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  • (slow piano music)

  • - Hi, Tim here, and welcome now to the very first lesson

  • in the Do-It-Yourself Learn to Play Piano series.

  • Today we're just going to be talking about

  • some very introductory subjects

  • to get you started, for those of us who

  • might not have that musical background.

  • What we're gonna mainly be talking about today

  • is how to learn how to read music on the staff,

  • and what the staff is all about.

  • So, with that said, let's get started shall we?

  • All right, so here we have the musical staff.

  • An important thing to know about the musical staff

  • is that it's made up of five lines:

  • one, two, three, four and five.

  • And four spaces in between those lines:

  • one, two, three and four.

  • Now another important thing to know

  • is that a note can either fall

  • on a line or a space,

  • and depending on which line or space,

  • will tell you what note to play

  • and where on the keyboard to play that note.

  • Now in just a second right after this

  • I'll show you how to read notes on the staff.

  • All right, so before I teach you

  • how to read notes on the staff,

  • I'd like to point out two quick things.

  • The first thing is this one,

  • this is the treble clef symbol.

  • The treble clef is usually played with the right hand,

  • if you think about it the right hand on the keyboard

  • is usually played up at the higher end of the keyboard

  • where the notes higher in pitch are located,

  • thus the name treble clef.

  • And the next one I want to show you

  • is the bass clef.

  • The bass clef is usually played with the left hand

  • down on the lower end of the piano,

  • thus the name bass clef.

  • All right, so now I'm going to teach you

  • how to read notes on the staff.

  • And the easiest way I've found to do this

  • is to memorize both the lines and spaces

  • for both the treble clef and the bass clef.

  • Now depending on which clef you're talking about,

  • the lines and spaces will be slightly different.

  • So it's important to memorize

  • the lines and spaces for both clefs.

  • So for the treble clef, the lines of the treble clef are:

  • E, G, B, D and F.

  • Now I've come up with a little saying

  • that might help you out with memorizing this,

  • and it's, Every Good Bunny Deserves Fudge.

  • Now the first letter of each of these words

  • will tell you the lines of the treble clef.

  • So, E for Every, G for Good, B for Bunny,

  • D for Deserves and F for Fudge.

  • So, E, G, B, D and F.

  • Now we'll talk about the spaces of the treble clef.

  • The spaces of the treble clef are:

  • F, A, C and E.

  • Now I don't have a saying to memorize this one,

  • only because this one happens to spell a certain word.

  • And of course that word is FACE.

  • So again, F, A, C and E.

  • Now you can feel free to pause this video at any time

  • to look this over and maybe write it down to memorize it.

  • And next we'll talk about

  • the lines and spaces of the bass clef.

  • OK, so now we have the lines and spaces

  • of the bass clef.

  • An important thing I thought I should mention,

  • that I forgot to mention in the previous section,

  • was that whenever you're trying to figure out

  • the lines or spaces for a clef,

  • that you want to be counting from the bottom of the staff

  • to the top of the staff.

  • So, we have, for the lines of the bass clef:

  • G, B, D, F, and A.

  • Or as I like to say,

  • Good Bunnies Deserve Fudge Always.

  • So, G for Good, B for Bunnies,

  • D for Deserve, F for Fudge, and A for Always.

  • Now we'll talk about the spaces of the bass clef.

  • The spaces of the bass clef are A, C, E and G.

  • Or, All Cows Eat Grass.

  • And remember that whenever we're trying to figure out

  • the lines and spaces, we're always going to be counting

  • from the bottom to the top of the staff.

  • If you do it the other way around,

  • unfortunately you'll get the wrong notes.

  • So I thought that was an important thing to mention.

  • So there you have it, that is the lines and spaces

  • of the treble and bass clef.

  • All right, so here we have the musical alphabet.

  • Another fairly easy subject to understand

  • but it is important to know.

  • The musical alphabet begins with A,

  • and goes to G,

  • and then it repeats.

  • So, A, B, C, D, E, F, G,

  • A, B, and then it would keep going

  • C, D, E, F, G, A.

  • So you might just wanna practice

  • knowing what the musical alphabet is.

  • A to G, and then it repeats.

  • You also want to practice saying it backwards.

  • Now I'll explain why this is once we start playing

  • on the piano a little bit more.

  • So you want to be able to go:

  • A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B,

  • A, G, F, E, D, C, B, A.

  • So when you're learning to play the piano,

  • you will be an absolute expert

  • at the first seven letters of the alphabet,

  • forwards and backwards.

  • So, like I said, an easy subject to understand,

  • but it is definitely worth knowing about.

  • All right, so that concludes our very first lesson.

  • A quick review of things we talked about in this lesson:

  • The first thing we talked about was the musical staff

  • and that the musical staff, if you remember,

  • is made up of five lines and four spaces

  • in between those lines.

  • And depending on which line or space a note falls on

  • will tell you which letter note to play,

  • and where on the piano to play it.

  • We also talked about the treble clef and bass clef,

  • and how to read certain notes depending on

  • which clef you're talking about,

  • by memorizing the lines and spaces for each.

  • So next lesson we're gonna kind of review that again,

  • reading notes on the different clefs,

  • and give you a little bit more practice with it.

  • As well as introducing some more introductory subjects

  • so that we can start playing on the piano

  • hopefully soon within the next couple of lessons.

(slow piano music)

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