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Lesson 1: Staff, names of notes, treble clef

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  • mr pink red style avatar for user Sydney
    Does anyone play oboe? Or any knowledge on the instrument? If so is there a 4th line ledger line for the instrument? Thanks!
    (14 votes)
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    • male robot hal style avatar for user KEVIN
      Yes, the oboe can play a high G found on the 4th ledger line above the staff. Advanced players can play the high Bb which occupies the 5th ledger line above the staff. That is more difficult to achieve, and requires some modifications to the embouchure (how the reed is held in the mouth) and possibly structural changes to the reed.
      (13 votes)
  • starky tree style avatar for user qwertyda
    in Sanskrit, (an indian language) do re mi fa so la ti do, is: sa re ga ma pa da ni sa.
    Why do most people in the world use the european version? I mean, its the same concept after all...
    (8 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user meganhuerta94
    At its says the soprano is the highest pitch, what is the second highest, (third, forth, ect.)
    (3 votes)
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  • winston default style avatar for user Samhitha Kamatala
    are there going to be any tests? if not how can I remember all of these notes
    (4 votes)
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  • mr pants teal style avatar for user Maurion Shelly
    are all piano names and notes based on letters and shapes?
    (3 votes)
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  • primosaur sapling style avatar for user Pierce, Elly
    Anybody know any lessons on voice training?
    (4 votes)
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    • starky ultimate style avatar for user Katheryn Dyke-Kuwakiki
      Well, one thing you can try is using your diaphragm instead of your lungs. If you don't understand that then breath with your belly, not your chest. And if you still don't understand then I hope this site does:

      www.howtosing.com/how-to-sing-from-your-diaphragm/

      This breathing method helps a lot with sing because it could help carry your voice ( that's how a baby can cry really loud)

      Another thing you can try is when you can't reach a note that is too high, then sing louder and point your chin down. This helps because when most people try to reach a note, they point their chin up and have their necks stretched out in front of them. This is wrong because you're placing too much strain on your voice. I hope I helped you!
      (3 votes)
  • orange juice squid orange style avatar for user Jelly Man
    Do they teach about a recorder? I need help with that.
    (4 votes)
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    • piceratops seed style avatar for user Saxyguy63
      The main thing about playing recorder is the amount of air that you put through it. Recorder requires, especially early on in learning, a slow stream of air. Think of blowing warm air through it. Your vocal cavity should be open, as is saying, "Ahhh." Begin with no fingers down on the holes and blow. If you get a high squealing sound, slow down your air stream until the sound is pleasing to the ear. Once you conquer your air stream production, you can begin playing different notes by covering the holes with your fingers. Most any place you can buy a recorder should have a method book. By the way, in Bach and Handel's day, the recorder was used as the soprano voice in the woodwind section. Transverse(modern) flutes came about, later, as in Beethoven. Enjoy learning the recorder!
      (3 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user peachspies
    I have a question about sight reading. I started playing the piano at 4/5 years old and I'm 35 now. My private tutor is an old lady and she taught me sight reading from an early age using the 'do, re, me' but I noticed everyone uses the alphabet system now. I encounter a lot of trouble sometimes trying to figure out which key someone is referring because it seems no one uses the old system anymore. Why is that?

    My second question is when I sight read, I've always read the notes individually. I'm trying to figure out if advanced musicians are able to sight read in bulks as opposed to individual notes like I do (which consumes time to figure out what is written). If so, what techniques can I use to enable me to sight read in 'bulks' instead of individual notes?

    So for example if I'm playing a piece and there's an octave that consisted of (me, sol, si, me) then I will sight read each note and assign my finger based on each one. I'm assuming there are people who are able to look at the combination and immediately can tell the mixture without needing to look at each note individually. I suppose this is similar to quantum reading where there are people who are able to read 3 lines of a book instead of each word in each sentence and then 1 sentence per one scan.

    Am I making sense?
    (4 votes)
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    • blobby green style avatar for user MyKindaPotato
      Try playing Chorales (from a church song book for example) and playing straight through, focusing only on the highest and lowest note. If you just play the Soprano and Bass lines, you'll get good practice, and yeah it's exactly like the reading method you mentioned. The first step is to eliminate the need to sound out the word, and then the need to say it in your head as you read it (singing twinkle twinkle while reading, for example), then to read multiple words at once, etc, etc. Set up metronome, slow place, and pretend like you're performing for a group. No stops first playthrough, just soprano and bass notes if you can. If that's too hard, work on alto and tenor together alternating with work on bass soprano together, just practice using your peripheral vision to observe everything. Good luck!
      (3 votes)
  • starky ultimate style avatar for user Damion Vanderschaegen
    How do people memorize the notes of music?
    (3 votes)
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    • piceratops ultimate style avatar for user Eden
      Muscle memory contributes a lot to memorization as well, at least for me. The more you play, the more your body remembers how to play the notes. No matter how you memorize notes, it all happens with lots and lots of practice!
      (4 votes)
  • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user Geoffrey Nicosia
    Now what about Bagpipe notation? because it goes l-g l-a b c d e f H-G H-A
    (5 votes)
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Video transcript

- [Tutor] In our section on Note Values, we discussed whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, sometimes with dots, all different note values. Now let's place these notes, so they can represent a pitch, a pitch is a sound determined by the speed of a vibration from the source of the sound, a source means in our case, musical instrument and these vibrations create a pitch, the thinner the vibration, the faster the vibration, the higher the pitch, the slower the vibration, the lower the pitch. We begin with a staff or a stave, which has five parallel lines, any one of our notes can be placed on one of these five lines or four spaces. Let's work with a whole note. Now, the next element to identifying a pitch is added, that's called a clef, there are many clefs, but let's start working with the treble clef, each note placed on the treble clef has a name, corresponding to the first seven letters of the alphabet, starting with A and ending with G, these seven note names are repeated indefinitely. On the staff with a treble clef, A is on the second space, continuing up, the next note is B, that'll be on the third line, then the third space is C, the fourth line is D, the fourth space, E, the fifth line, F and above the staff, a G. Now we can see the succession of notes from A to G on the treble clef staff. If we place a note below or lower than the second space A on the second line, it is a G, remember the alphabet goes from A to G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and if we go down, we reverse the alphabet, so that line, second line becomes a G, the first space, an F, the lowest line an E and below the staff a D. As the notes ascend, the pitch becomes higher, when the notes descend, the pitch becomes lower, this is true of all traditional music notation. The treble clef is sometimes called a G clef, because it circles the G on the second line, this clef is used for treble instruments and voices or the highest pitched instruments and voices, the soprano voice and instruments like flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, horn, violin and the upper part of the piano, often played with the right hand.