Even though we have two hands, there's only one set of keys on a piano and going from left to right they produce musical notes that sound from low to high pitch. In order to write down those notes we could just put dots on lines and in between lines going from low notes to high notes, from left to right and it would look something like a graph.

But the above written music would be very difficult to follow because there are so many lines you can barely distinguish one from the other.  You can’t even tell which notes would be played by the left hand and which ones by the right hand.

Suppose we were to make the center line invisible? Now it is much easier to distinguish the lines from one another! In fact, most of the time we will just let the right hand play the notes on the top lines and the left hand play the notes on the bottom lines. That center note is still there. We just won't draw a continuous line for it.

MAPPING THE KEYBOARD

For your first note you’ll be playing the one in the center or “middle” that has no visible continuous line. Then you’ll learn to play the notes to each side of that one and continue working your way outward note by note. 

Begin by locating the pair of two black keys that are closest to the center of your piano (just a little to the left of the actual center of the keyboard) and locate the white key just to the left of those two black keys. That white key is used to play the note called "Middle C". 

The other keys continue up or down the entire keyboard in alphabetic order from A through G and then start over.  Notice how all C’s have the same relative position to a set of two black keys, and the other notes all have a similar relationship to a set of either two or three black keys.  In this way it is very simple to find all the keys on the piano.  All C’s look alike, all D’s look alike, all F’s look alike, and so on.  Study the diagram below of a full 88 note piano, then see how many notes you can identify on your own piano or keyboard.

Now position your hands on the keys so both thumbs

are touching  “Middle C” as shown here.

In written music, "Middle C" is the note on the invisible line. To write it we just show a little short piece of line long enough to hold the note!! See how each note has its own little short line in the next example? Since they are centered between the two sets of visible lines, it is easy to play them with the thumb of either hand. Try playing the "Middle C" notes shown below. Play some of them with the left thumb and some with the right thumb.

Oops! Was there a problem? Yes! How do you know which notes to play with the left thumb and which ones with the right? They all look the same! Well, here's the solution. We just move the two groups of lines a little farther apart and it becomes very easy to see which Middle C's are for the right hand and which are for the left. So now! Try it again and it should be much easier!!

Each one of these groups of five lines is called a "staff". Since we will be placing notes both on lines and between lines (in the "spaces") we say that each staff is made up of 5 lines and 4 spaces. 

PLAYING THE FIRST LEAD SHEET STYLE SONG

“Lead Sheets” are songs written with just the tune or melody of the song along with the names of the chords that should be used to “fill out” the music.  The chord names will appear above the staff each place where you need to change to a different one.

Remember These Terms:

Staff - Each group of five lines with four spaces in between.

Staves - More than one Staff

Middle C - The note that appears on one short line, in between the two staves.

Chord - Any three or more notes played simultaneously that produce harmonious sound.