Learning the notes of the Keyboard and Piano
Before we can learn how to play scales chords it is vital that we learn the notes on keyboard and how they relate to each other. The best way to describe the notes on the keyboard is by comparing them to the notes of the alphabets. The first seven notes of the keyboard are ( A - B - C - D -E - F - G ). Each note differs with each other in sound. Below are all seven notes of the keyboard. Notice that the seven notes of keyboard repeat themselves over and over again. That the notes sound the same but the pitch differs. For example if you play C and move to the right until you find the next C, you will notice that if you play them simultaneously, both notes sounds the same but one is higher than the other. Middle C marks the center of the keyboard. As you will notice the C Major is the easiest and simplest scale of the twelve. In C Major Scale you may play the song "ik pyar kaa nagma hai". It consists all the white keys from any starting C to the next. C. The diagram below represents the C major scale in all three octaves. C major can be written as ( C maj, CM ).
A
standard semi professional music keyboard has 48 keys. You will see 4 sets of
12 keys and total 48 keys. One of these 12 set of notes is technically called
an octave. Western music is based on logarithmic division. An octave is divided
into 12 equal intervals such that the logarithm of the frequency ratio of two
neighboring intervals is the same. In Indian music “Sa” note is based on your
reference note or the key you selected as starting point. After Sa the first
note will be ‘Re’ komal and then ‘Re’ tiver and so on. You can start playing
Indian or Pakistani song from any key and the first note will become ‘Sa’
elsewhere.
Western music system has
an “absolute” (fixed) naming for the keys whereas in Indian the notation is
“relative. A Scale is a set of 7 notes in a proper order and intervals or a
scale is set of 7 notes with predefined intervals. The distance between each
note is called as interval. Apart from having seven different notes in both
western and Indian music, there are not many similarities. Just going across
“C” to “C” in a Western scale can be called as a major scale. Only few Indian
scales are similar to western scales.
Finger Numbers
The
left and right hand fingers are numbered as shown in the above diagram. The
thumb of each hand is counted as the first finger and has the number one. When
a flat sign is placed after a note like Bb (B Flat) it means that you play the
key immediately to the left side of note B. This note Bb will be black key just
to left side and above the note B. So, any black key always have sharp and flat
notes. When a sharp sign is placed after any note like C# it means that you
play the key immediately just to its right. Note that C# is always a black key
just after the white key “C” and B Flat key is black key just before white key
“B”. From right hand in middle octave and from note of middle ‘C” we play
melody with our right hand and from left of Middle ‘C’ and in left octave of
keyboard we play chords with our left hand.
How to find Middle
C
The first note you learn
to play is Middle ‘C’. Middle ‘C’ is the note closest to the middle of your
keyboard. Place a ‘C’ sticker on the Middle C note. Play middle C with your
right hand thumb. In the above picture of Keyboard we cannot show all 48 or 61
keys of a keyboard and we showed only left octave middle octave and part of
right octave of the keyboard.
Sharp Notes
C#
(C Sharp) means the note just after “C” note. D# is the note just after D and
E# is the note just after “E” note and so on. Here C, D, & E notes are
white keys. See diagram shown above for
sharp notes only and diagram below shown for flat notes only.
Flat Notes
Db
(D flat) means the note just before note D that is here a black note. Eb (E
flat) is the note just before note E and so one. See Diagram 4 above. There are
also two notes Cb (C flat) and Fb (flat), which are notes just before C and F,
which are white keys only. Note Cb is just attached to the left side of note C
and Note Fb is just attached to the left side of note F.
Sharp & Flat Notes Showing Together
Notes of C# and Db are
on the same key or we can say one note at the same time can be sharp or flat.
If we want to locate C# note then it is the note just after note ‘C’ and when
we want to locate Db (D flat) then it is the note just before note ‘D’. In
other words we can name flat or sharp note at the same time to a single note.
Any black key may be sharp or flat.
The best way to describe the notes on the
keyboard is by comparing them to the notes of the alphabets. The first seven
notes of the keyboard are ( A - B - C - D -E - F - G ). Each note differs with
each other in sound. We start from the note “C” as C, D, E, F, G, A, B, for
playing keyboards in western style. There are also sharp or flat notes attached
with some notes. For notation purpose we will only mention sharp notes for
making notation easier: e.g C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B
Notation Legend
Midle Octave:
Middle
octave notes are shown with no sign: e.g C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B
Higher Octave:
Middle
octave notes are shown with +ve sign with notes: e.g C+ C#+ D+ D#+ E+ F+ F#+ G+
G#+ A+ A#+ B+
Lower Octave:
Lower octave notes are shown with -ve sign
with notes: e.g C- C#- D- D#- E- F- F#- G- G#- A- A#- B-
In notations play notes in parenthesis faster
e.g (CDE D AA#)