear this piece played. Chords Now, you’re ready to learn about chords! The example above uses chords. That’s because you are playing a chord any time you play two or more notes together.
So the chords above are only using notes that are 2nds or 3rds apart. Now we're going to briefly look at the chord in more detail. To understand chords completely, you must know what a triad is. A triad is a chord with three notes. The three notes in a triad are:
The type of triad name will come from the root note on the bottom. If the root note is on the bottom of the triad, it is said to be in root position. A triad can begin on any note in a scale. Below are some triads to look at. Don't worry if this doesn't make too much sense at this stage. Just have a look through the chords and see if you can figure out how to play them. These chords are in the key of C major.
In this lesson, you're going to learn: •
How to play rests, ties, and slurs
•
The C Hand Position
•
How to play with both hands together
•
How to play 8th notes
•
Learn to play the carol Deck The Halls
What is a Rest? You've learned to play notes, but another fundamental part of rhythm is the absence of sound. Musical notation allows you to "play" a few beats of silence by using a rest. You might find it useful to think of silence in piano scores as a “rest” from playing! Rests are like notes in that their shape and position on the staff tell you important information. There are three kinds of rests.
Note that the half note rest and whole note rest look identical, so you’ll have to look very closely at their position on the staff!
Here's just a reminder of the C hand position.
Exercise #1
Exercise #2 Now you're ready to practice playing rests! Try playing rests with the following piece. Use the C hand position shown above.
What is a Tie? Each measure in a piece of music must have a standard value, indicated by the top number on the time signature. In common time, for example, there are 4 beats to the bar. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t hold any note longer than four beats. If you want to hold a note rather than stop at the end of the measure, you will use a tie.
The combined note value is 3 beats. What is a Slur? A slur looks similar to a tie, but rather than connecting two notes, it is a curved line that goes over or under a group of notes. It means that the notes are played smoothly and connectedly, with no pause or space between each note.
Both Hands Together! Now, you've come to the most difficult exercise yet. For the first time, you will have to play with both the left and right hand simultaenously. To get used to the piece, play each hand separately to begin with: first the left hand, then the right hand. Once your hands feel comfortable with the movements, try putting them together.
Exercise #3 When you come to a double bar line with the two dots on the inside, you should repeat the whole song over again.
(Can you guess what song this is?) The Eighth Note A quarter note isn’t the smallest note in music. When you want to play music that moves rapidly, you need notes of short duration, and the eighth note fits the bill. The eighth note is one half the length of a quarter note.
One eighth note looks like a quarter note with a “tail.”
When there are two eighth notes in a row, the tails join together.
Two eight notes are equivalent to one quarter note. When counting eighth notes, you count: “ONE-and-TWO-and-THREE-and-FOUR-and...”
Just as there are quarter note and whole note rests, there are eighth note rests as well.
An eighth note rest looks like this: Exercise #4 Practice playing eighth notes with the tune below. Notice that this little tune is using the middle C position.
In this lesson, you're going to learn:
•
What flats and sharps are
•
How to play the black keys
•
What a key signature is
•
A new hand position: The G hand position
The Black Keys It’s time to discover what the black keys are all about. The black keys use the exact same musical alphabet as the white keys, with one addition: a
or a .
A note with a sign is a sharp. For example, C = C sharp. A note with a
sign is a flat. For example, A
= A flat.
All sharps and flats are played on the black keys, with the exceptions of B , C
, E , and F
. Sharps A sharp raises a note a half step. To play a sharp, play the key directly to the right of the note you would ordinarily play for that letter, whether that key is black or white. When you see a sharp on a musical score, it will appear before the note.
Once a sharp appears before a note, it means that that particular note will stay sharp for the rest of the bar. Familiarize yourself with the location of sharps on the keyboard and staff below.
Exercise #1 Now, let's try playing some sharps. To play a sharp, use the same finger that you would use to play the regular note. Play moderately fast.
Flats A flat lowers a note a half step. To play a flat, play the key directly to the left of the note you would ordinarily play for that letter, whether that key is black or white. Like sharps, when you see a flat on a musical score, it will appear before the note. Once a flat appears before a note, it means that that particular note will stay flat for the rest of the bar.
Familiarize yourself with the location of flats on the keyboard and treble clef staff below.
Exercise #2
Practice playing flats with the following piece.
G Major Key Signature Composers will often write pieces based around the notes in a certain scale. If a piece is based on the notes in the G major scale, we say that the piece is in the key of G major. In order to indicate what key a song is in, composers add a group of sharps or flats after the clef mark. This group of sharps or flats is called the key signature.
Here is the key signature for G major. Note that it has one sharp in it, F# . G major has only one sharp in the scale, attached to the note F. You can easily determine the key signature for any scale if you know what the scale looks like written out on the musical staff. For example, the C major scale, it has no sharps or flats. Therefore, when no sharps or flats appear at the beginning of the piece, you know that the piece is written in the key of C major. Sharps and flats written into the key signature apply to the whole piece. That means that whenever the note F appears in a song written in G major, you play it as an F#. The only time you will not play it as a sharp is if the note is preceded by the natural sign ( ).
The G Hand Position It’s time to learn a new hand position! The G hand position is named so because the thumb of the right hand rests on the note G. The right hand thumb rests on the G above Middle C while the left hand thumb rests on the D above Middle C. The new hand position replaces the keys for E and F with the keys for A and B.
Exercise #3 Practice the new hand position with the following tune.
In this lesson, you're going to learn: •
3/4 time signature
•
The repeat sign
•
2 Hand positions
•
The song Amazing Grace
A new time signature It’s time to learn a new time signature: The 3 at the top means that each measure that follows will have three beats.
The 4 at the bottom means that, like in the time beat.
signature, a quarter note will still get one
With this new time signature comes a new measured note: the dotted half note. The dotted half note stands for three beats, or a count of, “One, two, three.”
Exercise #1 This piece uses the C hand position. Take your time and listen to the track and hear how the 3/4 time signature differs from 4/4 time signature.
The repeat sign When you come to a double bar line with the two dots on the inside, you should repeat the whole song over again!
Two Hand Positions Exercise #2 The following piece has two left hand positions. Start with the first hand position and switch when prompted. Notice the key signature that tells you that the piece is in the G major key. Remember that this means that all Fs are F#'s.
Now for the last song in this Beginner Course series In this song we are going to incorporate all the aspects we've learned so far. This is quite a complicated song to learn at a beginner level but there is nothing in this song that you haven't learned in this Beginner Course. So take your time and be patient. Look through the song and listen carefully to the track. Remember, practice makes perfect!
