Playing two voices on piano, and reading A5 and B5 above the staff

After this lesson you can play a minuet with two voices, one in each hand, and read A5 and B5 above the staff.

So far, most of your two-handed music has been a tune in the right hand with chords or long supporting notes in the left. In this lesson the left hand gets a tune of its own. When two melodic lines sound together, each with its own shape and rhythm, musicians call them two voices. It is the typical texture of much Baroque keyboard music, the style of Bach and Handel, and it is a big step towards real independence between your hands. Along the way you will also climb above the treble staff to two new notes, A5 and B5.

What "two voices" means

The word voice does not mean singing here. It means a single musical line. In a two-voice piece:

the right hand plays the upper voice, usually the main tune,
the left hand plays the lower voice, which also moves as a melody, not just as chords.

The two lines often take turns. When one has a long note, the other moves; when the other holds, the first moves again. It is rather like two people in conversation, each listening while the other speaks.

The Academy's Minuet in A minor, written in Baroque style, shows this clearly. A minuet is a graceful dance in three time, and composers of the period wrote a great many for keyboard. Here are its first four bars, one voice at a time.

Minuet in A minor, bars 1 to 4, right hand: the upper voice climbs up the A minor chord, then steps down to G sharp and home to A

The same four bars, left hand: the lower voice holds in bar 1, walks down in bar 2, and finishes on A an octave below

Line the two parts up in your mind. In bar 1 the right hand moves in quarter notes while the left holds a long A. In bar 2 it is the other way round: the right hand holds D while the left walks F, E, D. That exchange is the heart of two-voice playing.

How to listen to two lines at once

Playing two voices is not just about getting the notes right. It is about hearing both lines as melodies. A few ideas help:

Play each hand alone first and sing the other. Play the left hand while humming the right-hand tune, then swap.
Let the moving voice speak. When one hand has the movement, bring it out a little. When it holds, let it quietly sustain.
Shape the left hand. It is tempting to play the lower voice dully, as accompaniment. Give its little walking figures a direction, just as you would a tune.

Notes above the staff: A5 and B5

The treble staff's top line is F5, and the space just above it is G5, which you met with the scale. Going higher, the notes need ledger lines, short extra lines that extend the staff, just as middle C sits on a ledger line below.

A5 sits on the first ledger line above the staff.
B5 sits in the space above that ledger line.

Counting up from the top line: F5 on the line, G5 just above, A5 on the first ledger line, B5 above it

To read them quickly, count up one line or space at a time from F5, the top line. On the keyboard they are found nearly two octaves above middle C.

G5, A5 and B5 on the keyboard: the white keys just below the next C up

In the minuet, these high notes arrive in bars 9 to 12. The right hand climbs to B5 and comes down again.

Bars 9 to 12, right hand: up to B5 above the staff, then down through A5 and F5

A step-by-step approach to a two-voice piece

Right hand alone, two bars at a time, until it flows.
Left hand alone, the same way. Play it as a tune: listen to its rise and fall.
Find the turn-taking. For each bar, notice which hand moves and which holds. Say it aloud: "right moves, left holds".
Hands together very slowly, one bar at a time. Count "1 2 3" steadily.
Join bars into phrases of four. The minuet falls into four four-bar phrases.
Practise the high bars separately, naming A5 and B5 before you play them.
Listen back. Record yourself and listen to the left hand only. Does it sound like a melody?

Common mistakes

Left hand too loud or too flat. It should be clear and shaped, but usually a little quieter than the right.
Misreading A5 as F5. Both sit on a line. Count the ledger line: if the note is above the staff, it is A5.
Rushing the bars where both hands move. These are the hardest moments, so slow down for them in practice, not in performance.
Ignoring the G sharp. The minuet is in A minor and uses G sharp in both hands.

Try it in Pianuvo

In the Academy lesson you watch the two voices played, practise each hand alone, and then put the minuet together section by section with the notes waiting for you. Every exercise listens as you play, on the on-screen keys, a MIDI keyboard or a real piano through your microphone. It is part of Unit 8: Minor keys and a Baroque minuet, and the guide how to read notes is useful if ledger lines are still new.