On your first piano lesson whether it be with a teacher, piano software course or tuition book you want to memorise what the notes are called on a piano. It doesn’t matter whether you are learning piano, accordion, electronic keyboard or even harpsichord. All the notes are the same and they are incredibly easy to learn.

There are many different sizes of keyboards. Sixty-one and seventy-six note keyboards are popular for electronic keyboards, and pianos are usually eighty-eight notes. Whatever the size of keyboard there are only seven white notes to learn. Black notes are related to the white notes and are known as sharps and flats.

So, first of all let’s memorize the seven note names. They are C, D, E, F, G, A and B. Wherever on the piano you play you will be using one of these notes names. You will notice that from C to G is alphabetical, the reason I haven’t started with A is because when you begin to learn to play the piano you will be using C as one of the first notes you ever play and it will also be a very important note and will help you relate to the other notes particularly on sheet music.

Now you know the notes, your next step is to find them on a piano. The easiest way to do this is to look at the piano keyboard, if you don’t have access to a piano or any kind of piano keyboard find a picture of one on the internet. Now, just look at the keyboard carefully and you will see sets of two black notes and sets of three black notes. Start by looking at a set of two black notes. Starting with the black note on the left, notice a white note to its immediate left this note is called C, the white note to its immediate right is called D, and this is also between the two black notes. Finally, the white note to the right of the second black note is called E. So all the notes in this section of two black notes starting at the left are called C, D and E. All the sets of two black notes on a keyboard are exactly the same, as are the notes within those sets. In fact, the only difference at all between these sets is the pitch of the notes, which only needs a brief mention here.

Carrying on from the last note which is E, if we now move on to the very next white note to the right, this note is called F, then G, A and B. The last note played which is B is the first white note just after the last black note in the set of three. So to recap you should have played a white note before the set of two black notes, a white note just after the set of three black notes and all the white notes in between. This adds up to seven white notes. If you carry on up the keyboard, the process repeats itself using the same letters. You should now be able to find and name any white note on a piano keyboard.

To find out more about Piano Lessons visit Mikes website. You can also see a selection of new and used Electric Pianos and Electronic Keyboards

Tags: electronic keyboards, first piano lesson, piano accordion, piano software, sharps and flats

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