Ledger Lines

hi this is Karen Ramirez so I haven't done a video in quite a while so we've got a new series that we're going to be doing and today I'm going to talk about ledger lines and how to read notes above and below the staff I think the way that I'm going to teach you is really easy really fast and will really open your eyes as to how to read those notes that sometimes seem impossible so let's get started have you ever had picked up a piece of music and the notes are like way up above the staff in the treble clef or if you're playing just a treble clef line with chords like a lead line the notes go way down below the staff like forever and then you go I don't even know what those notes are or if you're reading bass clef and you see the notes spelled out and the treble clef is separated and the notes go way up or way down below the staff and you go well how do I do that well when I was taking lessons I had to start at the top line and just go F G a B C D and count up to them or count backwards EDC B F up and down up and down and try to remember where they were and it was it was always probably the most frustrating part of playing music for me and when you get out of the beginner level you're going to see those ledger lines a lot especially in classical music or especially if you're just reading the treble clef with the chords because if they want you to go below that that a note then you're going to have to know what the notes are called below and above the staff so my first recommendation to you is you've got to really understand the staff and reading the notes within it if you don't then I recommend that you get this book which is everything you need to know to play the piano and on page 30 is the page that explains what I'm going to explain to you now so if you'd like a written a written copy it's also on the DVDs that come with it I will put this up as a PDF if you want if you just want to know about this so it'll be available on our website at sacramento music group comm and then you can download this PDF so you don't have to take notes while you read this watch this video so let's get started it's pretty simple and straightforward so this is going to be a pretty really short video so I just you know I'm really not good at graphics and I'm more of a visual teacher so this is my little chart to kind of show you it's kind of what's written on the book on the page in the book but if you can see this you can see that the staff right here is every good on the treble clef every good bird does fly if you took piano lessons when you were a kid it was probably every good boy does fine I think somewhere along women's lib came in and they decided that wasn't really a good thing so they made it every good bird does fly and the spaces are FAC e safe so that's that's the the staff itself the lines and the spaces as you move up you'll sometimes see a lot of notes up above the staff way above the staff and when that happens it never occurred to me that they're just an extension of the staff and the names of the lines on the treble clef become the names of the spaces on the ledger lines the names of the spaces notes become the names of the notes on a line on the ledger notes now that's kind of cool because it kind of cuts your guessing and when you try to figure out what the notes are it kind of helps lower your odds when you're trying to figure out how to name them alright so start with the top space that's every e the next line is the top line is an F so every and then F and then G and then a and then B and then C D E and F so if you look at the spaces when you look at these ledger notes it's every good bird does fly and FAC II AM or than that to you it'll just complicate it so just kind of go my mom used to say when I asked her why she goes just because I said so so it's just logic and it's really kind of miraculous and amazing then it's that logical okay the lines our every good bird does fly and when you get to that's on the staff when you get up on the ledgers the spaces are every good bird does fly the spaces are FA CE e on the staff and they are FA CE II lies on the ledger lines now the same thing is true what in the bass clef so if you're je if you're a note reader and you're reading treble clef and bass clef you're very rarely going to find any have to worry about what's in between the staffs because all you're gonna have is a be a middle C in a D okay but when you get down to the bass clef the really confusing ones always least for me we're down here below the staff in the bass clef the low notes especially when I play the organ because those were the notes on the pedals alright so the lines the names of the lines in the bass clef are great big dogs fight animals it used to be good boys do fine always and again they changed it so the spaces are all cows eat grass my generation it was all cows eat grass now it's all cars eat gas so you can use whichever one you want alright so going down now lines on the staff great big dogs find and fight animals the spaces go windown if you start on the bottom space our great big dogs fight animals so going backwards from the bottom space it's animals fight dogs big great the lines okay let's say the space is on the staff are all cars eat gas the lines below are all cars eat yes you start on the bottom line and it's gas eat cars all so again logic says now I don't have I don't have to guess I could go okay is that note on a line or a space if it's on a line I know it has a space name if it's on a space I know it has a line name and that's really all you have to do to kind of take a shortcut to learning ledger notes now if you're reading a fake book and the fake book is going to take you down into this area down here with just the treble clef it's same thing and going up if you're reading like chords written out and you're it's running it you don't have the treble clef there the same thing applies going up from the bass clef so they're just opposites of what you see on the staff okay so again remember if it's a space name on the staff it will be a line name on the ledger line if it's a line name on the staff it'll be a space name on the ledger line so have fun with it and now I think you're gonna find that it's gonna be a lot easier to read those notes that are up above and way below the staff well I hope you enjoyed this this little short video I think it'll really make your dream of ledger lines much easier and quicker I'm kind of used to coming up with fast kind of cheesy ways to remember things so as an adult learning how to play I think you're going to find that will make your life a lot simpler you can also go to our website to see all the other books that I've done in videos so if you'd like a recommendation if you're a brand new beginner I would buy everything you need to know to play the piano it's one book it'll teach you everything you know about music theory and it comes with a three set DVD actually that's separate but it's done to go with the book and you can't find that on YouTube it's separate I also have a chord book emergency cord book that comes with Tootsie DVDs as a set and those DVDs are also made specifically for the book so those two books I think I'll get you started really easily and get you going and playing your music we have lots of really fun new things planned for you so stay tuned and we'll see you soon

Channel: Karen Ramirez

Views: 41,660

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Id: xO4ChJW16TM

Length: 9min 45sec (585 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 23 2016