RREADINGEADING MMUSICUSIC NNOTESOTES With Ease For the Earliest Beginner E A P D C G Middle C u B f F BETTY WAGNER Associate Trinity College London, Associate Music Australia READING MUSIC NOTES WAITH Nova EASE Book CompanyPage 1 Publicationhttp://www.music-with-ease.com READING MUSIC NOTES WITH EASE: For the Earliest Beginner by Betty Wagner ATCL, A Mus A Edited and Illustrated by Anne Dollin Music Clips by John Wagner For Alex and James Published in 2004 by NOVA BOOK COMPANY PO Box 746, Potts Point NSW 1335, Australia Additional copies may be purchased from: http://www.musicwithease.com Copyright © 2004 Betty Dawn Wagner All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. READING MUSIC NOTES WITH EASE Page 2 http://www.musicwithease.com Sound and Music Clips in this Booklet Sound and music clips have been embedded throughout this booklet to illustrate the material covered. To hear these clips you need to view this pdf with Adobe Reader 6 or 7. These programs are available as free downloads from http://www.adobe.com System Requirements for Adobe Reader 6.0.1: System Requirements for Adobe Reader 7.0: Windows Windows Intel® Pentium® processor or compatible Intel® Pentium® processor or compatible Microsoft® Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Microsoft® Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT® 4.0 with Service Pack 6, XP Professional or Home Edition, or Windows XP Tablet PC Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2, Windows XP Professional Edition or Home Edition, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 128MB of RAM 32MB of RAM (64MB recommended) Up to 90MB of available hard-disk space 60MB of available hard-disk space Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5, 6.0, or 6.1 Macintosh Macintosh PowerPC® G3 processor PowerPC® G3 processor Mac OS X v.10.2.8 or 10.3 Mac OS X v.10.2.2-10.3 Up to 35MB of RAM 32MB of RAM with virtual memory on (64MB recommended) Up to 125MB of available hard-disk space 70MB of available hard-disk space A QuickTime player must also be added to Windows systems in order to play the embedded QuickTime music clips. QuickTime players are available as free downloads from http://www.apple.com For further tips about installing Adobe Reader and QuickTime on your computer, please visit: http://www.musicwithease.com/mwe-ebooks-faq.html If you have Acrobat Reader 5, you will still be able to read and print out this pdf booklet. However, you will not be able to play the embedded sound and music clips. Sound clips have been embedded behind faces of the Gang of Seven members. Music clips have been embedded behind featured notes in the keyboard and staff diagrams, too. For example: Click here to Click here to hear hear Fritz speak the piano notes F To play a clip, simply click on these parts of the page with your mouse. See how many clips you can find! Sometimes the Gang of Seven members say different things. Can you find these places? READING MUSIC NOTES WITH EASE Page 3 http://www.musicwithease.com CONTENTS Chapter 1 The Piano Keyboard and the Musical Alphabet ..................................... 5 Chapter 2 The Great Staff .....................................................14 Chapter 3 The First Eleven Notes .........................................15 Chapter 4 The Next Six Notes ...............................................23 Chapter 5 The Final Four Notes ...........................................28 Summary Chart The Great Staff – A Musical Map .......................32 READING MUSIC NOTES WITH EASE Page 4 http://www.musicwithease.com Chapter 1 THE PIANO KEYBOARD AND THE MUSICAL ALPHABET A B C D E F G DID YOU KNOW that all the beautiful music we hear day after day is written and played on only seven notes of different letter names: A, B, C, D, E, F and G? Where are these notes found on a piano keyboard? To make it easy to remember where each note is found, let’s read the story of the Gang of Seven. This story will help you find these seven notes with ease. First, take a look at a piano keyboard. You will see that all the black notes are in groups of either two or three. Let’s pretend that each group of two black notes is a Dog’s Kennel, and each group of three black notes is a House with Three Chimneys: Dog’s House Kennel with Three Chimneys { { A Tip! There are NINE music clips embedded in this diagram. Can you find them all? MIDDLE C C DEF GBA The white notes near the Dog’s Kennel and the House with Three Chimneys are C, D, E, F, G, A and B. These are the first seven notes we need to learn. Now, turn the page to read the story of the Gang of Seven, which will tell you how to use the Dog’s Kennel and the House with Three Chimneys to find all seven notes in the musical alphabet! READING MUSIC NOTES WITH EASE Page 5 http://www.musicwithease.com Middle C MIDDLE C Dog’s Kennel { First let’s meet Middle C with his party hat on! He loves to eat honey cake so he’s very chubby. He owns the dog so you’ll find him right beside the dog’s kennel. DID YOU KNOW… Middle C is found at about the middle of the standard piano keyboard. READING MUSIC NOTES WITH EASE Page 6 http://www.musicwithease.com Middle C DEE THE DOG Dog’s Kennel { Here is Dee, the fuzzy little Dog that belongs to Middle C. Dee sleeps inside her warm cosy kennel. READING MUSIC NOTES WITH EASE Page 7 http://www.musicwithease.com Middle C EVIE Dog’s Kennel { Pretty Evie loves dogs. She sits close beside the kennel so that she can pat Dee, the dog. Evie’s boyfriend, Fritz, is right beside her on the next note… READING MUSIC NOTES WITH EASE Page 8 http://www.musicwithease.com Middle C FRITZ House with Three Chimneys { This is Fritz with his spiky hair. Fritz is on guard at the Front of the House with Three Chimneys. Fritz likes it here because he is right beside his girlfriend, Evie. READING MUSIC NOTES WITH EASE Page 9 http://www.musicwithease.com GOODY Middle C and ANDY House with Three Chimneys { Two brothers, Goody and Andy, live inside the House with Three Chimneys. Goody has curly hair. Andy has a red bow tie. READING MUSIC NOTES WITH EASE Page 10 http://www.musicwithease.com BUZZ THE BEE Middle C House with Three Chimneys { Finally let’s meet Buzz the Bee. She has a big sting and she guards the Back of the House with Three Chimneys. READING MUSIC NOTES WITH EASE Page 11 http://www.musicwithease.com Now we have met all the members of the Gang of Seven: Middle C, Dee the Dog, Evie, Fritz, Goody, Andy and Buzz the Bee. They stand for the seven letters of the musical alphabet: C, D, E, F, G, A and B. The little stories we have given you linked each member of the Gang of Seven to the ‘Dog’s Kennel’ or to the ‘House with Three Chimneys’. If you remember these little stories you will easily be able to find each letter of the musical alphabet on your keyboard. Now take a look at your keyboard. How many different ‘Dog’s Kennels’ can you find?……… How many different ‘Houses with Three Chimneys’ can you find?……… The same Gang of Seven members are found with them all. For example, Dee the Dog is inside every Dog’s Kennel, and Goody and Andy are inside every House with Three Chimneys. How many times can you find the following members of the Gang of Seven on your keyboard? Dee the Dog……… Goody…………… Evie……………… Buzz the Bee………… Fritz…………… Andy…………… Middle C is a very special note. There is actually only one Middle C. It is usually near the middle of your keyboard. Your teacher will show you where it is. The other notes that are found just to the left of each Dog’s Kennel are just called ‘C’. Do you remember that chubby Middle C likes to eat honey cake? The C notes are right beside the Bees on the keyboard too! The Bees provide the C notes with honey for their cakes. Can you find Middle C on your keyboard? How many other C notes can you find on your keyboard? READING MUSIC NOTES WITH EASE Page 12 http://www.musicwithease.com In this booklet we are particularly interested in learning the twenty one notes that are found near the middle of the keyboard – ten notes on either side of Middle C. House with House with House with Three Dog’s Three Dog’s Three Dog’s Chimneys Kennel Chimneys Kennel Chimneys Kennel { { { { { { MIDDLE C GAB C D E F GAB DE FGABC DE F These notes covered in Chapter 3 These notes covered in Chapter 4 These notes covered in Chapter 5 There are three ‘Dog’s Kennels’ and three ‘Houses with Three Chimneys’ in these twenty one notes. You will also find three full sets of the Gang of Seven in these notes. Have a look at your keyboard and see if you can find these twenty one notes on your keyboard.