Reading Piano Music is Easy to Learn

By Michelle Edward

With a little success under your belt, you can begin to tackle the job of learning to read music. Of course, many musicians do not know how to read music. They just hear a song and play it, as they say, by ear. These musicians can improvise on any simple themes and come up with elaborate renditions of popular songs. These players know their instruments as well as singers know their own voices.

You might be someone that is able to do that, but if you are just learning about the piano there's a good chance that you can really use the help that written music provides. There will be time for learning about chords and improvisation later on. Additionally, learning how to read music will open a new world to you. You will be able to learn songs that you've never even heard before and when you are ready to repeat your performance, the written sheet music guides you note by note.

There is a great deal to learn. You will have to find out how each note is depicted. You will have to know what the staffs are that the notes are written on and what they look like. You will have to learn how rhythm, sharps, and flats are represented. Once you learn these basics, you can start to build on the knowledge.

You can really learn a lot just by looking at a piece of music. If you already have a songbook, some sheet music, or a hymnal, take a moment to really look at it. If you don't have any kind of written music, either buy or borrow some.

You will notice that there are groups of five horizontal lines. If the music is for both hands, it will have two of these groups of lines connected together by a longer line along the side. The horizontal lines are called the staff. You can get staff paper that is already marked with these lines.

When you look to the left side of the staffs you will notice the clef marking. On the upper staff you will see the treble clef marking. The treble clef looks like a fancy S that's backwards with a single line running through the middle of it and curling underneath. When you first start learning how to play the piano, you will be playing the notes on the treble clef with your right hand.

On the lower staff of the two is the bass clef sign. It is something like a backwards C with two dots on the right side of it. This staff shows the lower notes, and you will begin by playing the notes shown on this staff with your left hand. The upper and lower staffs will repeat several times down the page. Look at your sheet music and identify the staffs. Now you are ready to learn the notes. - 32524

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