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Note: This site is optimized for the Google browser on a PC. To view the annotated Site Contents, scroll down past the following introductory material.
What You'll Find on This Site. This site provides free innovative learning materials and sheet music for playing the piano. It uses a graphic notation system (keyboard diagrams and maps) that is more user-friendly for keyboard players than traditional notation.
Notes move down the staff, moving right and left in sync with the movements of the fingers on the keyboard. This is similar to a road map that shows you a trip from Chicago to Miami with a colored marker showing the path from one city to the next. The notes show the lengths of the sounds (rhythm) as the notes proceed down the staff, which is acting as a timeline. The note's pitch is shown by the horizontal dimension of the key map display, and the sequence and rhythm are shown by the vertical dimension of the display. Both pitch and rhythm are shown true to scale. For a few more examples of our key maps, click here: Sampler
For a detailed explanation of how key maps show the finger movements on a keyboard, click here: Introductory Lesson
For an in-depth discussions about key maps, click here: About Key Maps
About Our "Keyboard Diagrams." - Also on this site you will see keyboard diagrams. The keyboard diagrams are simplified versions of the key maps. The diagrams provide excellent preparation for playing from key maps and appear at the beginning of the instructional music provided on this site.You can view these diagrams in Intro to the Keyboard Diagrams." Also, mini versions of the diagrams are shown in the first 2 videos at the lower right.
For Teachers and Publishers - Although piano students and parents are welcome, the site is designed primarily for educators and publishers who might be interested in creating a simpler and less stressful learning environment for students wanting to play the keyboard. Our instructional materials focus on learning to play songs, piano pieces and exercises of easy to moderate difficulty from keyboard diagrams and maps BEFORE introducing students to traditional notation.
One of our main objectives is to provide piano teachers with learning materials and sheet music that they can use to help their students learn to play in a shorter period of time and with a minimum of stress. You will be able to view and download materials for a basic piano course (instructions, exercises and pieces) on the following page: Basic Keyboard Instruction
Colored Piano Keyboard Showing the Seven Identical Octave Groups
That Provide the Visual Basis for Our Graphic Key Map Notation
Brief Description of Key Maps. Simply stated, key maps are actually maps that show you where (and when) to place your fingers on the keys to play them. The maps consist of notes placed on a musical staff made up of vertical lines standing for the black keys of the keyboard. These lines appear in groups of 5, in sync with the octave groups of 5 black keys on the keyboard. Notes placed on these lines are for playing the black keys. The spaces between the lines are the locations of the notes for the white keys.
Annotated Site Contents
(Contents of the tabs and drop-down links at the top of each page.)
WELCOME - Suggests beginning with a careful review of the present page.
HOME & Contents - The present page.
Drop down links:
Contact Us - EMail
About Our Pinterest Display
CC License - Permission and conditions under our copyright.
Drop down link:
Our Domains - List of the domains that lead to our sites.
SAMPLER - Samples of our music materials.
View, Print, Save. - How to view and obtain our attached materials.
For Students. - Information for students and an introductory lesson for playing from key maps. There are several drop down links.
Binder Organizer - Covers and pages to help you organize the music that you download from this site in a binder.
Basic Keyboard Instruction - Instructional materials and collections for a beginning keyboard course, based on key maps. THIS IS THE MAIN INSTRUCTIONAL SERIES ON THIS SITE. - These are materials for a full beginner's keyboard course.
Chord Instruction - Instructional materials and collections for an intermediate level course on playing from chords and chord symbols.
Individual Pieces - This is a fairly large group of pieces - mainly of piano classics. (We have notated several dozen modern songs and piano pieces for our students, but haven't yet sought permission to publish these pieces.)
Key Maps With Colored Rhythm - A large group of pieces and collections in which the rhythm is enhanced with color coding. Most of these pieces appear elsewhere on the site without rhythm color enhancement.
Hymnbook Collections - Leadsheet versions showing text, melody, and chords.
More Collections - These are in addition to the collections included in our instructional materials.
Merry Christmas! - Key map Christmas collections, and videos of our students playing Christmas music.
About Key Maps - In depth discussions of the features and rationale for the key maps.
Some of our students performing at their lessons:
This page includes videos by:
Alina, Ben, Bryanna, Dima, Jason, Julia,
Karina, Sofiya, Valerie, Vika and Vita
To view the following files: Click on the name of a file. For more information on access to our files, view this page: View, Print, Save
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