Teach Yourself How to Read Sheet Music

Understanding the Musical Staff's Lines, Spaces, and Clef Symbols

May 16, 2009

By learning to read sheet music, musicians who play by ear can have the best of both worlds. The first step is to learn the basics of the musical staff.

In its simplest form, sheet music can be easy to understand. The more complex the music, the more complicated the notation will be. Musicians can find a beginner’s lesson book written for the instrument they play and dive in.

The Musical Staff

Even people who’ve never picked up an instrument are familiar with the musical staff. This staff is the group of five evenly spaced lines along which notes are arranged.

Notes are situated on any of the five lines or four spaces between them. The higher a note is located on the staff, the higher its pitch. Every once in a while, a note is needed either above or bellow the staff. In this case, lines are drawn to extend the staff’s range either up or down.

The Treble Clef

The first symbol on the staff designates the clef. Beginners will want to check whether the music is written in the treble clef or bass clef because this determines the notes represented by each line and space.

The treble clef is a swirling design that looks something like an upper-case, cursive S. This design circles around the line representing G on the staff and so is also known as the G clef.

Music for sopranos, altos, tenors, flutes, clarinets, violins, violas, trumpets, and others is written in this clef. Also, the notes written for a pianist’s right hand are in the treble clef.

The lowest line on the treble clef is E, the space just above is F, and the pitch increases in this way to the top of the staff. Many musicians use pneumonic devices to learn the notes of the treble clef. “Every good boy does fine,” or “Every good boy deserves fudge,” covers the treble clef’s lines E, G, B, D, and F. The treble clef’s spaces F, A, C, and E conveniently work out to spell “face”.

The Bass Clef

The bass clef is designated by a symbol that appears like the top of a question mark with two dots to its right. These dots are on either side of the line representing F, which is why the bass clef is also known as the F clef.

Musicians who sing bass or play a lower instrument such as the bassoon, tuba, or bass will find their music written in the bass clef. Notes to be played by a pianist’s left hand are also written in this clef.

The lowest line of the bass clef is G and then ascends up the scale. Musicians wanting a pneumonic device for the bass clef’s lines G, B, D, F, and A can try “Great, big dreams for America.” The bass clef’s spaces, A, C, E, and G, can be remembered as “Alley cats eat garbage,” or “all cows eat grass.”

Knowing the names of each line and space on the musical staff is the first step to reading music. Just as children discover how individual letters of the alphabet can be arranged to form words, sentences, and stories, musicians will learn to recognize notes on the lines and spaces of the musical staff as bars, tunes, and entire symphonies. Once musicians are comfortable with the names of the lines and spaces on the treble clef, they can go on to learn about the next symbols on the staff—the key signature and the time signature.

The copyright of the article Teach Yourself How to Read Sheet Music in Musical Instruments is owned by Marcy Paulson. Permission to republish Teach Yourself How to Read Sheet Music in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.