Ledger Lines – The Lows and the Highs of the Staff

Something that I am pretty terrible at when it comes to reading sheet music efficiently is the concept of: LEDGER LINES.

Urrrghh, sometimes these things drive me crazy. In my previous post I discussed about the basics of the notes on the treble and bass clefs located within the staff. However, when identifying notes on the staff, the notes themselves can go beyond the staff; in other words they appear higher or lower than the staff itself. Basically, what I learned was that ledger lines are extensions or a form of notation that indicates pitches above or below the lines of the regular music staff (such as a higher A note or a lower A note). Here’s a visual example (enlarge if needed):

The notes that go above the staff in the picture are the ledger lines. When I first bumped into this part of musical notation, I was completely confused. It was hard enough for me to memorize the basics and efficiently recognize notes within the staff for both treble and bass clef. These ledger lines totally blew my mind. They still confuse the heck out of me to this day when I’m looking at sheet music for songs that I want to play. Fortunately for me, my friends that also play piano and musical instruments have helped me gain more confidence in reading sheet music in general, by pointing out certain patterns in reading these so called ledger lines. (Shout outs to them!)

One of the patterns that I learned about was that the spaces on the staff turn into the lines for notes beyond the staff (ledger lines). The lines on the staff turned into the spaces of the ledger lines! This would apply for both treble and bass clefs.

Here’s an example for the treble clef regarding the “lines” of the ledger lines (circled notes). See how these circled notes form FACE? Those notes were the spaces within the staff. This same concept goes for the spaces between ledger lines and for both clefs. This would mean that the spaces in between ledger lines would form EGBDF, starting from the E within the staff.

A video that also really helped me and opened my knowledge up to this concept was Karen Ramirez’s instruction on reading ledger lines. I found it to be helpful in introducing this pattern.

Sheet Music: Every Good Boy Does Fine… I Think.

Sheet music is something that I have constantly bumped into. At the start, this form of musical notation was always there for me, but I never really had the courage to step up and embrace it fully. When I decided to teach myself piano, I eventually took the process of sheet music and held it closer to me. It was not an easy start for me though. I still constantly struggle with reading notes at an efficient pace today.

CDEFGAB. These are what make up the notes on the piano (of course with their sharps and flats). The way sheet music is organized is through notes on a staff. The staff is a set of 5 horizontal lines with 4 four spaces in between where notes are placed. In piano notation, there are usually two staves indicated by a treble clef and a bass clef. In my one of my previous posts about guitar connections, I briefly discussed that the treble clef of the piano signifies what you play with your right hand, and the bass clef of the piano tells you what to play with your left. The notes on the staff indicate what notes to play on the piano.

This was the standard of sheet music that I was taught way back when I was struggling with piano lessons; however, the real problem that emerged for me was identifying what notes went on what line and space with some degree of acuity. Thankfully, the treble clef was easier than the bass clef because of my past background in guitar which only uses the treble clef. The notes that go on the lines and spaces of the treble clef staff look like this:

The lines of the treble clef can be summed up in the mnemonic device of: Every Good Boy Does Fine. The spaces of the treble clef can be noted as: FACE. Like a person’s face in real life. (Haha, get it?… anyways, on to the next clef.)

The bass clef looks like this!

The lines of the bass clef can be summed up in a mnemonic device like: Good Bananas Don’t Fall Apart. The spaces for the bass clef don’t spell out a word so a mnemonic device like: All Cars Eat Gas can be used!

Of course, any mnemonic device can be used to memorize the notes on lines and spaces.  I just use these because they stick with me somewhat well. Personally, the bass clef was a lot harder for me to learn due to unfamiliarity (it still is *sighs*). Some of this still remains a little awkward for me when looking at sheet music, but with practice, I hope to improve. A lot of my friends who are amazing at music have helped me as well in order to expose me to their own musicality of through their own sheets. The more I’m exposed to, the more I learn. I hope this talk about reading sheet music has reached some people; let me know what you think as always.

Synwhatheia? Synthesia for Piano

Sometimes when I’m looking for sheet music or searching up a song to learn by ear for the piano, I’ll bump into this thing called: Synthesia. Lately, within the musical realm of learning, this popular tool has emerged among the market of technological applications as a creative way to learn piano. It is commonly seen on Youtube and Google search. Synthesia is a music learning application designed for the systems Windows and Mac OS X, in the form of a music video game. Desktop computers, laptops, Windows tablets, as well as the iPad are able to run the app. The application incorporates a piano keyboard training system where notes will fall down from the top of the screen and the individual is able to play along with or analyze what the song looks like. Digital pianos and keyboards that have USB functionality are also compatible with the program as you are able to plug in and play. Synthesia is a great tool because it runs on the MIDI system; the format of MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) is able to carry sound information (vibrato, pitch, keys, and notation) and directly transfer it into applications that can read it, such as this. Once Synthesia reads the MIDI file, it designs it’s own sheet music layout of the song which is extremely helpful in both learning by sheets or trying to transcribe by ear. Also, the sheet music is scored digitally and can be shared with others! Link to main site: http://www.synthesiagame.com/

Synthesia also includes useful features within the application itself; all of these can be applied to when you are playing or analyzing a piece of music.

1. The ability to play at your own speed. Synthesia has settings that allow you to play a song in 2x, 1.5x, standard (1x), 0.5x, or 0.25x speeds for your own comfort.

2. The resource of sheet music. Synthesia allows you to play along with sheet music that it digitizes for you based on the MIDI file. It also creates the piano notations for you.

3. Checking your progression. The application will have a function where it will not continue the song until you press the right keys. It goes at your own pace and allows for looping of a section of a song.

4. Finger numbering and positioning on the keyboard for notes that are coming up.

Among the other forms of advanced applications in this digital age, Synthesia proves to be a versatile program that combines multiple aspects of learning music. However, as always, I wouldn’t solely focus on a program such as this when learning piano. I think that music theory, reading printed sheet music, and ear training are just as important in the long run. I see the program of Synthesia as a great supplemental app when it comes to learning piano; it is something that I will be looking into quite often in my musical adventures. If anyone has also heard of the program please let me know what you think of it as well!

I’ll end off with an example of a song on Synthesia from Youtube. Until next time.

First Steps: Why Did I Start To Learn Piano by Ear?

My first attempt at teaching myself a song on the piano was mainly by ear. At this point in time my familiarity with sheet music was not solid enough. I could decipher notes on the staff but at a very slow rate. In particular, I had a difficult time dealing with simultaneous clefs (treble and bass) and their respective notes for the piano. It was hard for me to coordinate them together. Compared to sheets however, the concept of learning by ear was not new to me. This is because my past experiences and lessons with guitar have enabled me to strengthen my ear.

An “E note” on the guitar would sound similar to an “E” on the piano. Sometimes in guitar, there weren’t any tablature or sheets for a particular song that I wanted to learn. Therefore, learning by ear was the only option for me. The same scenario can be drawn to piano as well. Learning by ear usually involves the repetition of listening to a song in order to recreate the notes, melody, bass line, and rhythms that are being heard. But why even bother learning by ear?

In the long run I think that learning by ear has the ability to improve the overall musicality of an individual. It takes time to develop though; it is still something that gives me trouble. However, I think that the benefits of this ongoing process are worthwhile. These are just some of the few aspects that I consider when trying to play by ear.

1. Become more acquainted with the individual sounds of notes.

2. Improvement of aural skills and intervals

3. Chord structure and rhythm recognition

4. Pitch and key recognition

5. Encourages creativity for interpreting different songs

6. Allows you to learn songs that do not have sheet music

7. Helps with improvisation and spontaneity of music

This is not to say that learning by ear is the only way; music theory and the ability to read sheet music are probably just as important than trying to learn by ear. Maybe others out there will have different experiences and ideas about this topic. All insight is welcome as I am still in the long process of learning as well! This is just how I initially started my journey in trying to teach myself how to play.