Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to lesson one from the Introduction to Keyboard Playing Unit from the Oak National Academy.

Today's lesson is called "Playing a Melody in the C Position on the Keyboard".

My name is Miss Ogunjobi, and let's get started.

By the end of today's lesson, you should be able to identify the notes C to G on the keyboard and be able to perform a melody in the C position.

Our keywords for today's lesson are C position, melody, and stave.

The C position is a hand position we use when we're playing the keyboard.

The most important feature of this position is that your thumb is on the C key.

A melody is the main tune or recognisable part in a piece of music.

If you think of a famous tune such as the national anthem or the Happy Birthday song, the part that you would hum is the melody line.

A stave is a set of five lines and four spaces that we use in music to represent different notes.

Each line in each space represents a specific note.

In the first half of today's lesson, we're going to be working on how to find the C position on a keyboard.

The word keyboard is used to reference a family of instruments that all use keys to make music.

The most famous of these is the piano, but it also includes instruments like the organ, harpsichord, and synthesiser, which is an electronic instrument.

On a keyboard, we can see different coloured keys, white keys and black keys, and each of these keys has its own unique notes.

Today, we're just going to be focusing on the white keys.

On the white keys, each note is labelled after a letter of the alphabet from A to G.

Once we get to G, the next note would be A again, so there are no notes called H on the keyboard.

If we look at the keys and how they're arranged, what can we notice about the pattern? Pause the video now to answer.

The easiest way to spot the pattern that these keys are arranged in is by looking at the black keys.

We can see that they alternate between groups of three and groups of two that repeat.

When trying to find C on the keyboard, the easiest way to do this is to find the group of two black notes and then find the white note directly on the left of them.

C is always to the left of the two black keys.

Now, that we know where C is on the keyboard, we can find the C position with our right hand.

If we look at the note names on the keyboard from C to G, we can see that they're ordered in alphabetical order.

So after C comes D, then E, then F, and then G.

Each of these notes has also been assigned a number.

These numbers correspond with the fingers on our right hand, one representing our thumb and five representing our little finger.

Using these numbers, we can make sure our fingers are arranged on the right notes on the keyboard and therefore, play the correct notes.

Being able to use the correct fingers for the correct notes is an example of good keyboard technique and that gives us more control when we're playing a piece of music.

Sometimes it can be tempting to just play every single note with the same finger, but this can very quickly get confusing.

In a moment, we're going to watch an example of someone playing in the C position.

As you watch, notice the hand shape they're using and the way in which their fingers are positioned.

(piano playing) Time for our first check for understanding.

How do we find C on the keyboard? Is the answer A, C is to the left of the three black keys, B, C is to the right of the two black keys, or C, C is to the left of the two black keys? Pause the video now to answer.

Well done, if you chose C.

C is always to the left of the two black keys on a keyboard.

Next question, which of the following diagrams shows the C position? Is the answer, A, B, or C? Pause the video now to answer.

Well done, if you chose B.

In the diagram for B, we can see that the C key is labelled with a number one, which is where our thumb would go.

Now you're gonna have a go at completing the following tasks.

In task one, you'll need to find the C position on the keyboard with your right hand and practise playing repeated Cs.

Remember that in the C position, your thumb should be on the C key and we find C by looking for the group of two black notes and then finding the white note on the left of them.

In the second task, you'll need to play the following pattern evenly.

Make sure you play this at a steady tempo and that you play each note for the same length of time, and in the third task, you'll need to make up and practise your own short melody using the notes C to G.

See if you can experiment with using different note lengths.

Now, let's watch what we should have done for each of these tasks.

Here's a video showing what task one should sound like.

(piano playing) Now, let's watch a video showing what task two should sound like.

(piano playing) Finally, let's watch a video showing what task three should sound like.

(piano playing) Congratulations on completing the first half of this lesson.

In the second half of this lesson, we're going to be working out how to play the notes C, D, E, F, and G on the keyboard.

Earlier on, we talked about staves.

A stave is a group of five lines and four spaces we can use to represent different notes and their pitches.

Each note on a stave is represented by a symbol and as these symbols move higher up the stave, the pitch of the note also moves higher up.

If we look at the diagram below, we can see that C is the lowest of the five notes and G is the highest, which is represented by C being the lowest on the stave and G being the highest.

Go to the Slide Deck and click the Listen button to hear what these notes sound like when played on the keyboard.

As we just discussed, each symbol has its own pitch, but how can we tell the difference between the symbols? The easiest way to do this is to look at C.

C is the most distinctive as it has its own line and it sits underneath the stave.

From here, we can count up each line in each space to work out where the rest of the notes are.

So the space directly above C is where D would go, the line directly above D is where E would go, and so on.

When we put these notes together in different combinations, we can turn them into a melody line.

If we also make sure our hand is in the C position when we play, we can use the finger prompts to help us work out which notes to play.

Go to the Slide Deck and click the Watch button to watch an example of what this melody should sound like.

Time for another check for understanding.

True or false, this note is a C.

Pause the video now to answer.

Well done, if you chose true, this note is a C.

Now, justify your answer.

Is this note a C because A, it has its own line and sits just underneath the stave or because B, it's a black circle with a stem/line? Pause the video now to answer.

If you chose A, well done, you were correct.

This note is a C because it has its own line and it sits just underneath the stave.

Next question, fill in the following note names.

Pause the video now to answer.

Here's what the answer should look like.

As we noted earlier, the easiest note to identify is C as it has its own line and sits underneath the stave.

To work out where the rest of the notes would be, we can count up and down between the different lines and spaces.

In a moment, we're going to have a go at practising some short melodies on the keyboard.

In order to do this successfully, there are a few things we need to make sure we're aware of.

The first thing we need to do when we try to play a melody on the keyboard is find the C position.

We can do this by finding where C is on the keyboard by looking for the two black keys and finding the white key on the direct left.

Using the finger prompts and notation will help you identify which notes to play in which order.

Make sure you're playing evenly by playing each note for the same amount of time and make sure to practise at a slow tempo to make sure you're not making mistakes.

In a moment, we're gonna have a go at practising some short melodies on the keyboard.

In order to do this successfully, there are a few things we need to make sure we're aware of.

The first thing we need to do is find the C position on the keyboard.

To find C, we look for the group of two black notes and then the white note to the left of them.

Using the finger prompts in the notation can help you identify the order of which you need to play each note.

Make sure to play each note for the same length so that the performance sounds even and make sure you practise at a slow tempo to minimise the amount of mistakes you make.

Have a go at playing each of these short melody shown.

Use the success criteria we just went through and once you've finish playing a melody, go to the Slide Deck, click on the Watch Video, and watch the example of what the melody should sound like.

Now, you've had some practise, have a go at playing the following melodies without the number prompts.

Once you've played through each melody, go to the Slide Deck, click the Watch button, and watch the example of what it should sound like.

We're now going to watch two performances of the same melody.

As we listen to each melody, think about the following questions.

Was the player playing in the C position? So was their thumb on the C key as they played? Was the performance fluent? A fluent performance will have a steady tempo and each note will be played evenly.

It's easier to achieve a fluent performance by playing with a slower tempo.

(piano playing) Let's discuss what we just watched.

(mouse clicks) In the first performance, we can see that the player is using the C position when they play.

Their thumb is clearly on the C key.

They play each note accurately and evenly using a slow tempo.

The player in the second recording is playing in the C position also and most of the notes they play are accurate.

However, the performance is uneven and therefore, less satisfying to listen to.

If the player had played at a slower tempo, they would've had more time to play the notes accurately and evenly.

Let's summarise what we've learned today.

The C position is a hand position we use when playing the keyboard and to make sure our hand is in the C position, we need to position our thumb on the C key as we can see in the picture below.

Every note on the keyboard has their own symbol on the stave and we can use each of these symbols to identify the notes we need to play to form a melody line.

Congratulations on completing lesson one in this unit.