How to read notes

Music is written on a staff of five horizontal lines with four spaces between them. Each line and each space stands for one note: the higher a note sits on the staff, the higher it sounds. A note on a line has the line through its middle; a note in a space sits between two lines. From a line to the next space is one step — the next white key on the piano.

The clef at the start of the staff says which notes the lines stand for. The treble clef (G clef) curls around the second line from the bottom: that line is the G above middle C. The bass clef (F clef) puts its two dots either side of the fourth line: that line is the F below middle C. Piano music uses both — the treble staff mostly for the right hand, the bass staff for the left — joined by a brace into the grand staff.

In English the seven white keys are named with letters, C D E F G A B, and then C again, an octave higher. Many teachers also use the solfège syllables do re mi fa sol la si.

• Treble staff lines, bottom to top: E G B D F — “Every Good Boy Does Fine”.
• Treble staff spaces: F A C E — they spell “face”.
• Bass staff lines: G B D F A — “Good Boys Do Fine Always”.
• Bass staff spaces: A C E G — “All Cows Eat Grass”.

Memory aids help at the start, but the aim is to know a note at a glance. Learn a few landmark notes — middle C, the treble G and the bass F the clefs point to — and read the others as steps from the nearest one.

Middle C is the C nearest the middle of the piano keyboard. It sits on its own short line: one ledger line below the treble staff, or one ledger line above the bass staff — the same key either way.

To say which C you mean, octaves are numbered. In scientific pitch notation middle C is C4, and the number goes up at every C: the D just above middle C is D4, the B just below it is B3.

Ledger lines extend the staff for notes that do not fit on it. Read them like the staff itself: line, space, line. Above the treble staff the first ledger line is A; below the bass staff it is E.

A note appears on the staff, and you press its key on the on-screen piano — in exactly that octave: a C an octave too high counts as a different note. There are five levels:

• Five notes — middle C up to G, treble clef;
• Treble staff — the whole staff;
• Bass staff — the whole staff;
• Grand staff — both clefs together;
• Ledger lines — notes above and below the staff.

A round is 10 questions. If you miss, the trainer names the key you pressed and counts the steps from middle C to the right note, so a mistake turns into a lesson. You can add a timer of 3 or 5 seconds per question. At the end you see how many you got right on the first try, your longest streak and your best result for the level, which your browser remembers. It works with a mouse, a finger or the computer keyboard.

A few minutes every day do more than an hour once a week. Start at the first level with no time limit until you rarely miss; then move to the next level, and only then switch on the timer — 5 seconds first, then 3. Say each note’s name out loud as you press it. If one note keeps tripping you up, stop and find it from a landmark — it will stick sooner.

And whenever you sit at a real piano, read a few bars of real music: the trainer builds speed, real pieces build fluency.