If you’re looking for a way to practice the music notes, flash cards are not a bad tool to use in your music reading efforts. But you must remember that is all they are. Just as you only use a hammer when you need to drive a nail, you should only use flash cards to memorize music note names. They must be used in “concert” (no pun intended) with a complete program to learn to read music. Going back to the tool analogy, a hammer is a great component of a tool set, but it is not a complete set by itself.

So here’s how you should use flash cards to learn to read music:  to practice the notes. Especially if you’re a piano player and need to learn both clefs, make sure you spend an equal amount of time learning both clefs. (also, mix up the cards so you don’t do the full bass then full treble clef) Always remember though that if you choose to use flash cards they must be used as part of a complete music reading program.

The music notes that fall on spaces in the bass clef are A-C-E-G.  “All Cars Eat Gas” is the saying to remember the bass clef spaces.  (If you like cows better than cars, use “All Cows Eat Grass”)

The music notes on the bass clef lines are G-B-D-F-A.  The sentence we use to remember the lines is, “Good Boys Do Fine Always”. 

If you can think of your own sentences to help you remember the note names, go ahead and use them.  The most important thing is that as you get more comfortable reading the notes you learn to read music instinctively and naturally. It takes a bit of time to get comfortable bit in time your subconcious recognizes and picks up the information fairly quickly (especially if you’re using a good music reading program)

We already know that the musical alphabet goes from A to G and then starts over, so there are no surprises there.  Remember that bass clef notes are NOT the same as the treble clef notes.  This means that you can’t use the same memory tricks to remember the note names.

The memory tricks used to remember the bass clef note names are different from the ones used to remember the notes in the treble clef.  The lines and spaces of the bass clef are different from the ones in the treble.  Remember to start from the bottom and work your way up the staff when you use the mnemonic devices to remember the note names!

Remember that each line and space has a number.  The first line is the bottom line, the first space is the bottom space, etc. 

Learn to Read Music on the Bass Clef

Tomorrow we’ll be back with the continuation of this lesson to help you learn to read music.

The Musical Alphabet

After learning the basic parts of music writing, such as the clefs, staff, and time signatures, you’re ready to move on to learning the note names.  The musical alphabet consists of just 7 letters; A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.  Once you reach G, the alphabet starts over again at A.

Treble Clef Notes

One of the easiest tools you can use to help learn note names is a mnemonic device.  A mnemonic (the ‘m’ is silent) device is a technique that you use to help memorize something.  Rhymes, words, and phrases are some common mnemonic devices.

The most important thing to remember when learning the note names is that you have to start from the bottom of the staff and work your way up.  In the diagram below, you can see that the spaces in the treble clef spell the word FACE from bottom to top.  Space 1 is F, space 2 is A, space 3 is C, and space 4 is E.  It also helps that SPACE and FACE rhyme!

We’ll be back next week with more music theory lessons, music note name lessons, and all sorts of tips, techniques, and strategies to help you learn to read music.