Learning the Piano: The Basics

Learning the Piano: The Basics
Nathan Cheng
How to Play Popular Piano in 10 Easy Lessons, Norman Monath

Learning a new instrument can be equally challenging and rewarding. Hopefully, as one's skills with the instrument progresses, so does their enjoyment. Learning the piano has always been something I had thought of doing (seeing as how there's a piano in my living room) but never had the time to do.

However, acquainting myself with a completely new instrument seemed... daunting. My contextual knowledge of music stems from being in school band where I play the clarinet. The thing with the clarinet is that it is limited to playing one note at a time. On the other hand, a piano can play multiple notes, which means it is able to play melodies and harmonies and chords.

In "How to Play Popular Piano in 10 Easy Lessons", Norman Monath explains in his introduction, "You will learn how to play melodies with your right hand... and how to play chords in different ways so that you can add interest and expressiveness to your renditions" (Monath 16). This excerpt illustrates the complexity of the piano (compared to a clarinet). It's ability to play chords and melodies makes it differ from other instruments (Monath 16).

Playing notes on right hand

Playing the notes with my right hand was fairly straightforward. I'm familiar with the notes since it is the same treble clef (The swirly symbol at the far left of a sheet of music that dictates what the notes are) as the clarinet. For reference, here is the treble clef and its notes.

Treble Clef

Treble clef notes

Playing notes on left hand

However, acquainting myself with the bass clef notes on my left hand was, to be frank, a lot harder than I had perceived. Learning how to play chords was easy, but playing notes in the bass clef with my non-dominant hand was challenging. Since the notes are written the same way as the treble clef, I almost always instinctively think of the treble clef note, not the bass clef note. For reference, here is the bass clef and its notes.

Bass Clef

Bass clef notes

Verily, I think that memorizing the notes on the bass clef will be the most challenging aspect of learning piano, though once I pass this hurdle I think that this endeavor into the piano will have its rewards.

My question is; To those who play instruments on the bass clef, is there any acronyms or tricks to remembering the notes? For the treble clef, the acronym "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" can be useful for remembering the notes on the lines, and knowing that the notes on the spaces between the lines spell "FACE" is another trick to recalling the notes. Is there anything similar to the aforementioned that works with bass clef?

Monath, Norman. How to Play Popular Piano in 10 Easy Lessons. Simon & Schuster, 1994.