Estimated reading time 3 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Do you have a hard time reading piano notes? (Or are you a teacher who has students that struggle with note reading?) Many pianists find note reading a challenge, especially LD, ADD, and special needs musicians. Read more to learn about playing the piano with color coded notes.
- Do not have a keyboard? No problem! This virtual keyboard will get you started: click here.
I created the post How to Color Code Music Notes: for Successful LD & Special Needs Distance Learning with teachers in mind. Later, it hit me that you might like having color coded online note reading exercises for beginner pianists.
- George L. Rogers (see the Glossary for a link) studied the effect of color coded music.
- What he found was that with color coded notes LD and special needs students scored as well or better than the typical learner students.
- However, the same students scored a zero on the sight reading test without the color coding.
- Alternately, Siu-Lan Tan (see the Glossary) found that non-musicians found music notation to be counter intuitive.
- Thus, both special needs and typical learner students can benefit from a multisensory approach.
This article uses technical musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission from purchases made through the links. I’ll only recommend products I use, use in lessons, or ones my students or colleagues have recommended.
The Hand Position and Playing the Piano with Color Coded Notes
Hand Icon (churien.deviantart.com/art/hand-template-blank-272630198) by Churien is licensed under CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). Modified by Geoffrey Keith.
Before you try playing the piano with the color coded notes, you need to know where to place your hand on the piano. Today you’ll use the right hand (RH).
This is the fingering for G position:
- First Finger: Thumb goes on the G (green) key
- Second Finger: Pointer finger goes on the A (purple) key
- Third Finger: Middle man goes on the B (blue) key
- Fourth Finger: Ring finger goes on the C (orange) key
- Fifth Finger: Pinky goes on the D (gray) key
Many students get confused by the finger numbers and will need to have their fingers color coded.
- Likewise, some students have trouble finding the correct key.
- When you color code the fingers and the instrument, it pulls everything together.
- For example, the student plays the purple key, using the purple finger, reading the purple note in the sheet music.
Music teachers will also find these posts helpful:
Ode to Joy and Playing the Piano with Color Coded Notes
As you attempt to play the piano with the color coded notes, play and say the note names one after the other, going from left to right.
- Alternately, you can say the color names instead.
- Also, play and say the finger numbers (the black numbers).
- Try to keep a steady beat.
Count and clap the rhythm (the red and blue numbers). For a review:
- Color Coded Quarter Note Clapping
- Color Coded Eighth Note Clapping
- How to Color Code Rhythm to Empower LD & Special Needs Students
Also, I have provided soundtracks that demonstrate Ode to Joy.
- Do NOT listen to the tracks before you try playing (and clapping) the song.
- Rather, use the sound track to check yourself after you‘ve tried playing the song.
The main skills in beginning piano lessons:
- Playing and saying the notes works on note skills.
- Playing and saying the finger numbers works on finger skills.
- Clapping the rhythm works on rhythms skills.
Mobile users: for best results reading the music, tilt your screen 90o to the right.
Ode to Joy:
Playing the Piano with Color Coded Notes: Quiz
Once you can do the Ode to Joy version of playing the piano with color coded notes, you can then try the quiz. Don’t forget to play and say the note names.
If you want to learn how to play piano, the following links have the piano lesson books that I use when I teach (organized by age).
Age 4-6
Age 5-7
Age 8-10
Age 8-10
Teens and Adults
Conclusion
The more you play the piano with the color coded notes, the more confidence you’ll gain.
- In time, almost all students will graduate from the color coding, even most LD, ADD, ASD, and special needs students.
- Nevertheless, even for those special needs students who do not graduate from the colors, the color coding creates a valuable access point to music participation.
This shows the power of color coding as a multisensory teaching technique.
© 2021 Geoffrey Keith
Join me for in-person or online lessons today!
Glossary
Is Just Intonation Impractical?
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How to Use an Extremely Accurate Guitar Strobe Tuner
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What’s Dynamic Range Compression and How to Use It
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Is There a Better Way to Learn Sight Singing?
Do you find sight reading hard to do? Have you ever asked if there is a better way to learn sight singing? Shape notes can really help. Click to answer the question, “Is there a better way to learn sight singing?” Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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