|
2torial #0917:
Learn2 Read Music
Find where the notes fall on
staves
Each clef has a stave. Staves are made up of
five lines and four spaces. Each line and space
represents where a particular note will fall.
The treble stave. Starting from bottom to top, the lines
on the treble stave read: E, G, B, D, F (one note for each line).
A well-known way of remembering this is to say "Every Good
Boy Does Fine" or "Every Good
Boy Deserves Fudge," depending on if you're
into chocolate or not. The spaces in between the lines follow the
same order, and the notes are F, A, C, E, respectively.

Note how the treble clef, also called a G clef, encircles the G
line. This is a good way to remember where notes fall, too.
The bass stave. Starting from bottom to top, the bass stave
is: A, C, E, G (one note for each space rather than each line).
A popular way to remember this is to say "All Cars
Eat Gas" or "All Cows Eat Grass."
The corresponding lines from bottom to top are G, B, D, F, A, respectively.

Note that the bass clef, also called the F clef, has dots surrounding
the F line.
In most written music, the treble and bass staves appear concurrently
on the page, with the treble stave above the bass stave, separated
by an open space (like the illustration in Step
1). This is because the treble and bass lines are played simultaneously
but written separately. On a keyboard, for example, the bass line
is played with the left hand and the treble is played with the right.
Short lines that appear with notes written above or below a stave
are called ledger lines. For example, middle C (the key that
falls approximately in the center of a piano) appears on the first
ledger line below a treble stave, or the first ledger line above
a bass stave (see the two diagrams above). Ledger lines correspond
with the main stave lines. The higher a note falls on a stave (or
above), the higher its pitch will be.
When two or more notes are written and played as a single unit,
they're called chords.
Step
3
|