15 lessons. Each one builds on the last. Take your time. There is no rush.
Before you play a single note, you need to know where everything lives. Today Melo is going to show you around the piano.
Hello! I am SO happy you are here. My name is Melo and I live inside every piano. Today I will show you my home. Are you ready? Let's go!
What is music?
Music is organised sound. That means it is not just any noise it is sound that has been put together carefully to make something beautiful, exciting, or peaceful.
When a bird sings the same little melody every morning, that is music. When you clap your hands in a pattern, that is music. When someone plays the piano, that is music.
Every culture in the world has music. People have been making music for over 40,000 years. That is before writing, before wheels, before almost everything. Music is one of the oldest things human beings do.
🎵 Did you know?
Sound is made when something vibrates moves back and forth very fast. When you press a piano key, a small hammer inside the piano hits a string. That string vibrates and makes the sound you hear.
The faster something vibrates, the higher the sound. The slower it vibrates, the lower the sound. That is why the keys on the right of the piano sound higher their strings are shorter and vibrate faster!
🎹 Two kinds of pianos
Grand Piano
Lies flat. The biggest and most powerful. Used in concert halls.
Upright Piano
Stands tall against the wall. Perfect for homes and schools.
You may also use a digital piano or keyboard at home that is perfectly fine for learning!
Close your eyes for a moment. Listen. Can you hear any sounds around you? Some sounds are high. Some are low. Some are loud. Some are soft. Music uses ALL of these to tell a story without any words.
Look at the piano keyboard. You will see two kinds of keys.
White keys
Long and wide. Play any white key for a clear bright sound!
Black keys
Short and narrow. They sit raised up above the white keys!
Now look closely at the black keys. Do you see something interesting? They come in little GROUPS! Some groups have 2 black keys. Some groups have 3 black keys. Find them!
The black keys go: group of 2, then group of 3, then group of 2, then group of 3... all the way across the keyboard!
🔍 Look for this pattern:
Now here is the most important note on the whole piano. It is called C. And here is how you always find it:
Finding C is easy!
C is always the white key just to the LEFT of every group of 2 black keys
Tap every key on the keyboard below! The sound gets higher as you go right, and lower as you go left.
How many C notes did you find? There are 8 C notes on a full piano keyboard! Each one sounds like C but at a different height. The higher you go, the lighter and brighter it sounds!
Press every C you can find on the keyboard. Say "C!" each time you press one. They all sound the same letter but at different heights (we call this pitch).
📋 Practice guide for today:
What two kinds of keys does a piano have?
The black keys come in groups of...
Where is the note C always found?
As you move to the RIGHT on the piano, the sound gets...
As you move to the LEFT on the piano, the sound gets...
LESSON 1 COMPLETE! You just learned the piano map. Now you will never get lost. In Lesson 2, I will introduce you to your very first 3 notes. See you there!
You found C in Lesson 1. Now meet C's two best friends. Together, these three notes are all you need to play your very first real song.
Three notes! That is ALL you need to play a real song today. C, D, and E. I will show you exactly where they live and which finger to use for each one!
What is a note?
In music, a note is a single sound with a specific pitch. Pitch means how high or low a sound is.
Think of notes like the letters of the alphabet. When you put letters together you make words. When you put notes together you make melody the tune of a song.
The music alphabet has only 7 letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Then it starts again! Today you will meet three of them: C, D, and E.
🎵 The music alphabet:
After G, it starts again from A! The pattern repeats all the way across the piano.
Only 7 letters in the whole music alphabet! And today you are going to learn 3 of them. That is almost HALF of the whole music alphabet in just one lesson!
Your right hand has 5 fingers. Each finger has a number. This is very important always use the right finger!
Hold up your RIGHT hand. Your thumb is finger 1. Your index finger (the pointing finger) is finger 2. Your middle finger is finger 3. Now let's find the notes!
Here are your three notes and which finger plays each one:
Just left of 2 black keys
Between the 2 black keys
Just right of the 2 black keys
Tap each colored button above to hear the notes. Then find them on the keyboard below!
Now play your first real song! Hot Cross Buns uses only C, D, and E. Here are the notes in order:
Hot Cross Buns 🎵
📋 Practice guide for today:
Which finger number is your thumb?
Where is the note D found on the piano?
Which finger plays E in Hot Cross Buns?
Hot Cross Buns uses how many different notes?
Which note does your thumb (finger 1) always play in C position?
YOU JUST PLAYED YOUR FIRST REAL SONG! Hot Cross Buns! You are already a pianist! In Lesson 3, we add 2 more notes and your whole hand gets involved!
You know C, D and E. Now it is time to bring in finger 4 and finger 5. Meet F and G and your whole hand finds its place.
We are adding TWO more notes today! After this lesson your entire right hand will have a note to play. Five fingers. Five notes. All working together. This is called the C POSITION!
What is a melody?
A melody is a series of notes played one after another that make a tune. It is the part of a song you hum or whistle.
Think of any song you know. The part you sing with words that is the melody. The melody is built from individual notes played in a certain order.
With just 5 notes C D E F G you can play hundreds of songs. Today you get all five.
Can you hum any song right now? Go on, hum something! That tune in your head is a melody made of notes just like C D E F G. You are already thinking like a musician!
You already know fingers 1, 2 and 3. Now meet fingers 4 and 5:
Now let us find F and G on the keyboard:
F is the white key just to the LEFT of the group of 3 black keys
G is the white key between the first and second of the 3 black keys
The C Position
Place your right hand so your thumb sits on C and your pinky sits on G. This is called the C Position. One finger per key!
Tap F and G on the keyboard below to hear them. Then try playing C D E F G all the way up and back down!
Play the five-finger scale UP: C D E F G. Then DOWN: G F E D C. Say each note name as you press it.
Now play Mary Had a Little Lamb it uses all five C position notes!
📋 Practice guide for today:
What note does finger 4 (ring finger) play in C position?
What note does finger 5 (pinky) play in C position?
How many notes are in the C position?
Where is F found on the keyboard?
What do we call a series of notes that make a tune?
FIVE NOTES! Your whole right hand has a home now. You are in the C position. In Lesson 4 we learn about the BEAT the heartbeat of every piece of music!
Every piece of music has a heartbeat. It is called the beat. Before you can play songs well, you need to feel the beat in your body. Today we find it.
Put your hand on your chest. Do you feel your heart going thump thump thump? That steady thump is a beat! Music has the exact same thing. A steady pulse that runs through every song. Let us find it!
What is rhythm?
Music has two things that work together: the beat and the rhythm.
Steady. Even. Never changes. Like a clock. TICK TICK TICK TICK
The pattern notes make. Can be short or long. Changes all the time.
Think of it this way: the beat is your foot tapping. The rhythm is the words of the song. Your foot stays steady while the words jump around.
🎵 Beat is everywhere
You feel beat every day without realising it. When you walk, your steps have a beat. When your heart pumps, that is a beat. When you clap at a concert, you are following the beat.
Every culture in the world has music with beat. From African drums to classical orchestras to pop songs beat is the one thing they all share.
We count beats in groups. Most music counts in groups of FOUR. One two three four. One two three four. Try it now clap your hands and count out loud. ONE feels the strongest!
In music, beats are organised into groups. Each group is called a bar. The most common grouping is 4 beats per bar. We count: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Try this clapping exercise:
Beat 1 is always the strongest. Clap a little harder on beat 1. Then steady for 2, 3, 4.
Feel the beat on the piano. Play Middle C on every beat while counting 1 2 3 4 out loud. Keep it steady like a clock!
Listen to London Bridge. Tap your foot on every beat as it plays. Then try playing it yourself!
📋 Practice guide for today:
What is the beat in music?
What is the difference between beat and rhythm?
In most music beats are counted in groups of...
What do we call each group of beats in music?
Which beat in a bar is usually the strongest?
You found the beat! This is one of the most important things in all of music. In Lesson 5 we learn about note values how long each note lasts.
You know WHERE to play the notes. Now it is time to learn HOW LONG to hold them. Notes have shapes that tell you exactly how many beats to count. Today you meet your first two.
This is where music starts to look like music! The shape of a note tells you how long to hold it. A round filled note is short. An empty round note is longer. Let me show you!
What is musical notation?
Before music could be written down, musicians had to memorise everything. If a composer died, their music was often lost forever.
About 1,000 years ago, people began developing a system for writing music down. Today we call it musical notation. It is a language that tells a musician exactly which note to play and exactly how long to hold it.
Because of musical notation, we can still play music written by composers who lived hundreds of years ago. The music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven exists today because someone wrote it down.
Think about this: if you could not write words down, how would you share a story with someone who lived 500 years in the future? Musical notation solved exactly this problem for music.
Every note has two jobs: it tells you which key to press AND how long to hold it. The shape of the note tells you the length.
Today we learn two note values:
Quarter Note
A filled oval with a stem. Count 1 beat then move on.
Half Note
An empty oval with a stem. Count 1 and 2 then move on.
Easy way to remember:
Filled = shorter like a filled cup that is heavy, you put it down quickly after 1 beat
Empty = longer like an empty cup that is light, you hold it for 2 beats
Here is the most important thing: the beat keeps going even when you are holding a long note! Count OUT LOUD while you hold. Say ONE... TWO for a half note. Never stop counting!
Try this on the keyboard. Play C and count out loud:
Clap and count exercise:
Now listen to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It uses both quarter notes and half notes. The last note of each phrase is a half note you can hear it last longer!
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star ⭐
Quarter notes are small circles. The last note of each line is a half note (longer):
📋 Practice guide for today:
What does a quarter note look like?
How many beats does a quarter note last?
How many beats does a half note last?
What is the difference between a quarter note and a half note in appearance?
What do we call the system of writing music down using note shapes?
You now know note values! Quarter note = 1 beat. Half note = 2 beats. In Lesson 6 we learn about the STAFF the five lines where notes live on paper!
You have been playing by finding notes on the keyboard. Now it is time to learn how music is written down. The staff is the home where written notes live.
This is a BIG moment! Today you learn to read music. The staff has 5 lines and 4 spaces. Notes sit on those lines and spaces and tell you exactly what to play. Let us explore it together!
How did written music begin?
A long long time ago, people could not write music down. If you wanted to learn a song, someone had to sing it to you. If that person was gone, the song was gone too!
Then a very clever musician had a brilliant idea. He drew five lines on a page and said: notes that sound HIGH go near the TOP of the lines. Notes that sound LOW go near the BOTTOM.
This idea was so good that musicians all over the world started using it. Today, over a thousand years later, we still use those same five lines. We call them the staff.
Think about this: because someone wrote music down on five lines a thousand years ago, we can still play those same songs today! Writing music down is like saving it forever.
The staff has exactly 5 lines and 4 spaces. Notes sit either ON a line or IN a space.
The Staff 5 lines and 4 spaces:
5 Lines
We count lines from BOTTOM to TOP. Line 1 is at the bottom. Line 5 is at the top.
4 Spaces
Spaces sit between the lines. Space 1 is between lines 1 and 2. Space 4 is above line 4.
The symbol at the beginning of the staff is called the Treble Clef. Let us break that word down:
Tre · ble Clef
Say it like this: TREB-ul KLEF
It means: the symbol that shows we are reading the higher notes the notes your right hand plays
The treble clef curls around Line 2 from the bottom. That line is the note G. This is how you always remember it the clef points to G!
The most important rule of the staff:
Higher on the staff = higher sound
Lower on the staff = lower sound
Just like on the keyboard notes get higher as you move right. On the staff, notes get higher as you move up.
Look at this staff. Some notes are on lines and some are in spaces. Can you tell which are higher and which are lower just by looking?
The red note is on Line 1 at the bottom it sounds low. The green note is on Line 5 at the top it sounds high!
For now, practise identifying line notes and space notes. Look at this simple example and say "line" or "space" for each note before playing it:
📋 Practice guide for today:
How many lines does a staff have?
How many spaces does a staff have?
We count lines from which direction?
What does the treble clef tell us?
A note that sits higher on the staff will sound...
You just learned the staff! This is the foundation of reading music. In Lesson 7 we place our first real note Middle C onto the staff. You are so close to reading music!
You have been playing Middle C on the piano. Now it is time to see where it lives on paper. Every note has a home on the musical staff and Middle C has a very special one.
This is a huge moment! You are about to read your very first note on the musical staff. Once you know where Middle C lives on paper, you can start reading written music. Let us go!
What is a musical staff?
Music is written on five horizontal lines called a staff. Notes sit either on those lines or in the spaces between them. Each position on the staff has a different note name.
The symbol at the start of the staff is called a treble clef. It tells us we are reading the higher notes the ones the right hand usually plays. You learned in Lesson 1 that moving right on the piano means a higher pitch. The staff works the same way: notes higher up on the page sound higher in pitch.
We count lines from the bottom up: line 1 is at the bottom, line 5 is at the top. Notes in the spaces are counted the same way space 1 is at the bottom.
Some notes are too low to sit on the five main lines. For those notes, musicians draw a short extra line underneath the staff. This is called a ledger line. Middle C is one of those notes it gets its very own ledger line just below the staff.
Here is the amazing thing about the staff: higher notes sit higher on the page. Lower notes sit lower. So when you see notes going up on the staff, the music goes up in pitch too. The page actually shows you the shape of the music!
You just learned about ledger lines in the Music World section above. Middle C is so low that it cannot sit on any of the five main lines so it gets its own short ledger line just below the staff. That ledger line is Middle C's personal home.
Five lines. Four spaces. Line 1 is at the bottom.
Middle C sits on a short ledger line below the staff.
Remember This
Whenever you see a note sitting on a short extra line just below the treble clef staff that is Middle C. The ledger line is its landmark. Spot the ledger line, find Middle C.
Press Middle C below and listen carefully. Picture that round orange note sitting on its ledger line below the staff as you hear it.
Listen to Hot Cross Buns. It uses E, D, and C and now you know where Middle C lives on the staff!
Practice guide for today:
How many lines does a treble clef staff have?
Where is Middle C written on the treble clef staff?
What is a ledger line?
In music, higher notes on the staff sound...
What clef tells us we are reading the higher notes for the right hand?
You just read your first note on a staff! Middle C is yours. In Lesson 8 we meet its two neighbours D and E on the staff. You are genuinely reading music now!
You know Middle C on the staff. Now its two neighbours are moving in. D and E each have their own address and once you know all three, you can read real melodies on the page.
Three notes on the staff! After this lesson you will be able to look at a piece of music and recognise C, D and E. That is actually reading music. Not just playing by ear reading it. Let us go!
Notes have addresses
Every note on the staff has its own address either a line or a space. Middle C is on a ledger line below the staff. D lives in the first space just above that ledger line. E lives on the very first line of the staff.
Here is the rule: as you go up the staff, the notes go up in pitch. So D is higher than C, and E is higher than D both on the keyboard and on the page.
Musicians use memory phrases to remember line names. The lines of the treble clef from bottom to top spell: E G B D F. The easiest way to remember that is "Every Good Boy Does Fine."
Every Good Boy Does Fine. Say it with me Every Good Boy Does Fine! E G B D F. The very first letter is E. So E lives on line 1, the bottom line of the staff. That is exactly where we are today!
Here are the addresses for C, D and E on the treble clef staff:
Ledger line below the staff
First space just above the C ledger line
First line the bottom line of the staff
C, D and E on the staff
C is lowest on the left. D is in the space above it. E is on line 1. They go up together on the keyboard and on the staff.
The two memory phrases
"Every Good Boy Does Fine"
The spaces spell "FACE"
Press C, D and E one at a time on the keyboard below. Say the note name as you press each one. Feel how they step up in pitch.
Listen to Mary Had a Little Lamb. It uses E, D and C the exact three notes you just learned on the staff. As it plays, picture C sitting on its ledger line, D floating in the space above it, and E resting on line 1.
Practice guide for today:
Where does D sit on the treble clef staff?
Where does E sit on the treble clef staff?
What phrase helps you remember the five line names?
What do the four spaces of the treble clef staff spell?
If notes go higher on the staff, what happens to the pitch?
C, D and E on the staff you know them all! In Lesson 9 we add F and G to the staff and your whole C position will be readable on paper. You are so close to reading full songs!
You can read C, D, and E on the staff. Your hand already knows F and G from the keyboard. Today those two notes get their home on the page and your whole C position becomes readable.
This is a massive moment! After today you will be able to look at written music and read all five C position notes C, D, E, F, and G. That is a complete hand on a page. Let us finish this!
Reading music is like reading words
When you first learned to read words, you started with a few letters. Then more letters. Then whole words. Reading music works exactly the same way.
You already know three notes on the staff C, D, E. Today you add F and G. That gives you five notes in a row. Five notes you can already play. Five notes you can now also read.
Once you can read C D E F G on the staff, you can play hundreds of simple songs just by looking at the page. Real musicians do exactly this they see the note, they play the note. Today you start doing the same thing.
Remember the two memory phrases from Lesson 8? Lines are Every Good Boy Does Fine E G B D F. Spaces spell FACE F A C E. F sits in the first space. G sits on line 2. Both of them are right above E, stepping upward just like they do on the keyboard. Let me show you!
You know C on its ledger line, D in the first space, and E on line 1. The pattern keeps going upward from there:
Ledger line below staff
First space
Line 1
First space of the staff
Line 2
Look closely at F and G:
F sits in the first space of the treble clef staff the space between line 1 and line 2. It is right above E.
Memory trick: FACE F is the bottom space. F is in space 1!
G sits on line 2 of the treble clef staff the second line from the bottom. It is right above F.
Memory trick: Every Good Boy Does Fine G is on line 2!
All five C position notes on the staff
C D E F G stepping up the keyboard and stepping up the staff at the same time.
Play all five C position notes on the keyboard below. Say each note name as you press it and picture where it sits on the staff above.
Listen to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It uses all five C position notes C D E F G. As it plays, follow along on the staff diagram above and find each note as it sounds.
Practice guide for today:
Where does F sit on the treble clef staff?
Where does G sit on the treble clef staff?
Which memory phrase tells you F is in the first space?
Which memory phrase tells you G is on line 2?
After learning C D E F G on the staff, what can you now do?
C D E F G all five notes on the staff! Your whole hand is now readable on paper. In Lesson 10 we learn about whole notes and rests how to hold a note for a long time and how silence is part of music too!
You already know quarter notes and half notes. Today you meet the longest note of all the whole note. And you meet something just as important as any note: silence.
Did you know silence is part of music? A rest is a moment where you do not play but the beat keeps going inside you. Today we learn whole notes and rests. Get ready to hold on and let go!
What is a rest?
You have learned notes sounds you play. But music also has moments where you do not play. Those silent moments are called rests.
Think of a rest like a pause when someone is talking. If someone spoke without ever stopping no pauses, no breaths, just words words words words it would be very hard to listen to! Silence gives music room to breathe.
During a rest, you lift your finger off the key. But here is the important thing: the beat does not stop! You keep counting inside your head. You just stay quiet for those beats.
Here is something to try right now. Clap your hands on beat 1, then stay completely still for beats 2, 3, and 4. Feel how the silence has weight? That feeling is a rest. The beat does not stop you just do not play during it.
In Lesson 5 you learned that a quarter note lasts 1 beat and a half note lasts 2 beats. Here is the full picture with the whole note added:
Filled oval with a stem
Empty oval with a stem
Empty oval with no stem
The Whole Note 4 beats
A whole note is an open oval with no stem. When you see one, press the key and hold it for a full count of 4. Count out loud: 1 2 3 4 while the note rings.
Press once. Hold for all four beats. Let it ring!
Now meet the rests. Every note value has a matching rest a symbol that tells you to be silent for the same number of beats:
A squiggly symbol. Silent for 1 beat.
A small rectangle sitting ON a line. Silent for 2 beats.
A small rectangle hanging UNDER a line. Silent for 4 beats.
A quick way to remember half rest vs whole rest:
Sits ON the line like a hat
Hangs UNDER the line like a cave
Press Middle C and hold it while you count slowly to 4. That is a whole note. Then press it again and lift your finger after 2 beats that is a half note. Try both on the keyboard below.
Listen to Brahms Lullaby. It mixes short notes and long notes. As it plays, notice the moments where notes feel like they ring for longer those are half notes and whole notes at work.
Practice guide for today:
How many beats does a whole note last?
What does a rest tell you to do?
How do a half note and a whole note look different?
The half rest sits ON a line. The whole rest hangs...
Which note lasts the longest?
You now know quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes and their matching rests. That is three note shapes and three rest shapes. You are doing amazingly! In Lesson 11 we learn about steps and skips how notes move on the staff.
Notes do not all stay in the same place. Some move up one note at a time. Some jump over a note. Today you learn to spot the difference and it makes reading music much easier.
This lesson is like a superpower for reading music. Once you understand steps and skips, you can look at notes on the staff and predict where your fingers need to go before you even play. Ready? Let us go!
How notes move
When you look at notes on the staff, they are not all sitting in the same spot. Some notes are higher, some are lower. The way a note moves from one to the next has a name.
Notes can do three things: they can step (move to the very next note), they can skip (jump over one note), or they can repeat (stay on the same note and play it again).
Once you know the difference between a step and a skip, you can look at music and your fingers already know where to go. It makes reading music so much easier and today you are going to learn exactly how to tell them apart.
Think about walking up a staircase. If you go one step at a time step, step, step that is a musical step. If you jump over one step and land two up that is a musical skip! Same idea, just on the staff.
Here is the simple rule:
Moves from a line to the next space, or from a space to the next line. One position at a time. Neighbouring notes.
Examples: C to D, D to E, E to F, F to G
On the keyboard: the next white key along
Jumps from a line to the next line, or from a space to the next space. One position is skipped over.
Examples: C to E, D to F, E to G
On the keyboard: jump over one white key
Steps vs Skips on the staff
The fast check
Look at two notes next to each other on the staff. Ask yourself one question:
Line to space or space to line?
That is a STEP
Line to line or space to space?
That is a SKIP
Play these pairs on the keyboard and listen to the difference. Steps feel smooth. Skips feel like a little jump.
Listen to Frere Jacques. It is built almost entirely from steps. Notice how smooth and connected it sounds that is what steps do to a melody.
Now listen to Twinkle Twinkle. The very first move C to G is a big skip. Hear how it jumps?
Practice guide for today:
What is a step in music?
What is a skip in music?
C to D is a...
C to E is a...
How do you quickly tell a step from a skip on the staff?
Steps and skips you have got it! This changes how you read music forever. In Lesson 12 we explore loud and soft how volume is written in music and how it makes songs feel completely different.
Not every note is played the same way. Some notes are loud. Some are soft. Today you learn how music tells you how loud to play and you get to feel the difference for yourself.
Did you know the same song can feel completely different depending on how loud or soft you play it? A lullaby played loudly is not very calming! And a march played softly does not feel very exciting. Volume is part of music too!
What is dynamics?
In music, how loud or soft you play is called dynamics. Say it like this: dy-NAM-ics. It just means the volume of the music. That is it nothing scary about it!
Music uses two special Italian words to show dynamics. The word for LOUD is forte say it like FOR-tay. The word for SOFT is piano say it like pee-AH-no. And yes that is the same word as the instrument you are learning on!
The piano is called the piano because when it was invented it could play both soft AND loud. Before that, keyboards could only play one volume. The full name is pianoforte soft-loud. Is that not amazing?
Here are the two dynamic signs you will see in music:
Means LOUD. Press the keys with more weight. Let the sound fill the room!
Means SOFT. Press the keys very gently. Make the sound small and quiet.
How to play loud and soft on the piano
Press the keys with more weight from your arm. Not faster just heavier. Imagine your finger is a small but strong hammer.
Press the keys very gently like you are trying not to wake someone up. Light fingers, light sound.
Try it on the keyboard below. Press Middle C very hard that is forte. Then press it again as gently as you can that is piano. Can you hear the difference?
Listen to Mary Had a Little Lamb played LOUD, then the same song played soft. Notice how different they feel same notes, totally different mood!
Practice guide for today:
What does "dynamics" mean in music?
What does forte mean?
What does piano mean as a music word?
The sign for forte in music looks like...
How do you play soft on the piano?
Forte and piano loud and soft! The instrument you play is literally named after soft. You will never forget that! In Lesson 13 we learn about bar lines and time signatures how music is divided into neat little groups.
You know beats come in groups. Today you see how those groups are shown on the staff with bar lines. And you meet the time signature, the two numbers that tell you how to count.
Here is something cool music on a page would be very hard to read if it was just one long line of notes with no breaks. Bar lines are like the spaces between words when you read. They split the music into easy, neat chunks!
What are bar lines?
Remember in Lesson 4 when you learned that beats come in groups? We called each group a bar. In music, bars are shown on the staff by vertical lines called bar lines. A vertical line just means a line that goes straight up and down like the letter I.
Every time you reach a bar line, one group of beats is finished and the next group begins. It is like a full stop between sentences it shows you where one idea ends and the next one starts.
At the very end of a piece of music, there are two bar lines close together a thin one and a thick one. This is called a double bar line and it means: the music is finished!
Think of a bar line like a fence post. The music is the fence. Each section between two posts is one bar. All the beats in that section belong together. When you hit the post new bar, fresh start!
Here is what bar lines look like on a staff:
The vertical lines split the music into bars. The thick double line at the end means the piece is finished.
Now meet the time signature. It is the two numbers you see at the very start of a piece of music, right after the treble clef. It looks like a fraction but it is not maths each number just tells you one thing:
Top number: 4 beats in every bar
Bottom number: a quarter note gets 1 beat
Top number = 4
Count to 4 in every bar: 1, 2, 3, 4
Bottom number = 4
A quarter note (the filled one with a stem) gets 1 beat
The most common time signature is 4/4
It is sometimes called common time because almost every song you know uses it. It means: count 1 2 3 4 in every bar, and beat 1 is always the strongest.
Beat 1 is the big strong beat. Beats 2, 3, and 4 are steady but quieter.
Play Middle C four times in a row and count out loud: 1, 2, 3, 4. That is one bar of 4/4 time! Do it again that is bar two. Do it a third time bar three. You just played three bars of music!
Listen to London Bridge. As it plays, count 1 2 3 4 with it. When you feel yourself going back to 1 that is a new bar starting!
Practice guide for today:
What is a bar line?
What does the top number in a time signature tell you?
In 4/4 time, how many beats are in each bar?
What does a double bar line at the end of a piece mean?
Which beat in a bar is usually the strongest?
Bar lines and time signatures you have got it! You can now see how music is organised on the page. In Lesson 14 we learn two brand new notes A and B. Your music alphabet is almost complete!
You know C D E F G on the staff. Today you add two more A and B. That gives you seven notes. Seven is the whole music alphabet. You are nearly there!
C D E F G A B seven notes. That is the whole music alphabet! After today you will know all seven on the staff. Every song you will ever read uses only these letters. You already know five. Two more to go!
The music alphabet is only 7 letters
The regular alphabet has 26 letters. The music alphabet has only 7 A B C D E F G. Then it starts again from A! This pattern repeats all the way up and down the piano.
You already know C D E F G on the staff. A sits right above G. B sits right above A. After B comes C again but higher up. The notes just keep climbing!
Here is something fun the music alphabet does not start from A like the regular one. We usually start counting from C. C is the home base. Everything goes C D E F G A B... then back to C again. C is always home!
You already know G is on line 2. A and B continue the pattern right above it:
Line 2
Second space
Line 3 the middle line
All seven notes on the staff
C D E F G A B stepping up the staff one at a time.
Quick memory check
Lines (bottom to top)
E G B D F
"Every Good Boy Does Fine"
Spaces (bottom to top)
F A C E
The spaces spell FACE
Press A and B on the keyboard below. They are the two white keys just above G.
Listen to the full C D E F G A B scale going up. One note at a time, all seven, stepping up the staff.
Practice guide for today:
Where does A sit on the treble clef staff?
Where does B sit on the treble clef staff?
How many letters are in the music alphabet?
After G in the music alphabet, what comes next?
Which line is B on?
C D E F G A B you know all seven! Next up is the big one. Lesson 15 is your Part 1 Recital. Time to show everything you have learned. See you there!
You made it! This is not a test. It is a celebration. Five fun activities one for each thing you learned in Part 1. Let us see what you can do.
RECITAL TIME! You have learned so much the piano map, seven notes, the staff, note values, steps and skips, dynamics, bar lines. Today we bring it all together. Ready? Let us go!
Look at the note on the staff. What is its name? Press it to hear it, then tap to reveal the answer.
Listen to the rhythm. Then clap it back clap once for each sound you hear and count the beats out loud.
Listen to the two notes. Is that a step or a skip? Pick your answer!
Press play. Listen carefully. Was that note loud (forte) or soft (piano)? Pick your answer!
Watch the notes light up on the staff as the song plays. Follow along and press each note on the keyboard when it lights up!
You named notes on the staff. You clapped rhythms. You heard steps and skips. You told loud from soft. You followed a real song on the staff and played along. That is Part 1 done!