Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.Today we're going to learn about the music alphabet
and how it relates to the piano. Uh, excuse me, no offense, Mr. Hoffman, but
I've know the alphabet since, well, before Kindergarten!
Don't worry, princess. The musical alphabet is a little bit different from the regular
alphabet you already know. Plus, in music, you not only need to master the alphabet forward,
but backwards, and in skips. These alphabet skills are the very important but often overlooked
foundation for excellent sight reading of notes on the staff.
Oh! Okay. It will make sense in no time. Let's come
and take a look at how it works. I'm going to lay out the letters of the musical alphabet,
and as you see each letter, let's say it together. A B C D E
Uh, Mr. Hoffman, this still looks like the regular alphabet.
I know. Just wait, we're getting there. F G and then, here's where things start to get
different. In music, the next letter after G is A. It starts over again. There's no H
in music. Oh!
So, after A comes B again, say it along with me, C D E F G and then what comes next?
A! That's right. A. And now I'm out of cards,
but on your piano though, the notes keep going higher and higher. You see, every time you
go up a letter that's the same as going up one note, or one white key higher on your
piano. Let me show you what I mean on my piano. Now if you have an 88 key piano like me, then
your lowest key will be A. You hear how low that is. And, the nice thing about the musical
alphabet is it just follows every key on your piano goes up one letter in the music alphabet.
So we have A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and then it starts over again, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, go
ahead and say it along with me. A B C D E F G, A B C D E F G, A B C D E F G, A B C D
E F G, A B C D E F G, A B C. You can see the highest note of the piano is C. And that's,
again, on an 88 key piano. In another lesson really soon I'll show you some tools where
you can use the black keys as a reference to figure out any white key. For example if
you play this key you wouldn't want to have to count all the way from the bottom to figure
out that that's an E. I'll give you that in a later lesson. Let's come back and do a little
more practice with the musical alphabet. To review, lets' play a game. I've drawn the
musical alphabet starting with A. But there are a few missing letters that I'll need your
help to figure out. Let's say the letters together. A B what letter should go here?
If you said C, you're correct. D E what letter should go here? If you said F, you're correct.
F G. Great job. Now in music you can start with a different letter on the bottom if you
want to. So let's try another, starting with D. This time there are even more missing letters.
So we're starting on D, can you think of the note that's a step above D? Just think of
the next letter of the alphabet. What is it? Let's see. If you said E, you're correct.
If you couldn't thing of that, then just remember, think of the alphabet. A B C D, and then the
next letter is E. And then what comes after that? If you said F, you're correct. Then
what letter comes next? If you said A, you're correct. You didn't say H, did you? Oh, whew!
Good. And then what comes next? B, and then last of all, if you said C, you are correct.
Let's try one more. This time we're starting on C. Can you think of the next letter? If
you said D, you're correct. What comes next? C D then E F then what? G and then what comes
after G? That's right, it's A and then B. Nice work. Now for you hot shots that might
be thinking to yourself, this is still too easy Mr. Hoffman, remember that I said you
need to be able to master the music alphabet, starting on any letter, forward and backward,
and in skips. Like if I said, quickly tell me the musical alphabet backwards starting
on the letter F, could you do it? F E D C A B G F. Oh! What about doing the musical
alphabet forward starting on D, but skipping every other letter? Can you do it? D F A C
E G B D F. So to become a true musical alphabet master which will help you so much as you
start learning to read musical notes on the staff I'd like you to practice the musical
alphabet a little bit every day. Start on any letter, practice saying it forward, then
as you get better at that, then try saying it backward. That's level 2. Then level three
is skipping every other letter, going forward. A C E G B D F. Kind of like, acegibidif. Then
level four is skipping every other letter going backward. If you are a premium member
of our website, an easy way to get lots of practice with these very concepts is using
our alphabet towers game, which has over eight different levels to master. Or here's a game
you can do just driving around in the car with your mom or dad. Dad says, musical alphabet
forward starting on C, go. You say, no problem, Dad. C D E F G A B C. When you get back to
the letter you started on, you're done. So that's one point for you. Then you say back
to Dad, one for you, Dad. Musical alphabet backward starting on D. He says, no problem,
D C B A G F D. You say, sorry Dad, no point this time. It's D C B A G F E D. Dad says,
I am ashamed. You say, no problem, Dad. Just keep practicing. Speaking of practicing, now
it's your turn to practice the musical alphabet on your own. Work on it a little bit every
day until you have it mastered, forward and backward, starting on any letter. Thanks for
watching, and I'll see you next time. Let's practice the musical alphabet.
OK. I'll be Mr. Hoffman and you say the answers.
A B C what comes next? Uh, D?
If you said D, you're correct. E F G, what comes next?
Uh... H? Who put that there?
Not me! Don't tell Mr. Hoffman about that.
I won't tell, I didn't see any H. Ah, A. Much better. Let's get out of here.
Okay!