Learn How to Play Piano 15: Eighth Notes - Piano Lessons for Beginners Video Lecture | Piano Tutorials Course: Beginners to Advance - Class 6

okay time for lesson 15 Wow 15 it seems
like we started just a couple weeks ago
actually we did so up to lesson 15 today
we're going to be talking about the
eighth note what the eighth note is what
it looks like and basically how to count
it we're going to do a couple of
rhythmic examples for that and then what
we'll do
probably next time some playing examples
where I'll incorporate the things we've
talked about the last couple lessons
like eighth notes today and you know
sharps and flats and things like that
and some of the theory stuff so look
forward to that but anyway um this is
the end of the intro and I'll see you at
the keyboard in just a second all right
time for a little bit more rhythmic
practice with these things called eighth
notes now an eighth note let me get this
out here real quick these are two eighth
notes together and this is what a single
eighth note looks like so what an eighth
note is is you're cutting a quarter note
in half so you're basically cutting one
beat in half now there's a special way
to count that and I'll get that to that
in a second but let's just show you what
these two look like or what the eighth
note looks like so when it's by itself
it has the normal head and a normal stem
just like a quarter note except it has
this flag on it as you can see so if you
see a flag on it a single flag you know
that you have an eighth note and when
there are two eighth notes put together
they beam them across like kind of
connect their flags I mean they do that
to kind of once again it's for
structural purposes and to kind of show
you how beats are broken up into and
I'll show you that in a second so let's
take a look at our examples here
all right so for our first example look
at this one called quarter notes we have
4/4 time signature all the notes are
going to be C since this is just a
rhythmic exercise so to count quarter
notes it's quite simple and we've talked
about this before every time you play
the piano you're just going to count the
one I mean since we have four beats in
each measure each quarter note is going
to take up one of the four beats so we
have a quarter note on beat 1 B 2 B 3
and B 4 so there's nothing we have to do
this it's very straight forward you're
just going to play it three four now
let's take a look at where it says
eighth notes so look we have a full
measure of eighth notes and these are
the ones that are in pairs beamed across
and they're beamed across to show you
that each pair is equal to one whole
beat so what we need to do is we need to
split up each beat in the two and I'll
show you how to do that we do that with
this little plus symbol and we call that
and so what you're going to do is
instead of counting one two three four
you're going to split it up into three
once again so we're breaking up each of
the four beats into two and that's how
we're going to do it so again we're
going to do the quarter note one which
is simply three four then the eighth
notes is going to be okay moving on we
have a little practice section section
here so we have a couple measures of
four-four here we know that's four beats
in a measure the quarter note gets one
beat at this first example we have here
our beat one has two eighth notes so we
need to split that up into one and beats
two three and four or fine because they
each have a quarter note to each beat
number so that does not that is not
affected so I'll show you how to count
this
we'll just play all these on C or you
can clap that works too
so this one is going to go again one
three so remember we don't need to bring
break up beats two three and four just
because there's a quarter note you only
need to break up the beat when you have
something that's uneven like if it ends
and a half like that's one and a half
you need to do it or if it's just half a
beat you need to do it and I'll explain
that later on when we start talking
about dotted quarter notes which are one
and a half beats and we'll be doing
something very similar to this but I'll
show you that later on so example two we
have beats one two and three with eighth
notes so we need to break those up into
a one and two and three and now do we
need to break up that last beat because
it's a quarter note well no because that
quarter note will take up one entire
beat so here we go
is one we're going to count to three so
once again three so here's our next last
example very short measure four four
again we need to break up beat two
because immediately I see other summate
notes there so this one's going to go
three four so beats one three and four
don't need to be broken up because
there's just a quarter note there the
last example we have here now which
beats are we going to have to break up
so think about this for a second
remember when you see eighth notes your
dotted quarter note later on you're
going to have to break up the beat so if
you see a quarter note you're fine in
most cases there's a couple cases where
you might have to do it and I'll show
you that later on as well but here we go
so hopefully you said beats one and
three need to be broken up because there
are eighth notes there so you're going
to count this one
sorry so there you have it a very basic
explanation of eighth notes we're going
to do more rhythmic practice later on
because it is good for you and good for
me but anyway it's just good in practice
so I'll start making some playing
examples with eighth notes I think the
next lesson I'm going to do some playing
examples except we're going to practice
those sharps and flats we were talking
about in previous lessons before we
start working on the eighth notes maybe
lesson sixteen will have the eighth note
practice we'll see but anyway let me
know if you have any comments or
questions and I'll do my best to answer
them so I'll see you for the outro
Thanks so that wraps up lesson 15 so we
talked about what the eighth note was
what it looks like and how to play it
next time I'm pretty sure what we're
doing is we're playing some examples on
the keyboard which will incorporate the
things we've talked about the last
couple lessons like the eighth note and
sharps and flats and things like that so
look forward to that so we'll actually
be back playing our examples which is
why we're here anyway as always leave me
any comments or questions that you might
have I'd be happy to answer them don't
get too everybody I try but anyway
thanks for watching and I'll see you in
the next lesson thank you very much