My First Piano Adventures 5

This week J. finished Book 1. Congratulations! You are a wonderful student and thanks to you I decided to launch my teaching into Faber and Faber My First Piano Adventures.

The one teaching idea I wish I had started earlier with J. is the introduction of the staff. So this week I pulled out my ropes and we created a home for the notes.

Reading notes on the staff is like learning a mysterious code. This code has it's origins in 1028 when an Italian monk first came up with a 4 line staff. He began notating music with syllables "Do Re Mi" and used his hand to show all the pitch positions.

Today my students grapple with two staffs.  The treble, ruled over by Queen Treble Clef,  handles notes mostly above middle C.

She once looked liked an upper case G, and her belly circles the treble G line. And the King Bass staff which houses the notes lower than middle C, usually.

The bass clef used to be an upper case F and his round knob is right on the bass F line. 

So, our quest to break the code has officially begun. It may take a long time for your child to recognize the relationship of a note on the staff to the key on the piano. However, the day will come when reading notes on the staff will be as easy as reading letters on a page, and if that has not happened yet, don't worry it will. We all start from the ground up.