All that will be needed is some sort of quick and easy way of playing midi files, which of course, everyone reading this will have.
Anyone with a question is welcome to ask it.
Anyone who sees an actual mistake is welcome to point it out.
Anyone who doesn't like something about the presentation is cordially asked to start their own thread.
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We start with what is called the great staff. This is what you see when you look at a sheet of piano music. It looks like this:
There are two separate five line units or 'staves' here. Each can be used independently in any number. All written music employs these five line staves. There are two different kinds in common use:
The treble clef:
which is a stylized G. and the bass clef:
which is a stylized F.They are differentiated by the symbols above, written at the beginning of every staff. Together, they cover many of the pitches in common use, as can be seen below.
http://realmusicmedia.net/great_staff_no_sharps.mid
This diagram covers the two octaves below middle c and the two octaves above middle c. The numbers below the piano keys are the midi note numbers, with middle c as 60. The black keys (sharps and flats) are ignored for the time being, as is the rhythmic dimension. We will get to them in the near future.
Listen to the midi file while reading the notes. Do it frequently, as repetition is the basic learning tool for this stuff. (The free Noteworthy player can be a big help, as it illuminates the notes as it plays them).
By the time you are comfortable with it, lesson 2 should be ready to go (I hope).
who dosnt remember the middle C song!?