My preferred version of Express Stave, is the 'reverse colour' version, where the naturals (white keys on a piano) are represented with black note-heads, and the black keys (sharps and flats) have white note-heads. See the following PDF files for illustration:
- Black Key Geography
Practice locating the 3 groups of 2s and 4 groups of 3s encompassed by the grand stave. Remember, white note-heads mean you play black keys!
Page 2 shows 3 groups of naturals ABCDEFG.
- Black Key Geography
The following ES guide shows some of its properties, terminology and
coding:
Express Stave Guide
Beginner piano method:
- The Keyboard Express Book A (revision 5)
- The Keyboard Express Book A (revision 4)
- The Keyboard Express Book A
- A Express Stave Supplement
- The Keyboard Express Book B
- The Keyboard Express Book C
- The Keyboard Express Book D
- The Keyboard Express Book E
- Rote Pieces
- New pages
- "Twos Threes and Naturals"
- Just Black Threes
- Pop song lead sheets W
- Piano beginners: Christmas bonus
- Express Stave Fun Pieces
- Some Express Stave Theory Pages
- The Keyboard Express Book 1 (2020 edition)
(Traditional notation but including some Express Stave fun pieces) - KE book 1 Keyboard Carriages (Print double sided on cardboard then cut out.)
- The Keyboard Express Book 2 (TN only) 2020
- Degree Card Beginners (traditional notation with key signatures,
but with moveable doh solfege names in the note-heads) - Degree Card Book 1
- Degree Card Book 1 (plain note-heads)
- Degree Card Selection 2
- Degree Card Selection 2 (plain note-heads)
- 24 Scales and Key Signatures
- All Keyboard Guides (print in landscape orientation, actual size -100% scaling.)
- Flash Cards – Centre Characters:
(Print double sided on cardboard then cut out.)
A Ant, B Ball, C Copy Cat, D Duck Under, E Edgeline, F Firstspace, G Girl in the Curl - Degree Card Master (print in landscape orientation, actual size -100% scaling.)
- Book3 KE
- Treble melody bass chords
Here are the links to this website’s descriptions of the three versions of Express Stave:
Some YouTube tutorials:
- “Music Theory and Express Stave Notation”
- “Duelling Bass: Traditional vs Alternative Music Notation”
- “A new way to read the Bass Clef: tutorial plus Name the Tune”
Free PDF files of piano music in Express Stave notation (reverse color):
- Sweet Home Alabama (Express Stave)
- Sweet Home Alabama (Traditional Notation)
- Sprunger Blues Transcription (Express Stave)
- Sprunger Blues Transcription (Traditional Notation)
- Watch What Happens, Oscar Peterson transcription (Express Stave)
- Watch What Happens, TN
(From this recording, starting when drums enter: YouTube video) - Swingy Thingy by Eeco Rijken Rapp
YouTube video: (Right-click then Open Link in New Tab) - Unravel (arrangement by Animenz)
- Cruel Angel Thesis (arrangement by Animenz)
- J S Bach: Prelude 1 from the Well Tempered Clavier Book 1,
as chords, transposed into all 12 keys - J S Bach: Prelude 1 in C major from WTC book 1, Traditional Notation (as chords)
- Bach-Gounod: Ave Maria, Traditional Notation (as chords)
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 1 in C major, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 2 in C minor, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 3 in C sharp major, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 4 in C sharp minor, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 5 in D major, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 6 in D minor, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 7 in E flat major, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 8 in E flat minor, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 9 in E major, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 10 in E minor, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 11 in F major, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 12 in F minor, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 13 in F sharp major, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 14 in F sharp minor, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 15 in G major, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 16 in G minor, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 17 in A flat major, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 18 in G sharp minor, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 19 in A major, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 20 in A minor, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 21 in B flat major, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 22 in B flat minor, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 23 in B major, book 1 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 24 in B minor, book 1 WTC
J S Bach: Well Tempered Clavier, BOOK 1
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 1 in C major, book 2 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 2 in C minor, book 2 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 3 in C sharp major, book 2 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 4 in C sharp minor, book 2 WTC
- J S Bach: Prelude & Fugue 6 in D minor, book 2 WTC
J S Bach: Well Tempered Clavier, BOOK 2
- Mozart: Sonata Facile ES
- Mozart: Sonata Facile TN
- Mozart: Rondo a la Turk
- Mozart-Volodos Turkish Rondo
- Beethoven: Fur Elise
- Beethoven: Pathetique Sonata, Op 13
- Beethoven: Moonlight Sonata, Op 27, No 2
- Beethoven: Waldstein Sonata, Op 53
- Schubert: Impromptu, Op 90, No 2
- Chopin: Etude, Op 10, No 1 in C major
- Chopin: Etude, Op 10, No 3 (Tristesse)
- Chopin: Etude, Op 10, No 4 in C# minor
- Chopin: Etude, Op 10, No 5 (Black Keys)
- Chopin: Etude, Op 10, No 12 (Revolutionary)
- Chopin: Etude, Op 25, No 9 (Butterfly)
- Chopin: Fantasie-Impromptu, Op 66
- Chopin: Prelude in E minor, Op 28, No 4
- Chopin: Minute Waltz, Op 64, No 1
- Chopin: Waltz in Ab, Op 69, No 1
- Chopin: Waltz in Gb, Op 70, No1
- Chopin: Mazurka in F minor, Op 63, No 2
- Chopin: Nocturne in E flat major, Op 9, No 2
- Chopin: Nocturne in B major, Op 9, No 3
- Chopin: Nocturne in D flat major, Op 27, No 2
- Chopin: Nocturne in B major, Op 32, No 1
- Chopin: Nocturne in E minor, Op 72, No 1
- Chopin: Prelude in B flat minor, Op 28, No 16
- Chopin: Scherzo No 2 in B flat minor, Op 31
- Chopin: Polonaise in Ab, Op 53
- Brahms: Capriccio in B minor, Op 76, No 2
- Brahms: Intermezzo in A major, Op 118, No 2
- Brahms: Rhapsody in B minor, Op 79, No 1
- Brahms: Rhapsody in G minor, Op 79, No 2
- Debussy: Arabesque 1
- Debussy: Clair de Lune
- Debussy: The Girl With the Flaxen Hair (jazz font)
- Debussy: The Girl With the Flaxen Hair (classic font)
- Debussy: Bruyeres (Express Stave)
- Debussy: Bruyeres (Traditional Notation 2-staves)
- Debussy: Reverie
- Debussy: What the West Wind Saw
- Liszt: Liebestraume
- Liszt: Waldesrauschen
- Liszt: Gnomenreigen
- Liszt: La Campanella
- Liszt: Un Sospiro
- Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No 1
- Liszt: Rakoczy March
- Liszt: Widmung
- Ravel: “Valses nobles et sentimentales”
- Ravel: “Valses nobles et sentimentales” (Traditional Notation in identical layout for comparison)
- Ravel Gaspard ES p1-12
- Scriabin: Etude Op 8 No 4 in B major
- Scriabin: Etude Op 8 No 12 in D sharp minor
- Scriabin: Etude Op 42 No 5
- Rachmaninoff: Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C sharp minor, Op3 no2
- Rachmaninoff: Rachmaninoff: Prelude in G minor, Op23 no5
- Rachmaninoff: 2nd Piano Concerto in C minor (solo part)
- Nikolai Kapustin: Prelude Opus 53 No 23
- Scott Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag
- Intermediate level pop TN Piano Selection
- Violin Beginners Method
- Violin Fingerboard Scale Diagrams
Original Compositions:
- J F Keller: Riding on the Keyboard Train
(Traditional Notation): a duet for teacher and young student,
teaching the white keys in units of ABCDEFG.
YouTube video: (Right-click then Open Link in New Tab) - J F Keller: Along the Shore (Traditional Notation)
YouTube video: - J F Keller: The Australian Sunrise (TN lead sheet)
YouTube video: