Music note reading
Welcome! I am so excited to help you start reading music. Before we dive into the secrets of the staff, tell me a little bit about why you want to learn to read music and if you have any experience with a specific instrument?
I'm a complete beginner wanting to learn piano!
Your path
Memorizing Note Names
Rhythm and Note Values
Beyond the Staff: Ledger Lines and Accidentals
The Canvas of Music
Piano is a wonderful instrument to start with, and you're going to love how quickly the pieces fit together. Before we play any actual notes, we need to look at the grid where all music is written: the .
A standard five-line musical staff showing line numbers one through five and space numbers one through four ascending from the bottom.
Think of the staff as a ladder. Every single line and space represents a specific pitch. As you climb up the ladder from the bottom line to the top, the pitch gets higher. If you go down, the pitch gets lower.
On a piano, higher pitches are to your right, and lower pitches are to your left. So, climbing the staff is just like moving up to the right side of your keyboard.