How to Read Notes FAST - The Pyramid System

what's up my piano friends zakims here in today's video i'm going to show you as quickly as possible how to read notes on the page using the pyramid system then we're going to cover a simple three minute a day exercise to get these notes on autopilot and finally a complete six week note reading workout plan that'll take an absolute beginner and turn them into a sight reading beast alright i'm excited and ready to go let's get started [Music] alright so if we look at a piece of music we have these two clefs the treble clef here represents all the high notes on the piano and usually it is played with the right hand the bass clef represents all the low notes on the piano and is usually played with the left hand so let's take a look at the treble clef first now you notice there are five lines and four spaces and each of these represent an actual note on the keyboard so this bottom line is the note e then the next space up is f then the next line g the next space a and then b c d e f up the keyboard now you'll notice this makes logical sense right it's the exact same order as the alphabet from a up to the letter g and then it restarts back with a now to memorize these faster we use an acronym so for the lines we use the acronym every good boy does find so every e good g boy b does d and fine f and for the spaces you'll notice it spells out the word face so we have f a c and e this way if we see a note here for example we can just count up the lines and say every good boy does does is d so here is the note same thing with spaces if we look at this note we just count f a c e oh okay this is the note e so by now you should be able to pick out every single note on the treble clef and don't worry i have a choo choo download for you later that will have all these acronyms laid out nice and easy for you so you don't have to memorize them now but first let's move on to the bass clef now just like the treble clef you'll notice there's five lines and four spaces but unfortunately these lines and spaces do not line up the same way on the bass clef as they did the treble clef so for example in the treble clef the bottom line is e but in the bass clef this bottom line is the note g this is super annoying and i wish the inventor of sheet music didn't make it like this but that's how it is so we have to learn it like this but the good part is just like the treble clef the notes do go up in the order of the alphabet so after this g we restarted a b c d e f g and back to a so we have different acronyms for the base clef as well for the lines we have great big dogs fight animals so great g big b dogs d fight f animals a and for the spaces we have all cows eat grass so all a cows see eat e grass g so for example if we see this note we just count up great big dogs fight fight okay this note is f and if we see this note we just say okay all cows eat grass grass is the note g now you're probably thinking okay zach but what about the black notes but before we go into that i don't want you to get overwhelmed so i'd highly recommend you download a couple of cheat sheets now they have the notes the acronyms right there for you plus a few things we're going to use later on in this video so click the link put in your name and email hit submit and you'll go to the bonuses page then you can download the three cheat sheets here and i'll see you back here in a sec [Music] all right next up let's cover the sharps and flats to find the black keys on the piano now a sharp symbol looks like this and it just tells you move up one note so for example here's the note g if you add a sharp symbol this becomes the note g sharp so we find our g we move up one note and this is the note g sharp now a flat symbol looks like this and it's simply the opposite of a sharp it tells you to move down one note so again here's our g and if we add the flat symbol the note becomes g flat so we move down one note so here is our g flat now to remember this easily you'll notice the sharp has these lines that are slanting slightly upward so they tell you to move up a note you can also remember that the sharpest kids move to the top of the class so sharp equals up now the flat symbol kind of looks like half of an arrow pointing downward telling you to move down one note also when a basketball becomes flat it moves down right it deflates so if we see this note we simply use our acronym every good boy does fine so every good boy boy is b and then since there's a flat symbol we go down one note so the note is b flat and if we see this note we use the acronym face so we come up f a c here's our c then we have this sharp symbol it tells us to go up one note so here's our c sharp all right so now you should be able to name any note inside of these staff but what about all these notes that are higher or lower than the staff well that's where we use ledger lines so for ledger lines we're simply drawing more lines and spaces above or below the staff to extend it it's as simple as that so for example we already know the top line of the treble clef is every good boy does fine so f so after f the next space is simply a g and then the next line is an a and then b and then c and then so on and the same thing going down so the bottom line is the note e and then if we go down in the alphabet we just go d and then c and then b and then a and so on and the exact same thing for the bass clef so the top line is great big dogs fight animals is a and if we just continue up the alphabet the next note is b and then c and d and e etc and then the bottom we have the note g and then going down is f e d c etc we don't use an acronym for ledger lines you simply count up or down from the top or bottom line to find them and eventually you want to have these memorized but by now you should be able to figure out any note on the staff including sharps and flats alright so next up we're going to cover a six-week training plan to get you lightning fast at reading these notes so that it just goes on autopilot alright so most videos out there just stop here and they go you know great you know all the notes now but the problem is it's not enough to just know all these notes you have to be able to know them fast so that when you're reading a piece of music you can see a note and instantly play it without thinking about it these acronyms like every good boy does fine they're great for the beginner stage but at the end of the day you're not gonna have time to go for every note you know every good boy does oh this is a d and you know the next note great big dogs fight okay it's an f you're going to have to straight up memorize these and know them at lightning speed to actually play songs in real time we can do this using the pyramid system all right so go back to the cheat sheet page and make sure you download the pyramid system cheat sheet here and then open up the pyramid system exercise here now i already have both of these pulled up so the cheat sheet looks like this and the exercise is going to look like this this exercise is a great way to quickly drill in note names and get a ton of reps in and the nice part is you don't even need a piano you could do this you know on the subway or while waiting in line or whatever and all you do is it gives you a note and you simply click the correct answer so for example this note is simply a c right this note is a b and you can use your cheat sheets and your acronyms you know this note is going to be an f sharp and if you get one wrong like this note is an a if you click a b it's going to turn red and you simply click the correct answer after it and you can quickly go through like a hundred notes now this exercise seems simple but a big mistake beginners make is they just rush into it and start pounding through this exercise which is a really bad idea in the long run because the problem is you don't give your brain a chance to really grasp and automate one thing at a time and you end up learning all these notes kind of sloppily and never get them on the automatic level and this is where the pyramid method comes in so we're gonna break this down break down reading notes into three variables the clef accidentals and range and we're going to isolate and work on each of these separately so that we build them back together they build a rock solid foundation for reading notes so as you can see in the cheat sheet for week one this week right here for clef we are going to do bass and treble clef separately we have accidentals which are sharps and flats off and then we have a close range so if we click the gear icon up here for clef we're going to do bass and treble separately so let's just change that to treble clef and then for accidentals we're going to turn these off and these are just sharps and flats and then for the range we're going to go to range right here and notice it says close which just means we're going to keep it within the staff like this and now if we go back to our exercise it's going to keep these notes within the range and it's not going to do any sharps and flats so for example here's f here's the note e and again use your cheat sheets and acronyms to find these notes and start to memorize them and if you practice this for a few minutes we're just going to switch to the bass clef so then go back to your settings go to the bass clef make sure that your accidentals are off and then for the range keep it to a close range and it's going to be the exact same thing now with the bass clef and now you're just going to run this exercise for a couple minutes and so for week one you're really going to just solidify these notes in your brain so you don't get it confused with anything else and every day you want to practice at least three minutes and once you get your three minutes practice you can cross off day one that's this d1 uh box up here for week one and then the next day you can practice another three minutes and cross off day number two and then of course day number three day number four and day number five once you have five days of practicing with these settings then you can put an x in the done category and now you're done with week one and all of these basic notes will be solidified in your brain then we do the exact same thing for week two but now for week two you can see it's the exact same settings except we're using the grand staff so now we go up to settings we change this to clefs and the grand staff which is both trouble and base at the same time we make sure accidentals are still off just like it says in the sheet and now range is close still so we change our range to a close range like this and now it's going to give us an exercise with the whole grand staff and again you just practice this for you know three minutes per day and on day one once you do three minutes you do the x and then same thing day two day three day four day five once you're done with week two then you can hit this done category and cross this off so you kind of get the point for week three it's gonna be the same thing you know we're gonna change the settings to bass and treble separately again but now we're gonna turn accidentals on so right we go back here we go back to our clefs and we're gonna do them separate so let's just do treble clef turn accidentals on and the range is still a close range which you can see here is just fine and now we're gonna do this exercise but it's gonna give us sharps and flats as well which is gonna make it a little bit harder and again we do our day one two three four five once we do five days we can put an x in the done category and by the end of week three this is when most students say that this stuff really starts to click and they can really feel like they can memorize notes and learn them and put them up a lot faster than they could before and then you get the picture weak form same thing we have the grand staff accidentals on range close you do all your exes for week four and then same with week five and week six and once you've completed these six weeks these notes are going to be deep in your brain and you can see how the pyramid method is a very gradual system of learning and even though it takes six weeks it's only three minutes per day but it's really going to help you develop a rock solid foundation for you to read notes automatically now one important rule to follow with this method the rule is you can only cross off one box per day no matter what so sometimes beginners think okay three minutes you know i'll just practice 30 minutes and cross off 10 boxes but that's not how it works because your brain learns and solidifies things when you sleep so you need to drill this every single day and don't get me wrong you can absolutely practice more than three minutes per day but even if you do you can only cross off one box per day one student had a great way of doing this it was kind of funny and and maybe this is too much information but he told me that he printed out these cheat sheets he put him in his bathroom and every time he was using the bathroom he would just do three minutes of note reading and then cross it off it was a great way of saving time and really keeping him on track and six weeks later he was an absolute beast at his note memorization so go get your cheat sheets now here's the link again and also there's going to be another video down below all these cheat sheets right here and it's going to give you the best place to actually get music to sight read and a step-by-step process to actually reading a piece of music if you like this lesson where i go really in depth and give you practical training plans to follow hit that subscribe button and hit the bell for notifications i'd hate for you to miss out on a future video that could really change the trajectory of your piano journey alright thanks a lot for watching and as always peace out and happy practicing you

Channel: Become a Piano Superhuman

Views: 135,370

Keywords: piano, lesson, tutorial, how to play, piano lesson, lessons, tutorials, online, online piano lesson

Id: kD4jXA_ON1w

Length: 14min 6sec (846 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 07 2021