Treble clef notes

The treble clef is the top staff in piano music and the only staff for violin, flute, trumpet and most singers. Here is every note on it, and the quickest ways to remember them.

The lines: E G B D F

From the bottom line up, the five lines are E G B D F. The classic way to remember them is Every Good Boy Does Fine.

The spaces: F A C E

The four spaces, bottom to top, spell FACE: F A C E.

Why it is called the G clef

The treble clef is a decorated letter G. Its curl wraps around the second line from the bottom, and that line is G (the G above middle C). If you forget the rhymes, find the curl, call that line G, and count up or down the alphabet: each step from a line to the next space is one letter.

Middle C and the ledger lines

Notes above and below the staff sit on short extra lines called ledger lines. Middle C is on the first ledger line below the treble staff. Just under the staff, in the space, is D. Above the top line, the space is G and the first ledger line above is A.

Landmark notes beat counting

Counting from the bottom line every time is slow. Most readers learn a few landmarks and read the rest as steps from them:

• Middle C, one ledger line below the staff.
• G, the second line, where the clef curls.
• Treble C, the third space, an octave above middle C.
• High G, sitting on top of the staff.

Once you know these, every other note is at most one or two steps away. Learn the bass clef next: bass clef notes.

Sharps, flats and the key signature

A letter is only half of the name. The sharps or flats at the start of each line (the key signature) apply to every note with that letter, in every octave, for the whole piece. In G major there is one sharp on the F line, so every F is played as F♯. An accidental written next to a note lasts until the end of that bar.

Questions

Keep going

• Bass clef notes
• Ledger lines
• Key signatures
• How to remember note names
• Why you keep forgetting notes
• Pieces with note names