What are the staff and the treble clef?
The staff is five horizontal lines with four spaces between them. You count lines and spaces from the bottom. A note sits on a line or in a space, and the higher it sits, the higher it sounds.
Notes are named with the first seven letters of the alphabet: A B C D E F G, then A again, over and over. The clef at the start of each line says which letter belongs to which line. The treble clef, also called the G clef, curls around the second line from the bottom. That line is G.
From there, the lines of the treble clef are E G B D F, and the spaces are F A C E. Two sayings help at first:
- Lines, bottom to top: Every Good Boy Does Fine.
- Spaces, bottom to top: they spell FACE.
Going up one step always means the next letter, whether you move from a line to a space or a space to a line. That is why you can find any note by counting from one you know. Treble clef is used for the right hand of the piano, for the violin, flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, and the melody line of most songs.
How do I read bass clef?
The bass clef, or F clef, is for lower notes. Its two dots sit above and below the fourth line from the bottom, which is F. The lines are G B D F A, and the spaces are A C E G. Two common sayings:
- Lines, bottom to top: Good Boys Do Fine Always.
- Spaces, bottom to top: All Cows Eat Grass.
The same line has a different name in each clef. The bottom line is E in treble clef and G in bass clef. This is the part that trips up most beginners, so name the clef before you name a note. Bass clef is used for the left hand of the piano, for the cello, the bassoon, the trombone, the tuba and the bass guitar. Viola, tenor and a few other clefs are covered in bass, alto and tenor clef.
What is middle C, and what are ledger lines?
Five lines cannot hold every note. For notes above or below the staff, a short extra line is drawn through or beside the note. This is a ledger line, and you count it like any other line.
Middle C is the note that links the two clefs. It sits one ledger line below the treble staff, and one ledger line above the bass staff. It is the same note, written in two places. On a piano it is the fourth C from the left end of the keyboard, near the middle.
Piano music uses a grand staff: a treble staff over a bass staff, joined by a brace. The right hand usually reads the top staff and the left hand the bottom one, though a hand can read either when the music crosses over. Notes lined up vertically are played at the same time. Learn middle C first, then count away from it.
Many players keep three landmarks in mind: middle C, the G the treble clef curls around, and the F the bass clef dots surround. Any other note is a few steps from one of them. When you meet a note on a ledger line, count from the nearest landmark instead of counting every line.
A bracket marked 8va above the staff means play those notes an octave higher than written. 8vb below the staff means an octave lower, and 15ma means two octaves higher. These marks save ledger lines on very high or low notes.
How long do notes and rests last?
The pitch is where a note sits. How long it lasts comes from its shape: whether the head is open or filled, and whether it has a stem, flags or beams. In 4/4 time, where a quarter note is one beat, the values are:
| Note | Beats | Looks like | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | Open head, no stem | A block hanging from the fourth line |
| Half note | 2 | Open head, stem | A block sitting on the middle line |
| Quarter note | 1 | Filled head, stem | A zigzag squiggle |
| Eighth note | 1/2 | Filled head, stem, one flag or beam | A slash with one flag |
| Sixteenth note | 1/4 | Filled head, stem, two flags or beams | A slash with two flags |
Each value is half the one before it. A rest is a silence of the same length. A whole rest also means a full bar of silence in any time signature, so you will see it in 3/4 and 6/8 as well.
- A dot after a note adds half its value. A dotted half note lasts 3 beats, and a dotted quarter lasts 1 and a half.
- A tie joins two notes of the same pitch. You play the first and hold through the second without playing it again.
- A slur is a curve over notes of different pitches. It means play them smoothly, as one phrase.
What do the two numbers at the start mean?
The time signature is two numbers stacked on the staff. The top number says how many beats are in each bar. The bottom number says which note gets one beat: 4 is a quarter note, 8 is an eighth note, 2 is a half note. In 4/4 there are four quarter-note beats in a bar. In 3/4, three. A C in place of the numbers means 4/4, called common time.
Bar lines cut the music into bars (also called measures), and each bar holds exactly the number of beats the time signature says. If you are unsure how a bar adds up, count the values.
To count out loud, say the beat numbers. Split each beat into halves with “and”, and into quarters with “e and a”:
| Notes in the bar | Count |
|---|---|
| Quarter notes | 1 2 3 4 |
| Eighth notes | 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and |
| Sixteenth notes | 1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a |
6/8 is counted in six eighths but usually felt as two big beats, each made of three eighths: ONE two three, FOUR five six. A few more to recognize: 2/4 is two beats, 3/4 is the waltz, and cut time (a C with a line through it) is felt in two.
Count the rhythm first, clap it or tap it, and then add the notes. With the rhythm settled, the notes come more easily.
What are sharps, flats, naturals and key signatures?
Between most of the letter names there is another note. A sharp (♯) before a note raises it by a half step, the next key on a piano, whether black or white. A flat (♭) lowers it by a half step. A natural (♮) cancels a sharp or flat.
A sharp, flat or natural written beside a note is an accidental. It lasts until the end of that bar, for that line or space only. The next bar line cancels it.
If a piece uses the same sharps or flats all the way through, they are written once, at the start of each line, right after the clef. This is the key signature. A sharp on the F line means every F is F♯, in every octave.
- Sharps are added in the order F C G D A E B. Flats are added in the opposite order: B E A D G C F.
- No sharps or flats means C major or A minor.
- With sharps, the major key is a half step above the last sharp. F♯ and C♯ mean D major.
- With flats, the major key is the second-to-last flat. B♭ and E♭ mean B♭ major. One flat, B♭, means F major.
Every major key has a relative minor that shares its key signature, starting three half steps lower: C major and A minor, G major and E minor. To tell which one a piece is in, look at the last bar and the opening notes.
What do the words and signs in the music mean?
Most of the words in sheet music are Italian, and they fall into a few groups. You will meet these most often.
| Mark | Means |
|---|---|
| pp, p | Very soft, soft |
| mp, mf | Medium soft, medium loud |
| f, ff | Loud, very loud |
| crescendo, diminuendo | Getting louder, getting softer (also drawn as hairpin wedges) |
| Adagio, Andante, Moderato | Slow, at a walking pace, at a moderate speed |
| Allegro, Presto | Fast, very fast |
| ritardando (rit.), a tempo | Slowing down, back to the main tempo |
| fermata (a dot under an arc) | Hold the note longer than written |
A number such as ♩ = 96 is a metronome mark: 96 quarter notes a minute. A dot above or below a note (staccato) means play it short and detached. A > above or below a note is an accent: play that note with more force.
When a piece jumps back or skips ahead, the music tells you with repeat signs, numbered endings, D.C., D.S. and coda. Those are explained in repeats, D.C., D.S., coda and fine.
Other instruments have their own notation. Tab shows strings and frets, and drum notation shows which part of the kit each note is. The staff, note values and time signatures work the same way in all of them.
How long does it take to learn to read music, and how do I practice?
You can learn the clefs, the note names and the note values in a few days. Reading a simple tune without working out each note takes most people several weeks of short daily practice. Reading fluently, at the speed of the music, takes months to years, and it never stops improving. There is no fixed number, because it depends on how much you read.
- Start with one clef and a handful of notes. Treble clef and middle C to G, or bass clef and middle C down to F, is enough for the first tunes.
- Name the clef, then the note. Say “treble” or “bass” before you read the first note of a line.
- Count the rhythm before the pitch. Clap a bar, then play it.
- Read real music every day. Five or ten minutes of easy pieces teaches patterns that flash cards do not.
- Learn landmarks, not every line. Middle C and the two clef anchors, plus intervals: a note on the next line up is a third, the next space a second.
- Move up slowly. Add a new sharp or flat, a new time signature or a new hand position one at a time.
The free courses in SheetScroll are built this way: one new thing at a time, in public-domain tunes and classics. The piano course begins with the right hand alone, then the left hand alone in bass clef, then both hands together. There are also courses for guitar, violin, cello, flute, clarinet, saxophone and trumpet. Open Setlists and pick your instrument under Learn. The piano course lists every piece and what it teaches.
When you are ready for more, there are free public-domain scores sorted by level, from beginner piano music to advanced. In the app, open Add, then Free sheet music, to search them.
While you read, SheetScroll can show where you are as it follows you. Under Show where you are, choose Bar, Cursor, Both or None. It also turns the page, so your eyes stay on the music. The courses listen and turn without Pro. Listening on your other scores is part of SheetScroll Pro.
Questions
What is the easiest way to learn to read sheet music?
Learn one clef and a few notes, count the rhythm out loud, and read easy pieces every day. Short daily practice on real tunes works better than memorizing the whole staff at once.
How do I read piano sheet music?
Piano music has two staves joined by a brace. The top staff, usually in treble clef, is mostly for the right hand. The bottom, in bass clef, is mostly for the left. Notes stacked above each other are played together. Middle C connects the two.
What is the order of the notes on the staff?
They run through the letters A to G in order, moving up one letter for each step from a line to the next space and back. In treble clef the lines from the bottom are E G B D F, and the spaces are F A C E.
How can I remember the notes on the bass clef?
For the lines, bottom to top, say “Good Boys Do Fine Always.” For the spaces, say “All Cows Eat Grass.” The F the clef’s two dots surround is its anchor.
Do I need to read music to play an instrument?
Not to start, and many players learn by ear or from tab and chord charts. Reading opens the large body of written music, helps you learn pieces faster and lets you play with others from the same page.
What does 4/4 mean in sheet music?
Four beats in every bar, and a quarter note gets one beat. It is the most common time signature, and it is also written as C, for common time.
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