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

[00:00] in this video you're going to learn how

[00:01] to read sheet music as a beginner piano

[00:03] player i'm going to be breaking it down

[00:04] from scratch in a simple easy to

[00:06] understand way let's go so in sheet

[00:07] music there are three main parts that

[00:09] you want to learn individually the first

[00:11] part is the notes second part is the

[00:13] rhythm and the third part are what i

[00:14] like to call the extras now i did want

[00:16] to warn you about something one of the

[00:17] big mistakes that i see beginners make

[00:19] is trying to read and understand all

[00:22] parts of sheet music right from the

[00:24] beginning and then it just gets

[00:25] overwhelming you don't see much progress

[00:27] you'll probably feel frustrated with

[00:28] sheet music and i don't want that for

[00:30] you you can read sheet music you just

[00:32] have to know how to break it into its

[00:33] individual parts so that you can learn

[00:35] it so let's break down these parts

[00:37] individually starting with the notes so

[00:38] here's a sample sheet of music you're

[00:40] going to notice that there are two

[00:42] sections to it so we have the top

[00:43] section there that have five lines and

[00:45] then we have the bottom section which

[00:47] also has five lines now you'll notice

[00:49] with the top section that we have the

[00:51] special sign is called the treble clef

[00:53] and then with the bottom section we have

[00:56] what we call the bass clef all together

[00:58] this is the grand staff and your right

[01:00] hand follows that top portion your right

[01:03] hand's going to be looking at the top

[01:04] portion and your left hand is going to

[01:06] be following the bottom portion notes

[01:09] are written in the grand staff on either

[01:12] a line or in a space like a space in

[01:15] between the lines and each note on the

[01:18] staff represents a key on the piano so

[01:21] for example this note right here is

[01:23] middle c so it's in the treble clef i

[01:25] know i'm going to be using my right hand

[01:27] i would come to my piano and i would

[01:28] play

[01:29] middle c the c that's in the middle of

[01:31] the piano now notes are always moving

[01:33] either up or down on the staff and all

[01:36] that means is when the note starts to

[01:38] move up it's going to get higher so it's

[01:41] going to start to get a higher pitch and

[01:43] you're going to move to the right on

[01:44] your piano when the note goes down

[01:47] you're going to get a lower pitch and

[01:50] you're going to move to the left so

[01:52] anytime you go up you're going to go to

[01:54] the right on the piano anytime you go

[01:56] down on the staff you're going to be

[01:57] going to the left and that's really

[01:59] important because you don't just want to

[02:01] see the notes on the music as just

[02:03] random dots here and there but you want

[02:05] to be able to follow how the notes are

[02:08] moving so that you can get more fluid at

[02:10] reading and playing at the same time

[02:12] we're going to start with just that top

[02:13] section first which is going to tell

[02:15] your right hand exactly what to play

[02:17] okay so let's read and play some notes

[02:19] together so the very first note that

[02:21] you're going to learn is middle c it's

[02:22] the easiest one to pick out it's in the

[02:24] middle of the piano we know that we're

[02:26] going to use our right hand because it's

[02:28] in the treble clef so anytime you see

[02:30] that note you would play middle c so we

[02:32] can see we just moved up one step up to

[02:34] the very next key which is d

[02:36] we can keep going to the next line and

[02:39] play e

[02:40] and then f

[02:42] and then g

[02:44] so notice that when we step like this

[02:46] we're following a pattern we're going

[02:48] line

[02:49] to the next space

[02:51] to the next line

[02:53] to the next space

[02:55] to the next line all right so notes are

[02:58] usually pretty easy to read when they're

[03:00] stepping like this but what happens if

[03:02] they're not stepping let's take a look

[03:04] at this example you can see that we're

[03:05] starting on c

[03:07] and then we're skipping all the way up

[03:10] to

[03:11] g

[03:12] all right and you can see

[03:14] how the distance on the music

[03:17] represents the distance between the keys

[03:20] on the piano alright

[03:22] so that helps us to be able to kind of

[03:25] make sense of how the music

[03:28] is related to the keys on the piano so

[03:30] that's the top section where your right

[03:32] hand is playing now the bottom section

[03:34] is similar in that we still have notes

[03:36] that are either on lines or spaces but

[03:38] the notes change a little bit and this

[03:40] is often where beginners get really

[03:42] confused so stick with me i promise this

[03:45] will make sense okay so notice that for

[03:47] this g in the treble clef we played it

[03:50] on the second line from the bottom now

[03:53] if we were to come to our bottom section

[03:55] our bass clef section with our left hand

[03:57] and draw a note on the second line from

[04:00] the bottom

[04:01] you might think that it would also be a

[04:03] g so it could be this g or this g

[04:06] but it's not and here's why it all comes

[04:10] back to middle c

[04:12] middle c in the bottom section looks

[04:14] like this very similar right so we could

[04:17] play middle c right here

[04:20] and from here we can start moving down

[04:22] right so we're going to start moving

[04:23] down you can see it in your music moving

[04:25] down we're going to move to the left on

[04:28] the piano so this would be b

[04:30] and then we can keep moving down to a

[04:33] and then we can keep moving down to g

[04:36] and then we can keep moving down to

[04:38] f if i were to keep going all the way

[04:42] down i would discover

[04:43] that in the bass clef if i were to play

[04:46] the second line from the bottom it would

[04:48] actually be b

[04:49] so this is something that you want to

[04:51] watch out for because it's not exactly

[04:53] the same in the bass clef it follows the

[04:56] same pattern of line space line space

[05:00] line space

[05:02] but it's going to look a little bit

[05:03] different in the bass clef versus the

[05:05] treble clef another thing to know with

[05:07] reading sheet music is that we're always

[05:09] reading our music left to right just

[05:11] like we would read and we're always

[05:13] playing both sections at the same time

[05:16] so it's not like we're just reading our

[05:17] right hand and then we're reading our

[05:19] left hand separately but when we're

[05:21] playing a song or a piece we're playing

[05:23] them at the same time so we're moving

[05:25] from left to right through our music

[05:28] together so let's do an example of plain

[05:31] notes reading from left to right and

[05:34] reading both clefs both sections

[05:36] simultaneously so if you were to start

[05:39] this from the beginning you'd notice

[05:40] that we just have a c

[05:42] okay so you just play two c's and then

[05:45] notice we're layering on g so this is g

[05:48] right here so then you would play

[05:50] these two together notice we don't have

[05:53] anything in the bass clef so left hand

[05:55] isn't doing anything we just started

[05:56] right hand

[05:58] and then we kept going with the right

[06:00] hand now notice

[06:01] once we get to the next part we have a

[06:04] left left-hand note in there and that

[06:06] left-hand note is just f

[06:08] so that's the f down here now we're

[06:10] going to

[06:11] play them simultaneously because they're

[06:14] right on top of each other there so we

[06:16] would play

[06:21] okay so remember you start reading from

[06:24] left to right so we just read just our

[06:26] right hand

[06:27] and then we added in another note with

[06:29] our right hand

[06:30] [Music]

[06:31] and then we kept layering and we added

[06:33] in

[06:34] left hand like this

[06:38] now when you're first getting started

[06:39] with learning the notes on the staff it

[06:42] can feel overwhelming and confusing to

[06:44] try to remember every single note but

[06:46] don't worry you actually don't need to

[06:48] know every single note you just need to

[06:50] know certain keynotes that will help you

[06:52] read all the other notes so much faster

[06:55] i've got another video on exactly which

[06:56] keynotes to know i'm going to link that

[06:58] down below and i'll post it at the end

[07:00] of this video so you can go and watch

[07:02] that next second part to sheet music is

[07:04] the rhythm and for rhythm there's really

[07:05] only two things that you need to know

[07:07] measures and the time signature the time

[07:09] signature are just the numbers or the

[07:11] fraction at the beginning of your sheet

[07:14] music that's beside the treble clef and

[07:16] the bass clef the time signature tells

[07:17] us how we're going to count the music so

[07:19] that we get the correct rhythm so let's

[07:21] break down these numbers the top number

[07:23] tells us how many counts or beats are

[07:26] inside each measure so for 4 4 which is

[07:29] the most common time signature for

[07:32] beginner piano music the top number is

[07:34] four so we're gonna count to four inside

[07:37] each measure so for example for a song

[07:39] or a piece that's in four four you would

[07:41] count one

[07:42] two three

[07:44] four

[07:45] one

[07:46] two three

[07:48] that would be the beat for the song or

[07:50] the piece now the bottom number tells

[07:52] you what kind of note is gonna get one

[07:54] count so the four stands for one over

[07:57] four which stands for a quarter so in

[08:01] four four the quarter note is gonna get

[08:03] one count inside each measure we would

[08:05] have four quarter notes so just to recap

[08:09] in four four you'll count to four in

[08:12] each measure and the quarter note you're

[08:14] going to hold for one beat or count so

[08:17] basically all you really need to know

[08:18] for beginner sheet music is that in 4 4

[08:21] you're gonna count to four inside each

[08:23] measure if you take nothing else from

[08:25] this rhythm section that's really all

[08:27] you need to know at the beginning now

[08:28] the quarter note is a pretty common type

[08:30] of note but there are lots of different

[08:32] kinds of notes in rhythm i go into a lot

[08:34] more detail in my beginner piano course

[08:36] play but i'm going to go over just a

[08:38] couple basic rhythms you need in order

[08:40] to start playing beginner music we

[08:42] started out with the quarter note which

[08:43] just gets one count so you'll see some

[08:47] notes written up there we've got middle

[08:49] c

[08:50] and g we're using just our right hand

[08:53] and we're just going to count this out

[08:54] how we would play it so we play one

[08:58] two

[08:59] three

[09:00] four and then it changes one

[09:03] two

[09:04] three

[09:06] four notice that the top note changed so

[09:08] that i was playing c and e instead of c

[09:11] and g so that's how we would count the

[09:13] quarter note now if we double the

[09:14] quarter note we get a half note and a

[09:16] half note we're gonna hold for two

[09:18] counts so we're still gonna count the

[09:20] same beat so we're still going to count

[09:22] one

[09:23] two

[09:24] three

[09:25] four just notice that i held it for two

[09:27] counts each one

[09:29] two

[09:30] three

[09:31] four that's the half note now if we

[09:33] double the half note we get a whole note

[09:36] which we're gonna hold for four counts

[09:38] so we're still counting the same way but

[09:40] we're holding out our notes like this

[09:42] one

[09:43] two

[09:44] three

[09:45] four

[09:46] one

[09:47] two

[09:48] three

[09:49] four we've been doing examples with the

[09:51] right hand but this works exactly the

[09:53] same with the left hand when we're

[09:55] counting rhythm there's no difference

[09:57] between the treble clef or the bass clef

[09:59] 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