I know, I know.  You already know how to count and tell time.  Doing these things in music is different, and maybe even easier for some people  First, we’ve got to cover a definition:

Measures are small sections of music that are divided by vertical lines called bar lines.  Sometimes, we refer to a measure as a ‘bar’.  Another thing to remember is that ‘time signature’ and ‘meter signature‘ are used interchangeably. 

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.

Now let’s look at the lines.  EGBDF.  It doesn’t spell a word, so we’ll have to make up a sentence to help remember these.  “Every Good Bird Does Fly” is a sentence that will help you remember the names of the music notes that land on the lines. While there are many other sentences (“Every Good Boy Does Fine” is a common one) that are used to remember the line notes, “Every Good Bird Does Fly” will help you remember that the music notes are ‘flying’ up the staff.

Practice!

Now that you know the names of the music notes, you’re moving down the ‘learn to read music’ road. Next you need to learn them well enough to say the letter name the instant you see the note on the staff. A common way to learn this is Flash Cards!  You can find music flash cards at music stores, online, or you can even make your own out of index cards – just make sure you double check the answers before you write them on the back. Flash cards are not a bad way to learn to read music, but there are often faster and more complete programs to help you learn to read music.

This might seem a very obvious and simple thing to take into account, but fear of the notes on the page, how complicated it all seems at first, and what a ‘mystery’ learning to read music surely is! By far the biggest hurdle the majority of newcomers find themselves having to overcome. Those new to learning to read music will look at a page of notes and it will look as friendly and simple as if it were written in a foreign language – and this immediate impression fills them dread at how long it will take to understand any of it! But relax – the beginning stages of learning to read music are nowhere near as complicated as you think – so as I say, do NOT be frightened at what you see. Within a very short time it will begin to make a lot of sense.

Your brain needs to be in a state where it can absorb information without it feeling like hard work – and if you are apprehensive and worried at the very start, you will only make the learning process harder for your self.

So are you relaxed? Good. Before we get on to the basics, here are a few motivational tips that are proved methods of helping you to take in information such that you will end up processing it subconsciously. By using these simple but effective music reading techniques, you will end up learning to read music with the same flow as if you were reading the words in this post. At first you might find you are reading a few musical syllables at a time – as you might when you learned to read – ‘mus-ic-al’ for example, taking time to work out what’s going on with the notes, but quickly those musical syllables will join-up and your reading will flow!

How to Read Music Fast Lesson One Coming Soon!