Guide Notes: Low C & High C

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we're going to learn our final two guide notes on the grand staff.
Once you know these, that's it! You'll know all the grand staff guide notes.
Let's get started at the grand staff.
Let's review the guide notes we've already learned.
We start with the famous middle C. Can you play that on your piano?
And then three spaces down we get bass C,
and three spaces up we get treble C.
So we get three C's, all guide notes.
Notice it kind of makes a symmetrical pattern. Three spaces up, three spaces down.
Now we have a couple other guide notes in the bass staff between the two lines. Bass F
and the bottom line I call ground G. Let's find those on your piano.
Bass F is the nearest F below middle C, and ground G way down here,
then we also have treble G right here,
and flag F way up here.
Now these guide notes cover most of the staff, but what if you want a really high note?
Then you'll need to add ledger lines, and it's helpful to have another guide note up here for when you're reading the ledger lines.
And it so happens if you count it up from flag F, G, A on the line, B in the space, C,
we get to high C
way up here on the piano.
Two octaves above middle C. Here's middle C, treble C, high C, middle C, treble C, high C. It's two ledger lines up.
Now what if we wanted to go down?
We can add two ledger lines here.
And let's count down from G.
G steps down to F, steps down to E, steps down to D, steps down to C.
So notice how this symmetrical pattern continues.
We can go up three spaces to get to treble C,
and then two more ledger lines to get way up to high C.
Going down three spaces down to get to bass C,
and then two ledger lines below the staff get us all the way down to low C.
The great thing about these two new guide notes is they'll make reading really high and really low notes
on ledger lines a lot easier to read.
For example, let's say you see this note in some music.
Well, you know that this line here is low C, a step below C is B.
So that would be low B.
Here on your piano.
What about this note?
Kind of looks like a middle C doesn't it, but don't be fooled. One ledger line
doesn't mean middle C. Middle C is above the bass staff or below the treble staff,
but below the bass staff is a totally different note.
How do I know? Well, I know that this note
is a low C, so if I just count up from there, C steps up to D, steps up to E.
This note which again is kind of a fake twin brother of middle C because it looks a lot like it but it's not
like it. It's an E.
Low E right here on the piano. A skip above low C.
We can do the same thing up here.
Doesn't that look like middle C, but it's not.
Can you figure out the letter name for this note?
If you said A, you're correct. Can you find it on your piano?
If you're playing right here, you're correct.
It's a skip below this high C. Just go down a skip. Remember, every line on the staff is a skip on the piano.
So it has to be here, A, on the piano, or you could have thought it's a skip above flag F.
That's another way you could have figured it out.
Could have just skipped up from flag F to that A.
Can you figure out this note? Tell me its name.
If you said D, you're correct. It's just a step above high C makes it D. Can you find it on your piano?
If you're playing right here you're correct.
As you get to more advanced music, I want you to be really careful about the octave you're playing. Remember,
It matters which D. There's a D here, here, here, right? How do you know which is the correct D?
Well guide notes can help you. You have to remember where middle C is,
where treble C is, where high C is, and then use that to figure out the correct octave, or which d you should be actually playing.
Can you tell me the name of this note?
If you said B, you're correct.
You might have noticed that it's just one step away
from that high C. It's on the space above this ledger line.
Remember, you only need to add as many ledger lines just to get to the note,
which is why you don't see that second ledger line above it. It's just not needed,
but if we did go one higher we'd be at C. So you know that's
a B right here on your piano.
The key to reading all these ledger lines is remembering where low C is two ledger lines down,
high C two ledger lines up.
Our final two guide notes.
Now let's play a game.
I call it C Hunt.
I'm going to show you some sheet music and you'll have three seconds to find the C I ask for.
Are you ready?
Here we go.
Find the high C.
If you found this, great job.
Next up find low C, go!
If you found this, great job.
Okay, you're ready for level two.
This tim ...