The Grand Staff is the basic graphic system used to read piano music notation. It is a system of lines and spaces upon which we place “dots” (actually little ovals) to indicate which notes to play. The Grand Staff is divided into two parts: Treble Clef Staff and Bass Clef Staff.

The upper part is the Treble Clef and is associated with higher pitched notes which are usually played by the right hand. It is called the Treble Clef because it is for higher pitched notes and instruments relative to other notes and standard instruments that are lower pitched that use the Bass Clef. It’s also called the G Clef to indicate its reference point of the second line from the bottom being the note G. That’s why the little symbol looks kind of like a G and has its lower swirled circle around the second line where the note G is drawn.

You may have heard the phrase “Every Good Boy Does Fine” used to learn how to read music. This is used because it is a good way to memorize the letter names represented by placing a note on the lines of the treble clef:

E – G – B – D – F .

This is the Treble Clef Staff with notes drawn on the lines:

The spaces in between the lines can be memorized by using the word FACE from bottom to top:

F – A – C – E .

So, we put the lines and spaces together using each adjacent line and space together from bottom to top. Doing this we can see that we have used the notes of the musical alphabet sequentially.

This is the Treble Clef Staff with notes drawn on the lines and spaces:

Understanding Music Notation Lesson 2 – Treble Clef

Christopher Schlegel

Tutorial 018 - Learning To Read Music (Page 2 of 17)

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