Memorize note values. Note values represent the duration of sound. When they are counted with a steady beat, it creates rhythm. There are four basic note values: the quarter note, the half note, dotted half note and the whole note. Some other note values are eighth notes and sixteenth notes.
Practice the rhythm technique. Clap your hands at a steady beat as you count note values out loud. Practice slowly, then gradually speed up your tempo.
Read and memorize music notes on the musical staff as you relate the notes to the alphabet on the piano. The way to find these keys or notes is to determine where each key or note is located on a musical staff. A musical staff is a set of five lines and four spaces that each represent a different pitch or note.
Repeat a technique for you to remember the lines on a staff. The five lines equal EGBDF. You can use a saying such as Every Good Boy Does Fine (E-G-B-D-F) as a memory device, or make up a silly saying of your own. Play the line notes on the keyboard as you read each line of the staff.
Practice a technique to remember the spaces on a musical staff. The four spaces spell out FACE, and F is the first space on the staff above middle C. Middle C is the imaginary line below the staff. Play the space notes on the keyboard.
Practice to locate music notes on a staff. If you look at the picture, the first music note on the staff is an eighth note. The eighth note represents Middle C or C on the piano. Middle C is the fourth C on the piano keyboard by the two black keys to the right. Two steps up from C is an E on the staff, which is a quarter note in the picture. Use the picture and the above steps to figure out each music note on this staff.
Sing music notes when you play the piano to relate music notes to sound or pitch. The purpose of music notes is to indicate to the musician how long a person should play or sing the note value or music note and how high or low a musician should play or sing according to how the notes are positioned on the musical staff.
Practice sight reading on the piano. Sight reading is to play unfamiliar music on the piano by using any sheet music to tell you where to play and how long.