Being able to read piano notes and sheet music in general is going to come in extremely handy on your path to becoming a piano master. Unless you are an expert at playing by ear, you’ll need to be able to read the notes on the staff to become a good player.
That said, learning the notes can take some time, but there are some tricks you can use to your advantage to make things go faster. How to learn to read piano notes quickly is what we are going to discuss.
Labeling the Treble Clef
The first step to quickly learning how to read piano notes has to do with the treble clef. The treble clef tells you which notes to play with your right hand. You need to know which note coincides with each line and space on the treble clef.
On the treble clef, label the open spaces with FACE, or in other words, the first space at the bottom is F, the next space up is A, and so on and so forth.
Now you will do the same for the actual lines. Starting from the bottom and moving up, you will label the, with EGBDF. One of the popular learning tools to remember this is “every good boy deserves fudge.”
Writing the Notes on Paper and Memorizing
Now it is time to choose a piece of music you want to learn, preferably something simple to start out with. With a pencil, write the letter names of each note under each of the music notes on the staff.
It’s a really good way to learn which musical notes on the staff coincide with which letter notes. If you are having trouble remembering just one or two notes, then only write the notes for those on the treble clef. The point is to memorize what the musical notes on the treble clef look like, and then to memorize which letter notes coincide with those musical notes.
Once you have memorized the letter note names for all lines and spaces for the treble clef, for your right hand, you can then move onto the bass clef, which is going to be for your left hand.
Labeling the Bass Clef
Now that we have memorized the notes for your right hand, let’s take a look at the bass clef, which is going to contain all of the notes you will play with your left hand.
Once again, start with the spaces between the lines and move from bottom to top. Label the bass clef’s spaces as ACEGB from bottom to top. One memory trick you could use to remember this is “always carry extra grocery bags.”
Now it is time to label the actual lines on the bass clef. Starting from bottom to top, label the lines as BGDFA. A memory trick to remember this is “Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always.”
Writing the Notes on Paper and Memorizing
Now you will repeat step 2, but for the bass clef instead of the treble clef. Write those letter notes under the musical notes to remember them much easier. As you get better, only label the musical notes which you are having trouble remembering the letter notes for. Keep practicing until you have this memorized.
An Alternative Method
An alternative method to get you started with reading piano notes is to get a diagram of your hands, so a picture of a left and a right hand, and then starting with your thumbs, label each finger from 1 to 5 until you get to your pinky finger. There are plenty of songs out there which only use notes C through G, or 1 through 5 on your fingers.
Here you want to start at the middle C on the piano and put both thumbs on the note. Your right pinky should land on G (5) and your left pinky should land on F (5). If it helps you remember better, you can write the letter names next to the numbers.
Keep in mind that you’re only working with the white keys here. Try to say the numbers or letters out loud as you are playing them. If you read the notes, say them out loud, and play them all at the same time, it should make memorizing them much easier.
Conclusion
Everybody is different and it may take you longer to learn to read piano notes than others. However, the above methods are seen as the best ways to learn this quickly, so give it a shot.
