Problem reading music

[Monkeychild]

Ok, I'm having a bit of difficulty.

I bought a digital piano the other day and for the moment I'm reading tutorial books to keep me going until after christmas when I'll decide if I should get lessons.

So, the book explained a bit about musical notation and I THOUGHT I understood it, until I started trying to play Feeling good.

(This is loooong)

OK, so from what I understood, the treble stave represents keys after middle C. Middle C it's self would be located under the bottom line.. so the first line is the E key after Middle C. Correct so far?
This would mean the E at the top would be the next E in line?

So as a stave is it'd be (Starting from Middle C going to the first part of the stave) E after Middle C, then F, G, A, B, NEXT C, D, NEXT E.

Is that right?

Right, so if you look at Feeling good, the first keys I press are the first D,G and Bb keys? This sounds right. Thie first 3 chords I have no problem with.
On the next page though it has the same notes, but apart from the Bb, the other 2 notes are higher. I tried playing this with a different hand position and played the second D and G after middle C.
This however, when played along with the recording, seems a bit too high. So when I played it next I played in the same position, which makes it a bit hard with the fingering when you do the next few changes with the E-Eb bit, as all the fingers become scrunched up and would probably be easier in the different position.

What I basically want to know is, is my understanding of the musical note location on the stave correct? Or am I just misunderstanding?

[Matthijs]

http://www.wikihow.com/Read-Music

[Monkeychild]

Thanks, but that didn't answer my question. It doesn't even talk about what I asked.

[DJF]

I'm not quite sure what you're asking but I'll try and explain anyway,

When he plays the same three notes (D,G,Bb) with the G and D higher, the notes on the keyboard are like this:



You'd want to use your thumb on the Bb, your second finger (index finger?) on the D and your pinkie (5th finger) on the top G. Then just move that shape around as needed (the next chord is Bb, D and F, so just move your pinkie down from the G to the F).

[acshe]

Originally Posted by Monkeychild

Thanks, but that didn't answer my question. It doesn't even talk about what I asked.

It actually does, at the end of the video they explain how to read notes.

You can imagine the notes as alphabet, A,B,C,D,E,F,G and then it starts over again.
Wait, have a look at the picture I just made (it's midnight, I can't find my Wacom so I have to use a mouse and the program is paint, so don't be so hard). I know it looks pretty bad.
It's supposed to go:
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C (bass cleff)
C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C


I wouldn't choose Feeling Good as first song. Maybe play "Resistance Intro" before?
It shouldn't take you more than 20 minutes master the intro (advanced player maybe 2-5 minutes...)

These are the right hand notes for Feeling Good, the first part:
G-Bb
D-G-Bb
D-G-A
D-F#-A
Bb-D-G
Bb-D-F
G-Bb-E
G-Bb-Eb
G-Bb-D
G-A-D

You can use the thumb as anchor point, move it from D up to Bb for the next part and then down to G again.

Damn, DJF you were faster and have a nicer looking pic

[DJF]

Originally Posted by acshe

Damn, DJF you were faster and have a nicer looking pic

It's amazing what you can do with screenshots and paint

[Monkeychild]

Ok another question.. I have a book of licks I've never once used because it's all written in proper musical notation.. not tab.
Though I understand what each line of the stave is, on the keyboard it is easy because you can relate everything to where the middle C would normally be.. and know that this is the C in the middle of the keys.. straight forward.
But where is middle C on a guitar?
I found the C major scale in musical notation as attached to explain what i mean.. with that i can see I start at middle C, so for a keyboard/piano I'd know where I was starting from, ensuring the correct pitch and all that.

On a guitar though I could play that in countless amounts of areas, and even 'middle C' if I go to the general middle of the guitar, there are 2 C's on on 8th fret. One high one low. Both will mean different pitched licks. So how would i know which to use?

[Phill]

Play middle C on a keyboard and see which C on the guitar matches it?

[Matthijs]

I think the central C would be the 8th on the E string / 3rd on the A string... that, or it's an octave up but I'm not sure