Piano Lesson on the Web
Piano Lesson on the Web
  • Home
  • Music Courses
    • Testimonials
  • Buy Courses
  • Blog
  • Community
  • Contact Me
  • About Me
  • Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • Music Courses
    • Testimonials
  • Buy Courses
  • Blog
  • Community
  • Contact Me
  • About Me
  • Privacy Policy

Just Starting to Play the Piano? Learn the Entire Keyboard with Just 7 Notes!

8/11/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

​"Let's start at the very beginning...a very good place to start. 
When we read we begin with A, B, C." 


​Does anyone recognize those words? They're from "The Sound of Music", and are words to a song that Maria von Trapp sang to a group of children that she was caring for, as she was teaching them music.  

If you can remember when you first began to read words and books, you learned the alphabet by starting at the beginning with A and then learning each one after A.  Just like the song says... A, B, C. And then you went on to learn the other 24 letters of the alphabet, all the way to Z. 

It takes a good bit of time to learn all 26 letters in the alphabet, but once you learned them, you could read!


When we learn to read music, we have to learn the musical alphabet as well, in order to be able to play the piano pieces that we want to learn. 

Sometimes beginning piano students think that it will take a really long time to learn the musical alphabet and where those notes are on the piano, but the great news is, that it doesn't at all! 

Instead of having to learn 26 letters, we only have to learn 7!
And...if you already know your alphabet, then you don't have to learn any new letters.

What are the first 7 letters of the alphabet?

A - B - C - D - E - F - G

Those same 7 letters...are the musical alphabet!

For beginning piano players, you already know the musical alphabet if you can read words. There won't be anything new to learn, except to stop at G, instead of going on to H. There's not a note named "H". :)

Let's take a look at where these 7 notes are on the keyboard.
Picture

The 3rd letter which is C, is Middle C, and usually the first note we learn on the keyboard. Did you see that the A is repeated at the end of those notes? We'll talk about why and what this is this further down. 

Now look at this next image, and see what is different about it from the first one. ​
Picture

​There are more notes shown on the keyboard aren't there?
But they are all the same notes and are just being repeated...did you notice that? 

Have you ever wondered why there are only 7 notes in the musical alphabet and yet there are up to 88 keys on the piano; each representing an individual note?

While it is true that there are only 7 notes in the musical alphabet, there are many octaves that use those same 7 notes. 

What is an octave? 

An octave is a group of actually 8 notes, that are played right after each other. Just like when you say the letter alphabet, starting at the beginning and going all the way through to Z. 

In Music, we start at A, and go through G, but we also add in another note after the 7th one, that is simply the first note repeated, and octave higher. 

Every group of 8 notes, (with the first one being repeated at the end) that is played going from one right next to the other, is an octave on our keyboard. 

Notice that this is the main difference in how we say the letter alphabet and the musical alphabet. We repeat the first letter in music each time, to give us the 8 notes that make up the octave. In the other alphabet, we stop once we get to Z. 

Beginners, now you know that when you look at all of those keys on your piano keyboard, that they are all the same 7 notes just being played in different octaves.

You don't have to learn 88 new note names at all. All you need to know to start reading music is A - B - C - D - E - F and G.

Just remember that for an octave, you need to say A - B - C - D - E - F - G - A. 

It's easy to play all of those notes on the keyboard as well, once you learn where your first octave is.

Remember that once you get to the 8th note of each octave, you have really started on your next octave, and your notes will just repeat themselves again. 

Are you starting to hear the "Alphabet Song" over and over in your head like me? That song is to the melody of Twinkle Twinkle Little Start, which was written by Mozart, when he was a little boy. I bet he started at the beginning too. 

Stay Tuned to LessonsOnTheWeb to learn much more and achieve your dreams of playing the piano!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Most  blogs written by
    ​Robin Hague Els

    Archives

    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Christmas Piano Tutorial
    Christmas Sheet Music
    Chritmas
    Cost Effective Piano Lessons
    Do You Need To Know How To Read Music
    Finger Exercises Piano
    Five Things About Reading Music
    Hanon Piano Exercises
    High Quality Music Classes
    Holiday
    Holiday Piano Music
    Holiday Piano Sheet
    Holiday Piano Tutorial
    Holiday Stress
    How To Compose Music
    How To Find A Piano Teacher
    How To Get Better At Piano
    How To Play Christmas Piano
    How To Play Piano
    How To Play Piano Articulations
    How To Play With Dynamics On Piano
    How To Read Music
    How To Read Music For Piano
    How To Read Notes
    How To Read Sheet Music
    How To Sight Read
    Is Reading Music Important
    Key Signatures On Piano
    Kindle Sheet Music
    Learn Christmas Music On
    Learn Deck The Halls On Piano
    Learn Jingle Bells On The Piano\
    Learn Joy To The World On Piano
    Learn Oh Christmas Tree On Piano
    Learn Piano
    Learn Silent Night On The Piano
    Learn The Twelve Days Of Christmas On Piano
    Lessonsontheweb
    Lessonsontheweb Piano Teacher
    Musicianship
    Music Notation
    Music Notation Software
    Music Reading Practice
    Online Lessons
    Online Piano Learning
    Online Piano Lessons
    Online Piano Teacher
    Piano Blog
    Piano Fingering Technique
    Piano Lessons
    Piano Playing Basics
    Piano Playing Tips
    Piano Scales
    Piano Teacher Online
    Piano Technique
    Playing Piano
    Reading Music Articles
    Reading Music For Piano
    Staffpad
    Surface 3
    Surface Pro
    Take Lessons From Anywhere
    Thanksgiving
    Time Signatures Piano
    Tips For Beginning Piano Players
    Where To Find A Piano Teacher
    Work Out Hanon

    RSS Feed

Home
Buy Courses
Music Courses
Official Blog
Community
About Me
​Contact Me

​Testimonials
Copyright 2016-2022 © Lessons On The Web. All Rights Reserved.