Based on my own experience (and my experiences when teaching my students), I have discovered that most people think piano notes are complicated and difficult to learn. This is simply not true.
How to learn piano notes? In the United States, United Kingdom or Australia, the piano notes are nothing more than the first seven letters of the alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F, G). So, if you can learn these first seven letters of the alphabet then you can become a piano notation expert!
This is true in English-speaking countries. In some other countries, like Germany and Poland for example, the letter B is substituted with the letter H. Italy, France, and Spanish-speaking countries use “Do Re Mi…” notation. So, if you are planning your next concert in Rome, maybe you should learn this notation as well for easier communication with the orchestra conductor.
But for the United States or Australia, we will stick to the A, B, C… notation. Sometimes in your career, you will come across those notations since music is an international medium and music sheet notes are printed across the globe. It is wise to familiarize yourself with the other notation systems but
do not pay much attention to it for now.
How To Associate The Letters Of The Alphabet To Your Piano Keyboard?
An important thing to understand is that the first seven letters are being repeated over and over. You need to know how to associate those letters (note names) with the keyboard.
The piano keyboard has white keys and black keys (for contrast and easy identification). White keys are not interrupted by any patterns but black keys are organized in groups of two black keys or three black keys. This pattern is repeating over and over. The crucial thing on the piano keyboard is to identify the location of middle “C” note. It is also super easy! It is right in the center of the entire (typical eighty-eight keys) large keyboard.
Begin by looking at the keyboard and visually finding the center (hint: the bottom 3-foot pedals – usually silver or gold in color – are in the center too so middle “C” is just right above them). If your piano has the written logo of the manufacturer just above the keyboard, chances are it is also in the center.
To be exact middle “C” it is three full octaves from the left and four full octaves from the right. Octave (a Latin word) is a distance of eight keys. Many words used in music are Latin or Italian. The placement on the keyboard of the note “middle C” is the white key located on the left side of the set of 2 black keys. See the picture above, middle “C” is marked with the blue arrow and in red.
Marking Piano Notes For Beginners With Letters
Please do not make the mistake of describing each piano key with the corresponding letter. It is only seven letters which you already know by now! It will take you more time to learn it if you start writing on the keyboard and/or in the sheet music! On top of that, it is hard to clean and most of the time leaves permanent marks on piano keys (which looks ugly and unprofessional), this method is proven with my students!
I remember when I was a kid learning piano, I was making the same mistakes. But not writing any letters on the keyboard helped me tremendously. Marking piano notes is very time-consuming too – you need to write them on the keyboard and then in the sheet music.
Another drawback to marking piano notes is that when you play, you will have to read the note in sheet music, then read a letter and then find a letter on the keyboard. This is a waste of time and you want to learn quickly. As you progress, you will notice that just by the looking at the sheet music, your fingers will automatically play the corresponding notes on the piano keyboard without even thinking about it (our brain works wondrously like this).
To conclude, simply remember the black key pattern of 2+3; the location of middle C just left from the two black key groups; and no marking a keyboard or sheet music. As far as how to read sheet music is concerned, please read on…
How To Read Music Notes For Beginners
Reading music notes for beginners is a little more complicated than learning the piano keyboard. But it is possible, however, to learn in maybe five minutes or less! You need to be able to understand the staff, the location of the notes of the staff and the role of the clefs. Below you will discover everything you need to know about these topics.
Clefs For Piano
You play piano with two hands and each hand is noted in a different key range. The right hand (which plays the higher notes) is associated with the Treble Clef and looks like a happy number 8. The left hand (which plays the lower notes) is associated with the Bass Clef and looks like a backward letter C with 2 dots. Let’s start with the right hand and Treble Clef.
Treble Clef
Each note is placed on the line or in the space between the lines. There are five horizontal lines in total for each clef and they represent the most commonly played notes. If you need to know the notes which do not fit on the five lines (are higher or lower pitch) than you add as many short lines as you need.
Notes are written as a flattened circle which is filled in black (or not) and they have a pole and a flag – this is how we encrypt the duration of the sound. There are additional note duration notation tricks, like points, to make a duration 1/2 longer. But for right now, we are focusing on the beginner’s ‘crash course’, so we will just skip over that part! When you count the lines, do it from the bottom up. The same thing goes for spaces in between the lines.
The first line (counting from the bottom) is for note E. The space between the first and second line is for note F. The second line is for letter G. The space between 2nd and 3rd line is for note A. The 3rd line is for note B. The space between 3rd line and 4th line is for note C. And it continues on in this manner. To make each line note location (EGBDF) easier to remember, try using the mnemonic Every Green Bus Drives Fast or Every Good Boy Do Fine is another one. As for the spaces between the lines, you can simply spell FACE.
Bass Clef
The Bass Clef is used to make the notation for the left hand. You count the lines the same way you would as the right hand, from the bottom up.
The notes that are located on the lines are GBDFA (Good Boy Do Fine Always). The notes that are in between the lines are ACEG (All Cows Eat Grass). Something simple to remember that will make the life of an aspiring virtuoso a lot easier!
Conclusion
And now, you are an ‘expert’ in the field of basic western music notation. If you hope to one day receive musical world recognition, you need to know this! You must practice it until it becomes second nature. This could take you as little as a week, depending on how quickly you ‘pick it up’. You must learn how to recognize the notes and keys without the support of the charts. The future of your piano playing career depends on it, as it is the most basic of musical skills.
And now, it is time for you to practice the ‘ebonies and ivories’.
