The Complete Piano Player Book 1 by Kenneth Baker

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THE COMPLETE PIANO PLAYER - Kenneth Baker

CONTENTS About this book.5

SONGS

LESSONS

Annie'sSong,42 BanksOf The Ohio, 13

2 The piano keyboard,T How to learn the white keys

Can't Bty Me [,ove,27 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,39 Choral Symphony (Theme from), 38

3 An important note: Middle C, 9

Help, 28

4 Finger numbers,10

I'd Like To TeachThe World To Sing,36 I Know Where I'm Going, 17

1 How to sit correctly,6

5 How to play legato,12 6 How notes are written, 14 7 How notesare written-2, 18

Largo (From The New World Symphony),30

8 Musicaltiming and the beat,2I

[,ove Me Tender,34

9 Developingyour senseof rhythm, 24

Mary's Boy Child, 35 Old MacdonaldHad A Farm,40

10 More aboutrhyhm,26 11 Exceqptfrom a famousclassic,30 12 Ties,31 13 TWo more populartuneswith ties,32 14 Playingfrom two staves,34

One Of Those Songs,33 RiversOf Babylon, 19 ScarletRibbons,41 She l,oves You,27

16 Phrasemarks,36

Singin' In The Rain, 46 StrangersIn The Night, 44

17 Quavers,38 18 Staccatoand accent,40

StreetsOf [,ondon, 37 SuperTi'oupeL48

19 Restsand silence.42

This Ole House,23 What Now My tove,32

15 TWo stavesagain,35

Last word. 48

When The SaintsGo Marching In, 11 White RoseOf Athens,26

HOW TO SIT CORRECTLY It is important to sit correctly at the piano. The more comfortableyou are, the easierit is to play. Sit as shown here and you will always feel comfortableand relaxed. Sit facing the middle of the instrument, your feet oppositethe pedals.Sit upright. Adiust your seatso that your arms are lev'el*itn the keyboard-br sloping down slightly towards it. POSITIONOF THE HANDS Supportyour hands from the wrists. Curve your fingers slightly as if you were graspinglightly an imaginary ball.

With the tips of your fingerscover five adjacentnoles in'each hand.This is the ndrmal Five-FingerPlaying Position.It is also the hand's most relaxedstate.After all fingering and hand changesduring a piece,you should return to this position.

THE PIANO KEYBOARD

There are only sevenletter namesused inmusic:ABCDEFG. These sevenletter namesrepeat over and over again on the keyboard.

The black keys are arrangedin groups of twos and threes.

HOW TO LEARN THE WHITE KEYS3C, D & E Use the black keys to locate the white keys. For example,'D' lies betweentwo black keys. two black

To the left of D lies C. To the right of D lies E:

two blackkeys

HOW TO LEARN THE WHITE KEYS: F,G, A & B [Jse the groups of three black keys to locate R G, A and B (the remaining four lettersof the musicalalphabet):

three blackkeys

Find all the Fs, G's, A's and B's on your piano. Play each note in turn and name it.

HOW TO LEARN THE WHITE KEYS: C to B Play every 'set' of white notes,beginning with C and ending on B. Play in all positionson the piano.Do this several times,naming the notes as you play them.

You now know all the white notes and their names.

three blackkeys

AN IMPORTANTNOTE: MIDDLEC One of the most important notes on the piano is Middle C. This is the C nearest the middle of the instrument,directly oppositethe manufacturer'sname, as you sit at the piano.

The C below M i d d l eC

C MIDDLE The mostcentralC

[,ook at the illustrationabove. From it, you will seethat: The C to the left of Middle C is called llhe C below middle C.' The C to the right of middle C is called The C above middle Cl You should,at this stage,be able to find thesethree C's right away.lrarn to find them this easy way: O Play Middle C with the right hand (uty finger will do). o Play Middle C with the left hand. o Play The C below Middle C with the left hand. o Play The C above Middle C with the rrght hand. o Finally: play Middle C again with one of the fingersof each hand.

You now know where to find Middle C and the C's immediatelv above and below it.

The C above M i d d l eC

FINGERNUMBERS To make learning easy,the fingers of both handsare given numbers:

/t: gl,,:

,W

:!i

left hand You will seethat the thumb counts as finger Number 1. To familiariseyou with the finger numbersof the right hand, we are going to play the greatjazz number: tr4henThe Saints Go Marcltng In.

righthand Before you start to play,cover the five notes from Middle C to G above it with the five fingers of your right hand, like this:

I Ill MID

oD E FG

R.H. (Right Hand)

Notice that every so often the tune 'stays stilli while you go on tapping your foot. Rememberto hold the note down during this time.

Now play each note with the fingers shown below. To help you play in time, tap your foot to the music.The little diagramsbelow the finger numbersI show you when to tap.

WHEN THE SAINTSGO MARCHINGIN Tiaditional finger n u m b e r :1

oh

s* a

34s when the

Saints

t

Itttt rstuSt

1 345 G o march- ing *

in

rt* ?ffT

134 5313 Oh when the Saints

**t

!!ttBttf

2

3

in

I'm

*

355

2

going to

?

*

1 be_

tl*e il#*G

4

in-

that

n u m - ber

t

? 4

5 w h e n t h e Saints

t*

3

*

g

c

3

ing-

8o -march

t It

s*

*s

2

31 go

**

march -

t

*n *a

in8 U

1 in

t* O C o p v r i g h t 1 9 8 4 D o r s e v B r o r h er s N { u s i cL t d . . L o n d o n W l

All rights rt'st'nt'cl. Irttt'rttatiotral copvright setr-trt'tl

You now know the finger numbers of the right hand. 11

HOW TO PLAY LEGATO Legato meansjoined uP'.When You play legato,yoqr playing soundssmooth and connected. To get this smooth and connectedeffect, as each new note is played you release the precedingnote. In other words: one finger exactly replacesanother.The r"*lt is a continuous,unbroken flow of sound.This is true legato playing. Always play legato unless the music is marked otherwise. In your effortsto play legato,never let one sound overlap the next. If you do, you may get an ugly sound mixture. Your ear will tell you when you are playing legato.Remember:

LEFTHAND FINGERNUMBERS You are now going to learn the left hand finger numbe^ U/playing the traditional tune: BanhsOf Tlte Ohio. Before you start to play,-coverthe five notes from C below Middle C to G with the five fingers of vour left hand:

O No gaps. O No overlaps. Now play I,trhenTheSaintsGo Marchng In agiin-fue you playing smoothly?Do all the notesjoin up? If so, You are playing legato.

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L .H . (Left Hand) Now play each note accordingto the finger numbersgiven. Thp your foot to keep time, as before" '

Remember: play legato

BANKSOFTHEOHIO Tiaditional finger num b e r :5 I

33 5 my asked

t

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to

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take

t!

a

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7

4

43

to

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2

4

a

1 lit

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a

utu

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tle

3 walk *e0

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1 Right down be

33

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4 walk

4

55

love

1 side *

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fi

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u

3712 where wa - ters

flow

t?93 554 down by

3 the banks

stB

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34

45

of the O

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ft k

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c o p v r i g i r ts c c u r e t l @ C o p v r i g h t l 9 g 4 D o r s c v B r o t h c r s M u s i c L t t l . , L O n c l O nW l . A l l r i g h t s r e s e r l ' e d .I n t c r n a t i o r r a l

You now know the finger numbers of the left hand.

HOW NOTES ARE WRITTEN Musical notes are written on groups of five lines called 'staves':

A stave

The notes may be written on any 'line':

in any 'space'betweenlines:

this counts as a

this countsasa

The piano needstwo staves:one for the top half of the instrument:

This signis calledthe 'TrebleClef'

and one for the bottom half;

Thissignis calledthe 'BassClef'

'space'

'space'

The two stavesarejoined togetherby n brace':

Brace

The notes on the upper stave (indicated by the Tieble Clef) are usuallyplayedby the right hand. The notes on the lower stave (indicated by the BassClef) are usuallyplayedby the left hand. Middle C falls on a line exactly between the two staves.

C MIDDLE

Actuallywritten:

G>

M i d d l eC p l a y e d by right hand

€>

M i d d l eC p l a y e d by left hand

The Middle C line is never drawn in its entiretysincethat would causeconfusion with the other lines.A partial line is all that is needed: MIDDLEC

Cover the five notes Middle C to G with the fingersof your right hand:

ll II Irlll MID

oD E FG ledger

Such partiallines are called

'ledgerlines.'

Now let's seehow your first five notesfor right hand are written:

R .H . tRight Ha n d )



RIVERS OF BABYLON \\brds & Music: Farian,Reyam, Dowe and McMaughton

Hold note down here L .H . (left h an d )

By the rivers

of

ru

*&** wsws

g

$ U

Ba

Yeah-

& w

s

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s&

ffi

By the rivers

of

Ba

by -

& w

w

@

ffiffi

& w

wq@

w

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&

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lor the ['K

ancl F,ire. All riehts rcserved. International toovrisht

mem-bered

set'urcd.

w

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we

w ^t

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lon

Yeah

down *

w€

&

@

& w

sat

w

w

Zi-on

we

SAI

wept

we

w

&*& trw#

There

There

lon

&

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- mem - bered

-

w

down

& *

by

You now know nine important notes and how thev are written: MIDDLEC 1



I

I

/

ItlllI I Ill MID

F G A Bo D E F G /

5 F

I

4 G

l €> 3 A

2 B

These nine notes are all that are needed to play all the songsin this book. After this, new notes will be added gradually.Keyboard charts will be given to illustratenew notes as they occur. The cardboardchart included with this book fits over the piano keyboard and may be used for reference.In addition,in this book, 'letter names'have been written againstthe notes.But, 1zou should memorise all new notes as soon as possible.

Itr

1 MIDDLEC

MUSICAL TIMING AND THE BEAT The 'Beat'is the name given to the rhyhmic pulsefelt behind most music. When you were tapping your foot to Ir[4rn Tlte SatntsGo MarchingIn, BanfrsOf The Ohn, and RtbersOf Babylon,/ou were tapping out the beat. In most tunes there is a seriesof natural 'accents', which recur regularlyevery few beats. A line called a'bar line' is drawn in front of every one of thesenatural accents. These lines divide the music into 'bars' or 'measures'. Accents(not usuallymarked)

I

snnt

\

+

BAR4

BAR2

Barlines

Double Bar lines(the end of the piece, or a section of the piece)

In the above examplethe beat is written in 'crotchets'(sometimescalled 'quarter notes'):

. tltl .

-

.or|? ltll ?

?

?

(Note that the 'tails'or 'stems'may be written up or down). Look at the aboveexampleagain, and you will seethat there are four crotchets(quarternotes)to the bar, This is indicatedat the beginningof the piecelike this:

The above pair of numbersis calledthe 'time signature'.In every time signature there is: An 'upper figure':this showshow many beatsthere are in the bar (four in our example).

'lower figure': this shows how the A beats are written. In our example the lower figure 4 means that the beats are notes). wntten as crotchets ("c1urrrter"

l1

DEVELOPINGYOUR SENSEOF RHYTHM The melody notes of This OleHouse correspondedwith the crotchet beat exactly.But usually a melody includesa number of notes of longer duration. This is how some of theselonger time notes are written: Name of note Minim (half note)

Dotted minim (dotted half note)

Semibreve (whole note)

How written

Duration

)

)

Lastsfor two (crotchet)beats

)

)

Lastsfor three (crotchet)beats

)

Lastsfor four (crotchet)beats.

)

o

)

)

)

)

)

To get you usedto thesedifferenttime notes,I want you to play now some They are written rhyhm exercises. entirely on Middle C. The frst rhyhm exerciseis for the right 'minims', hand. It features'crotchets', 'semibreves'. 'dotted minims' and In each bar, there are four crotchets (or their equivalent). Choosea suitablespeed(not too fast), and maintainthe samespeedthroughout. Thp your foot once on every crotchet beat.

RHYTHM EXERCISE1 BAR4

Count: 1

2

BAR5

BAR8

Bar 1 Play Middle C on beats l, 2, 3 and 4. Bar 2 Play C on beat 1 and let the sound continue while you count and tap beat2.PlayC on beat3 and let the sound continuewhile you count and tap beat 4. Bar 3 Play C on beat 1. Play C on beat 2 and let the sound continuewhile you count and tap beat 3. Play C on beat 4. Bar 4 Play C on beat 1 and let the sound continuewhile you count and tap beats2, 3 and 4. Continue similarly to bar 8. Did you keep your speed constant? Now another rhythm exercise,this time for the left hand. Again you will be using Middle C only. This exerciseis in fl time, in other words there are three crotchets(or their equivalent)to the ban RHYTHM EXERCISE2

L,H.

Count:1

23123123123

123123123123

Did you keep your speedconstant? You now know about: 1 beatnotes .J Crotchets(quarter notes) 2 beatnotes J Minims(halfnotes)

3 beat notesJ. Dotted minims (dottedhalfnotes) (wholenotes) 4 beat notes o Semibreves

25

MORE ABOUT RHYTHM

t0

From now on you will be calledupon to put your knowiedge of rhyhm to work. The popular tunes you are going to learn will use all four kinds of notes:crotchets, minims,dotted minims and semibreves. Check that you know them thoroughly. You are first going to play tr[/hite RoseOf ,,4t/terufor the right hand. As usual before you start to play,cover the notes Middle C to G with the five fingersof your right hand.

The tune startson Middle C played with the thumb. There are four crotchets(or their equivalent)to the bar.

Remember to play legato

WHITEROSEOFATHENS

NOTES REQUIRED

\ Itrsic:Manos Hadjidakis.Words:Norman Newell. \clditionalWords: fuchie Bleyer.

| 23 @

FINGERING

4 5

note down for four beats

white roseblooms a 123 4

the 4

E You 1

D

must

leave

4

1

good 34

Till

the

1

4

12

12

3

bye my 123

white

leave

Det

love

till 4

rose blooms a

34

the 1

galn. 1

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