Margaret Ann Martin - Knack Piano for Everyone: A Step-by-Step Guide to Notes, Chords, and Playing Basics

Accelerando: Play gradually faster.

Allegro: Literally, it means cheerful. For musicians it means a lively tempo.

Andante: A relaxed, walking tempo.

Arpeggio: An extended broken chord; it can be as short as 3 or 4 notes, or cover the whole keyboard.

Chord: Several notes which sound harmonious, or pleasant, played at the same time (blocked) or one note at a time (broken)

Contrary Motion: Two voices (or hands) go in opposite directions.

Crescendo: Get gradually louder.

Damper pedal: The right foot pedal; when pressed down with the right foot, the dampers lift off the strings, allowing them to vibrate longer.

D.C. al Fine: An indication at the end of a piece of music that means to go back to the beginning and play to the end (da capo al Fine).

Decrescendo: Get gradually softer.

Downbeat: the first beat in a measure.

Dynamics: How softly or loudly to play.

Enharmonic: Two notes (or one key) sound the same, but have different names.

Fallboard: The board that covers the piano keys, or folds back to uncover the keys.

Flat (): Written before the note, it means to play the very next key (either black or white) lower, or to the left.

Forte (F): Play loudly.

Fortissimo (FF): Play very loudly.

Grand staff: Two staffs, usually a treble staff and a bass staff, connected by a brace. Used for any keyboard music.

Interval: The distance from one pitch (note) to another pitch (note).

Key Signature: A series of sharp or flat symbols placed on the staff designating consistent changes throughout the music.

Legato: To play smoothly with no break in sound.

Lento: To play at a slow tempo.

Measures: The way music is organized so that rhythm is easier to read. Measures are separated by bar lines.

Metronome: A device for keeping a steady pulse. It ticks like a clock, to a rate of 40 beats per minute up to 208 beats per minute.

Natural sign(): Cancels a sharp or flat.

P5th: An abbreviation used in this book for perfect 5th. There should be six keys between the notes.

Parallel motion: Two voices (or hands) move in the same direction.

Passing tones or notes: In a melody, the notes between chord tones.

Phrase: A musical sentence or phrase, often recognized by a slur over the notes.

Pianissimo (PP): Play very softly.

Piano (P): Play softly.

Ritardando: (abbreviated rit.) Gradually slow down the tempo.

Scale: A series of notes that are consecutive in the musical alphabet.

Sharp (#): Written before a note, it means to play the very next key (either black or white) higher, or to the right.

Slur: A curved line over or under a group of notes, which indicates to play smoothly (legato).

Staccato: A dot over or under a note that indicates to play detached.

Syncopation: moving strong beats to a weak beat placement, and vice versa.

Tempo: The speed at which the basic beat moves.

Tie: A curved line connecting two notes of the same pitch. The sound lasts as long as the two notes together.

Time signature: Numbers at the beginning of a piece, one on top of the other. The top number indicates how many beats, or pulses, are in each measure; the bottom number is a symbol for the kind of note that equals one beat, or pulse.

Tonic: The first degree of a scale; the home key [of a piece of music].

Triad: A chord with three different notes.

Upbeat: A note, or notes, which comes before the first full measure of a piece.

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Editor in Chief: Maureen Graney

Editor: Katie Benoit

Cover Design: Paul Beatrice, Bret Kerr

Interior Design: Paul Beatrice

Layout: Kevin Mak

Music Notation by Darryl Gregory

Cover photos by (left to right) shutterstock, dreamstime, dreamstime, dreamstime

Back cover: shutterstock

Interior photos by Keira Schwarz with the exception of p. 16 (left):

Department of Music, University of California, Berkeley; p. 17 (left):

Department of Music, University of California, Berkeley

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN 978-1-59921-781-9

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For Bill, without whom I could never have done this.

Playing the piano can be simultaneously rewarding, frustrating, and enjoyable. Learning to play is a gradual process requiring considerable patience, but if you persevere you will experience many rewards. Youll feel the joy of having the melody and accompaniment in your two hands, and youll feel a terrific sense of accomplishment.

Examining the history of keyboard instruments reveals many wonderful innovations. Before the piano appeared about 1720, the harpsichord had prominence. The mechanism for that instrument was a string plucked by a sharpened and shaped quill affixed to a jack, which was placed at a right angle to the key. When you pressed the key the jack moved up and the quill plucked the string.

The harpsichord was made larger and louder by adding a second keyboard (and therefore another set of strings), sometimes a pedal keyboard, and for a single-keyboard instrument, a second set of strings tuned an octave higher. But no matter how you struck the keys, the tone did not change, and the sound decayed quickly.

With the invention of the fortepiano (Italian for loud/soft), as it was originally called, the sound of the keyboard changed. You could produce both soft and loud sounds by touching the keys with varying degrees of weight. The piano eventually developed into the large instrument of today, with 88 keys (rather than 35), an iron frame (rather than a wooden one), and a complicated mechanism that uses felt hammers to strike the strings, dampers that cut off the sound as soon as the finger releases the key, an escapement action to let the hammer bounce away from the string as soon as it is struck, and pedals that control the dampers and regulate a softer sound. The development of the piano is a fascinating study!