How to remember note names

Mnemonics get you started. Landmarks and intervals get you fast. Here are all three, and how to practise them in five minutes a day.

Start with the mnemonics

• Treble lines: E G B D F, Every Good Boy Does Fine.
• Treble spaces: F A C E, spells FACE.
• Bass lines: G B D F A, Good Boys Do Fine Always.
• Bass spaces: A C E G, All Cows Eat Grass.

They work, but they are slow: to name a note on the fourth line you have to recite the rhyme up to “Does”. Treat them as a way to check yourself, not as the way you read.

Then switch to landmarks

Landmarks are a handful of notes you know on sight. Every other note is then a step or two away.

The Cs are worth knowing in every position: middle C between the staves, treble C in the third space of the treble clef, and bass C in the second space of the bass clef.

Read intervals, not just notes

Most melodies move by small steps. Once you have one note, the next is usually:

• A step: line to the next space, or space to the next line. Next letter.
• A skip (third): line to the next line, or space to the next space. Skip one letter.
• A bigger leap: count the lines and spaces between, or jump to a landmark.

Good readers name the first note of a phrase and then follow the shape, which is why counting from the bottom line every time holds people back.

A five-minute daily drill

• Minute 1: name the landmarks on both staves out loud.
• Minutes 2 to 4: name the notes in the first line of a piece you are learning, without playing.
• Minute 5: play that line, saying the names as you go.

Do it every day for two weeks and the landmarks become automatic.

Questions

Keep going

• Why you keep forgetting notes
• Alto and tenor clef notes
• Writing note names on sheet music
• Checking notes when practising alone
• Reading music again as an adult
• Pieces with note names