- All right, so we're at lesson three already!

Some pretty simple things again today.

Today we're actually, finally, gonna

get to the keyboard a little bit.

I'm gonna teach ya how to find notes on the keyboard.

Pretty simple, but we're getting into there.

As I said, the next couple lessons we'll finally

get playing examples on the keyboard.

So then it should start to get a little more

interesting if you're already familiar with

these very introductory subjects, and things like that.

Another thing I'm gonna explain are note durations,

which is how long to hold the notes:

quarter notes, half notes,

dotted half notes, things like that.

I'll have an explanation there for you.

One more thing we're going to talk about

is reading notes on and off the staff

and give you a little more experience reading notes.

Because that's very important!

That's probably something we'll

practice going on, as we move forward.

I'll probably make, maybe, some supplementary

videos about note-reading, as well,

just to give you a little more practice.

I'll also try to post a link somewhere to a site that gives

you some experience note-reading, so you don't

have to keep watching the videos over and over.

And you can actually go and learn on your own,

which I think is very important.

There you have it.

That's what we're gonna do in lesson three.

I hope you enjoy!

Okay, so we're finally at the keyboard,

or piano, or whatever you want to call it.

This thing here with the keys is known as the keyboard.

Some people happen to have a piano,

and I happen to have a professional keyboard.

The layout of the keyboard goes like this:

I'm sure you've noticed already that on the keyboard

there are white keys and there are black keys, of course.

And that the black keys go on a pattern

of group of two, group of three,

group of two, three, two, three, and then

it just keeps repeating all the way to the end.

So, knowing this, I'm going to show

you how to find the note "C."

How to find the note "C":

First you want to find a group of two black keys.

Here's one.

"C" is always going to be directly down

and to the left of your leftmost black key.

So here you go.

That one's gonna be "C."

Let's find another one.

The first thing, if you remember,

is to find a group of two black keys.

Here it is!

Remember, "C" is gonna be right to the bottom

and to the left of that group of two.

So there's your "C."

We're gonna go back to our first "C," which is here.

This "C" happens to be in the middle of the keyboard.

It's commonly referred to as "middle C."

If you know your musical alphabet,

you remember that the musical alphabet

goes from "A" to "G," and then goes on to "H"?

No, it repeats.

So we have "C."

What's after "C" in the alphabet?

"D," "E," "F," "G,"

and then "A," "B," "C,"

so if we take our "C," then,

what's right before "C" in the alphabet?

"B," "A."

So, if you ever get lost, you can always look for

the note "C" and count up or down from there.

That's why, I think, in the other video,

I told you to be able to read the

musical alphabet forwards and backwards.

Because that gives you a lot of practice

going from "C" to "D," "E," "F,"

and then back down, "E," "D," "C,"

"B," "A," so you can find notes a little bit quicker.

Another thing I recommend is to memorize

where the other notes are on the keyboard.

You can do that in their relation to the

groups of two and three black keys,

so you could say, "Okay, 'C' is to the left

"of that group of two black keys;

" 'D' is in the middle of that group of two;

" 'E' is to the right of that group of two;

" 'F' is directly below and to

"the left of the group of three;

" 'G' is in between the first two in that group of three;

" 'A,' " and so forth.

I think you get the idea.

So I recommend that, but if not, if all else fails

and you forget where the locations of these

other keys are, you should at least be able to find

the note "C" and count up or down from there

to be able to figure out where you are.

Okay, here, I have a couple different types of notes.

What these will tell you is how long to play the piano.

One thing I want to point out is that mostly every note has

what's called a "head," and a "stem."

The head is this thing here, and the stem

will either go up or down.

Sometimes you'll see the note like this,

depending on where the note is located on the staff.

The first one we have here,

this first example, is called the "quarter note."

The quarter note, you can tell, has a filled in head

with a straight stem coming off of it.

That one is going to get one beat,

or you might want to say one count.

You'll play the piano and count to one.

The next kind of note is known as the "half note."

A half note has an open head with a straight stem.

This one is going to get two beats, or two counts.

Then this third one we have here

is called the "dotted half note."

You can tell because it looks like

a regular half note with a dot attached.

This one is going to get three counts.

Here, last but not least, this one is a little

bit of an exception to the rule because

it just has a head with it and no stem.

When you see that, you know

that you are playing a whole note.

A whole note will get four counts.

If you remember before, we were talking about

the lines and spaces of the bass clef and how

to read notes on the staff, knowing the

lines and spaces for each of those clefs.

There's one little detail I wanted to point out

about that, that I feel is pretty important,

and that's when you put the lines and spaces together.

You'll have line, space, line, space,

so you're basically just lining them up.

The bottom line, as we know, is "E,"

and then "F," "G," "A," "B," "C."

You should've noticed something about this,

and it's when you put the lines and spaces together,

the letters will go in consecutive order,

of course, knowing that the

musical alphabet repeats after "G."

The same thing about the bass clef.

We have that bottom line we all know as "G."

And then begins, "A," "B," "C," "D."

So, when you put the lines and spaces together,

they will go in consecutive order.

I just wanted to point that out.

You may have noticed it, maybe not,

but I think it's worth pointing out.

Here is a brief explanation of this:

the use of ledger lines.

Ledger lines are for notes that don't fall on the staff.

They fall either directly above the staff

or directly below the staff.

So they add in these little lines, so you can

be able to, basically, tell where you

are in figuring out these notes.

Now, a rule of thumb, when you're trying

to figure these out, is to find the next nearest note.

Say I cover that up, and you're like, "Oh, gee,

"that falls outside of the staff, what do I do?"

Well, you find the next nearest note,

which you do know, and you probably

know the first line of the treble clef.

If you don't, that letter is "E."

So "E," and then what's right before "E" in the alphabet?

"D"; right before that?

"C," "B," and "A."

So this goes in consecutive order as well.

But, because you're going down,

it will be in backwards order, of course.

The same thing with the base clef.

We have these ledger lines.

So you're like "Oh man, I don't know what note that is.

"That's below the staff.

"I don't know that."

Well, find a note on the staff that you do know.

You know that first line, or you should, anyway.

That is, of course, gonna be "G."

Well, what's before "G" in the alphabet?

Of course, it's gonna be "F."

Before that is "E," "D," and "C."

Once again, it's important to point out,

because we're going down below

the staff, it will go in backwards order.

Let's get some practice with these.

Here we have some treble clef.

Let me move this out of the way.

Move it a little further out of the way.

There we go!

So, we have the treble clef!

We have that bottom line.

We know that as "E," of course, because

it's "Every Good Bunny Deserves Fudge."

So "E," bottom line.

Now, we have this below it.

"Oh no, what is that note?

"It's below the staff!"

Well, remember, this is is "E."

This is right directly below "E,"

so that's going to be?

That's right, "D."

Hopefully you said "D," anyway.

Knowing that that's "D," what's this one?

Take a second to think about it, maybe.

That's right, "C."

Excellent!

Good work!

Okay!

Moving on, knowing that that's "C,"

first thing I want to mention about this:

I want you to memorize this one.

Only because this, specifically, is middle C,

and you will be seeing this note quite a lot

in the next couple of exercises we're gonna do.

And in the first couple of exercises, really,

any piano student comes across.

So it's really important to know that's middle C.

What's the next one down?

Let's see.

Oh, that's right below it, I'd say!

Because there's the ledger line.

This one's right below it.

What's before "C" in the alphabet?

If you said "B," you are right on the money!

There you go!

All right! (chuckles)

Falling all over the place today!

Okay!

I'm gonna move that out of the way.

Now we're gonna have a little experience doing notes

that are directly above the staff on the treble clef.

So I put this one out here for you.

Hopefully, don't panic!

You can get this!

If you know, remember that this

is right outside of the staff.

And this is, remember that top line;

that probably should be the closest

one that you know, at this point.

And, of course, you know that

the top line would be "F."

So if I had a note there, that would be "F."

What's right after "F" in the alphabet?

"G," of course!

There we go!

That's one's out of the way.