Reading music
Start here if you want to read notes on the staff. Every example on these pages is drawn as real notation, and you can press Play to hear it.
- How to read sheet music, step by step
To read sheet music, check the clef, the key signature and the time signature first, then read the notes: their height gives the pitch and their...
- Music notes: names, symbols and values
A music note is a symbol that tells you two things: how high or low to play (its pitch, named with the letters A to G) and how long to hold it...
- The music staff: lines, spaces and clefs
The music staff is a set of five horizontal lines with four spaces between them. Notes are placed on the lines and in the spaces, and the higher a...
- Treble clef notes and how to read them
On the treble clef the five lines, from bottom to top, are E G B D F, and the four spaces are F A C E. The clef's curl circles the line for G, so...
- Bass clef notes and how to read them
On the bass clef the five lines, from bottom to top, are G B D F A, and the four spaces are A C E G. The two dots of the clef surround the fourth...
- The grand staff: treble and bass clef together
The grand staff joins a treble clef staff and a bass clef staff with a brace and a shared bar line. Together they cover eleven lines, and middle C...
- Ledger lines: notes above and below the staff
Ledger lines are short extra lines drawn above or below the staff for notes too high or too low to fit on its five lines. They continue the...
- Where is middle C on the piano and staff?
Middle C is the C closest to the center of the piano keyboard. In scientific pitch notation it is C4, and its frequency is about 261.6 Hz. On the...
- Piano keys labeled: every note on the keyboard
A standard piano has 88 keys: 52 white and 36 black. They run from A0 at the left to C8 at the right. The white keys are named A to G in a...
- Piano notes: how the keys match the staff
Each piano key matches one spot on the staff. Middle C is the key near the center and sits on a ledger line between the treble and bass staves....
- Sharps, flats and naturals in music
A sharp (♯) raises a note by one half step. A flat (♭) lowers it by one half step. A natural (♮) cancels a sharp or flat. On the piano, sharps and...
- Half steps and whole steps (semitones and tones)
A half step (semitone) is the smallest distance between two notes in Western music: from one piano key to the very next key, black or white. A...
- Enharmonic notes: same sound, different name
Enharmonic notes are two different note names for the same pitch, such as C♯ and D♭. On a piano they are the same key. Which name is used depends...
- Alto clef: how to read notes in the C clef
The alto clef is a C clef whose center points to the middle line of the staff, so the middle line is middle C (C4). Its lines, from bottom to top,...
- Tenor clef: how to read it, with a note chart
The tenor clef is a C clef placed on the fourth line from the bottom of the staff, so that line is middle C (C4). Its lines, bottom to top, are D...
- Solfege: do re mi fa sol la ti explained
Solfege (also solfeggio) gives each note of a scale a syllable: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, then do again. In movable do, do is the first note of...
Ready to practice? Try the note reading trainer or a quiz.