Piano Lessons - How to Read Notes Quickly

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Recognizing the names of the bass and treble staff notes can be fun and rather simple. Before we begin, remember that the treble staff is where you will find all your right hand notes, and the bass staff is where you will find all your left hand notes. All you have to do is memorize a word for each note, like this:

Bass staff space notes: *A C E G (All Cows Eat Grass)

Bass staff line notes: *G B D F A (Good Boys Do Fine Always)

Treble staff space notes: *F A C E (This spells "face")

Treble staff line notes: *E G B D F (Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge)

*The first word/letter is always the bottom of the staff.

Now the fun begins. Here are some simple and fun ways to memorize these notes.

1) Speed Run: See how fast you can say the names of the notes. Try doing it first with the words, and then with the letter names only.

2) Reverse Speed Run: Now see how fast you can practice saying the letter names in reverse. This is a great way to see just how well you know the letter names.

3) Say-n-Play: While sitting at your piano, say the letter name out loud and then play it on the keyboard. If you are using flashcards, mix them up so that you can select a card at random and do the same activity. This is a very good memorization activity.

4) Play Them All: Now comes a fun way to test your knowledge. Say out loud the note then play all of those notes on the entire keyboard. For example, you have selected the note "A." Play all the "A" keys on the entire keyboard.

5) Flash Cards: Make a set of flash cards with one note on a staff on one side, and the answer on the other side. (Don't forget to specify which staff: bass or treble with the bass or treble clef sign.)

The sooner one can memorize the names of the notes and recognize where they are found on the keyboard, the more enjoyment that can be found playing the keyboard. Just like you learned the ABC's for reading you'll be a great success at learning your ABCDEFG's for the keyboard. This is a quick and fun way to learn how to read and recognize notes written on the staff and on the piano. However, there is no replacement for learning how to sound smooth and pretty on the piano than with step by step instruction and with songs that allows gradual progress.

Enjoy!