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  • (gentle piano music)

  • - Hey, everybody.

  • Tim here, and back to some more YouTube videos for you.

  • Today we are talking about note reading again.

  • I know we talked about it long, long ago

  • when I first started making YouTube videos.

  • One of the first couple of videos I made

  • was how to read music,

  • but this time we're going to talk a little bit,

  • a lot more, actually,

  • about ledger lines.

  • Let's just get started, see what we have,

  • and I'll show you exactly what I'm talking about.

  • Now, let me bring this up

  • really quick.

  • Make sure everything is centered and all right.

  • I will post a link to this.

  • If I forget, please let me know.

  • We've learned how to read music on the staff.

  • At least you should by now.

  • I recommend you watch this video

  • after you've seen maybe the first five to ten

  • piano lesson videos that I've made in the past,

  • the "Learn to Play Piano" series.

  • We've learned how to read music on the staff,

  • and we've had some practice with that.

  • Now what we need to do

  • is we need to figure out how to read the notes

  • that are not on the staff,

  • and we need these things called ledger lines.

  • As you can see here, this C

  • has its own ledger line.

  • Let me see how big I can make this.

  • Okay,

  • so we have our ledger lines.

  • What ledger lines are for is to keep track

  • of where the note is off the staff.

  • Kind of said that already,

  • but you can have more than one ledger line,

  • and basically what it is

  • is you're extending the staff either down or up

  • to account for notes that just don't fit on the staff.

  • We have E here, our bottom line,

  • so there's no ledger lines involved yet.

  • I just wanted to start at E in the treble clef

  • to show you something.

  • There's E, and then there's actually a space

  • right below that line.

  • That's a space, and that is right before E in the alphabet

  • also known as D.

  • So if this E is right here,

  • this E, sorry,

  • is right here on the piano,

  • this D must be right next to it

  • down that way.

  • So, the further down a note goes on the staff

  • the further down that way it's going to be.

  • Then you have middle C.

  • We kind of know that one already.

  • It's the one on the first ledger line

  • below the treble clef.

  • It's also on the first ledger line above the bass clef,

  • but we'll talk about that in just a minute.

  • We have E, D, C,

  • and then B

  • right below it.

  • So this is the B right below middle C.

  • It can go down a little bit further,

  • but G is probably one of the lowest notes you'll find

  • on the treble clef.

  • Now I've seen some Es and things like that,

  • but for today, we're only going to go down to G.

  • So our first ledger line, C.

  • Going down is B, sorry, the other way.

  • And then you go down to A

  • which is two ledger lines below the staff

  • on the treble clef.

  • You can memorize these

  • just like you did to memorize middle C,

  • it's the first ledger line below the staff.

  • This one is two, so this is the A before that.

  • Then if you go down one more note,

  • this is a space right before that line.

  • That's down here at the G,

  • and then here we go back up.

  • We have G, A,

  • B, C, D,

  • and then back up the E to the line.

  • Just know that ledger lines are used to extend the staff.

  • You can memorize where notes are

  • off of the staff if you want,

  • or you can count from notes you do know.

  • Say you had this first space here below the staff

  • and you didn't know what that was.

  • You could find the closest note you do know,

  • which would probably be this E or middle C,

  • and then you can see that it's right between those two.

  • You can figure it out that way,

  • or if you want to memorize it

  • you can memorize that.

  • Obviously E's the bottom line,

  • D's that space right below that line.

  • C has its own ledger line,

  • the first line below the staff of treble clef.

  • B is right below that

  • in the space right below that line.

  • Then each time we get to a line that's lower,

  • we need to add a ledger line,

  • so we have A there on the second ledger line.

  • Then you go down to G, so if you had F,

  • that would be three ledger lines down,

  • and then you can go back up.

  • I'm just kind of showing you how it goes down,

  • and it goes back up back to E where we first started.

  • Ledger lines above the teble clef,

  • let me make sure this is centered okay.

  • Here we have the top line.

  • We know that that is F already,

  • and that F is right here.

  • Because it's two Fs above middle C,

  • the first F above middle C

  • is that first space,

  • and then you have that top line.

  • That's right here.

  • Now we have the first space above the treble clef,

  • and that's the G.

  • You go up one more, that gives you A.

  • Another one.

  • The second space above the staff is B.

  • Then you have the second line above the staff, the C.

  • Then you have three spaces above is D,

  • and then three lines above is E.

  • You can memorize where each of these are.

  • You can say, "Okay, I know G's the first space."

  • A, B, C, D, E.

  • There's another thing you want to do

  • to make sure you're really solid on these,

  • and I'll show you that in a couple of minutes,

  • but I just want to show you now

  • the bass clef, how the bass clef, the bottom...

  • line there is G.

  • We know that.

  • That's two Gs below middle C

  • because the first G above middle C

  • is that top space.

  • We have G, and then the first space below the staff is F.

  • The first ledger line on the bass clef is E.

  • Careful, a lot of students will switch this E with middle C.

  • They'll think it's middle see, but careful.

  • That only it applies for the treble clef.

  • Then you go down to D,

  • the second space below the staff.

  • Two lines below the staff is C,

  • and then you can go down further to B,

  • and then D, E, F, G from there.

  • Just memorize where they are on the staff.

  • G is the bottom line, F is the first space below that.

  • E is the first ledger line.

  • Try to recognize them based on what space or line they're on

  • below the staff or above the staff.

  • Now we have ledger lines that can be above the bass clef.

  • We have A right here.

  • That A is right below middle C

  • because we know this note as middle C.

  • The note in between is B.

  • That's the first space past middle C.

  • The second space is D, second line is E.

  • Second space is F, and then you have G,

  • which is the 3rd line coming back down

  • as you can see right there.

  • I will post an image of this,

  • a link to it in the description of this video,

  • so take a look at that.

  • Now I'm going to show you,

  • other than trying to memorize these by looking at it.