Most people think that reading piano notes is something that takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to learn. They are, of course, wrong. I’m not going to say it’s easy, but it’s definitely much easier than most people believe. In this article we’ll go through the basics of how to understand piano notes.
Let’s start with the keyboard. A standard keyboard has 88 keys – 52 white and 36 black. Does that mean you will have to learn 88 notes? Lucky for you, no. Musical alphabet actually only consists of seven letters – A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, so you only have to know those.
Natural notes – A, B, C, D, E, F, and G are the white keys on the piano. They repeat themselves over and over. The black keys are called either flats or sharps. 5 black keys and 7 white keys form 12-note patterns which repeat themselves.
Music is written on the staff. There are two staves for piano that together form a grand staff. The treble staff is where you will find notes for the right hand and the bass staff is where you will find notes for the left hand.
If you look at a staff, you will see lines and spaces. Each staff has exactly five lines and four spaces. Notes lower on the staff are lower in pitch. Notes higher on the staff are higher in pitch.
The next thing you need to learn is where on the staff you find the notes – A, B, C, D, E, F, G. A note can be either on a line or in a space. If you think about it, every second note of the musical alphabet will be either on a line or in a space. How to memorize this? Mnemonics.
Let’s take a look at the treble staff. Remember, there are four spaces on the staff, so there will be four different notes in those spaces. Read from bottom to top the notes form a word – FACE. Notes on the lines are E, G, B, D, F. You can remember this by a phrase like Every Good Boy Does Fine.
For more information, see how to learn to read piano notes. One of the best ways to learn is with the help of learn piano dvd.
