How to Read Tones in Piano Sheet Music

Video Transcript

"Hello! I am Annie Brunson on behalf of Expert Village. Today we’re going to learn about tones and half tones or semitones. A semitone is a note directly next to the note that you are playing. So if you play a C, the very next note, the semitone, would be C sharp or D flat. If for example you play an F, a semitone would be F sharp or G flat, the very next note. If you play an E, the very next note to that would be an F. That’s a semitone. A tone is actually the difference between the note you are playing and two notes, so it is not the next note but the note after it. That is a whole tone. So from C to D is a whole tone. From D to E is a whole tone. From E to F is only a semitone, so you need to go up to F sharp for it to be a whole tone. E to F sharp is a whole tone. A whole tone from F sharp is actually G sharp."