Fundamentals
4 The Keyboard and the Grand Staff
Chelsey Hamm
Key Takeaways
- Playing the piano will help you in your music theoretical studies, by allowing you to engage kinesthetically with music.
- A pattern of black keys grouped into twos and threes repeats on the piano keyboard for seven octaves.
- The white note C is to the immediate left of the two-note black key pattern, while the white note F is to the immediate left of the three-note black key pattern.
- Piano players, also called pianists, read music on the grand staff.
- Middle C is the note that appears on the line between the two staves in a grand staff.
- When counting notes on a piano keyboard, always count a note to itself as “one.”
Many students find studying music theory easier when they engage with music kinesthetically . In other words, physically creating sounds by playing a musical instrument (such as the piano) helps students to better visualize and audiate the music they are writing down or studying. This allows students to understand the relationship between different pitches more quickly.
The Piano Keyboard
Learning to play notes on the piano is one easy way to engage with music kinesthetically. You may find access to a piano keyboard (acoustic or electronic) at your school, college, or university. You may also purchase a cheap electronic keyboard if you like. Another option is to download a free piano app that you can play on your phone, such as Tiny Piano.
shows a photograph of a small portion of a piano keyboard:
Notice that the keyboard has both white keys and black keys. The black keys are grouped into sets of either three keys or two keys.
shows a larger portion of a piano keyboard:Notice that the sets of three and two black keys alternate throughout the entire length of a piano keyboard. These patterns separate the keys into different octaves.
Playing the Piano
When you sit at the piano, it is important to sit up straight, keeping your head over your shoulders, which should be kept down. Your elbows should be a comfortable distance from your body, and your fingers should remain arched (as if you were pulling a library book off of a shelf). Keep your knees and wrists flexible (not stiff), and keep your feet flat on the ground unless you are using the pedals.
shows a brief video which explains how to achieve proper posture at the piano:
White Key Letter Names of the Piano Keyboard and Octave Equivalence
shows a piano keyboard with the letter names of the white key pitches labeled:
When the black keys appear as a set of two, the note to their immediate left is C. When black keys appear as a set of three, the note to their immediate left is F. As was discussed in the previous chapter, pitches in Western musical notation are designated by the first seven letters of the Latin alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. After G these letter names repeat again, beginning with A, creating a loop: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, etc. As mentioned in the prior chap