Introduction to Learning Black and White Notes on the Piano

When you look at the piano you see black keys and white keys. When you press any of these keys you produce a note sound. When you are learning notes on the piano you need to understand these black and white keys.

Here they are in more detail.

Black Keys

Black keys are placed in repeated groups of 2 keys and 3 keys all the way from the lowest notes on the left hand side of the piano to the highest notes on the right hand side of the piano.

Here is MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB to play

Here is the tune:

Right Hand Fingering:

4 3 2 3 4 4 4 off 3 3 3 off 4 4 4 off

4 3 2 3 4 4 4 4 3 3 4 3 2 oo-oo-oo

Left hand Fingering:

2 3 4 3 2 2 2 off 3 3 3 off 2 2 2 off

2 3 4 3 2 2 2 2 3 3 2 3 4 oo-oo-oo

Method

You will:

1. Play the tune with your right hand and then left hand.

2. Pick any set of 3 black notes grouped together.

3. Remind yourself of the finger numbers you learnt earlier by saying '1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ' and moving the appropriate finger (" fingering" ) at the same time.

4. Each black note in the group of three keys has the given finger numbers as indicated below.

Right Hand: 4th finger on the right hand key

3rd finger on the middle key

2nd finger in the left hand key

Left hand: 2nd finger on the right hand key

3rd finger on the middle key

4th finger on the left hand key

5. You are to use these finger numbers to press the black keys, when playing the tune written out above. You can count the finger numbers as you play.

Please note that the word: 
- "off' is 1 beat 
- "oo" is 1 beat which means "oo-oo-oo" = 3 beats

~ the right hand and left hand have different fingering for the same tune.

There are many pieces you can play using the black notes and finger numbers. This gives you practise at getting used to pressing keys down and using your finger numbers whilst playing simple tunes right away. Hence a wonderful introduction to learning notes on the piano.

White Keys

The white keys are represented by the musical alphabet which is A B C D E F G

When you are learning white notes on the piano you can start off by learning note names and their position on the piano before reading notes on sheet music.

How do you know which white key is a B or C or G etc?

Well, white note names are found in relation to the black keys, e.g. C's are always found directly to the left of the set of 2 black keys. B's are always found directly to the right of the group of 3 black keys.

Exercises
1. With right hand thumb play C's on the upper half of the piano. 
2. With left hand thumb play C's on the lower half of the piano. 
3. With right hand third finger play B's on the upper half of piano. 
4. With left hand third finger play B's down the lower half of the piano.

You may have heard of middle C. This is the C in the middle of the piano.

You can work out all the other note names and positions from using the position of C which you have just learnt. The next note to the right of C is D. The next note to the right of D is E and so on through the musical alphabet. The next note to the right of G is A then B etc. The whole piano is derived from repetitions of A to G. Please note that when you are learning piano notes in consecutive order up or down, you use your next door finger.

This introduction to learning the white and black notes on the piano will give you a great start at playing pieces right away.

Your next stage would be to learn to read piano sheet music including note lengths