The course › Unit 4: Reading the treble clef
Lesson 19 of 72 · Five lines to write music on
So far, you’ve played with the keys, your fingers and your ears. Now it’s time to read: music is written on a staff, made of five lines.
Between the lines there are four spaces. Lines and spaces are always counted from the bottom up. The big sign at the beginning is a clef: you’ll meet it in the next lesson.
One note on each line, from the 1st (bottom) to the 5th (top).
One note in each space, from the 1st to the 4th.
Why this way: You first learned to play without sheet music, with your ears and fingers: that’s the natural order, the one used by Suzuki, Kodály and Gordon. The sounds are already familiar, so the symbols will make sense right away.
On the staff, the higher a note sits, the higher it sounds. A melody that goes up on the staff also goes up on the keyboard, to the right.
Every position counts: line, space, line, space… Moving from a line to the space just above means going up one white key. A note that stays in the same place is the same key, played again.
Up it goes… then back down, one position at a time.
The same note four times: it doesn’t move.
Did you know?: Around the year 1000, the Italian monk Guido d’Arezzo made it popular to write notes on lines, to show how high or low they are. Gregorian chant is still written today on a staff of four lines.
Play by following the keys that light up, but keep your eyes on the staff: the notes go up as your hand moves to the right, and come back down with it.
Did you notice? Your thumb’s note wasn’t on the staff: it had its own little line. When a note is too low or too high for the five lines, we add a short ledger line, just for it.
A ledger line below the staff, another one above it.
Tip: Your thumb’s note, on its little line below the staff, is one of the most important notes of all. Its name? You’ll find out in the next lesson… but maybe you can already guess!
The first note lights up. Then read the shape: one position higher is the next white key to the right; one position lower, the one to the left; same position, same key.
You know it by heart: this time, follow it with your eyes on the staff. Spot your thumb’s little line, and the small skip (two positions at once) in the 3rd measure.
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