Hi, Im sorry If Im not in the right place here to ask my question. I am needing some help with learning the what the notes are off of the staff, where there are no lines telling me without going Face or everygood boy does fine or in the bass Bood boys do fine always and etc. I just dont understand how a person can just look at this and know what a note Is way up there, or way down there, If you know what I mean. Please if there is anyone that could help me with this I would truly appriciate It. Viki

You and I are in the same boat...

You have to train yourself by sight/touch orientation to recognize the notes on the staff (quickly) and know where they are on the piano... takes a lot of practice.

Good luck!

Rick

So there Isn't an easy way to learn this? Its really hard.

Practice.

http://www.readmusicfree.com/grandstaffdefender.html

"""...Hi, Im sorry If Im not in the right place here to ask my question. I am needing some help with learning the what the notes are off of the staff, where there are no lines telling me without going Face or everygood boy does fine or in the bass Bood boys do fine always and etc. I just dont understand how a person can just look at this and know what a note Is way up there, or way down there, If you know what I mean. Please if there is anyone that could help me with this I would truly appriciate It. Viki
..."""

Your question is a good one. When you learn to play the piano, you learn all the notes around middle C. As you know, the piano has 88 keys. When you learn the notes on the staff after practicing and playing hour after hour, day after day, month after month and year after year, you will learn the notes and recognize them instantly when you read the music on your music stand. When you play the piano for a while you will have notes that as you say are way, way up high or way, way down low on the staff. Like anything when you do it everyday or read notes way up high or way down low, you recognize those notes easily.

Where you live, in a town or city, there are lots of houses, and lots of streets and sometimes these streets and houses look the same, but you know that as you go to the store or a friends house that you can quickly know what street or house to go to everytime. Well, when you play the piano, you will be able to know instantly where to go for those high up notes and the low down notes, too.

Start simple and work your way up to more sophisticated pieces... start with the basics... practice your scales and learn music theory. Enjoy the process!

Rick

P.S. I still catch myself whispering "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "All Cows Eat Grass".

Yeah there is, just count up the notes So like when you're looking at "f" on the top line, (treble cleff) the next space is "g" the next line "a", the next space "b" and so on. Count downwards when the notes are below middle "C" Hope this helps

There are sites on the internet like Grand Staff Defender that really will help you learn what the notes are on the treble and bass staves and also above and below the staves. There are also apps for ipads, iphones, etc., that will help you learn. Grand Staff Defender is actually kind of fun to play so that's the one I'd recommend trying first.

Hope this helps.

Sandra

Thank You so much for that Lesson on learning the Notes off the staff, WOW!! I guess then I had better get busy and learn as fast as I can because Im not a Kid anymore. Thanks I truly do appriciate your advice.

Cute! Im sure I will be doing that also. Thanks Allot

Thank You Sandra! I will go and take a look at that right away

Thanks! K Beaumont

Viki, everybody has given you good advice. But I will tell you my secret for dealing with inconveniently high or low ledger lines: I cheat. I count up or down laboriously by hand and then pencil in the name of the note right above or below it. After enough practice I don't need it any more and can then erase my cheats.

Monica, Thank You for your advice. It looks like I have a long road ahead of me for learning these off of the ledger lines above & Below. Just hope It doesn't discourage me from learning. I went to your video of you playing, I have to tell you that It was Beautiful! Thanks for sharing it with me. I absolutely Love the piano and Love listening and watching others play, Its very relaxing. Thanks again for your help.

it's just another version of learning to read. remember that took time and practice.

Think of when you were learning the alphabet, and then learning to read. Remember how each word was a struggle? Did you think you'd EVER learn to scan a book?
Same with reading music. Yes, it takes time and practice. But the day will come when it's as easy as reading a book. Hey, even Richard Burton had to learn basic reading once too before he played Hamlet. I am certain he didn't learn the role off a recording.

I think that there is a website or two where the note is shown on the staff and you type in the letter. It rates your number of correct answers, and you can speed it up too as you get more confident.

Maybe some of the teachers here can give you a lead on that website.

Does anyone know of a site which drills mercilessly on chords? I can find them eventually, but want it to be like jackhammer fast. Thanks.

Here's my latest'cheat'. If there's a ninth in the bass clef, I write 9th over it and the hand automatically goes for the Big Stretch, rather than trying to figure if it's an octave or ninth and blowing it.

I have also been known to write e.g. "All white keys" over a long passage of chords...... I can erase later.

@ riley80: here you have some nice chords drills: http://www.musictheory.net/exercises

Hi Viki. Just learn where the C's are on the grand staff. There are five, from two ledger lines below the grand staff to two ledger lines above. Don't worry about the rest, rome was not built in a day.

By the way, did you know that the form of the G-clef is derived from the letter G, and that it identifies the note G.

And as for the F-clef, guess for yourself!

Thanks, but not quite what I need.

I need the quiz to ask me for e.g. an A minor chord and I have one second to hammer it out on a keyboard. Is there anything like that? Or maybe I am not using that site correctly? I can write them out on a paper staff, but I need to play em fast on a real piano.

What Monica said except that I don't worry about erasing them later.

You should learn the "landmark" notes. Then you can quickly identify the note above and below the landmark. For beginners it really helps to know the landmark notes two ledger lines above and below the treble and bass clefs.

If you know that one ledger line above the treble clef is an A, then the note above that is a B. For some reason, it's hard to count beyond that, so it's better to memorize that two ledger lines above is a C and not count up from the one ledger A.

I don't think FACE or other mnemonics works at all. It may work for taking paper exam, it doesn't help when you are sight reading music.

The simple word ACE pretty much gives you all you need for ledger lines.

The top line on the Treble Clef is F so, the next 3 lines are ACE.

The three lines below the Bass Clef from lowest up are ACE.

After you do it enough it becomes automatic.

With chords I still write the chord names over the staff like a lead sheet. Though I also sometimes also put R,1st or 2nd to annotate the inversion too.

The rhythm for me is the easiest part, I was a drummer in High School.

Its not really cheating, because "8va" gives you the notes in a more familiar territory, but you are to play them higher. So that, IMHO, is just as much "cheating" as is writing in the notes, because you are using a crutch to play notes in unfamiliar territory. But its a legal crutch!

@ riley80: if you have a midi keyboard, then the eMusicTheory application can do that http://www.emusictheory.com/software/signUp.muse (it costs $12) and is in my opinion well worth it - I am not affiliated to them)

[quote=Jean-Luc]@ riley80: if you have a midi keyboard,

I don't. Actually, if I weren't so lazy, I'd doctor up my Schaum chart or make up something I can use at the piano, covering the notation. Thanks anyway.