When Up is Right and Down is Left

in Houston, TX, where I live, we don’t have a lot of hills. But, still, when I give people driving directions, I usually mention things being up or down the street from each other. Using 'up' and 'down' to describe something sideways is second nature to me as a piano guide.

Pitch is the quality of sound resulting from sound waves of particular speeds. All sounds have pitches, whether or not the human ear can hear them. Drum sounds, for example, have pitches that can be difficult to identify. High Pitches have fast-frequencies and Low pitches have slow frequencies.

The piano keyboard is made of 88 different sounds arranged from left to right from lowest to highest. Left is low, right is high. That’s what I said. I know—it can be confusing. Fortunately, the alphabet of music names has only seven letters. They repeat over and over again, with black keys in between, on the piano keyboard.

My students to hear and point out sounds 'up and down' the keyboard through fun and collaborative sound games. While my students are working on this, they are also learning to see and use different rhythmic symbols, and the notes’ letter names.

This learning happens without my students really knowing it because they are in a zone of creative flow otherwise known as fun.