There's More to Playing the Piano: A thorough explanation of music theory with practical keyboard activities and video links for each topic

1 Note Values

Most music has a steady beat.

The beat can be fast or slow depending on the piece of music being played. We describe our notes in terms of the beat, rather than trying to measure them in fractions of a second.

There are five very common notes that you will see in your music. Each of these notes has a different duration.

The diagram above assumes that one crotchet is one beat. This is a simplification - it is not always the case in pieces of music (see Chapter 17).

Each note can have a note head, a stem and a tail. Quavers and semiquavers can be joined together with beams (see Chapter 21).

A crotchet is typically one beat – but it is also known as a quarter note. This is because there are often four crotchets in each bar. You will often hear musicians counting 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 etc.

Similarly, a minim is also known as a half note because there are often two minims in each bar.

A semibreve is known as a whole note because there is often one semibreve filling the whole bar.

Quavers are known as eighth notes.

Semiquavers are known as sixteenth notes.

There are also longer notes called breves or double whole-notes.

Each breve is twice the length of a semibreve.

There are also notes called demisemiquavers or thirty-second notes.

Each demisemiquaver is half the length of a semiquaver.

There are also notes called hemidemisemiquavers or sixty-fourth notes.

Each hemidemisemiquaver is half the length of a demisemiquaver.

2 Naming Notes

We describe squeaky notes as being high-pitched; we describe rumbly notes as being low-pitched. When we write music, we draw five lines – called the stave – and we place our notes high and low accordingly. Really high and really low notes are drawn on little extra lines called ledger lines.

The notes that we use in music (A B C D E F and G) are written on the stave in simple alphabetical order.

Most piano music is written on two staves. The right-hand part is written using the treble clef (see chapter 6). The left-hand part is written beneath