---
title: 'How to Read & Play Piano SHEET Music (STEP-BY-STEP Explanation for Beginners!)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=OA-DQPGvdiU'
video_id: 'OA-DQPGvdiU'
date: 2026-06-30
duration_sec: 711
---

# How to Read & Play Piano SHEET Music (STEP-BY-STEP Explanation for Beginners!)

> Source: [How to Read & Play Piano SHEET Music (STEP-BY-STEP Explanation for Beginners!)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=OA-DQPGvdiU)

## Summary

This video provides a step-by-step guide for absolute beginners on how to read piano sheet music. The instructor breaks down sheet music into three main parts: notes, rhythm, and extras, emphasizing the importance of learning each part individually to avoid overwhelm. The tutorial covers the grand staff, treble and bass clefs, note reading, time signatures, and basic note durations.

### Key Points

- **Three Main Parts of Sheet Music** [0:07] — Sheet music has three main parts: notes, rhythm, and extras. Beginners should learn each part individually to avoid overwhelm.
- **The Grand Staff and Clefs** [0:38] — The grand staff consists of the treble clef (right hand) and bass clef (left hand). Notes are on lines or spaces, each representing a piano key.
- **Note Movement and Pitch** [1:33] — Notes moving up on the staff mean higher pitch (move right on piano); moving down means lower pitch (move left).
- **Bass Clef Note Differences** [3:47] — In the treble clef, the second line from the bottom is G; in the bass clef, the same line is B. This is a common point of confusion.
- **Time Signature Basics** [7:04] — The time signature (e.g., 4/4) tells how many beats per measure (top number) and which note gets one beat (bottom number). In 4/4, count to four per measure, quarter note gets one beat.
- **Note Durations** [9:13] — Quarter note = 1 count, half note = 2 counts, whole note = 4 counts. Rhythm applies the same to both clefs.
- **Extras: Dynamics** [10:59] — Common extras include piano (soft), forte (loud), and crescendo (gradually louder). Learn these as they appear in your music.

## Transcript

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