The reading courseLesson 5 of 13 · Level 3
G position, eighth notes and 3/4
Move the hand to a new position, count eighth notes, and feel three beats in a bar.
What's new on the page
Eighth notes in pairs counted 1 and 2 and, and a bar of 3/4.
Real music doesn't stay in one position. In G position the right hand covers G, A, B, C and D from the G above middle C, and the left hand the same five keys an octave or two lower. When the next note lies outside the five keys under your hand, the hand moves: look ahead for it, and the finger number printed over the note tells you which finger lands there.
An eighth note is half a beat: a filled head with a stem and a flag, or two or more joined by a beam. Count them 1 and 2 and: the numbers on the beats, the "and"s halfway between.
In 3/4 there are three quarter-note beats in a bar, counted 1 2 3, the first a little stronger: the beat of a waltz or a minuet. The dotted half note you met in C position fills a whole bar of it.
Met on the page you play at the end, not on a card: moving the hand to a new position.
The guides that go further: How to read rhythm: note values, rests, dots and ties and How to read time signatures.
Pieces this lesson opens
Pieces in the library that read as ready once you know everything up to this lesson, and didn't before it.
- Study in F, Op. 17 No. 23Félix Le Couppeylevel 3
- Piece in C, Op. 117 No. 11Cornelius Gurlittlevel 3
- Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 18Jean-Baptiste Duvernoylevel 3