Introduction

The above probably makes as much sense to you as do Icelandic runes, Egyptian hieroglyphs, or Mayan inscriptions. However once you have made the journey through this book all will be revealed and you will be able to meet the work of the great Beethoven, (the Shakespeare of music), without fear, and create his moonlit landscape for yourself. For this journey the luggage you will need will be mental alertness and physical relaxation.

Make the journey slowly, one step at a time. There is no need for hurry or panic, but only enjoyment.

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Piano?"

How to learn and how not to, and don't you want to have some fun on the way?

Throughout this book I have used as few technical names as possible. They can always be found in books on theory. The aim of this book is not to pass exams, but to learn to play the piano with as much pleasure as possible.

Music is universal and has no barriers of either politics or language, so our journey will not confront such problems. At the start of this journey I am assuming that you know nothing, and wish to travel this path through your love of music. Of course you may not be entirely ignorant, in which case you must bear with me and join the travellers a little later on, after skimming through the initial pages.

The "Soft-Loud"

For those for whom the pianoforte is a mystery let us begin with an introduction to it. It was invented in Italy by a harpsichord maker, Bartolommeo Cristoferi, at the beginning of the 18th century. Hence its Italian name Pianoforte, which means simply 'Soft-Loud'. Why? Because the keyboard instruments which existed up to that time - organ, harpsichord, clavier, virginals, et al., could only produce a variation of volume of sound by mechanical means. The delight of the pianoforte is that you can produce soft or loud tones at will, simply by the magical power of your fingers.

Naming the Notes

Take a look at the keyboard, first at the black notes, which you will see are arranged in groups of twos and threes. This is important in locating the names of the white notes.

The white note in between the group of two blacks is D, and the two notes between the group of three blacks are G and A.

Once you have found A, naming the rest of the notes is easy. We only use the alphabet from A to G, which is repeated both up and down the keyboard.

Don't be tempted to label the notes with stickers. This will only hold you back in the long run.

To become familiar with the letters play the following words. At first confine yourself to the A - G in the middle of the keyboard, which includes 'Middle C'. Afterwards you can venture further afield.

CAB DAD BED ACE DAB AGE FAD FED GAG BAD EGG FEED BABE DEAF CAFE FADE CAGE DEED AGED FACE EDGE BEAD DACE CEDE BADE BEEF FADED ADAGE EFFACE BADGE ADDED CADGE BAGGAGE CABBAGE.

Now look for them all over the keyboard. The grouping of the black notes will help you.

For instance: C and F are both L-shaped, but C is to the left of the group of two black notes and F to the left of the group of three black notes. It should be easy to find them all now, high and low.

Finding Middle C

Middle C is an important note because written music centres around it.

On the piano Middle C is the nearest C to the lock.

On an electric keyboard there is neither lid nor lock. So measure the length of the keyboard - a piece of string will do. Middle C is the nearest C to the halfway mark. I cannot give you absolute measurements as keyboards may vary in length.

The Importance of Middle C

Music is written on horizontal lines called the staff or stave. Above Middle C the five lines are defined by this sign called the Treble Clef. The five lines below Middle C are called the Bass Clef

Consider this:

- eleven lines and ten spaces in between. It would be very difficult to know which line or space your note was on without stopping to count up.

This is easier to read. The middle line has become like the Equator - invisible unless you want to write a note on it. That line is Middle C.

This takes things further and is called the divided stave, with more room in the middle.

Middle C, to be played by the right hand, is below and equidistant from the lowest treble clef line.

Middle C for the left hand is above and equidistant from the highest bass line.

There is one space between Middle C and the bottom right hand line. This is D.

There is one space between Middle C, and the top left hand line. This is B.

To get used to these three notes in the middle: B, C and D, practise playing the following:

Later on you will find Ds and Bs written as follows:

Numbering the Lines

Now our attention is going to turn away from the letter names of the notes. You won't need them for the moment. Instead you are going to focus on finding your notes in a very simple way.

Written music, as you have just seen, uses the lines, and the spaces in between.

Consider the following diagram:

Middle C's line is called Zero. Next play all the right hand lines up the piano, numbering them as you go, and leaving out all the notes on the spaces. Do the same thing downwards from Middle C for the left hand.

If you want to find a note on a space,

it comes between lines 3 and 4. Similarly notes can be worked out in the left hand, the space between two numbered lines.

This method will help you to find the starting notes of a piece in each hand, and if you have to find notes that are at a big distance from each other; also if a composer wants one of your hands to change clef - say if your left hand, working away in the bass clef, has to move up into the treble, and vice versa.

Notes on the same level, going up, going down, and 'hopovers'.

You will have realized by now that music on the printed page is written from left to right, as in reading, and notes placed higher or lower on the stave are higher or lower in sound.

For the following exercise in note-finding no letter names will be necessary, and there are no clefs, so you can choose any note to start on, and use either hand. By the way, always give the left hand as many chances to practise as the right. No favouritism - they have to be equally good.

This section is devoted to finding notes by distance, and only concerning yourself with the white notes.

Examples

Exercises

There are no clefs, so start anywhere with either hand. Don't look down at your fingers. These are exercises for your eyes. Practise them until the distances are easily recognised. Once you have played them through, turn the book upside-down and go through them again. They are just as valid upside-down.

Don't play any exercise more than once through at any one session as you mustn't get used to anticipating the next note by playing by ear.

Hold down the previous note until you have played the next, this will teach you to judge distances. If you haven't got a finger to reach with, just change fingers on the note you are holding. Finger discipline is very important but we won't deal with it yet.

These notes, with hopovers, should be easy to find by now, so here are some bigger distances.

Hopover Plus One

When you play them you leave out two fingers.

Double Hopover

Leave out three fingers for these.

Exercises

Now you have understood the principle of this way of note-finding you can work out for yourself DOUBLE HOPOVERS + ONE, and TRIPLE HOPOVERS. You should have no problem.

You will have noticed by now that these don't give you tunes that are singable. They only give you half the partnership in a happy musical marriage. This half is called 'Pitch' - notes that are higher or lower than each other.

(At this point revise your words from page 3, the alphabetical names of the notes. You won't be using them for a while, but you have to know them).

Rhythm - Note Lengths

The other partner in the musical marriage is Rhythm. To understand how to create rhythms you must first learn your note lengths and how to count.

You are familiar with antonyms . the world of opposites, good/bad, happiness/sadness, darkness/light. So in music we have sound and silence, the two sides of a coin. Furthermore we have symbols to represent not only the sounds and silences but also how long they last in relationship to each other.

Here are the notes and the rests with their German/American names.

In these circles I have shown the relationship of the notes to each other. It is only a matter of simple fractions. It doesn't matter if you were never very good at maths. I am sure you can cut up a birthday cake so that no-one complains that their piece is smaller than someone else's.

Just in case the situation demands that you know the note names in English or French, here they are, but the German/American ones are the most logical. The English are based on the old Italian names, and the French are purely descriptive.

A Small Pause for Thought

The universe may be more ordered than chaotic. I say 'may be' because we are in a period of great change when new concepts and new data are constantly confronting us. So what follows is not entirely precise but...