OK, so this is part four in my series of tutorials for absolute beginners on the piano. As I've
said previously, the series is running throughout 2017 and its designed for those of you guys
are who are completely new to the piano. If you've just found this tutorial randomly
you might like to look at the playlist I've put together, which contains all of the current
tutorials and which I'm adding to as I make them. Don't forget, too, to subscribe to
my channel using the little red 'subscribe' button you can see down in the bottom right
hand corner of the screen here.
We're going to be doing some exciting stuff in today's episode, including using the
left hand for the first time, thinking a bit more about managing our fingers, and learning
a scale. First of all, though, let's recap the material we've covered so far.
So in the first couple of lessons in the series we learned what all the white notes are on
the piano keyboard. A B C D E F G, with that pattern repeating all the way up and down
the keyboard. If you're still at the stage where you're having to think about which
note is which, you really really need to push past that now and make sure you're at the
point where it just comes naturally to say, yeah, that's a G or that's a D or whatever,
where it is 100 percent automatic to know the names of the white notes. We also learned
about numbering our fingers – 1 2 3 4 5 right hand, 1 2 3 4 5 left hand.
Then we moved on to looking at how we represent notes on the piano keyboard using the staff
or stave, call it what you like. We figured out how to find middle C and saw how the different
spaces and lines of the treble stave represent different notes – E G B D F, Every Green
Bus Drives Fast for the lines, and F A C E, face, for the spaces. We saw that can go above
or below the treble stave using ledger lines.
And in the previous tutorial we go around to thinking about beat, as represented by
time signature – the numbers the follow the clef right at the start of a piece of
music - and how we represent rhythm by using notes of different lengths, like the crotchet,
or quarter note, and the minim or half note. We also started to get our heads around the
idea that the musical traditions of different countries have different names for these things,
which can be a little bit awkward until you get used to them.
But so far we've only been looking at the right hand and mostly focusing on the part
of the keyboard up from middle C. We know we can represent notes below middle C using
ledger lines, but we can't go far down before we start – you know, we're having to start
using loads and loads of ledger lines, which would be very unwieldy and hard to read. But
it's down here that we get some of the kind of loveliest sounds that the piano can produce,
you know these fruity, deep bass sounds, yeah, and that's also where our left hand spends
most of its time. So how do we represent music that's happening down here? It's easy.
We use a different type of stave and a different type of clef – the bass clef.
OK, so here, drawn out on my super-professional whiteboard is a bass stave. As you can see,
at the start, it doesn't have a treble clef, like the treble stave does. Rather, it has
a bass clef, which looks like this. Just like the treble stave, though, it has five lines
and four spaces, but they refer to different notes in a different place on the piano keyboard.
Let's orientate ourselves around middle C. Now on the treble stave middle C hung off
the bottom of the stave on the first ledger line down here, OK? But on the bass stave,
it's on the first ledger line above the stave. So that note there, in the bass, is
middle C. Now working downwards it works exactly like the treble stave in terms of lines and
spaces, so this space here is B and then this top line is A. And that's the A below middle
C just here. Then we've got G in the space – it's a bit muddy and unclear, but that's
G – then we've got F on the line, OK, then E in the space, then D on the line, and
as you can see working down the white notes of the piano keyboard, so that D on the line
is that D there. There's middle C for us. Then in the next space down is C, OK, so we've
come down an octave from middle C. Then this line is B, and then this space is A and this
line is G, and as with the treble stave we can go down and down and down - to F then
a ledger line to E then D then another ledger line to C and so on and so forth. Something
you might notice now, if you look at the bottom line, there, we've got that G, which is,
you know, in the second octave below middle C, and if we went to the top line of the treble
stave we would get to that F, and that's without using ledger lines. So without using
ledger lines, just using the two staves, we now kind of cover the heart of the piano keyboard,
you know, the notes that we play most often, we've now got covered off, OK?
As with the treble staff, there are a couple of kind of slightly old school mnemonics that
you can use for learning those lines and spaces. The lines from the bottom to top are Good
Boys Deserve Fine Apples – G B D F A – and remember that that A is the A immediately
below middle C and that G is this one down here, OK? And the spaces A C E and my little
really horrible, grufty squashed-up G there, let me try and make that clearer – A C E
G – All Cows Eat Grass. Pretty rock'n'roll these things (!) but quite easy to remember.
All Cows Eat Grass – for the spaces A C E G – and Good Boys Deserve Fine Apples
G B D F A for the lines.
OK, so your first job is to learn those lines and spaces just like you did for the treble
stave. With that in mind, as I say, if you at this week's PDF using the link below
the video you'll find that the first part of it contains an exercise to learn the notes
of the bass stave.
As in the exercise we used to learn the notes of treble stave, it's just a bunch of random
notes each one with a finger indication. Now using your left hand, and being sure to use
the right finger each time, play each note, naming it as you go. Remember that the fingers
on the left hand, as on the right hand, go outwards from the thumb – 1 2 3 4 5. OK,
so it's kind of a mirror image of the right hand.
Blast away at that exercise until you're – you know, and spend your own time finding
and naming notes on the bass clef – until you're really super confident that you have
those bass stave notes down. As I've said before, although it's a little bit of a
grind it's massively important that you get this basic knowledge learned to a really
instinctive level – it makes things much, much easier later on, because when we start
to deal with more complicated concepts you don't want to be kind of, you know, gawping
at the bass stave trying to work out which note is which.
Just before we get on to the next stage of this tutorial, just a quick reminder to subscribe
to my channel if you haven't already. If you're subscribed you'll get regular updates
about new material, including new lessons in this series, and all the other types of
piano tutorial I produce. Just hit that red 'subscribe' button you can see in the
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won't lose your place and it will just take a couple of seconds. You could also check
out my Facebook page – Bill Hilton's Piano Books and Tutorials – and my Twitter feed
– twitter.com/billhilton. I've put links for those underneath the video.
OK, having learned a little bit about what goes on in the left hand, I want to pop back
to the right hand so we can learn something really useful, which is our first scale, the
scale of C major. Now, you'll often hear pianists and other musicians moaning about
scales and having to practise them, but they're really essential – nothing quite sorts the
good piano players from the bad ones like willingness to practise scales. Working on
your scales on the piano helps you physically – because it keeps your fingers loose and
limber, it warms you up, it protects you from injury, it develops fine muscle control and
you know it helps you with your touch and your expression, but it also helps you mentally,
in understanding music theory. All tonal music is built out of scales. Melody is built out
of scales, yeah, chords are built out of scales, OK – these things really are at the heart
of music.
So let's have a look again at C major in the right hand. Here it is, just a single
octave. Watch what I do. Let's do that again, really slowly. If I wanted I could play more
than one octave, using the same pattern, but for now we'll just stick to the single octave.
Let's name the notes as we play – C D E F G A B C and down – B A G F E D C. Notice
that I didn't repeat the note at the top of the scale. So I didn't do this, yeah?
Instead I went up and straight off the C and back down again. Next, and this is really
important, let's name the fingers. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1. Did you see what
I did there each time I reached the crossover point between the E and the F? Going up the
scale I put my thumb under my third finger – like that - and coming down I put my third
finger over my thumb. Going up, thumb under. Coming down, third over.
Why do I bother doing that? You know, why didn't I just carry one until I ran out
of fingers, then jump? It's because I was trying to play smoothly, and also accurately.
This is a really important concept on the piano, so important that there's actually
a special name for it – legato, yeah? We don't always play legato, smoothly, and
sometimes we go out of our way to avoid legato playing, to do the exact – you know, we
try to do the exact opposite. But a great deal of piano music demands that smooth legato
sound, which means organizing our fingers well to play all the notes we have to play,
without too much jumping, yeah? That also helps us to be accurate, it means we don't
miss notes – you know, ooh ooh, jump up, now I need to move my hand, OK – so we're
working on evenness and smoothness and accuracy, and that means, very often, moving our fingers
over and under one another. And this is yet another thing, actually, that scales help
us to practise.
So first things first, practise this C major right hand scale – you'll find it written
out with fingers marked in, all in the PDF, which again, you can download using the link
in the description field below this video. The aim is to be as smooth and even as possible,
giving each note equal weight. In particular, and this is quite hard, try to avoid any kind
of audible break or unevenness when you have fingers going over or under each other. So,
for example, going up the C major scale when your thumb goes under your third, from the
E to the F, it's really easy to land a bit hard on your thumb and, you know, create unevenness.
Try as hard as you can to eliminate that, yeah? It's not easy and it's not something
that you'll, you know, you'll fully eliminate ever, really. It's really a very good pianist
that can play a scale completely evenly, yeah, all the time. But do the best you can. That
all might seem a bit pointless at first, but is, as I say – I can't stress this enough
– it is really, really important – nailing this kind of thing, getting your scales good,
is what makes the difference between a slick, fluent, musical piano player and one who is
kind of jumpy and jolty and unmusical.
Now we can play the C major scale in the left hand, too. Let's start on the C below middle
C, OK – up and down, just one octave. Let's name the notes again – C D E F G A B C B
A G F E D C. And the fingers – 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5. Just compare that to
the right hand scale, and you'll see that it's fingered slightly differently. We're
doing third over thumb on the way up and thumb under third on the way down, which is the
other way round from the right hand, and the switch happens between the G and the A rather
than between the E and the F as it does in the right hand. That's basically happening
because our left hand, as I say, is a mirror image of our right – don't worry too much
about the precise reasons for now. Just get to grips with this scale. Let's have another
look at it. OK, again, you'll find it written out, with the fingers marked in, in the PDF,
yeah? So, as you've practised your right hand scale practise your left hand scale as
well.
Now, if you're feeling really brave, and once you've got those to a pretty good standard,
have a shot at doing this: OK, C major scale, one octave up and down, both hands together.
You can do it like that, which is what we call 'similar motion', or like this, which
is what we call 'contrary motion', OK, starting with your two thumbs both on middle
C. Before you try, make sure, as I say, that you've really nailed the hands separately.
Then start slowly and see how well you can do. Again, I know you're probably really
stretching yourself here already, but, you know, do everything you can to keep it smooth
and even, yeah?
Now, for a kind of super-duper double alpha plus five-star kind of ninja boss level, you
can even try to vary the dynamics – that is, the louds and softs. Start soft and get
loud as you go out and quieter again as you get back, both hands. Or vice versa, start
loud and get quieter, and louder again as you go down.
Remember, as I said, you'll find both left hand and right hand scales written out, with
fingering, in the accompanying PDF. Do double check that you're getting those fingers
right and practise practise practise PRACTISE right hand and left hand separately before
you even think about trying to put them together.
So that's about it for this lesson in my piano for beginners series. I know we've
been doing a bunch of really quite technical stuff in this tutorial, but it's important
– work really hard at it, nail it down, get it so it's automatic, and then you make
the next stage of the journey so much easier. In the next lesson we're going to be working
on our first piece of piano music with two hands together – whoa, hooray, at last!
I'll see you then.
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