Hi
I've just started to learn the piano but am finding it very tough going. At the moment I can do the "I can now play middle C" thing and can just about play a tune with my right hand. I've never read bass clef in my life and am finding that really hard. I can get something from my left hand but only if I memorise which keys to hit, which is completely the wrong way but I am really struggling with bass clef.

Would anyone be able to give me some advice or tips as to getting with grips with bass clef? Any advice would be much appreciated.

I'm guessing that you will begin with your hands in a '5 finger' positon so you have one finger to one note.
The bass clef tells you where the F below middle C is (4th line) use this as one anchor point. A 2nd good anchor point might be the C below middle C (2nd space).
It might also help to realise that the bass stave is a continuation downwards from the treble (with the 'imaginary' line in between for middle C).
If you understand how the treble clef works then the bass clef works in exactly the same way. I don't mean knowing what the notes are but understanding that the notes move up the stave from line to space to line etc.
Once you know where to place your hands to start you don't really need to think note names all the time when playing the piano. Follow the shape of the music. Line to space or space to line is the next mnote and at the beginning ususally the next finger. Line to line or space to space misses a note (and a finger).
You learn to 'see' bigger intervals with experience but that might get you started.

Learning to recognise the notes on the bass stave quickly will come but for now if you can work them out from your anchor points it will get you going.

Try this - go for Trainer then Note trainer and Keyboard trainer - you can turn bass clef on or off in the Note trainer screen and black notes on/off on keyboard. Hope this helps..

Sue

Assuming you are with a teacher - do the work, do the practice, don't try to "run before you can walk" and it will come to you with time. Have faith in yourself & your teacher. You wont be playing Liszt next week, or even probably next year, but in 5 years, who knows?

As MadTom has pointed out elsewhere, the Piano repertoire is so vast that you can spend a lifetime learning only music you already know and love (which might include some fiendishly difficult stuff, of course) and still only scratch the surface: Have fun - what other reason is there for doing it?

Naturally. Welcome to the club. What did you expect? Learning to play the piano (well) is one of the most difficult tasks known to man.


Well it depends how long you have been learning, and how much study you have done. That might be very respectable progress.


It is just familiarity. Keep looking at new musical scores, working out the names of the notes on the stave (using the F line as reference), then finding them on the keyboard. Eventually you will just look at a whole bunch of notes, and instantly, without conscious efort, know their names, where they are on the keyboard, and the shape your hand has to adopt to play them. Then you start adding ledger lines and learn to recognise notes on those quickly as well. You have to do the work, that is all.


No. Nothing wrong with that. It is good to memorize stuff. Eventually you want to be able to read and play stuff fluently, and memorize at will.


Specific advice: See above. General encouragement: Is there something that you are pretty good at, but once struggled with? Maybe you are an expert in some sport, or even more ordinary stuff like driving a car competently, making a neat mortice and tenon ... what about your day job ... whatever. Now try to remember how hopeless you felt when you first started learning that skill. But now you can do it! So you are capable of learning a new skill! How did you make the transition! Immersing yourself in it and, letting your mind figure it out, having insights, trying them out, practising till it became fluent and comfortable.

There is no secret, and there are no short cuts. Quality practice, persistence, and a love of the music and the instrument. Maybe with the guidance of a good teacher.

Sit down away from the piano with your music and learn the notes thoroughly so that you can recognise them instantly. I used to take music to bed to read!! Also practice left hand only again and again. You will get there with practice.

It's all about practice I used to be able to read the bass clef but it's been so long, I'm struggling to get back into piano playing! But the more you practice, the better you'll get.

Good luck!