Piano Notes – For Absolute Beginners
Piano Notes – For Absolute Beginners
Duane: Good morning. This is Duane. This video is for absolute beginners only. If you already know the keyboard, then please leave right now because there is nothing here that will interest you at all. Lots of people don’t know the relationship of the piano keys to the piano notes that are on a sheet music for piano, so I’d like to show you how the two relate today.
Piano keys, as you know, go from A up to G. Then they repeat. [Piano Playing] I have another video on the subject of piano keys. If you don’t know them, then you probably ought to review that. The purpose today is to see how these notes, these keys on the piano relate to the notes on sheet music. I’ve prepared this chart. It’s called the Magic Keyboard Chart. I don’t know how well you can see it, but it’s designed to slip behind the keyboard.
What it does is it slips right behind the keyboard and stands there. I line up C on the chart. Let me show you. There’s a chart named C, D, E, F, G, and so on. This is a treble clef for the right hand. This is a bass clef for the left hand. I line up the C with middle C there, and then that shows me exactly what the notes are but more importantly how they relate to the notes on the staff.
For example, if I go up to F or G or A, I can see on the staff that note. A on the keyboard relates to that note on the staff. B on the keyboard relates to that B line. C relates to that space. E relates to that line. Notes on the staff are based on lines and spaces. There are five lines — one, two, three, four, five — and four spaces. The names of the line are E, G, B, D, F. The spaces in between are F, A, C, E. Pretty convenient because F, A, C, E spells the word what? Face. F, A, C, E.
If you need a little memory jogger for that, I have a memory jogger over here called “every green banana draws flies” for the lines and the spaces spell the word “face.” In the bass cleft, you see that they line up with the bass clef too. The bass clef lines are G, B, D, F, A. I’ve suggested to my students that “grizzly bears don’t fly airplanes” is a good way to remember that. There are other ways, of course. The spaces are “all cars eat gas.” There is a thirsty car right there.
This simply lines up on the keyboard like so, and it directs you to the notes in the bass clef and the treble clef. It’s very, very basic. Very much for beginners. This chart, by the way, is not for sale. So don’t ask, okay? It comes free with one of my courses called “How to Play Chord Piano.” If you’re just starting in piano, that would be the course you should take. You can go to the URL if you want to at www.chordpiano.com and hear about that.
I just thought I’d show you how the keys on the keyboard [piano playing] relate to the notes on music. People use those terms kind of interchangeable, and I’ve even been guilty of doing that too. When you play [piano playing] that, that’s called a key. When you indicate a note on the staff, that’s called a note. A key is a note. All right? Thanks for being with me. I hope this has helped a little bit. If you’d like to learn more about the keyboard and more about music and more about chords and so on, then come on over to www.playpiano.com and sign up for my free newsletter. www.chordpiano.com is where the course is located. If you want the free newsletter, come on over to www.playpiano.com. Thanks.