Alfred's Adult Piano Lesson 12

Level 1 - The Grand Staff

Alfred's Adult Piano Lesson 12 is a free lesson using Book 1 of the Alfred's Adult All-in-One Course. It is for your personal use only.

The All-in-One course from Alfred's covers learning to read music, music theory, technique, and various styles of piano music including blues, jazz, classical, and pop.

Coming soon: free tutorials for all three levels of the Alfred's Adult books. You can see the full list here.

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Alfred's Adult All-in-One Course - Level 1 (Book/CD) Written by Amanda Vick Lethco, Morton Manus, Willard A. Palmer. Instructional book (spiral bound) and accompaniment CD for piano. Series: Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course. 144 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing. (AP.5756) See more info...

You've learned about the treble clef, and the treble staff for notes played with your right hand. You've learned about the bass clef, and the bass staff for notes played with your left hand.

Now it's time to put the treble staff and the bass staff together into... the grand staff!

This is really a milestone for you. Why? Because you will now start reading "real" piano music - the same way that even the most advanced pianists do. From here forward, you'll simply be expanding the range of notes you know how to read, and becoming more fluent as a music reader. But your music reading foundation has been laid!

We're starting with C position, which you've learned for both hands. Have a look at the diagram in the upper right of page 20.

See how we've simply put the treble staff on top of the bass staff and connected the two with a brace? That's the grand staff.

You might think it's impossible to read both staves at the same time. For now, it's hard. But don't worry. As you practice, you will get better and better at it!

The time signature only gets a brief mention in the red box, but I want to talk a little about it. It's an important part of the "map" that is written music, and once you understand it, it will help tell you what the song will sound like before you even play a note!

You know how songs have a feel? Imagine a waltz. A waltz has a swaying rhythm. If you counted along with it, you'd say 1-2-3. The song Happy Birthday is also in "waltz time." So is the Christmas song Away in a Manger.

Now think about a Christmas song like Hark, the Herald Angels Sing or a march like The Stars and Stripes Forever. These songs are in what's known as "common time" - which is what is introduced on page 20. It's written as 4/4 (obviously written differently on the staff then when I type it out).

The time signature sets the amount of beats per measure of music (the top number). The bottom number is a code; it tells you what kind of note gets one beat. You don't have to think too hard about this right now - just know that the 4 represents the fact that a quarter note gets one beat.

Notice here that you're being introduced to something called a whole rest. A whole measure of silence! At the beginning of this song, the left hand has 4 measures of whole rests... that means only your right hand will be playing.

Starting in measure 5, your right hand has the whole rests, and your left hand is the only one playing. Got it? :-)

This song isn't actually any more difficult that what you've already been playing, it's just that now your eyes have to read two staves. That makes things a bit more complicated for your brain to translate. So don't be surprised if the change to the grand staff makes learning a song a bit slower at first.

Just concentrate on keeping a good beat, and always following the practice process (counting and tapping, and saying note names and tapping, then playing and counting, and playing and saying note names) as I talked about in lesson 7. I know you probably think it's a bit of overkill, but I promise you an easier time down the road if you will do this work now!

This song also introduces you to the repeat sign - see the end of the music. A double line at the end of the staves (one thick, one thin) with two dots. It means to go back to the beginning and play all the way through once more!

Where the previous song had notes all in a row, using sequential fingers, Rock-Along is a song with skips - so pay attention to those notes and which finger plays them!

You're starting again with your right hand only for 4 measures, then your left hand for four measures. Don't forget the repeat at the end!

A new rest for you in Mexican Hat Dance. It's a funny looking sqiggly thing called a quarter rest. It's the rest equivalent of a quarter note... one beat long.

You're also starting with your left hand in this song. So let's have a look at the first measure. Play 2 beats on G (count 1-2), then one beat on E (count 3), then rest for one beat (count 4) - just keep your hand in position, gently on the keyboard.

OK, there you have it. We covered the grand staff, the time signature, whole rests, and quarter rests in this lesson. Lots of new stuff for you to practice. Enjoy!

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