Cracking the Code: Reading Simple Notes

Imagine you found a secret code that tells musicians exactly which sound to play. That code exists — and it is called music notation! Before we dive in, think about this: when you read a book, letters sit on lines to help you tell them apart. Music does something very similar. Notes sit on a set of five lines called a stave, and their position tells you which note to play. Can you guess what might happen if a note sits higher up on the stave?

Music is written on a stave — five horizontal lines stacked on top of each other. At the left end of the stave you will see a symbol called the treble clef. It looks like a fancy curly letter G. The treble clef tells you this stave is for higher-pitched sounds, like a flute or the right hand on a piano. Every line and every space between the lines has a letter name. We use the first seven letters of the alphabet: A B C D E F G. After G, the pattern starts again at A. The five lines, from the BOTTOM line to the TOP line, spell out: E – G – B – D – F. A helpful way to remember them is the sentence: Every Good Boy Deserves Fun. The four spaces between the lines, from the BOTTOM space to the TOP space, spell: F – A – C – E. That one is easy — it spells the word FACE! A note is a small oval shape. Where the oval sits tells you its name. If the oval sits ON a line, the line runs through the middle of the oval. If the oval sits IN a space, the oval fits snugly between two lines.