Piano Notation Basics

New to the piano and not sure about notation? This series of 6 videos will tell you everything you need to know to start reading notes with confidence.

These videos are suitable for beginners of all ages and will be a useful resource for music teachers. Pause the videos at appropriate moments for comments, discussion or activities.

Part 1 introduces staves (the lines on which music is written) and clefs (the signs which tell you whether to play high notes or low notes).

Part 2 looks at note heads and stems, and explains what it means to say that notes are ‘on lines’ or ‘in spaces’.

Part 3 explains ‘the beat’ in music, and introduces time signatures and bar lines.

Part 4 introduces simple note values with some musical examples, and explains how finger numbers are used.

Part 5 shows you how to name and find some notes on the piano.

Part 6 is a review of things which were covered in the previous videos.

For ‘Getting Started On The Piano‘ (mentioned in Part 6), see the next post.