[0:00] in this video you're going to learn how
[0:01] to read sheet music as a beginner piano
[0:03] player i'm going to be breaking it down
[0:04] from scratch in a simple easy to
[0:06] understand way let's go so in sheet
[0:07] music there are three main parts that
[0:09] you want to learn individually the first
[0:11] part is the notes second part is the
[0:13] rhythm and the third part are what i
[0:14] like to call the extras now i did want
[0:16] to warn you about something one of the
[0:17] big mistakes that i see beginners make
[0:19] is trying to read and understand all
[0:22] parts of sheet music right from the
[0:24] beginning and then it just gets
[0:25] overwhelming you don't see much progress
[0:27] you'll probably feel frustrated with
[0:28] sheet music and i don't want that for
[0:30] you you can read sheet music you just
[0:32] have to know how to break it into its
[0:33] individual parts so that you can learn
[0:35] it so let's break down these parts
[0:37] individually starting with the notes so
[0:38] here's a sample sheet of music you're
[0:40] going to notice that there are two
[0:42] sections to it so we have the top
[0:43] section there that have five lines and
[0:45] then we have the bottom section which
[0:47] also has five lines now you'll notice
[0:49] with the top section that we have the
[0:51] special sign is called the treble clef
[0:53] and then with the bottom section we have
[0:56] what we call the bass clef all together
[0:58] this is the grand staff and your right
[1:00] hand follows that top portion your right
[1:03] hand's going to be looking at the top
[1:04] portion and your left hand is going to
[1:06] be following the bottom portion notes
[1:09] are written in the grand staff on either
[1:12] a line or in a space like a space in
[1:15] between the lines and each note on the
[1:18] staff represents a key on the piano so
[1:21] for example this note right here is
[1:23] middle c so it's in the treble clef i
[1:25] know i'm going to be using my right hand
[1:27] i would come to my piano and i would
[1:28] play
[1:29] middle c the c that's in the middle of
[1:31] the piano now notes are always moving
[1:33] either up or down on the staff and all
[1:36] that means is when the note starts to
[1:38] move up it's going to get higher so it's
[1:41] going to start to get a higher pitch and
[1:43] you're going to move to the right on
[1:44] your piano when the note goes down
[1:47] you're going to get a lower pitch and
[1:50] you're going to move to the left so
[1:52] anytime you go up you're going to go to
[1:54] the right on the piano anytime you go
[1:56] down on the staff you're going to be
[1:57] going to the left and that's really
[1:59] important because you don't just want to
[2:01] see the notes on the music as just
[2:03] random dots here and there but you want
[2:05] to be able to follow how the notes are
[2:08] moving so that you can get more fluid at
[2:10] reading and playing at the same time
[2:12] we're going to start with just that top
[2:13] section first which is going to tell
[2:15] your right hand exactly what to play
[2:17] okay so let's read and play some notes
[2:19] together so the very first note that
[2:21] you're going to learn is middle c it's
[2:22] the easiest one to pick out it's in the
[2:24] middle of the piano we know that we're
[2:26] going to use our right hand because it's
[2:28] in the treble clef so anytime you see
[2:30] that note you would play middle c so we
[2:32] can see we just moved up one step up to
[2:34] the very next key which is d
[2:36] we can keep going to the next line and
[2:39] play e
[2:40] and then f
[2:42] and then g
[2:44] so notice that when we step like this
[2:46] we're following a pattern we're going
[2:48] line
[2:49] to the next space
[2:51] to the next line
[2:53] to the next space
[2:55] to the next line all right so notes are
[2:58] usually pretty easy to read when they're
[3:00] stepping like this but what happens if
[3:02] they're not stepping let's take a look
[3:04] at this example you can see that we're
[3:05] starting on c
[3:07] and then we're skipping all the way up
[3:10] to
[3:11] g
[3:12] all right and you can see
[3:14] how the distance on the music
[3:17] represents the distance between the keys
[3:20] on the piano alright
[3:22] so that helps us to be able to kind of
[3:25] make sense of how the music
[3:28] is related to the keys on the piano so
[3:30] that's the top section where your right
[3:32] hand is playing now the bottom section
[3:34] is similar in that we still have notes
[3:36] that are either on lines or spaces but
[3:38] the notes change a little bit and this
[3:40] is often where beginners get really
[3:42] confused so stick with me i promise this
[3:45] will make sense okay so notice that for
[3:47] this g in the treble clef we played it
[3:50] on the second line from the bottom now
[3:53] if we were to come to our bottom section
[3:55] our bass clef section with our left hand
[3:57] and draw a note on the second line from
[4:00] the bottom
[4:01] you might think that it would also be a
[4:03] g so it could be this g or this g
[4:06] but it's not and here's why it all comes
[4:10] back to middle c
[4:12] middle c in the bottom section looks
[4:14] like this very similar right so we could
[4:17] play middle c right here
[4:20] and from here we can start moving down
[4:22] right so we're going to start moving
[4:23] down you can see it in your music moving
[4:25] down we're going to move to the left on
[4:28] the piano so this would be b
[4:30] and then we can keep moving down to a
[4:33] and then we can keep moving down to g
[4:36] and then we can keep moving down to
[4:38] f if i were to keep going all the way
[4:42] down i would discover
[4:43] that in the bass clef if i were to play
[4:46] the second line from the bottom it would
[4:48] actually be b
[4:49] so this is something that you want to
[4:51] watch out for because it's not exactly
[4:53] the same in the bass clef it follows the
[4:56] same pattern of line space line space
[5:00] line space
[5:02] but it's going to look a little bit
[5:03] different in the bass clef versus the
[5:05] treble clef another thing to know with
[5:07] reading sheet music is that we're always
[5:09] reading our music left to right just
[5:11] like we would read and we're always
[5:13] playing both sections at the same time
[5:16] so it's not like we're just reading our
[5:17] right hand and then we're reading our
[5:19] left hand separately but when we're
[5:21] playing a song or a piece we're playing
[5:23] them at the same time so we're moving
[5:25] from left to right through our music
[5:28] together so let's do an example of plain
[5:31] notes reading from left to right and
[5:34] reading both clefs both sections
[5:36] simultaneously so if you were to start
[5:39] this from the beginning you'd notice
[5:40] that we just have a c
[5:42] okay so you just play two c's and then
[5:45] notice we're layering on g so this is g
[5:48] right here so then you would play
[5:50] these two together notice we don't have
[5:53] anything in the bass clef so left hand
[5:55] isn't doing anything we just started
[5:56] right hand
[5:58] and then we kept going with the right
[6:00] hand now notice
[6:01] once we get to the next part we have a
[6:04] left left-hand note in there and that
[6:06] left-hand note is just f
[6:08] so that's the f down here now we're
[6:10] going to
[6:11] play them simultaneously because they're
[6:14] right on top of each other there so we
[6:16] would play
[6:21] okay so remember you start reading from
[6:24] left to right so we just read just our
[6:26] right hand
[6:27] and then we added in another note with
[6:29] our right hand
[6:30] [Music]
[6:31] and then we kept layering and we added
[6:33] in
[6:34] left hand like this
[6:38] now when you're first getting started
[6:39] with learning the notes on the staff it
[6:42] can feel overwhelming and confusing to
[6:44] try to remember every single note but
[6:46] don't worry you actually don't need to
[6:48] know every single note you just need to
[6:50] know certain keynotes that will help you
[6:52] read all the other notes so much faster
[6:55] i've got another video on exactly which
[6:56] keynotes to know i'm going to link that
[6:58] down below and i'll post it at the end
[7:00] of this video so you can go and watch
[7:02] that next second part to sheet music is
[7:04] the rhythm and for rhythm there's really
[7:05] only two things that you need to know
[7:07] measures and the time signature the time
[7:09] signature are just the numbers or the
[7:11] fraction at the beginning of your sheet
[7:14] music that's beside the treble clef and
[7:16] the bass clef the time signature tells
[7:17] us how we're going to count the music so
[7:19] that we get the correct rhythm so let's
[7:21] break down these numbers the top number
[7:23] tells us how many counts or beats are
[7:26] inside each measure so for 4 4 which is
[7:29] the most common time signature for
[7:32] beginner piano music the top number is
[7:34] four so we're gonna count to four inside
[7:37] each measure so for example for a song
[7:39] or a piece that's in four four you would
[7:41] count one
[7:42] two three
[7:44] four
[7:45] one
[7:46] two three
[7:48] that would be the beat for the song or
[7:50] the piece now the bottom number tells
[7:52] you what kind of note is gonna get one
[7:54] count so the four stands for one over
[7:57] four which stands for a quarter so in
[8:01] four four the quarter note is gonna get
[8:03] one count inside each measure we would
[8:05] have four quarter notes so just to recap
[8:09] in four four you'll count to four in
[8:12] each measure and the quarter note you're
[8:14] going to hold for one beat or count so
[8:17] basically all you really need to know
[8:18] for beginner sheet music is that in 4 4
[8:21] you're gonna count to four inside each
[8:23] measure if you take nothing else from
[8:25] this rhythm section that's really all
[8:27] you need to know at the beginning now
[8:28] the quarter note is a pretty common type
[8:30] of note but there are lots of different
[8:32] kinds of notes in rhythm i go into a lot
[8:34] more detail in my beginner piano course
[8:36] play but i'm going to go over just a
[8:38] couple basic rhythms you need in order
[8:40] to start playing beginner music we
[8:42] started out with the quarter note which
[8:43] just gets one count so you'll see some
[8:47] notes written up there we've got middle
[8:49] c
[8:50] and g we're using just our right hand
[8:53] and we're just going to count this out
[8:54] how we would play it so we play one
[8:58] two
[8:59] three
[9:00] four and then it changes one
[9:03] two
[9:04] three
[9:06] four notice that the top note changed so
[9:08] that i was playing c and e instead of c
[9:11] and g so that's how we would count the
[9:13] quarter note now if we double the
[9:14] quarter note we get a half note and a
[9:16] half note we're gonna hold for two
[9:18] counts so we're still gonna count the
[9:20] same beat so we're still going to count
[9:22] one
[9:23] two
[9:24] three
[9:25] four just notice that i held it for two
[9:27] counts each one
[9:29] two
[9:30] three
[9:31] four that's the half note now if we
[9:33] double the half note we get a whole note
[9:36] which we're gonna hold for four counts
[9:38] so we're still counting the same way but
[9:40] we're holding out our notes like this
[9:42] one
[9:43] two
[9:44] three
[9:45] four
[9:46] one
[9:47] two
[9:48] three
[9:49] four we've been doing examples with the
[9:51] right hand but this works exactly the
[9:53] same with the left hand when we're
[9:55] counting rhythm there's no difference
[9:57] between the treble clef or the bass clef
[9:59] right hand or left hand so as you can
[10:00] see we're adding in another level of
[10:02] complexity to our music when we add in
[10:05] the rhythm because now you're not just
[10:07] looking at the note but you're also
[10:08] having to look at the note and figure
[10:10] out how long or how short to hold it
[10:13] this is why i'm gonna sound like a
[10:14] broken record i know but when you're
[10:16] first starting to read cheap music you
[10:18] only want to focus on one of these at a
[10:20] time focus on the notes and then the
[10:23] rhythm you could even start with the
[10:24] rhythm and then go to the notes it
[10:26] really doesn't matter but only focus on
[10:28] one at a time and then layer them
[10:30] together and finally you're ready for
[10:32] the third part of sheet music which is
[10:33] what i like to call the extras now there
[10:35] are a lot of extras in music a lot of
[10:38] signs that you're gonna see written into
[10:40] sheet music that i'm not gonna take the
[10:42] time to go into because you really wanna
[10:44] learn all of these inside she music that
[10:46] you're working on otherwise it will just
[10:48] be me throwing up all these musical
[10:50] terms and you probably won't remember
[10:52] them so once you have a good foundation
[10:54] of the notes and the rhythm then you can
[10:56] start to learn more of these inside the
[10:58] music that you're working on i do want
[10:59] to show you just a couple of the most
[11:01] common ones so you can see some examples
[11:03] of how this might show up in your sheet
[11:05] music so if you see this sign it means
[11:07] piano it means that you're going to play
[11:09] your music softly if you see this sign
[11:11] it stands for forte it means that you're
[11:13] going to play your music loudly and then
[11:15] this sign is a crescendo and this one's
[11:17] really fun because it means that you're
[11:19] going to start soft and then you're
[11:21] gradually going to get louder so if
[11:23] you're just getting started reading
[11:25] sheet music and you're like whoa whoa
[11:26] whoa that was a lot here's what i want
[11:28] you to do i don't want you to try and
[11:30] learn all of this all at once trust me
[11:32] it is a recipe for disaster and
[11:34] overwhelm and i don't want that to
[11:36] happen to you instead focus on reading
[11:38] and playing just the notes in your music
[11:40] first i'm going to put a video here for
[11:41] you to go watch next it includes my
[11:43] quick and easy method for how to read
[11:44] and remember the notes in your music
[11:46] i'll see you over there