Author: Jessica Montgomery
Key facts
- A full-size piano keyboard has 88 keys, spanning seven octaves (the distance between 2 notes of the same type ie. C to C) and three extra notes.
- The lines music is written on is called a stave.
Step 1: The Notes
The piano notes are named like the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. After G, the alphabet pattern starts again. Notice how the notes are always in the same place in relation to the set of black notes: every C is before the set of two black notes together.
Step 2: The Right Hand
Number your fingers 1 through 5, 1 being the thumb and 5 being the pinky. Find the C that’s in the middle of the keyboard (middle C) and place your right thumb on it. Let the other fingers fall over the other notes naturally. Now you should have 1 on C, 2 on D, 3 on E, 4 on F and 5 on G.
Try this melody: 3 2 1 2 3 3 3— 2 2 2— 3 5 5— 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 1. What song did you play?
Step 3: The Left Hand
Place your left pinky on the C below middle C (8 notes lower). You should have 5 on C, 4 on D, 3 on E, 2 on F, and 1 on G. Now try playing these finger numbers:
3 4 5 4 3 3 3— 4 4 4— 3 1 1— 3 4 5 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 3 4 5. If you heard the same tune, you got it right!
Step 4: Playing With Two Hands
Start by playing songs that move both hands in the same direction at the same time. For example:
RH: 3 2 1 2 3 3 3— 2 2 2— 3 5 5— 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 1
LH: 3 4 5 4 3 3 3— 4 4 4— 3 1 1— 3 4 5 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 3 4 5
This can be done with nursery rhymes and the melody of simple songs.
Step 5: The Notes
Note Lengths:
Music notes vary in length with some longer than others. Use the chart below to learn the name and value of each note and the corresponding rest.
Step 6 (Part 1): Reading The Notes
When reading piano music we use two different clefs, the treble clef and the bass clef. The treble clef sounds higher and is played by our right hand, the bass is lower and played by our left hand. The clefs overlap with middle C in the centre. They all go up in alphabetical order from A-G before repeating.
The notes can divided into the notes on the lines (line going through the centre of the note) and notes in a space (between two lines).
Flats & Sharps
The notes can also be altered by the “#” and “b” symbols. Having a # symbol (known as a “sharp”) at the beginning of a piece (next to the clef) means that any of the notes on that line (including the same note in other octaves) is raised. The “b” symbol (known as a “flat”) means the corresponding note is lowered. On the piano, the black keys are used for these raised and lowered notes. You can see in the following example that the F is now F sharp:
In the following example, the B is now a B flat:
Note that an F sharp is the same note as a G flat. They sound identical and are played using the same piano key. The B flat is the same as an A sharp. They too sound identical and are played with the same piano key.
If a flat or sharp is next to the clef, it applies to all notes of that type for the whole piece unless specified otherwise. If it appears next to an individual note, it applies to all notes of that type only until the end of the bar.
The way to cancel a sharp or flat is with a natural.
Step 6 (Part 2): Chords
Chords are three or more notes played together at the same time. There are two main types of chords: major chords and minor chords. Major chords sound “happy” and minor chords sound “sad”.
Making a Major Chord:
Major chords are made using the intervals 4 then 3.
Find a C on your piano. Now, starting with the black note next to it, count upwards 4 notes (include every note, black and white). So, C sharp is “one”, D is “two”, D sharp is “3”, and the 4th note is E. Now count up 3 more notes from E, starting with F, F sharp and the third note you land on is G.
Now play all three notes – C, E and G, together at the same time.What you’re playing is a C major chord. The best way to play a piano chord is with one hand, using the thumb, third finger and little finger (1, 3, and 5).
Making a Minor Chord:
Minor chords are made of the intervals 3, then 4- opposite to the major chord.
Start on the same note, C. This time, count up 3 notes (including both black and white keys), which brings you to E flat, then count up 4 notes and you’ll be on G. Now play those three notes together at the same time. That is a C minor piano chord.
To switch from a major chord to a minor chord or vice-versa is easy. The only that is different in a major or minor chord is the third (the middle note). To switch from major to minor, flatten the third (bring it down one note, including black keys). To switch from minor to major, raise the third (bring it up one note).
Required Chords For Grade 1
Step 7: Scales
There are many types of scales in the grade 1 Rockschool syllabus; major, minor, pentatonic, arpeggio/broken chord, diminished, and chord voicings. They all begin and end on notes of the same type (e.g. C to C) and can span either 1 or 2 octaves. The left and right hands use different fingers but move in the same direction. Learn the right hand first, then the left- in grade 1 all scales are single hand only. On the right hand, the thumb moves underneath the third finger when ascending and the third finger crosses over the thumb when descending (opposite order on the left hand). They are all played at 60bpm (we will cover this later).
Major and Minor scales:
Like the chords, major scales sound happy and minor sales sound sad. They are comprised of 7 different notes, one for each letter, with the first note repeated at the top. The easiest major scale is C major as it uses no flats or sharps, just white keys in order. The same can be said for A minor.
Look at the recommended finger pattern below and apply it to all major and minor scales except for F major.
F major is played with a slightly different pattern on the top (right) hand to account for the Bb making the transition more difficult.
Pentatonic scales:
A pentatonic scale has 5 notes instead of the regular 7, leaving out the 4th and 7th notes. It is popular in many pop/rock songs. In grade 1, only the right hand is required.
RH: 1 2 3, 1 2, 1 2 3, 1 2 3 2 1, 3 2 1, 2 1, 3 2 1
Broken chords/Arpeggios:
A broken chord means using the same notes from a chord (eg, C, E, and G) and playing them separately. An arpeggio is a common broken chord scale that uses only the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes, repeating the 1st note at the top. In Rockschool, we also add the 5th note again at the bottom.
RH: 1 3 5, 1 2 5, 1 3 5 3 5 3 1, 5 2 1, 5 3 1 5
LH: 5 3 1, 5 3 1, 5 2 1 2 1 2 5, 1 3 5, 1 3 5 1
Diminished:
A diminished scale alternates between semitones (the smallest distance between 2 notes, eg. C to C#) and tones (2 semitones, eg. C to D). In grade 1 Rockschool, we will play the arpeggio of this scale by using the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the scale.
RH: 1 2 3 5 3 2 1
LH: 5 3 2 1 2 3 5
Chord Voicing:
Chord voicings are simply different inversions of the same chord. An inversion means taking the bottom (lowest) note and making it the top (highest) note. For example, a CEG chord would be EGC in its first inversion, and GCE in its second inversion.
For the purposes of grade 1 Rockschool, we use diminished and augmented chords- Augmented chords have a raised 5th note. We use the right hand only.
C diminished:
RH: 123 (together), 125 (together), 135 (together)
C augmented:
RH: 123 (together), 135 (together), 135 (together)
Please refer to this video for the full list of required scales: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St8l3xSwdRQ
Step 8: The Symbols
Time Signatures:
The first symbol you will encounter when reading sheet music is the time signature. The top number in a time signature tells us how many beats fit into a bar and the bottom number tells us how long each beat is.
The most common example is 4/4 time or “common time”. This means there are four beats and each beat is a quarter note – otherwise known as a crochet.
2/2 time signature, also known as “cut time” or “alla breve”. This time signature has two beats per bar and each beat is a half note -or a minim- long. It sounds similar to 4/4 but has a stronger accent on the 3rd beat (second note) of each bar. It is used to help musicians play faster due to the longer notes.
The 3/4 time signature is identical to 4/4 time but has 3 quarter notes instead of 4 in each bar. It is common to be used for a waltz and is counted, “One, two, three, One, two three”
BPM
At the beginning of every piece, you will also have a BPM (beats per minute) marking. This tells you how quickly to count the beats. The marking will look something like this:
This tells me that there are 120 quarter note beats per minute in this song.
Use a metronome to set how many beats per minute you require and this will keep you in time.
Dynamics
Dynamics is just a fancy word for volume. See if you can follow the dynamics of the piece below:
Articulation
Lines branching between notes are either a slur or a tie. A slur branches between 2 or more notes of different types and means they should be played smoothly (legato), eliminating the gap between the notes.
Ties occur between 2 notes of the same type and join the note values together. For example, 2 quarter notes would join to become a half note. Ties also extend any accidentals (flats or sharps) on the first note to apply to the second.
Refer to this video for more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcEdW8Ycmsk
The double line with two dots are repeats. If there is no beginning to the repeat, play again from the start before continuing to the next section. If there is a beginning to the repeat, play the section inside the repeat markings again before continuing to the next section.
