There’s More to Playing the Piano

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Chapter 2 - Naming Notes

We describe squeaky notes as being high-pitched; we describe rumbly notes as being low-pitched. When we write music, we draw five lines – called the stave – and we place our notes high and low accordingly. Really high and really low notes are drawn on little extra lines called ledger lines.

The notes that we use in music (A B C D E F and G) are written on the stave in simple alphabetical order.

Most piano music is written on two staves. The right-hand part is written using the treble clef . The left-hand part is written beneath using the bass clef.

The positions of the notes on the stave are slightly different in each clef. The following memory aids/mnemonics are helpful to speed up the learning process. These mnemonics are helpful but do not forget that the notes are, fundamentally, drawn in alphabetical order.

Notes of the treble clef:

Notes of the bass clef:

At the piano Think of a tune that you know and write it out by hand. You could perhaps copy out part of a piano exam piece or you could try to write down something that you can play by ear.