What do piano notes look like

The lowest space is space 1, while the last one at the top is space 4. Firstly, we will learn about the treble clef. Take a look at the sign for the treble clef below. It is also known as the G clef. The second line of the treble clef is known as the G line. In fact, many people call the treble clef the G clef because part of it circles the G line.

Next in our How to Read Piano Notes lesson, we will learn about the bass clef. Take a look at the bass clef below. The bass clef is also called the F clef. The fourth line of the bass clef is the F line. One reason it is called the F clef is because of the two dots placed on either side of the F line.

Once you know this line it is very easy to figure out the other notes of the bass clef. What are these notes? Take a look at the diagram showing the spaces of the bass clef. They are A-C-E-G. A natural cancels a sharp or flat within a measure or a song. You actually already know one key signature, the key of C! The C major scale you learned above was in the key of C.

Scales are named after their tonic , the preeminent note within the scale, and the tonic determines what key you play in. You can start a major scale on any note, so long as you follow the whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half pattern.

Now, following that pattern in keys other than the key of C will require you to use sharps and flats. You will begin to recognize the key signatures of pieces based on what sharps or flats are shown.

Download your Keyboard Note Guide here , to print, fold and place on your keyboard. Once you become familiar with the keys, you can easily remove it and continue to strengthen your note-reading skills.

The apps offer instant access to all of your Musicnotes sheet music files, plus leading-edge tools and features created by musicians, for musicians. Say goodbye to hauling around stacks of paper, and experience the ultimate in sheet music accessibility. Username or Email Address. Remember Me. Stay Connected. How to Read Sheet Music Step 1: Learn the Basic Symbols of Notation Music is made up of a variety of symbols, the most basic of which are the staff, the clefs, and the notes.

The Staff The staff consists of five lines and four spaces. Treble Clef There are two main clefs with which to familiarize yourself; the first is a treble clef.

Good luck, and most importantly, have fun! Tags beginner piano guide guides help how-to lesson lessons music music guide music notes music tips musician piano piano notes sheet music tips tips and tricks tricks. You might also like. Editor Picks. With each lesson, your knowledge of the piano will grow and your music reading skills will develop. Lesson plans that are catered to your learning style and current skill level will help you stay motivated for the long term.

Once you have a handle on reading music, the playing possibilities are endless! With enough time, patience, and practice, you can develop into a well-skilled piano player. Obtaining a stable foundation in musical note reading will make your journey toward becoming a fine pianist an exciting and fun adventure. Do you have a favorite technique for learning how to read sheet music?

Let us know in the comments below! Post Author: Liz T. She is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music with a B.

Learn more about Liz here! Search thousands of prescreened teachers for local or online lessons. Sign up for affordable private lessons! Photo by Basheer Tome. Nice one for a beginner.. But as a learner of keyboard, my challenge now is on ear-training-ie how to distinguish clearly soh sound for instance from lah or fah on a given key!..

How can u help?? Hi Emmanuel-Thanks for the kind words. I do not know how to play with my left hand but I also really want to play this song. Is there some way I can learn the song in time? Hi Michael-Thanks for reaching out. Depending on your time frame, we can help set you up with a piano teacher near you. Or you can try searching YouTube for a tutorial. Hi Emma! It sounds like you might need some help from a piano teacher to really get this down.

Check out our directory of local and online piano teachers. If you feel like it e-mail me at niyikang hotmail. Try just doing chords without caring which hand to use.

This is my style of learning and it helps that much. After that, you could move on to sheet music. You got this! It can be anything that works for the person. I always went with every good boy does fine and it worked for me!

Hi David! Check out our piano classes on TakeLessons Live. Your first month of online classes is completely free! Hope that helps. Thank you so much for helping me with my confusion on my notes and also thank you for helping me for the test. I need a song done in 2 weeks and its intermediate level. Very effective method learning piano notation.

Free download on the AppStore and Play Store. TakeLessons Live has online music theory classes that are free to try for 30 days. These classes are designed to walk beginners through the steps needed to master reading and understanding music.

Hope that helps! Good luck. Hi Artemio! Even though there is no black key between E and F or between B and C, each pair is still only a half-step apart. Because there is a black between C and D, D and E, etc. Remember how we discussed earlier that a sharp raises the pitch of a note by a half-step and a flat lowers the pitch of a note by a half-step? The black keys perform this function on a piano. For example, the black key you see between C and D sounds a C-sharp or a D-flat.

Visually, it makes complete sense because the black key is positioned above the C and below the D. The note between D and E is a D-sharp or an E-flat, and so on. The order in which flats or sharps are added to a key signature is so important because, in Western music, much of the melody and harmony of a piece is built using the notes of a single scale.

Scales are a set of notes ordered by a combination of whole steps and half steps. There are several types of scales in the musical language; this article will focus on major and minor scales. This particular scale has no sharps or flats. It would also be played solely on the white keys of a keyboard.

All major scales are comprised of the following pattern of tones: whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step. If you were to start the scale on a note other than C, you would need to add sharps or flats to maintain this pattern of tones.

As you now know, there is a whole-step between A and B, but in a major scale, that distance needs to be a half-step. Therefore, we lower the pitch of the B by a half-step to B-flat. For the record, in a written scale, you never have two notes containing the same letter name.

In the F-major scale, you would never see the B-flat written as an A-sharp. The distance between the second and third notes of a major scale is a whole-step. Since there is only a half-step between E and F, we need to raise the F by a half-step to an F-sharp. The same is true between the sixth and seventh notes of the scale, which is why there is a written C-sharp. Every major scale has a relative minor scale.

A relative minor scale shares the same key signature as its major scale, but it begins on the sixth note of the major scale. For example, A is the sixth note of the C-major scale, which makes A-minor the relative minor scale of C-major.

Look at the F-major and D-major scales above? What is the relative minor scale for each of those major scales? Hint: find the sixth note of the scale. Because you are using the same key signature as a major scale, but starting on the sixth note, there is a different pattern of whole-steps and half-steps.

Take a look at the A-minor scale below. All natural minor scales are comprised of the following pattern of tones: whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step. You may be wondering why this scale is called A-natural minor, and not simply A-minor.

That is because there are three types of minor scale. The natural minor scale makes no alteration to the notes in the indicated key signature; in other words, there are no accidentals. In the harmonic minor scale, the seventh note of the scale is raised by one half-step.

In the A-harmonic minor scale, the G becomes a G-sharp. The third type of minor scale is the melodic minor scale. This one is a bit tricky, because it is different ascending than descending. All scales discussed previously are the same ascending and descending.