English 410-002 --Analytical Description
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Instructions
For this assignment, you will write a three- to five-page set of instructions. You may choose from among the following topics:
- Changing the oil and oil filter on a car
- Changing a tire on a car
- Changing the strings and tuning a guitar or violin
- Adding a new hard drive to a computer
- Other topics as approved
The set of instructions should be written for an appropriate audience: someone who does not how to perform the process, but would benefit from knowing. You should use illustrations when appropriate. Be sure to include any notes, warning, or cautions which may be needed.
Anh T. Duong
February 29, 2008
How to read music and play the Piano
There are several key important things that you should know when reading music for piano. When reading music for piano there are two clefs. You have a treble clef staff, which is played by the right hand, and a bass clef staff which is played by the left hand. You also have sharps, flats, and natural keys. We will also be looking at different types of time signatures, rests, and rhythms and beats in a note.
Step 1: Let me first show you what a treble clef staff looks like.
Step 2: When reading music on the treble clef staff, it’s crucial to understand how many lines and spaces there are in the staff in order to read what note is being presented. Notice that there are five lines in the staff and four spaces in between the lines.
Step 3: Let us start off by reading the first four notes in between the lines. Oh let me remind you that there are 7 notes to remember. The notes are C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C. Even though I have eight notes presented here, the second C is presented as an octave which means that it is a level higher than the original pitch from the first C. Keep in mind though, that the two sounds have the same tone but, the second C is just a pitch higher. Ok let us begin.
Can you see how the top clef in between the spaces spells “FACE?” Those notes are going to be your notes for the spaces in between the treble clef.
Step 4: Ok, now let me introduce you to the bass clef staff. Here you have the bass clef. Notice how the bass clef is structured that same way as the treble clef. Well here you read the notes the same way but with the left hand and at the lower end of the piano.
Step 5: Here is the description of what the notes look like on the bass clef with the notes in between them. Do you see how it almost spells out face “FACE?” but, not quite. Here in this case, instead of having an “E” we have a “G” note in the very top space. Space number 4. Ok thus completes our notes for the spaces in between the bass clef.
Step 6: Now let me take you to our next step .Now that you have learned how to read the music in between the spaces, we’re going to learn how to read the music on the lines. Let us start off with the treble clef again.
Ok, now here we have the notes E,G,B,D,F. A good way to remember these notes are “Every, Good, Boy, Does, Fine.”
Step 7: Now let us look at the notes on the lines for the bass clef.
For these notes, the best way to remember them is “George, Borrowed, David’s, Frog, Adam.”
Step 8: Now that we learned how to read both treble and bass clef, let us try to put them together. By putting the two staffs together, this is called a grand staff with all the notes in between the spaces and on the lines.
Step 9: Now that you have seen what a grand staff looks like, let me show you where these keys lie on the piano. Keep in mind that when playing the piano, we always start off with middle “C.”
Step 10: Now that you have learned how to read both bass and treble clef. We’re going to complicate things just a bit so bare with me. The notes that you have learned previously are called natural notes which means that they have no sharps and flats in them that can change or alter the pitch or sound of a note. What we’re going to learn next are sharps, and flats. Let me first define what a sharp is and what it looks like. A sharp is “a sign ( ) used to indicate that a note is to be raised by a half step, and to [rise] in pitch by a semitone” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sharp). A flat is “a sign ( ) used to indicate that a note is to be lowered by a half step, and to lower (a note) a semitone” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/flat). In case you wondering what the symbol for a natural note is, it’s simply this symbol .
Step 11: Now our next step is to be able to identify what sharps and flats look like on a piano.
Notice how I drew arrows to indicate the direction of where the sharps and flats are on the piano. All sharps are heading in an upward direction, and all flats are heading in a downward direction. One more thing to remember is that sharps and flats can be played by the same key on the piano. For example, if you hit C# it is an equivalent to D , and D# is equivalent to E , and etc.
Steps 12: Ok, now that we have covered sharps and flats, I’m going to take you to learn time signatures. There are lots of time signatures ranging from 4/4, ¾, 6/8, etc. but, we’ll just stick with the basics of 4/4, and ¾. Let me first define what a time signature is. A time signature is “a sign placed on a staff to indicate the meter, commonly a numerical fraction of which the numerator is the number of beats per measure and the denominator represents the kind of note getting one beat” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/time+signature). 
The diagram above is an example of a 4/4 beat. The below diagram is an example of a ¾ beat.
Step 13: Now that we have learned the meaning of what a time signature is, and when it is to be played in a measure let me introduce to you the different types of rests that are used when playing the piano. Let me first start off by defining what a rest is. A rest is “an interval of silence corresponding to one of the possible time values within a measure [or] the mark or symbol indicating such a pause and its length” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rest). Here is a diagram displaying all the different types of rests in music and how many beats they get.
Step 14: Ok here we go. Here is the last step in learning how to read music and play the piano. I’m now going to introduce to you the different types of beats in a note. There are four basic beats in a note that I would like you to learn. The first one is a quarter note, the second is a half note, the third is a whole note, and the fourth one is an eighth note. The diagram below displays a picture of what each note looks like and how many beats they receive.
Step 15: Congratulations! Thus completes our steps on how to read music and play the piano.
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