Music Notes and Note Length

Music Notes

The whole note:

Looks like:
an egg on its side, either with a line through it or not.

The half note:

Looks like:
the same as a whole not but with a vertical line attached to it.

The quarter note:

Looks like:
the same as a half note except the circle is filled in.

The eighth note:

Looks like:the same as quarter notes but with a curly off the line. They can also be put in groups of 4, 3, or 2.

The sixteenth note:

Looks like:
the same as an eighth note but has double curlies. Can also be grouped in 4, 3 or 2 but are joined by a double line.

Note Length


In standard notation, a single musical sound is written as a note, The two most important things a written piece of music needs to tell you about a note are its pitch how high or low it is and its duration and how long it lasts.
To find out the pitch of a written note at the clef and the key signature, then see what line or space the note is on. The higher a note sits on the staff, the higher it sounds. To find out the duration of the written note, you look at the tempo and the time signature and then see what the note looks like.








The pitch of the note depends only on what line or space the head of the note is on.  pitch , clef and key signature  If the note does not have a head that means that it does not have one definite pitch. 










If a note does not have head, it does not have one definite pitch. Such a note may be a pitchless sound, like a drum beat or a hand clap, or it may be an entire chord rather than a single note.
The head of the note may be filled in (black), or not. The note may also have (or not) a stem, one or more flags, beams connecting it to other notes, or one or more dots following the head of the note. All of these things affect how much time the note is given in the music.









Basic Stem Direction Rules
Single Notes - Notes below the middle line of the staff should be stem up. Notes on or above the middle line should be stem down.


Notes sharing a stem (block chords) - Generally, the stem direction will be the direction for the not that is furthest away from the middle line of the staff.


Notes sharing a beam - Again, generally you will want to use the stem direction of the note farthest from the center of the staff, to keep the beam near the staff.


Different rhythms being played at the same time by the same player - Clarity requires that you write one rhythm with stems up and the other stems down.


Two parts for different performers written on the same staff - If the parts have the same rhythm, they may be written as block chords. If they do not, the stems for one part (the "high" part or "first" part) will point up and the stems for the other part will point down. This rule is especially important when the two parts cross; otherwise there is no way for the performers to know that the "low" part should be reading the high note at that spot.





Piano Notes and Chords

First start with reading the notes that are not on the staff. The staff is the group of 5 lines. To see the notes on the lines and spaces look at the note charts, notes on the piano alternate from line to space or space to line. When going up the musical alphabet, you are going from line to space or space to line. This is critical to playing piano music notes.

Note Chart

And If you are learning how to play the piano, a piano notes chart will be helpful. The chart gives you a layout of the piano keys. It also helps you learn the concepts of the keys. Learn how to play the keys together in sequence and make sweet beautiful music.



The Treble Clef and The Bass Clef, The Staff

The Treble Clef
When the G-clef is placed on the second line of the stave, it is called the treble clef. This is the most common clef used today, and the only G-clef still in use. For this reason, the terms G-clef and treble clef are often seen as synonymous. It was formerly also known as the violin clef. The treble clef was historically used to mark a treble, or pre-pubescent, voice part.
the instruments
Use treble clef are the violin, flute, oboe, bagpipe, English horn, all clarinets, all saxophones, horn, trumpet, cornet, euphonium (and occasionally baritone), vibraphone, xylophone, Mandolin, recorder and guitar. Treble clef is the upper stave of the grand stave used for harp and keyboard instruments. It is also sometimes used, along with tenor clef, for the highest notes played by bass-clef instruments such as the cello, double bass (which sounds an octave lower), bassoon, and trombone. The viola also sometimes uses treble clef for very high notes. Treble clef is used for the soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, contralto and tenor voices. The tenor voice sounds an octave lower, and is often written using an octave clef (see below) or double-treble clef.

The Treble Clef spirals around the second line from the bottom. This spiral tells us that notes on this line are G. And From here we can figure out the other note names simply by going forward or backward through the musical alphabet: A,B,C,D,E,F,G.

The Bass Clef

The Bass Clef has two dots, above and below the second line from the top. The dots tell us that this line is F.

The note names in Bass Clef are:

Middle C is the first ledger line above the staff in Bass Clef.

The Staff

Music is most commonly notated using the Staff (and tablature.) The staff consists of five horizontal lines on which musical notes lie. The lines and the spaces between the lines represent different pitches. Lower pitches are lower on the staff and higher pitches are higher on the staff.



Time Signitures and Key Signitures

Time Signitures

The time signature (also known as meter signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat. In a musical score, the time signature appears at the beginning of the piece, as a time symbol or stacked numerals (such as C or 3
4) read common time and three four time respectively. Immediately following the key signitures or immediately following the clef if the key signature is empty, A mid-score time signature, usually immediately following a barlines, indicates a change of meter.

Key Signatures

a key signature is a series of sharp or flat symbols placed on the staff and designating notes that are to be consistently played one semitone higher or lower than the equivalent natural notes unless otherwise altered with an accidental. Key signatures are generally written immediately after the clef at the beginning of a line of musical notation, although they can appear in other parts of a score, notably after a double barline.

Key Signitures

Time Signitures

What  Are Majors N Minor Chords

What are Chords

A chord is a form of pitch that are placed together on a music sheet, And chords in music is any harmonic of two or more notes that is heard as if sounding. Chords are an important concept in playing music and understanding music and music theory, Basically any combination of notes can be a named a chord. This makes a chord any combination of notes with some kind of structure which has certain characteristics or a typical sound,

Major Chords

Major piano chords are considered to be the optimistic chords, Each major chord is named after the key note of the chord. And Major chords have these three notes alone, and thats why  called a major.

Minor Chords

 a minor chord is a chord having a root, When a chord has these three notes alone it is called a minor triad. the minor chord is that this is the only chord of three notes, in which the three notes have one harmonic is hearable and with a not too high.

But minor chords also occur frequently in songs which are written in major keys, and they provide the contrast needed to make a song interesting.

 Major chords are created using the root, 3rd, and 5th of a major scale,

Piano Chord Method Video

The Treble Clef and The Bass Clef, The Staff

The Treble Clef
When the G-clef is placed on the second line of the stave, it is called the treble clef. This is the most common clef used today, and the only G-clef still in use. For this reason, the terms G-clef and treble clef are often seen as synonymous. It was formerly also known as the violin clef. The treble clef was historically used to mark a treble, or pre-pubescent, voice part.
the instruments 

Use treble clef are the violin, flute, oboe, bagpipe, English horn, all clarinets, all saxophones, horn,trumpet, cornet, euphonium (and occasionally baritone), vibraphone, xylophone, Mandolin, recorderand guitar. Treble clef is the upper stave of the grand stave used for harp and keyboard instruments. It is also sometimes used, along with tenor clef, for the highest notes played by bass-clef instruments such as the cello, double bass (which sounds an octave lower), bassoon, and trombone. The viola also sometimes uses treble clef for very high notes. Treble clef is used for the soprano,mezzo-soprano, alto, contralto and tenor voices. The tenor voice sounds an octave lower, and is often written using an octave clef (see below) or double-treble clef.

The Treble Clef spirals around the second line from the bottom. This spiral tells us that notes on this line are G. And From here we can figure out the other note names simply by going forward or backward through the musical alphabet: A,B,C,D,E,F,G

Piano Posture (Wrist and Back)

 At the piano you want to be relaxed, but in control cause if you start to feel muscle tension, take a few minutes to stretch it away. This can increase stamina in the upper body and help prevent piano related wrist strain and muscle aches.

Be conscious of the following arm, wrist, and hand positions during play,

One Finger Per Key Rule 

The one finger per key rule is a basic exercise for when you start learning the piano/keyboard, Its a very simple exercise and technique to help your from getting confused. The idea is to keep focused on playing one key on the keyboard to help get used to playing keyboard properly and is also easier for most learners.

Thumb Tuck
To tuck your thumb as you're playing give's you the freedom and scope to play up and down the keyboard. When we tuck our thumbs to the third note whereas you would of used the ring finger on your right hand. There will also be cases when you have to come downscale with your right hand your ring finger will come over thumb.

Finger Over Thumb
When you come down scale passages, you need to put your right-hand third finger over your thumb. It's the other way round in the left hand. As you improve you'll find you need to do this a lot when you're playing, so it's important to practise until it becomes a smooth movement.

Scale Major's, Minors, Blues Pentatonic's,
Major Scales
There are 12 major scales and each one has its relative minor scale, so called the natural minor scale.  Beside the 12 natural minor scales, the major scale or Ionian scale is one of the diatonic scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher.

Minor Scales
There re also 12 harmonic minor scales and 12 melodic minor scales. Sounds too much? Don't be overwhelmed! Let's take a look at each type of scales. A major scale may be seen as two identical tetrachords separated by a whole tone, or whole step, the new set of steps Whole, Whole Half Whole,Semi-tone 2 2 1 2 2 2 1). Each tetrachord consists of two whole steps followed by a half step.

Pentatonic Scales
The pentatonic scale is used in a lot of modern music today, but a lot of people still don’t know what it is, so let’s get started. There are two types that you should know about, the major and the minor. If you know one, you know the other; the only difference between the two is the root note, the note that you start on.

Major Scale

Minor Scale

Pentatonic Scale

Piano Exercise's