LESSON EIGHT
C Sharp, D Flat, 2/4 Time (March Time)
C Sharp, D Flat, 2/4 Time (March Time)
Now all the notes we have looked at so far are what is known as naturals. If you look at a piano keyboard they are all the white notes. Now we need to look at the black notes, what is known as accidentals. Where there is a black note between two white notes the gap between the white notes is a tone. The black note is half a tone - a semitone- up from the bottom white note and a semitone down from the higher white note. If there is no gap between the white notes then they are only a semitone apart in first place. The above diagram names the notes on a diagram of a piano keyboard. The symbol that looks like an italic hash sign is a sharp sign. When you see this next to a note it means play the note a semitone up. The sign that looks like a small italic b is a flat sign. When you see this next to the note it means play the note a semitone down. So a sharp next to a C is the black note to the right of C and a flat next to a D is the note to the left of D, i.e. the same note. That might sound a bit confusing at first but trust me, it is easier when you are playing that it is to explain.
This exercise then includes our first accidental C sharp. to play this you cover all the holes as in C except for the right hand of the two at the bottom that you play with the little finger of your right hand. So first just practice moving the little finger sidewards between notes rather than lifting it up completely and then have ago at the piece above. The last note in each bar is sharp.
Now on this exercise the second note is sharp and once a note in a bar is sharp it stays that way until the end of the bar (unless indicated otherwise which we will discuss in the next exercise). So play C then C sharp 3 times and repeat for all four bars.
This bar introduces a new symbol. The symbol that looks like an italic H is a natural sign. If you see this sign next to a note it means that the note which would otherwise have been sharp or flat is now a natural. So this is exactly the same as the exercise above except that the fourth note in each bar has a natural sign next to it. So the first C is natural, the next two are sharp and the final note goes back to natural again. So C, C sharp, C sharp and C in each bar.
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