How To Master Keyboard Awareness Without Piano Key Stickers
The good news is, there is a simple and effective way to memorize your piano keys!
The answer isFLASH CARDS!
These flash cards and their accompanying tracking sheet are just the tool you need. And the best part? They’re a 3-in-1 DEAL!
TIP: If you print them double-sided, each side provides the answer for the other side, so you can confirm your accuracy! Just make sure you do your double-sided printing manually instead of using the double-sided print feature on your printer. This ensures both sides will align properly. And it’s a good idea to double-check that the letter on each card matches the diagram on the back, just in case your printer flipped them.
TROUBLE-SHOOTING: If you’re struggling with the memorization process, try breaking it into chunks:
Using these flashcards just 10 minutes a day will quickly and dramatically improve your keyboard awareness and key recognition skills! Why every day?
What Is A Musical Scale
A scale is a set of musical notes ordered as a well-defined sequence of intervals . A semitone is the minimum distance between two consecutive notes in any tempered scale . In other words, a semitone is also the distance between two consecutive keys on the piano. For example, the distance between C and C# , or the distance between E and F . However, the distance between C and D, for example, is a full tone .
Musical scales are an essential part of music improvisation and composition. Practicing scales will provide you with the necessary skills to play different styles of music like Jazz, Flamenco or Blues. You can also use scales to create your own melodies and set the mood of your piece.
Any chosen scale can be transported to any tonal center . The tonal center or tonic is the note where the scale hierarchy starts and it is represented on the virtual piano with a darker blue dot. When playing music under a particular scale, you should normally avoid any key without a blue dot, although composers sometimes use altered notes which are not within the scale.
Notes in a scale do not need to be played in a particular order, you can play them in any order you like, so feel free to improvise!
The Abcs Of Piano Notes
Hopefully, if youre reading this, its safe to assume you know your alphabet. All we need are the first seven letters of the alphabet to name the piano notes. Its that easy.
As we go from one letter to the next in the alphabet, each note is higher than the one before. On the other hand, if we go in the reverse direction , then each note is lower than the one before.
The next note after G goes back to A, and the pattern starts again. So just remember, there is no letter H on the piano!
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Quickly Learn Piano Notes And Chords
Learning to play piano notes and chords? Heres a quick guide that will help you master the basics.
A keyboard may look vast and confusing to you right now. However, by studying the keys and what they do, it makes perfect sense!
Reading and playing music is way more manageable when you know what all the buttons do!
So heres a quick crash course to help you get your bearings.
Lets get to it!
What Does Db Mean In Music Theory
dB stands for dB equivalence, which is the measure of how much a microphone or audio device can pick up sound levels. In music theory, dB is used to compare two audio files in order to find the differences between them.
When listening to music, it is important to be aware of the dB scale so that you can properly compare different tracks.
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Benefits Of Learning To Play The Piano
The piano in many ways could be considered the premier, perfect musical instrument. At around 370 years old, the modern pianoforte has been adopted in some form by nearly every nation, musical system, and used in every musical technology on Earth.
One of the first known pianos, housed at the Accademia D’Arte in Florence, Italy
From the keyed system of the piano, and its predecessors, the harpsichord, organ, and clavichord, we derive things like the piano roll , the MIDI keyboard itself, and nearly every system of teaching music theory outside of perhaps solfeggio .
When it comes to expanding your knowledge of music theory, boosting your musical IQ, and breaking down creative barriers, the piano may just be the perfect place to start.
Both piano and guitar are chorded instruments. They are polyphonic, meaning capable of naturally producing more than one note at a time. Piano and guitar are polyphonic as opposed to monophonic, which means single note. Monophonic instruments include brass and woodwinds, some synthesizers, and the human voice.
Other instruments that are polyphonic are stringed instruments like violin, viola, cello, and bass. However, using conventional methods, these instruments can only produce two-note double stops as opposed to full triads three, four, and five-note chords.
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What Are Diminished Piano Chords
The diminished triad uses a minor third, and a lowered fifth, called a diminished fifth. A diminished fifth is three whole-steps, or six half-steps, above the root note. To find the notes of a diminished chord, count a step-and-a-half from the root to the third, and then a step-and-a-half from the third to the fifth.
Are diminished chords used in rock songs?
Diminished keyboard chords are less common than major and minor chords, but are still frequently used in rock and pop songs. They have a spooky, tense sound. The most common use of a diminished chord is to transition between two other, more stable-sounding chords. You can hear a diminished chord used in this way in the song God Only Knows by The Beach Boys.
Common diminished piano chords include:
Musical Notes On A Piano Keyboard
There are 7 core musical notes in music, which are represented by the first 7 letters in the alphabet:
A B C D E F G
Now, lets match them with the keys on a piano keyboard.
First lets talk about the structure of a keyboard:
A standard piano keyboard contains 52 white keys, 36 black keys, 88 keys in total.
It is divided by 7 octaves, an octave is a set of keys which has 7 white keys and 5 black keys.
Lets dive deep into an octave:
Youll see that an octave is divided into 2 groups:
- Group 1 has 2 black keys and 3 white keys. Lets call this group chopsticks group
- Group 2 has 3 black keys and 4 white keys. So, we have fork group
Okay, now, lets match the notes with the keys:
- The first letter of Chopsticks is C. So, the first white key in the chopsticks group is C.
- Similarly, the first letter of Fork is F, then the first white key in the fork group is F.
Its so easy to remember, isnt it?
To name other white keys, lets start at C. Then, well count from the left to the right by the order of the alphabet:
C, D, E, F, G, A, B.
Repeat that pattern above then we will be able to read all white keys on a keyboard:
Thats it for reading all white keys on a keyboard.
To avoid overwhelming in the beginning, we wont learn the names of black keys.
Summary:
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Different Types Of Pianos Labeled
There are a handful of different arrangements for pianos. Some pianos have a full 88 keys. Some pianos have 61 keys. Some pianos only have 52 keys. Some pianos even have 36 keys!
With all of those variables, it can be easy to get confused about where your keyboard starts. This is another reason why starting from middle C is a good idea.
- 88 piano keys labeled
Here is a diagram showing 88 labeled piano keys:
- 61 piano keys labeled
Here is a diagram showing 61 labeled piano keys:
- 36 piano keys labeled
Here is a diagram showing 36 labeled piano keys:
Pro Tip: Listen To Your Favorite Rock Songs
Chords are used in almost every song you hear. The opening chord of Let It Be by The Beatles is a C major chord. Listen to some of your favorite songs and see if you can hear the sound of major chords.
How do you play a major chord on the piano?
To play a major chord, begin by choosing a root note, which can be any of the keyboard notes From the root note, count up two whole steps. This note is the third, named for being the third note in the key beginning with the root note. From the third, count up one-and-a-half steps, or three half steps. This note is the fifth.
When you play these three keyboard notes together, you hear a major triad, which has a happy sound. Major keyboard chords are used in almost every rock and pop song.
Common major piano chords include:
What are intervals called in a major scale?
The intervals in a major chord are called a major third, the distance from the root note to the third, and a perfect fifth, the distance from the root to the fifth. We counted the steps from the root to the third and the third to the fifth. To find the interval of a perfect fifth above the root note, count three-and-a-half steps, or a total of seven half-steps.
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Standard Keyboard Layout On A Modern Upright Piano
F sharp is likely the first sharp to be added to the keyboard. A painting by Van Eyck confirms that around 1430 narrower keys were being made than in earlier years, with the use of sharps. Since the mid-thirteenth century, the keyboard hasnt changed except for small differences in the key-width and key coverings.
Piano Notes In A Nutshell
So, to summarize, were going to think of the order of the piano notes as follows:
Then lather, rinse, and repeat, starting the pattern all over again from C!
For best results, use with our matching conditioner, because for some reason your hair will just not be the same if you use a competing companys conditioner? Wow, okay, off-topic :)!
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Reason #: Labeling Your Piano Keys Makes It Harder For You To Master Every Other Piano Skill
Still not convinced the stickers are a bad idea?
Let’s go back and think about high school when the basic things you learned in elementary school started to get more complex:
- Solving complex mathematical equations is hard if you don’t have your multiplication table memorized.
- Writing essays is hard if you struggle with spelling and understanding what sounds different combinations of letters make.
- Doing a basketball layup, a volleyball bump, or a football play is hard if you still have to think about how to walk.
I could go on and come up with an example for every subject imaginable, but I think you get the idea. Learning anything new is hard if you don’t take the time to master the basics first. These basics are the foundation your new learning is built on. If your foundation is shaky, everything will fall apart later on.
I’ll say that again, in case you were skimming and scrolling
Learning anything new is hard if you don’t take the time to master the basics first. These basics are the foundation your new learning is built on. If your foundation is shaky, everything will fall apart later on.
It’s the same with piano.
You need to know your keys.
You need to know them fast, with your eyes closed, while under pressure.
Without that solid foundation, every new piano concept you learn will be built on shaky ground, making everything that much harder to understand, that much harder to implement, and that much harder to master.
What Are Augmented Piano Chords
Like diminished chords, augmented chords are most often used to transition between more stable sounds in rock and pop music. One example of this is the song Crying performed by Roy Orbison, where an augmented chord is used in the prechorus.
Common augmented piano chords include:
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Learn How To Play Virtual Piano Using Interactive Songs
When playing an online piano using a computer keyboard or mouse, users usually find it quite difficult to play complex polyphonic musical pieces with these interfaces, as they have not been specifically designed for such a task. To facilitate things a little bit, we try to address this issue in two possible ways. First, we provide multiple keyboard mapping options, so you can choose the one that better adapts to your needs and preferences. Second, we offer you the possibility to focus on the melody of a song while the accompaniment is automatically played back in a flexible way. Using this interactive method, you will only need to play one note at a time, making it really fun and easy to perform even the most complex classical pieces!
Mental Flip Approach To Match Musical Notes And Their Corresponding Piano Keys
Below is a complete diagram that shows you how each piano key matches to a specific musical note.
It may seem overwhelming at first, so I dont encourage you to remember all the connections.
You will find this approach below is easier to read the musical notes with their corresponding keys:
This is called: The Mental Flip Approach.
From your original sheet music, flip it 90 degrees clockwise.
Then, the order from the low note to the high note in a music sheet transfers into the left side to the right side of the keyboard.
The flow of your music sheet now is from top to bottom.
I will leave the diagram here for your imagination without any further explanation because Im sure that you already get the concept of this approach.
Thats it for my guide on how to read musical notes and their corresponding piano keys.
If you have any question, please leave a comment below and I will try my best to answer it for you.
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How To Label Keys On The Piano
Before we go further, lets look at some methods we can use to physically label piano keys. Depending on the type of instrument you have, some methods will be more preferable. For example, you would likely mark piano keys on an expensive grand piano differently than you might on a budget model digital piano.
Who Invented The First 88
You may have heard about Steinway as one of the finest piano manufacturing brands in the world.
Well, the German-American company, founded in 1853,holds the credit for making the first 88-key piano.
They invented the first 88-key piano around the late 1880s. Ever since then, the 88-key pianos have been considered the standard version of the instrument.
It has 88 keys, 52 white keys, and 36 black keys. The keys are divided into 7 octaves and 3 minor notes down the bottom C.
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