So let's take a look at the set of lines and spaces that music is written on. There are always five lines and four spaces. This set of lines and spaces is called a staff. A staff is like the grid that helps us identify the location of the notes on the page. Without the staff would be really hard to know what notes to play. And each space and line on the staff corresponds to a particular note on the keyboard.

We'll go into more detail about that later. This is a bass clef, it tells us that the notes coming up are in the lower part of the piano. Remember that we learned that music is organized into groups called measures or bars which are separated by bar lines in this piece of music we will have four counts or four beats in each measure. The time signature tells us each measure will have four counts in it. I'll play and count 1234123412 341-234-1234 Do you remember what we call these notes that have black heads and stems that go either up or down? Yes, they're called quarter notes and they represent a value of one beat of music.

And this wavy little line is called quarter rest represent One beat or one count of silence. Let's play and count the beats together. 1234123412 341-234-1234 Are you ready to play and count by yourself Remember to count out loud and see if you can keep a steady beat like the ticking of a clock. So if you find that you're pausing here and there longer than in other places, that tells you you might be going a little bit faster than you're able to play right now. So you should slow down and have a nice steady beat. Now you've had lots of practice recognizing the time signature, quarter notes and quarter rests and you've been reading and playing notes, both on the treble staff and the bass staff and we're just getting started.