3. How to Read the Staves

Now, let's learn how to read the staves.

Take out your music sheet or download one from internet. Basically, a stave is combined by five lines, and for piano, there are usually two part for a set. The upper part with Treble Clef, which looks like a beautiful violin, on your beginner's sheet is Treble stave; and the lower part with Bass Clef, which looks like an ear with two dots nearby, is Bass stave. You play Treble stave by right hand and Bass stave by left hand.

The black dots and circles on or between the lines are the notes you are going to play. The shape of the note decides how long the sound last, and the position of the note decides which scale the sound should be.

Most of the notes may be with a stick and solid black inside, they called quarter note and they are one beat on your sheets, which are supposed to be 3/4 and 4/4 stave. (We will talk about what are 3/4 and 4/4 staves in the chapters after, but now let's focus on the base of notes.) And note even with a tail form the top of the stick is eighth note, which is half beat. But be careful, sometimes the notes may be opposide down or combined with other notes. It does not change the beat of notes.

About the scale, let's start from the Treble stave, which is with Treble clef on the beginning of the stave. A basic stave is combined by five lines but the range of notes is much wider than five lines, so the notes go out of the five lines often. When it happens, we need to draw some extra lines for the localization of the note, which called ledger lines. For example, the middle Do is on the first lower ledger line.

For other notes, you can count by the order to know their locations. Do is on the first lower ledger line, then Re shall be higher a little, right in the space between the first ledger line and first line, Mi on the fisrt line, Fa in the first space, etc.

Beside the note, you may also notice some numbers are marked upon the notes. The numbers are hints to tell you which finger for you to play the note. The reason they give the hints is because some complex music may require difficult fingers' skill, and with the hints you can easily and fast learn the skill. The numbers are only from 1 to 5, which are correspond to thumb, fore finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger. 

2. Fingers Warn Up

Keep the posture last section we learned, and simply play Do to Sol from left to right, hand by hand, then play them together by your both hands. Check your position including your back, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and fingers during playing. When you play Do to Sol, the shape of your fingers should be round.

You can imagine that your hands are two spiders dancing on the keyboard. After you press down a key to make the sound, remember to lift your finger up so the sound will not to last forever and bother the next sound you are going to make. Just like spider's legs move independently.

Playing Do to Sol is an important warm up for beginners. You can do it about five or six times every time before your formal practice. It can help your brain to built the connection with fingers and the sounds. If you are aleady familar to play Do to Sol, you can even try the opposite way Sol to Do, or left hand Do to Sol, right hand Sol to Do simultaneously. There are many ways for you to explore, just enjoy that!

1. Posture for Playing Piano

First, sit in front of the piano. You will see the piano keyboard is combined by many black and white keys. You can find the regularity of black keys. They are two and three a set. The each set of  the black keys and the white keys with them are the scales from Do to Si. The order is Do, sharp Do, Re, Sharp Re, Mi, Fa, Sharp Fa, Sol, Sharp Sol, La, Sharp La, and Si. The sharp scales are black, and the others are white. 

Now, you already simply know about the keyboard. It's time to put your hands on it!

In the beginning, the thumb of your right hand should be on the middle Do, which is right in front you. And the other fingers of your right hand should be on Re to Sol by order. Remember, natural Do to Sol all are white keys. And then put your left hand on the set of Do to Sol on the left of the middle set. Little finger on Do, ring finger on Re, mid finger on Mi, fore finger on Fa, and thumb on Sol.

Keep your shoulders relaxed and back straight, and check your elbows are closed to your body, wrists are higher than the keyboard level.