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Okay so the first thing you need to know when you want to start playing the piano is just
the names of the notes. Okay? So I want to give you an easy way to figure out what you're
looking at when you look down at a piano because I know sometimes it can get kind of confusing
- there's this zebra of white and black notes. So the first thing I want you to identify
is a group of black notes that there are two of. So like these two, there are two here
- so you notice that the black notes group into either groups of two or three. So two
three two three right? Three two. So what I want you to do is find a group of two, and
the first white note that's right to the left of that group of two, right here - you see
how it's really really close right here - that's the C and that's going to be true no matter
where you are on the piano. So here's a C, C, C, C, all the way up and down the piano.
Anytime you see a group of two black notes the first note right to left is C. Now the
reason I'm starting with C instead of like A, which you might tihnk would be normal since
the alphabet starts at A, it's just because when we start learning scales and other stuff,
C is like the easiest scale and note to work with so it makes sense as a logical starting
point. So anyway, all you really need to do is find this C here and then, knowing that
the notes are labeled either A, well A through G - only the white notes, A through G - if
this is C we can kind of figure out where everything else is right? So if this is C,
here's B and here's A. Right? So if we start at A like where the alphabet starts and we
go up to G, we can find all the white notes. So A B C D E F G and now we start back over
at A. So take a look at, for a second, we started down here at this A and we got G and
we started back over at A, you'll see that they look very similar relative to the groups
of black notes that they're in so if you look at this group of three, the eight note is
the one that's sort of nested almost to the right here. And that's also true up here,
see? Group of three and this A note is here. So I hope that makes sense to you. All the
labels for the white notes are something either A through G so A B C D E F G and then you
start over. If you think about the groups of three black notes, the first note that
is right to the left of that is F. So if you want a quick way to quickly know just by looking
down at the piano what note you are playing, you look and find a group of two - the first
note to the left is a C, and if you find a group of three black notes the first note
to the left of that is F - the first white note. Okay?So just as a quick review: C D
E F G A B and then C again. Alright? Now if you want to play any of the black notes, all
you have to do is name them relative to the white notes. So take a look at this note right
here for example, since that is right in-between an F and a G, we know we can call it something
that's either related to the F or the G. So if you want to call it an F sharp, an F sharp
means it's a little bit higher - a little bit more to the right - than an F. And so
this is the closest note that is to the right of F, so we can call that an F sharp. Now
we can also call it a G flat or the note that's a little bit further to the left from G. It's
not a straight-up G, it's like a little bit less than a G, so that's what the flat means
- a little bit to the left, a little bit deeper. So you could call this a G flat or an F sharp.
So here's a little quiz I guess. What might you be able to call this note? This is a D
and this is an E, so think about it for a few seconds, what could we call this note?
Alright, I'm just gonna tell you, the answer is: you could call it a D sharp or a little
bit to the right of D, or you could call it an E flat - a little bit to the left of E.
Okay? So that's pretty much how you can figure out all the names of the notes here so we've
got C D E F G A B C and if we look at this note we have C sharp or D flat. We have D
sharp or E flat. F sharp of G flat. G sharp or A flat. And A sharp or B flat. And that's
it, those are the names of the notes. you can do that in any octave, so C C C and all
the way up and all the way down, they'er labeled in the exact same way. So hopefully now when
I'm referring to the notes, you know what I'm talking about.