1. Reading Notes playmusicgames.org

2. Introduction At first it may all look Greek to you, but learning how to read notes really isn't that tough. You already learned the hard part when you memorized your ABC's in 1st grade. In fact it’s even easier than those--we're just going to use A thru G here.

3. The Musical Staff Let’s start with some basics. The musical staff is an arrangement of 5 lines and 4 spaces which act as a “home” for our notes. Each line or space corresponds to different notes as we’ll see a little bit later.

4. The Musical Staff Let’s start with some basics. The musical staff is an arrangement of 5 lines and 4 spaces which act as a “home” for our notes. Each line or space corresponds to different notes as we’ll see a little bit later. A musical staff

5. Clefs Next we need to learn what clefs are. There are a few different types of clefs, but we will be focusing on the two most common ones – the treble clef and the bass clef.

6. Clefs Next we need to learn what clefs are. There are a few different types of clefs, but we will be focusing on the two most common ones – the treble clef and the bass clef. Treble Clef ( or “G clef” ) Bass Clef ( or “F clef” )

7. Clefs Be sure and check your clef before you start playing a note because the clef determines what notes correspond to the lines and spaces on the musical staff! Treble Clef ( or “G clef” ) Bass Clef ( or “F clef” )

8. Treble Clef As I stated before sometimes the treble clef is also called the “G clef”. That’s because the circle on the bottom half of the symbol wraps around the line that corresponds to the “G” note.

9. Treble Clef As I stated before sometimes the treble clef is also called the “G clef”. That’s because the circle on the bottom half of the symbol wraps around the line that corresponds to the “G” note. G clef circle Line corresponding to “G”

10. Treble Clef Now that we know where the “G” line is lets put a note there. G

11. Treble Clef After we have the “G” note in place all we have to do is move through the alphabet (A thru G) step by step to get the other notes. For example, the next step on the staff is an “A” note. G A

12. Treble Clef And then so on and so forth… D E C F B G A G

13. Treble Clef An easy way to remember the spaces on the treble clef is that from bottom to top the spaces spell out F – A – C – E. C F E A

14. Treble Clef And an easy way to remember the lines on the treble clef is that from bottom to top it’s “Every Good Boy Does Fine” B D F E G