How do you Read Music?  Part 1: Clefs, Sharps and Flats

Have you ever looked at something written in a foreign language and wondered what in the world it could possibly say?  There are often symbols that look like scribbles and oftentimes it is not even apparent if you read the text from left to right or from right to left.  For many, looking at a sheet of printed music often evokes the same feeling of illiteracy.  But never fear, there are some simple tricks to reading music that will have you dissecting a symphony in no time...well, maybe a simpler song!

The first thing to recognize is the musical staff and how it works.  There are 5 lines and 4 spaces, and they mean different things depending on what clef is at the beginning (on the left).  What is a clef?  It is the symbol at the beginning of each line of musical staff.   There are 3 main clefs that are used, and they are specific to what range of musical notes is desired and/or for what instrument or voice the music is written.  

First you have the treble clef, or G clef.  It is used for higher pitched instruments such as violins, flutes, saxophones, trumpets, bagpipes, the right hand of a pianist or in choral music the soprano and alto parts.  This swirly flourish is called the G clef because the curly body in the middle circles around the line of the musical staff that is the “G” above “middle C”.  

Second, you have the bass clef, or F clef.  It is used for lower pitched instruments such as cellos, double basses, trombones, tubas, timpani, the music played by the left hand of the piano and for the bass and tenor vocal lines in choral music.  This large, comma-like symbol is called the F clef because the dot at the front of the clef is on the line of the musical staff that is the “F” below “middle C”, and in case that was not clear enough: the 2 dots that appear after the main body of the clef are on either side of the F line (they are placed on the spaces of the music staff for the notes E and G).

Lastly, you have the alto clef, or C clef.  This symbol has two vertical lines followed by a fancy scroll-like flourish that has the middle line of the musical staff running through it; this line is the note “middle C”.  The alto clef is used for music written for viola, viola da gamba and alto trombone.  Just to make things interesting, sometimes the C clef moves around on the staff, and then becomes a different clef for higher ranges of musical instruments such as the bassoon or cello; if the middle of this clef is on the fourth line rather than the third, it is called a tenor clef.  And, sometimes different clefs are used for music to avoid using a lot of ledger lines, for example a viola often uses a treble clef for music that is in a higher pitch range.

Now that you know what the clefs look like, you can apply them to the musical staff to know what pitches are being notated.  Surely it seems complicated learning all the lines and spaces and the different note letters for each one...except that some geniuses came up with acronyms to help you quickly remember the notes for each clef.  Over time, there have been many acronyms created for reading the staff, but we will just go over a few (feel free to make up your own).

The notes on a staff with a treble clef, starting from the bottom and reading up, have the letters E,G,B,D,F on the lines and F,A,C,E for the spaces.  A simple way to remember the lines is: Every Good Boy Does Fine; the spaces are just the word “FACE.”.  When you have notes that extend beyond the core music staff, the notes use ledger lines that extend the range of the staff...you just have to count up  or down through the musical alphabet from a starting point that you know to figure out the note.  The notes on a staff with a bass clef are G,B,D,F,A for the lines, and A,C,E,G for the spaces.  I like to use the acronyms Good Boys Do Fine Always for the lines, and All Cows Eat Grass for the spaces.  For the alto clef, the notes on the lines are F,A,C,E,G and G,B,D,F for the spaces...since I was never taught any cool acronyms for alto clef (even though I am a violist) I have created my own, but again, feel free to make up your own...for the lines, the word FACE with Good (not very original) and Get Back Dirty Flies for the spaces.

So, now that you know about the musical staff, what in the world are those other symbols that look like hashtags and fancy lower case Bs?  Those are sharps and flats respectively, and they often indicate what key signature is being used for the music.  A key signature basically tells what sharps (raising of the pitch) or flats (lowering of the pitch) you apply to each note throughout the musical composition.  In music that you play as a beginning musician, the key signatures are pretty basic and if you know the note names for the staff, you can figure what sharps and flats to use.  The hashtag looking symbols (or for us older folks, the “number” symbol) are sharps, and you can tell what note they are raising by what goes through the middle of the symbol (for example if the sharp has a line that is on the F line of the staff, it is an F Sharp, and you would play all the Fs in the music a half-step higher than if there was no sharp.  Of course there is an order to the Sharps, hence another acronym!  F,C,G,D,A,E,B is the order of sharps, easily remembered as Fat Cats Get Dizzy After Eating Breakfast (there are other versions involving beer but I am trying to keep it clean here).  The flats, or lower case bs, indicate what notes need to be lowered; the line or space going through the middle of the B head tells the note that should be altered.  The order of the flats is B,E,A,D,G,C,F, and the acronym I use is the word BEAD and I just remember GCF after that, not too innovative but it works.  Since the determination of key signatures involves a lot of discussion, we will not delve into that subject, but the knowledge which you have now acquired will enable you to know what instrument the music was probably written for and if there are a lot of note alterations.

The next installment of “How Do You Read Music?” will involve a discussion of accidentals, notation and ornaments.  So, keep practicing naming notes by their letter names and figuring out sharps and flats; soon you will learn how long each note is sustained and how you play them.  Or, if you are a beginning Suzuki violin student you don’t need to know any of this yet!