Tips for Reading Piano Music
With just a little success behind you, you can tackle the task of learning to read music. Of course there are a number of successful musicians that aren’t able to read music. They can simply listen to a song and play it by ear. They are able to make improvisations on simple things to deliver elaborate variations of well known songs. These musicians seem to know their instruments just as well as a singer knows his or her own voice.
You may be someone who can do that. There will be some information later on about chords and improvisation. However, if you are a beginner just finding out about the piano, it is more likely that you need the help that written music can provide you. Furthermore, learning to read written music can open up a whole new world to you. You can learn piano songs that you have never even heard before. If you want to repeat the performance, you will have the sheet music to guide you note for note.
There is much to learn. You must find out about the way the notes are depicted. You need to know what the staffs that they are shown on look like. You will learn how rhythm is represented and how sharps and flats are shown. These are the basics, and you can build on this knowledge over time.
You can really learn a lot just by looking at a piece of music. If you already have a songbook, some sheet music, or a hymnal, take a moment to really look at it. If you don’t have any kind of written music, either buy or borrow some.
You will notice that there are groups of five horizontal lines. If the music is for both hands, it will have two of these groups of lines connected together by a longer line along the side. The horizontal lines are called the staff. You can get staff paper that is already marked with these lines.
At the far left side of the staffs you will see the clef marking. It will be a treble clef marking for the upper staff. The treble clef resembles a fancy backwards S with a line going down through it and curling underneath. In the beginning of learning to play piano, you will play the treble clef notes with your right hand.
On the lower of the two staff’s you will see the bass clef marking. The clef sign looks like a backwards C with two dots on its right side. The lower staff shows the lower notes and they are played with your left hand. Both the upper and lower staffs will be repeated several times on the page. Study the sheet music and identify both staffs. Once you do this you will be ready to learn the notes and start reading music.
