Learning to play the piano is a bit like learning how to build something. Before you can build say…a house…you gather all of the tools you’ll need to get the job done. You then start filling your toolbox with the needed tools and then make sure that you know how to use each tool so you can successfully put everything together. Reading music is one of the sections of the “house” you are building when you learn to play the piano. There should be a section in your piano learning toolbox for note/music reading just as you keep screwdrivers in one section of your house-building toolbox. Today, you’re going to add to your piano learning toolbox and specifically this section for reading music. There’s a very simple exercise that I’m going to teach you that will enable you to read music much faster. Before we learn this new tip for faster music and note reading, make sure that you are at the place in your own learning that you already know the layout of the piano keyboard and what the note names of the keys are. You also want to know the basics of note reading and be pretty familiar with the notes on the lines and spaces of the staff. Now for this particular exercise…find Middle C. We’re going to start from there.
Mixing up the patterns you’re set up in your brain will enable you to learn the notes at a deeper level. Practice this pattern so that you know it and can play it easily. Next, you’re going to do the same thing except you’re going to go down the keyboard from Middle C instead of up like we just did above.
The next step is to do this exact same exercise starting on a different note.
Finally, you are going to verbally say each pattern without looking at your piano!
When it comes to note reading, the same patterns that you just learned by skipping notes will be in your sheet music all the time; in chords and in melodic sections.
This can be especially helpful with notes that fall on ledger lines instead of the main staff. If you aren’t that familiar with ledger lines at this point, don’t worry. In the following video I have several examples of what they look like in sheet music and what the notes are. We’ll also go over the above exercises and you can watch me play and say them which will help you know just how to do them yourself. If you like my tips and lessons, you will love the courses over on my website. Whether you are a beginner looking to get a solid foundation to build on or you are looking to take you existing skills to that next level, the online music courses on my website https://www.pianolessonsontheweb.com will help you do just that.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorMost blogs written by Archives
June 2020
Categories
All
|