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 Congratulations!
You are in the BIG leagues now, you are
using both hands to play the piano. You've
also learned the importance of finger placement.
Now let's take a look at some more interesting
ways in which music is written to help the
player play.
Look
at The "Climbing Song" above. Do
you notice anything different? It is the same
song and will be played the same way, but
as you can see there are some new looking
notes on the staff. Look at the eighth notes
and you will see that they are all connected
now. This is a helping aid for the player
of the song. "That's You." A composer
will group notes per beat by adding a "Beam"
to them. This beam ties notes together for
each beat. And, it is also used to help keep
track of the first half of a measure and the
last half of a measure.
You
will see eighth and sixteenth notes tied together
with a beam as a general rule. This also helps
the notes on the staff to be less confusing
when there are lots of eighth notes or sixteenth
notes used in a single measure. It is time
now for you to use your music notebook with
the blank staff paper. If you have
misplaced it, you can go back to lesson
4 and then return here.
Copy
what you see on the staff above into your
notebook and label it The "Climbing Song."
The correct way to draw notes is to first
make the circle part of the note on a line
or a space. Then draw the stem. Then add the
flag or beam as needed. When you are done,
go to the next paragraph.
A
quick note about stems and beams.
As you have learned there are five lines drawn
for either the bass clef or the treble clef
on the staff. Look at the middle (3rd) line
in either clef. If a note falls below this
line, then the stem is drawn pointing upward.
If a note falls on or above
this line, then the stem is drawn pointing
downward. Look back at the previous page, before beams were added to the eighth notes and
you will be able to see this more clearly.
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