Piano Forum
Piano Board => Student's Corner => Topic started by: Magna_Gei on March 23, 2002, 05:11:16 PM
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Hello all, I am very new to piano, in fact you could say that I am not even a real student yet. I love piano and want to take lessons and right now where I stand is a basic understanding of reading music and a few online lessons under my belt. If you don't mind this piano newbie would have some questions...
First of all, how far up can notes go after the top line of the treble clef, and the same thing for how low can notes go beneath the bottom line of the bass clef?
Secondly, I have a chart of music notes on a sheet, and it shows only B, C, and D in the space between the treble and bass clef. But I came across some sheet music on the internet and saw a song with many notes in between the bass and treble clef, might someone explain this to me?
Thank anyone in advance for your help and information.
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Theoretically the notes can go as high (or as low) as there are keys on the piano. In practice, the highest notes at the outer reaches of the piano are usually written with something like this over them:
8va----------------------------------------
If you see this it means play the notes underneath an octave higher than usual . Pretend these are black keys:
eg ||| || ||| || ||| ||
1.......2
If 1 is the first note of a set of three black keys (an F#) you would play 2 if you saw 8va--------- over it (still an F# but an octave higher). This way you don't need as many of the (--) dashes on the stems of the notes that go beyond the staff. (it works the same way for notes under the bass staff, but the octaves go lower, in the other direction).
Regarding the space between the two staffs. A note whose bottom is just barely touching the highest line in the bass staff is a B. A note whose top is just barely touching the lowest line on the top staff is a D. In between there is a C and a C#.
There is a lot of white space there so that directions (crescendo, pp, f, etc...) can be thrown in and the whole thing is still readable. Also many times a C will be written in the bass if the left hand plays it (a dash through the center of a note just above of the bass staff), or written in the treble (a dash through the center of a note just below the treble staff) if the right hand plays it. On paper they will look to your eye as if they are different notes (vertically the second looks higher than the first), but they are one and the same. They both refer to the same note, middle C on the piano.
I hope this was helpful
Bonford
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*don't take this into offense* but get a real piano teacher... i tried online lessons for a week just to see what it was like and it was pretty bad. You cant really get the real deal if your looking @ a computer screen...
just my 2 cents
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There are tons of good method books out there that will take you step by step, but the help of a good teacher is essential - you won't get into bad habits that you will have to (painfully) unlearn. If you want something to start on while you are searching for a teacher, get a box of flash cards at any local music store and start memorizing names of notes and musical symbols. Good luck!