Learning Notes On The Piano

When you start learning notes on the piano you will need to know how to sit properly with a good sitting posture, the position your arms, hands and fingers are in order to play good sounding notes and fingering.

You need to sit upright on a comfortable chair or piano stoo with a straight back and feet firmly on the floor. If you are too short eg a child, to get your feet on the floor , then use a stool or a few books to put your feet on. See the diagram. Note the straight arm position.

Your arms should come straight out from the piano so that your arm-wrist-hands are fairly straight. the seat needs to be at a comfortable distance away from the piano in order for you to do this.

Your hands-fingers should be curved such that you imagine holding a small ball without it dropping or a bubble in your hand without it popping. The fingers can then touch the keys lightly on top ready to play as in the first diagram below.To make a sound press the keys. A firm press will create a louder sound and a lighter press will produce a softer sound. Just remember, when you are learning notes on the piano to keep that curved hand-finger position.

Exercise: Play any key on the piano with the right hand and left hand. Try pressing firmly and lightly for loud and soft playing.

NB When you are pressing the keys on the piano you are sounding notes hence you are learning notes on the piano.

When we play piano music, fingering numbers can be placed near notes so that we use that finger on that note each time we play.

Each finger is given a number with the thumb being number 1 and the little finger number 5.
Check out this poem and move the relevant fingers on both hands as you read through.

I'm the thumb , I'm number 1
How do you do, says number 2
Look at me, I'm number 3
Knock on the door, I'm number 4
I'm alive, says number 5

Exercises: 1. Draw around one hand, label it right hand or left hand and then write the finger numbers above the fingers.
Does it match the diagram.

2. Now play a note with
a. right hand 2nd finger 4th finger
b. left hand 1st finger 3rd finger

When you look at the piano you see black keys and white keys.

When you press any of these keys you produce a note sound.

When you are learning notes on the piano you need to understand these black and white keys. Let's look at them in more detail.

You will see from the above diagram that the black keys are placed in repeated groups of 2 keys and 3 keys all the way from the lowest notes on the left hand side of the piano to the highest notes on the right hand side of the piano.

Let's Play MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB

Method

1. Play the tune with your right hand and then left hand.

2. Pick any set of 3 black notes grouped together.

3. Remind yourself of the finger numbers you learnt earlier by saying
'1 , 2, 3, 4, 5 ' and moving the appropriate finger (" fingering" ) at the same time.

4. I have given a finger number for each black note on each hand as seen in
diagram. You are to use these finger numbers when playing the tune.

5. The finger numbers for the tune are written below. You are to press the
appropriate black key using the fingering as shown, counting 1 beat or count to
each finger number.
Please note that the word:
- "off' is 1 beat
- "oo" is 1 beat which means "oo-oo-oo" = 3 beats

~ the right hand and left hand have different fingering for the same tune.

Here is the tune:

Right Hand Fingering:

4 3 2 3 4 4 4 off 3 3 3 of 4 4 4 off

4 3 2 3 4 4 4 4 3 3 4 3 2 oo-oo-oo

Left hand Fingering:

2 3 4 3 2 2 2 off 3 3 3 off 2 2 2 off

2 3 4 3 2 2 2 2 3 3 2 3 4 oo-oo-oo

There are many pieces you can play using the black notes and finger numbers. This gives you practise at getting used to pressing keys down and using your finger numbers whilst playing simple tunes right away. Hence a wonderful introduction to learning notes on the piano.

The white keys are represented by the musical alphabet which is
A B C D E F G
When you are learning white notes on the piano you can start off by learning note names and their position on the piano before reading notes on sheet music.

How do you know which white key is a B or C or G?

Well, white note names are found in relation to the black keys.
eg C's are always found directly to the left of the set of 2 black keys.
B's are always found directly to the right of the group of 3 black keys.

Exercises:
1. With right hand thumb play C's on the upper half of the piano.
2. With left hand thumb play C's on the lower half of the piano.
3. With right hand third finger play B's on the upper half of piano.
4. With left hand third finger play B's down the lower half of the piano.

You may have heard of middle C. This is the C in the middle of the piano.

You can work out all the other note names and positions from using the position of C which you have just learnt. The next note to the right of C is D. The next note to the right of D is E and so on throught the musical alphabet. The next note to the right of G is A then B etc. The whole piano is derived from repetitions of A to G.
Please note that when you are learning piano notes in consecutive order up or down, you use your next door finger.

You can use a TUTOR BOOK HERE or THE LINK BELOW to give you step by step instructions for note by note learning.

Here is a piece to play white notes using your finger numbers. Place your fingers evenly on the keys with finger number 1 on C, finger number 2 on D etc. See diagram.
Good luck!

After this piece you may find learning notes on the piano using your fingering a little easier.

Ode To Joy looks like THIS when written down as notes on piano sheet music.

When you hear a piece of music are all the sounds the same length? NO
Therefore you need to learn note lengths in the process of learning notes on the piano. When you start out as a beginner you will most likely come across the 4, 2 and 1 count notes lengths first. The 3 and 1/2 count note lengths get added as you learn more note names and musical terms associated with learning notes on the piano. There are big pictures of the notes below. The diagram to the right is a note tree.

The order of which you learn note names and note lengths is dependant on whether you are taking lessons with a teacher or learning yourself through an ONLINE PIANO COURSE HERE or TUTOR BOOK HERE

LEARNING OPTIONS ARE GIVEN IN MORE DETAIL HERE

1. Do the following using the semibreve or 4 count whole note.
a. Press any key on piano , with any finger using the right hand, for 4 counts.

b. Repeat .a. using your left hand.

c. Press middle C with the first finger on right hand for 4 counts.

Variation:
play 2 C's in a row counting 4 counts on each note
play 4 C's in a row counting 4 counts on each note

d. Repeat .c. using your left hand first finger.

Follow diagram for exercises c and d.

2. Repeat exercises 1a,1b,1c,1d using the minim or 2 count half note instead of the semibreve or 4 count whole note.

Follow the diagram for exercises c and d.

3. Repeat exercises 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d using the crotchet or 1 count quarter note instead of the semibreve or 4 count whole note.

Follow the diagram for exercise c and d

What you can do is repeat the three exercises above:

1. using the other notes of the musical alphabet eg all D's , all Es etc.

2. using different notes names in a row eg C // C D // C D E F //

Then you can play rows of notes with varying note lengths and names. Remember to count carefully each note length. You can be creative and compose your own rhythm or 'row of notes.'
You can try playing your rhythm on one key first and then different keys. It may help to write down some note names and place them above the note lengths.

Try playing the example in diagram . The blue numbers are the counts.

Practice makes perfect!!

There is a lot to learn when you are learning notes on the piano. You need to sit properly and use a correct hand position. You will learn that fingers are given numbers which are written beside notes on sheet music to make your playing easier. Then you have the process of learning notes on the piano which includes the musical alphabet or note names, their positions on the piano and note lengths. And this is just the beginning and an introduction into learning notes on the piano.

The next stage is to read notes on the piano and hence reading and playing sheet music.
HOW TO READ PIANO SHEET MUSIC is covered HERE