Reading Music Lesson 2 con't

Staves, con't

Each staff is comprised of five lines and four spaces. The easiest way to remember the pitches of each line/space, we have a little mnemonic device. I've heard many variations from many different people, but I'll be teaching the ones that I myself was taught.

Starting at the bottom of the Treble Clef and moving up:

• The lines are: Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
• The spaces spell out the word FACE

Starting at the bottom of the Bass Clef and moving up:

• The lines are: Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always
• The spaces are: All Cows Eat Grass

Notice that this means that the musical alphabet goes line to space to line to space (etc). This means that if you went from a line to a line, you'd skip over a note (that belongs to the space between the lines). This also means that the musical alphabet advances forward (from A to G) when the notes move up the page, so that the note above an A would be a B, then a C, and so on!

If this feels like a lot to memorize, don't worry! I encourage all students to keep a "Cheat Sheet" on their piano beside the music they're trying to read (the image above is from it!). Having an understanding of why the notes are organized the way that they are can help you remember a bit, but the most effective way to keep all of the lines and spaces straight in your head is by practicing note reading. As long as you don't pencil in the letters on your music, referring to the Cheat Sheet won't hamper you learning the notes. And before you know it, you won't need the Cheat Sheet anymore!

You can also figure out a note by comparing it to the last note you played. Remember that any notes that are beside each other (e.g., if one is on a line, and the other is on the space directly above or below the line) will go to the very next letter in the alphabet. So if you just played the line note E, and your next note is the space above it, you can confidently know that your next note is an F. Or, if you just played that line note E but your next note is the space below it, you can confidently know that your next note is a D!

You can download a copy of my cheat sheet here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BrwTO1fUU3u4XESnqjro-GyjaFjYrtP7/view?usp=sharing