by Tania Gleaves on January 12, 2012
One of the basic lessons of learning to play the piano involves how to read music notes. Reading music notes is like learning your ABC’s. Effectively reading music notes requires you to learn the basic parts of a music sheet; sometimes they call this song sheet.
If you look at the music sheet, you will notice that the notes are embedded on five horizontal lines with spaces in between them. This is called staff. It helps you how to read music notes correctly because each line and space represent different keys on the piano.
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The symbol placed at the beginning of the staff is called clef, which serves as a guide to read the different pitches on the music sheet. There are actually two kinds of clef, one is called the treble clef and the other one is the bass clef.
When both clefs are put together with a vertical line, they form the so-called grand staff. These clefs play a vital role in playing the piano since both treble and bass clef shows you different notes to play together in order to produce the sweet sounding music.
After learning the basic parts of a music sheet, the next agenda we have on how to read music notes is learning the different pitches corresponding to each line and space of the grand staff. The pitches are represented by the first seven letters of the alphabet. As mentioned earlier, these pitches correspond to different keys on your piano.
Knowing this, how do you know whether you have to play the corresponding key or not? This is where the role of the notes comes in. There are actually five notes you can play. When these notes are placed on the grand staff, you must pay attention where they are positioned and what they look like. These notes represent different symbols which show you the duration of each pitch played.
Here is the breakdown of the notes’ different duration:
- Whole note – receives 4 counts
- Half note – receives 2 counts
- Quarter note – receives 1 count
- Eighth note – receives half a count
- Sixteenth note – receives quarter a count
How to read music notes is definitely easy once you have mastered all of these basics. The simple illustrations guide you in playing the piano effectively using the basic knowledge of reading music notes. So go ahead and start fumbling with your hands on the piano keys to play your favorite music sheets.
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by Tania Gleaves on December 12, 2011
What Determines The Quality And Quantity Of A Song’s Notes
When watching musicians play piano, you may see them refer to a piece of music in the key of “A” or “C.” These letters refer to the key that the music is played in or its key signature. Key signatures are what determines the quality and quantity of a song’s sharps and flats, and if you’ve spent any time playing scales, then you have a pretty good idea of what we’re talking about.
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When you’re asked to play a “C sharp” chord or “G flat” chord for example, you’re being asked to play a group of notes in a particular key. The root key is what determines the remaining keys in a chord and so it is with music. The key signature of a piece of music may be “C sharp” or “G flat” (or any other pitch) and that signature determines the remaining pitches throughout the entire song.
All Key Signatures Contain Sharps And Flats
Now except for the C Major key, all key signatures contain sharps and flats. Because music notation can be rather intricate and confusing — especially in difficult pieces — you won’t see the sharp or flat indicator next to each individual note. This would make sheet music difficult to write and read. Instead, writers use the key signature to indicate the sharps or flats of a note and it’s up to the pianist to know (memorize) those sharps and flats.
Those with Sharps:
- The sharp in a G key signature is F#.
- The sharps in a D key signature is F# and C#.
- In an A key signature, they’re F#, C#, and G#.
- In the key of E, they’re F#, C#, G#, and D#.
- F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, and E# are played in an F# key signature
- In the key of B, F#, C#, G#, D#, A#
- While the entire group of F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, and B# are played in a C# key signature.
C
Key Signature example on the Treble Staff…Apply to the same notes on the Bass staff
Those with Flats:
- The flat in an F key signature is Bb.
- The flats in a Bb key signature is Bb and Eb.
- In an Eb key signature, they’re Bb, Eb, and Ab.
- In the key of Ab, they’re Bb, Eb, Ab, and Db.
- Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, and Gb are played in an Db key signature
- While the entire group of Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, and Cb are played in a Gb key signature.
- Can you tell what notes the Cb key signature indicates? Pat yourself on the back if you said Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, and Fb.
C
Key Signature example on the Treble Staff…Apply to the same notes on the Bass staff
Position = Pitch
You can find the key signature of a song near the beginning of its notation — right after the clef. Pay close attention to where the sharp and flat signs are located because their positions indicate the proper tones of particular pitches. If you see a sharp sign in the space where the D note is played, that means that the D key will be a sharp D all throughout a song. If you see a flat sign on the line where the B key is played, that means the B key will be a flat B throughout the song as well. This pattern is of course repeated for each and every note.
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