Reading notes
How to read notes on the staff
Music is written on a staff of five lines. Where a note sits, on a line or in a space, higher or lower, tells you which key to play, and the clef at the start tells you which note each line is. Learn the seven note names and the clefs, then practise reading on the keyboard below.
The seven note names
Music uses seven letter names, A to G, and then starts again: after G comes A, one octave higher. On the piano they are the white keys; C is the white key just left of each pair of black keys. In Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese the same notes are called Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La and Si.
| Letter | C | D | E | F | G | A | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solfège | Do | Re | Mi | Fa | Sol | La | Si |
The staff: five lines, four spaces
Notes sit on the lines or in the spaces between them. Every step up, from a line to the next space or from a space to the next line, is the next note name. Here is C major climbing the treble staff from middle C:
Read it, then play it
Play the note you see on the staff. The exact key counts: how high the note sits tells you which octave.
Clefs and topics
- Treble clef notesLines E G B D F, spaces F A C E: the clef for the right hand, violin, flute and voice.
- Bass clef notesLines G B D F A, spaces A C E G: the clef for the left hand, cello and bass.
- The grand staffTreble and bass clef joined for piano, with middle C between them.
- Middle CThe note everything else is counted from, on the keyboard and in every clef.
- Ledger linesHow to read the notes above and below the five lines.
- Alto clef notesThe C clef on the middle line, read by violists.
- Tenor clef notesThe C clef on the fourth line, for high cello, bassoon and trombone.