Reading Music: Treble Clef

Music notes are written on a STAFF made of five lines and four spaces. The Treble Clef is placed at the beginning of each staff and it is usually used for instruments and voices that can sing mid-range notes and high notes: Guitar, Violin, Flute, Clarinet, Trumpet, Soprano Voice, Alto Voice, etc.

We can write music notes on any of the lines and also inside any of the spaces in the staff.

Notes that sit on a line inside the staff are called line notes and notes that sit in a space inside the staff are called space notes. In the example below, the first two measures are made of space notes exclusively and the last two measures are made of line notes exclusively.

Each note inside the staff has a name, a letter name, using the first seven letters of our alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Memorize the letter names of the space notes and the line notes below:

Using the answer key above, try to name each space note on the staff below:

Check your answers below:

Using the answer key above, try to name each space note on the staff below:

Check your answers below:

The notes on the staff below are space notes and line notes, mixed together. Using the answer key above (or you can ty this without looking at the answer key) name each note on the staff:

Check your answers below:

The song below is and excerpt from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The notes in this example have been adapted (written in a different key) to help keep things simple for you.

If you do not play a musical instrument, you can just name each note in the score and then sing the tune. If you do play a musical instrument, you will have to know the fingering for the following notes, in order to play the song: G, A, B, C, D.

Here is the score without the letters at the bottom:

And here is the score with the letters at the bottom:

You are now ready to explore basic music scores that use the Treble Clef. Keep in mind that notes can move outside of the staff. I did not cover those notes in this post and will cover the topic at a later date. Look for a post titled “Reading Music: Ledger Lines”.

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Watch the video below for a detailed explanation from me. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments section below or in the comments section of the video.