post 2

Sharps and Flats
I’ve come a long way in learning to play the piano! I can read Treble Clef pretty
well. I’m getting better now at something called Interval Reading, which is when
you reposition your hand, moving it up and down the keyboard with your fingers
always the same distance apart. Something I need to keep working on because it
doesn’t quite make sense for me are some of the chordal patterns, like the 7
white-key 3-note patterns. I’ll keep working on those, but now—on to Sharps and
Flats!

I am finally ready to move off just the white keys. Did you know that a sharp note
doesn’t have to be a black key? I didn’t know that. You can tell if a note is sharp
or flat by noticing these symbols.
If you see a sharp or flat symbol before a note, it means that that note will be that
way for the rest of the measure. For example, in the picture below, the flat
symbol next to B makes it and the next B both B flats. If a note after a sharp or
flat isn’t to be a sharp or flat then the “natural” symbol will be in front of the
note.

Another thing that’s important to notice when learning about sharps and flats is
the key signature at the beginning of each line of music. Sharp and flat symbols in
the key signature show that every time that note shows up, it should be played
sharp or flat to match the key signature, unless a natural symbol shows up before
the note. This is what the natural symbol looks like:

So, basically, natural symbols cancel out sharps and flats.
With this better understanding of sharps and flats, now I’m ready to work on
spacing my hands when I play with my left and right hands. This is basically
playing a chord with each hand for a certain number of beats. But, I will get to
this in my next blog entry.