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Topic: Plz help me reading the piano sheet music  (Read 6940 times)

Offline 10761151100

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Plz help me reading the piano sheet music
on: April 11, 2008, 12:50:20 AM
Hello everyone, I am a new member in this forum. I am new in learning to play piano / keyboard too, but I love learning to play it. When I read the piano sheet music / music note, sometimes I see b b or b b b or b b b b or # # or # # # or # # # # next to the treble clef or bass clef. I also see the c  is near the treble clef. I don't know what those mean and how to play piano when I see those ones, I know the # or b represents sharp key or flat one and when # / b is placed next to treble clef or bass clef, we have to play F sharp or B flat or every F key or B key. Can anyone give me some advice? Thanks a lot.

Offline danny elfboy

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Re: Plz help me reading the piano sheet music
Reply #1 on: April 11, 2008, 01:23:16 AM
Hello everyone, I am a new member in this forum. I am new in learning to play piano / keyboard too, but I love learning to play it. When I read the piano sheet music / music note, sometimes I see b b or b b b or b b b b or # # or # # # or # # # # next to the treble clef or bass clef. I also see the c  is near the treble clef. I don't know what those mean and how to play piano when I see those ones, I know the # or b represents sharp key or flat one and when # / b is placed next to treble clef or bass clef, we have to play F sharp or B flat or every F key or B key. Can anyone give me some advice? Thanks a lot.

They're the KEY in which the piece is written.
What it means is that the piece will be consonant with the particular sound structure of that KEY or SCALE except when it will modulate to another KEY or when dissonances will be used.

A scale is a succession of consecutive sounds in a specific order of interval of second major or second minor.

A major scale has this structure:

2nd major, 2nd major, 2nd minor, 2nd major, 2nd major, 2nd minor

Now if you start with note C and maintain this order you will see you won't need to play any black key (accidental) and hence the scale of C has no sharps or flats in it.
And HENCE the "KEY OF C" has no sharp or flats in it.

Now start from the note A and maintain the order of the scale structure and you will see you need to play two black keys (2 accidentals) which are C# and F# and hence the scale of A has 2 sharps in it.
And HENCE the "KEY OF A" has 2 sharps in it.


The order of sharp is this one:

F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#

and they stand for the KEYS OF

G, D, A, E, B, F#, C#


The order of flats is the reverse:

Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, Fb

and they stand for the KEYS OF

F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb
-----------------------------------------

So when you see sharps and flats next to the treble or bass cleff they will always be in this order. If you see a G# you know there will also be F# and C# and there will be 3 accidentals. If you see Cb you know there will also be Bb, Eb, Ab, Db and Gb and there will be 6 accidentals.

Those notes that are accidentals next to the treble cless and bass cleff, must always be played as accidental in the piece. So if you see a C# next to the treble or bass cleff, all C in the piece will be C#. Unless within a bar there's the natural sign next to a C, which means that C# (only for the duration of that bar) will be C (non-sharp) again.

Offline danny elfboy

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Re: Plz help me reading the piano sheet music
Reply #2 on: April 11, 2008, 01:32:47 AM
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Offline 10761151100

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Re: Plz help me reading the piano sheet music
Reply #3 on: April 11, 2008, 02:00:40 PM
Thank you very much danny elfboy. After you explanation, it is more easy for me to read them. I have more piano music notes that I don't know how to read and play them when I play the piano. Some of them are the curves that are connected the notes.



Can you give me some advice about these notes? Thank you. Have a great time.

Offline danny elfboy

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Re: Plz help me reading the piano sheet music
Reply #4 on: April 11, 2008, 05:36:32 PM
Thank you very much danny elfboy. After you explanation, it is more easy for me to read them. I have more piano music notes that I don't know how to read and play them when I play the piano. Some of them are the curves that are connected the notes.



Can you give me some advice about these notes? Thank you. Have a great time.

You're welcome :)
The first symbol (from left to right) is the time signature.
That symbol can be used in alternative to 4/4 and it still means 4/4
4/4 means that each bar in the piece contains 4 quarter notes or relative subdivisions.
So if you sum up all the notes in the first bar (for example) of you example you will get a result of 4 quarters.

The slur (what you called the curve) is a symbol which has three possible meanings:

1) it ties two notes of the same pitch and it means that the note must be sustained for the combined time value of the two notes tied. So if you tie an eight note with another eight note you get a note which is sustained for the time value of 1/4

2) phrase mark is a big slur above more bars or many notes. It means that everything below the slur belongs to the musical phrase. It's like using commas and marks to create phrases in english

3) when the slur is above a small group of note and tie notes of different pitches it means that the note must be played as legato as possible.

In your example those are type-3 slurs.

Offline 10761151100

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Re: Plz help me reading the piano sheet music
Reply #5 on: April 24, 2008, 02:58:06 AM
     Thank you danny elfboy, I really appreciate it. Have a good one.

Offline 10761151100

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Re: Plz help me reading the piano sheet music
Reply #6 on: April 26, 2008, 01:18:12 AM
   Hi danny elfboy and everyone, please help me read the piano music note again. I got stuck reading some pieces. When I play some pieces, I see some small treble clef and bass clef are put in the staff of the bass clef. Like in Fur Elise piece, I see the small treble clef in the bar 38 and in bar 39 there are some notes, after the bar 39, I see the small bass clef in the bar 40. How am I going to play the notes when I see something like that?
   What does the time signature 6/8 and 3/8 mean. Does it mean that there are 8 bars in one staff? What should I do with the numbers 6 and 3? On some pieces, I also see the sign < (the length of this sign is longer the one that I type in here).
   What number of the tempo of the metronome should I change for practicing the eight note, sixteenth note, thirty-second one, and sixty-fourth one? At this time, my metronome shows that the tempo is 116 for 4 quarter notes (4 beats). Thanks a lot.

Offline shortyshort

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If God really exists, then why haven't I got more fingers?

Offline 10761151100

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Re: Plz help me reading the piano sheet music
Reply #8 on: April 28, 2008, 02:15:42 AM
Thank you very much shortyshort. Have a good one. :)
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