Piano Lesson #1: How To Quickly Learn ALL the Notes on a Piano

So, you have finally decided that you are ready to do EVERYTHING it takes to learn to play the piano.  You woke up with a game plan this morning, decided TODAY I will play like Ray Charles, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Elton John..... You walk to the piano that has been in your house for 1200 years, the same one that you looked at a million times and said, "I WILL DEFEAT YOU...."..... You take a seat, remember that cool melody you heard on the radio yesterday.... and suddenly realize.... I have no clue what I am doing.....

Don't worry.... I've been there too.  This article will get you started.  After today, you will know the names of ALL the 88 keys that have been frustrating you for so long. 

So, are you ready?

The Use of LETTER NAMES in Music
Music is expressed using letters of the American Alphabet, starting at "A" and ending on "G" and then, repeating itself over and over again.  Although a standard piano has 88 KEYS, it only has 12 notes.  Those notes are "A, B, C, D, E, F, G" and "Ab, Bb, Db, Eb, Gb".  The first group lists the letter names of the WHITE notes, and the second group lists the letter names of the BLACK notes.  When looking at the white notes on the piano, the sequence goes as such, "A,B,C,D,E,F,G" and then repeats, "A,B,C,D,E,F,G" all the way to the end of the piano.

Take a look at the keyboard diagram above.  If you begin on the letter "A", and follow the sequence, you will see that after the note "G", the next note is not "H", but cycles back around to the "A", and continues that cycle until the end of the keyboard.

 A-G... Got it... Now How Do I Know What Is an A and What Is a G?  C comes after B, but where is B!!??

No worries!! We're getting there!! Okay, so let's focus on learning where each note is on the white keys.  To do so, we are going to use the black keys to guide us.  If you take a look at your piano, you will notice that the black keys are laid out on the keyboard in groups of "two black keys" and then "three black keys", and then it cycles, "two black keys" and then "three black keys".  Or we can refer to them as "double blacks" and "triple blacks" (see picture below).

The above keyboard diagram shows the grouping of the black notes.  Notice the cycle "double, triple, double, triple".  For now, lets think of these black keys as a "pivot" point for learning the white keys. 

Although the first letter of the alphabet is "A", for this lesson, we will begin on letter "C".  Looking at the "Double" black keys, the white note right BEFORE the first black key is music note "C".

As you can see from the picture, "C" is located directly before the "double black" keys.  Looking at the keyboard, you can now count back from "C" (on the white notes) and find "B" and "A".

Start at the Letter C which is just before the two black keys and work back two white notes

So.... starting with the two black keys, and finding the note before them, which is "C", we have now walked our way two notes back, and now know A, B, and C.   Let us now look at the THREE or "Triple" black keys.  In Front of the triple black keys is the letter "F".  Behind the triple black keys is the note "B".  Remember "F"ront and "B"ehind the triple notes is "F" and "B".  

Now we know 5 notes.  A,B,C,F, and B.... it is now very simple to plug in the rest of the notes.  Since we know ABC, we know that the next notes are D and E... We know F, and we know that G comes after F and that A comes after B..... Take a look at the below keyboard diagram to see where we fill in the rest of the notes!

Notice we added the letters D,E, and G to our letter name list!

We now know all of the white keys on the keyboard.  After the last "G" (in blue in the above picture), the cycle starts over with the next A, and the continues "B,C,D,E,F,G".... Below is a video explaining the same concept for the visual learners!

                                

Okay, I Just Learned All The White Notes.... but I Still Have No Clue About the Black Ones!! 

Hold your horses, I was just getting there!  Okay, so now we get to the black notes.  The black notes are much easier to find, but only ONCE you know the white notes.  The black notes each actually have TWO names, depending on which white note you use to get there..  Confused? Let me explain.....

Half Steps and Whole Steps

Here is a very important lesson.  A very EASY lesson might I add, however, one that many beginning students completely over-think and therefore have a tough time.  Before you learn the letter names of the black notes, it is important to understand what a HALF and a WHOLE step is.  

"Sharp"  #   - You can make any note a SHARP by moving one HALF step up (or to the right).  One half step up from "C" would be considered "C#"... One half step up from "G" would be considered "G#".  The tricky sharps are B and E, because B# is also called "C" and "E#" is also called "F".  

"Flat"  b   - You can make any note a FLAT by moving one HALF step DOWN (or to the left).  One half step down from G would be "Gb".  One half step down from B would be "Bb".  The tricky ones are F and C.... Fb is also called "E" and Cb is also called "B"..  

HALF STEP

A half step on the piano moves ONE key over, regardless of the color of the key.  If you are moving a "half step UP", you would move to the key directly to the right, no matter if that key is a black key or a white key.  If you are moving a "half step DOWN" you would move to the key directly to the left, regardless of whether that key is black or white.  

All of these are examples of One Half Step Up. Regardless of color, a half step up is ONE NOTE to the right.

 

All of these are examples of One Half Step Down.  Regardless of color, a half step is ONE NOTE to the left.

Again, to SHARP a note, you go one half step up or to the right, to FLAT a note, you go one half step down or to the left. 

Now you know how to find ALL of the notes on a piano.  Take a look at the piano diagram below.

Lastly, we get to WHOLE notes.... A whole note is simply TWO half notes.  So a whole note UP, you would move TWO to the right, regardless of key color.  A whole step down, you would move TWO notes to the left, regardless of key color. 

Well, that piano shouldn't look so intimidating now... Now you have tackled EVERY note on the piano.  Check back in soon and let's start learning something you can hear!!!