Finding A & B on the Piano

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we're going back to piano street
to learn how to find two more keys on the piano.

Welcome back to piano street! Do you remember where Grandma lives?
That's right, she lives in a group of three black keys,
and her bedroom is this first one, here.
You probably remember how poor old grandma felt lonely,
and so she built a fish pond in her front yard.
Well, that helped Grandma's loneliness for a time,
but soon Grandma started to think, well they look nice and all,
but you can't really talk to a fish. I still need someone I can share a good joke with.
Have dinner with, you know? Real companionship. Well, Grandma realized
that she had another open bedroom in her spacious three black key condo,
so she invited aunt Annie to come and live with her.
Aunt Annie was delighted to accept the invitation, so this all worked out perfectly
because the letter A happens to be the next letter in the musical alphabet,
right after G. All up and down piano street, wherever there is a G,
the next note has to be A. So we have G, A, G, A, G, A,
always filling up those two white keys inside the three black key house.
So to find an A on the piano, simply look for three black keys,
and choose the bedroom on the right.
Now press pause and practice finding all the A's on your piano.
Say A out loud whenever you find one, and play it too.
When you're done, press play to go on.

Now the story continues. Everything was going along fine in Grandma's house,
that is, until Aunt Annie started to feel jealous.
Grandma could tell something was wrong so she asked,
and Aunt Annie said "why is it that you get a pet and I don't?"
Grandma replied "well, why didn't you just say so? Look,
we have a back yard with plenty of room for a pet for you.
Mind, I don't allow pets in the house, so it really must stay in the back yard."
Well, Aunt Annie was delighted, and went out that very day
and bought a little pet bird, which she kept on the back porch,
right outside Grandma's house. So, to find a B on the piano,
look for the three black keys that make Grandma's house, and go out back,
which is always on the right side, the higher side, so there would be a B here.
Can you find another place for a B? That's right, there's one way up here.
Now press pause and practice finding all the B's on your piano.
Say B out loud whenever you find one, and play it. When you're
finished, press play to go on.

By the way, in our last Piano Street lesson,
you all gave me some great ideas for Grandma's pet in the front yard.
Now, can you think of any ideas for Aunt Annie's pet in the back yard?
If you get any ideas, you can leave them in a comment below.

Well, it's official! Now you know every white key on Piano Street.
So let's review. Do you remember where the doghouse is?
Point to any D on Piano Street. If you're pointing here, or here, or here,
you're correct. Remember, to find a D, you look for the two black keys
which make the doghouse. And any white key in between two black keys
is always D.
Now, can you point to any C on the piano? If you're pointing here, or here, or here,
you're correct. Remember, C is for cat, which lives right to the left
of the doghouse.
Now, can you point to any E on the piano?
If you're pointing here, or here, or here, you're correct. That's the elephant
that broke out of the zoo to scare the mean dog back in his doghouse.
Now can you point to any G on piano street? G is for Grandma,
who lives in this first bedroom of Grandma's house.
Now can you point to any A on the piano? A is for Aunt Annie,
who lives right next to Grandma in the bedroom on the right.
Now, point to any F on the piano. If you're pointing here, or here, or here,
you're correct.
And what letter is missing now? If you said B, you're right.
We've got this backyard outside of Grandma's house,
where Aunt Annie placed her pet bird, or whatever other pet
you can think of for the other Aunts.

Now, whoa, look at this! We have the musical alphabet.
Did you know that the white keys of the piano form the musical alphabet?
If we start on A, it's just the same as the alphabet you already know:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and then it starts over again, A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
and it could just keep on going forever.
Here's a game called stepping up the street, which I'd like you to try
every day, to review all the white keys. What you do is you close your eyes,
and then randomly drop on any white key. Now, open your eyes and, ah,
I landed on F. So what you have to do is name the note you landed on.
I can tell I'm on F because of the three black keys. So I say F,
and then I have to step up piano street
and name every note until I get to ...