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For the past two months, I've been holding a note-reading "boot camp" for my students. I made sure every student had a complete set of flash cards and assigned 5-6 notes every week that we'd all learn together. For instance, one week it was high A, low E, middle C, treble E (top space of treble clef, not bottom line), and bass G (top space of bass clef). I told them that for the five weeks of the boot camp, I expected them to spend five minutes of each practice session learning these note cards. At lessons, I'm quizzing them, and even the ones who "forgot" to practice their notes are getting at least that time to go over them. The result is that every last student is sight-reading much, much better than two months ago.

Tomorrow I'm holding a "master class," which is actually going to be quite a bit less formal than it sounds: just note-reading games and holiday treats.

In this journey, I've come up with a few mnemonics that have really helped my students, so I thought I'd share. If you have any that you use, please add to the thread. Note reading isn't the fun part of teaching for me, so anything that makes it go more smoothly is welcome.

1. We talked about high A and low E and how they are "middle C fake-outs." So many students assume they are high and low C because they look so much like middle C. So I came up with the rhyme, "High A, low E, look like middle C." It is working beautifully!

2. For some reason, a lot of students struggle with low F, so I came up with "F fell off (the bass clef)." Now it's one of the notes nobody misses.

3. Low F and high G were in the same week's cards, so naturally, we came up with, "G grew (above the treble clef." Again, "F fell off and G grew," are helping many students recognize these ones instantly. In fact, one of my beginners has a song where she has to move her hand so her finger five is on high G, and I was able to say, "Remember, G grew?" and she was there in no time flat.

4. Of course everybody knows the FACE rule, but I have found that the other ones (every good boy does fine, etc.) aren't as helpful. For the bass clef lines, I just had them repeat, "GBDFA" ten times at every lesson for weeks. They're getting it, slowly.

5. Low D and middle D, written in the bass clef, are mirrors of each other. So are high B and middle B, written in the treble clef.

6. Another note everybody struggles with is treble B. I think it's because it's smack dab in the middle, far away from any "landmarks." I keep repeating "Be in the middle," but so far it's not sticking very well. Any tips on remembering B?

Interesting topic. All my students use flashcards every day (theoretically) for the first year or so. For the youngsters (who are starting in middle C position), I start them with middle C, both clefs, and work my way out. I usually add 2 or 4 cards a week, and try to keep a little ahead of what notes they're learning it the book. For the older students, who are usually not learning notes from middle C out, I'll start with C,D and E with both hands, and then add the F and G on the second week, and then out from there.

I tried a book that jumped around with the note learning with a few students, but it didn't fit my teaching style.




I agree. I've found that students confuse Every Good Boy... and Good Boys Do... I just use FACE and All Cows Eat Grass. They can easily extrapolate the line notes from there.
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The dots on the Bass clef point to the F (obviously). I use that one...

What if we didn't use note names until month two or three? Teach skips steps on the piano and the staff and give them an anchor line to memorize and they're reading after 10 minutes. Does anyone else do anything similar to this? I feel like note names slow note reading and it becomes discouraging for many students.

I think of it like learning a new language. When I learned spanish, I had to first think, 'What do I want to say in English? Now, what does that translate to in spanish?' Finally, 'how do I say it?' Translation takes a lot of time. Wouldn't be easier to just start speaking spanish? Well, that would be quite impossible for most everyone, but music doesn't have to be that way. A student doesn't need to think, 'what's the name of that note?' Now that I know that it is a C, where is C on the keyboard?' when they could simply see the note and know where it goes automatically.

Does that make any sense? Any arguments for or against?

I guess like any method of teaching note reading there may be drawbacks, but I love this way of doing it.

The trick is not to cram all the letter names in one sitting. The traditional FACE and All Cows Eat Grass methods will just frustrate and overwhelm kids. A "boot camp" is the last thing on my mind, unless you truly have a bunch of underachievers who can't read or won't learn to read after two years of lessons. I inherited a bunch of those students several years ago from a very, very incompetent teacher. I was forced to use many "boot camp" tactics (flashcards, worksheets, Internet programs) to get those kids to read notes, to various degrees of success.

Intervallic reading should be taught first. It enables beginning students to play with confidence and pay attention to other problems like finger numbers, rhythm, hand shape, and legato. A lot of beginner kids do struggle at note-reading, but gradually most of them will overcome it and be able to read fluently. It takes a lot of patience on the teacher's part. If the kids are still struggling to read, say, past Piano Adventures 2B, then some serious intervention needs to take place in the form of a boot camp. Otherwise, I would advise letting it go and let the kid develop note-reading gradually over a period of time.

Most of the recent method book series do a fantastic job of gradually, painstakingly introduce a few letters at a time. Pedagogically, it is definitely the best way to teach note-reading in a logical, systematic manner.

If the kids are genius note-readers, then put them in John Thompson. They'll be able to play sonatas by the fourth volume!

My 2 cents worth, if you please. By simply playing daily book 1 of piano in any piano method, it is a review of all the notes in the treble and bass clefs. So it is fun and easy to play the tunes because it is easy and simple. I use Fletcher book 1 but others are cool. It also does wonders because you are reading simple music daily. When I see a mote I would sometimes be stuck but after a year as a warm-up daily you can't help but read and play the tunes without hesitation.

Also writing out scales etc. does wonders for sight-rading, too, and note recognition.

Also if you play over and over all the tunes you have learned in constant review, it is all about reading/sightreading and and playing music.

That's essentially what the method I use does (Music Pathways). Also, the first actual notes it teaches are high and low C, then middle C, then treble and bass C. Then they learn 2nds and 3rds, and finally 4ths and 5ths from each C. The problem is that they learn a TON of notes right off the bat, in addition to intervallic reading skills, and inevitably, my students revert to intervallic reading instead of learning the actual notes. I'd been trying to work note reading logically and organically into their weekly lessons, but I was finding that after a few months, they'd forget previous notes and weren't making much overall progress.

Most of the students I'm doing the boot camp with have been with me for at least a year. Some are good readers who are just getting it as a review because there are some weak spots in their reading skills (notes with lots of ledger lines, for instance). I'm finding that 5 notes per week is enough that the retention is fueling their ability to learn other notes (this looks like that; this line is this note in the treble clef and that note in the bass clef, etc.). Within six weeks, nearly all of my students have become decent to strong readers, and every last one has noticeably improved.

That's a good thing! Why not encourage their continual recognition of intervals? Further down the line, intervallic reading will trump letter names in terms of importance, anyway.

I applaud your efforts in making your students good readers.

By the way, I'm using a program called Synthesia that reinforces note reading. I import the piano adventure midi files from the enhanced CD and then the students play through their pieces. The program has two modes, one that waits until they play the correct note and the other that keeps going with or without them. The kids love it, even the teenagers get a kick out of it.

They use this program at our music station before or after their lessons. The website is http://SynthesiaGame.com There's also an iPad app now.

My apologies for interrupting, but I cannot help asking. I am an adult beginner and have never understood how intervalic reading is possible. I am sure I do some intervallic reading unconsciously, but how do you teach something like it? Intervals do not really make any sense to me. The first step is easy. You learn to identify seconds, thirds, and so on in the treble clef. But that is not helpful at all, since you can play the same "interval" in different ways, and need to specify whether it, for example, is a minor or major third. At this point it is necessary to count skips/steps. In order to count the skips and steps, to identify the interval, you need to know the note names. Since music notation works the way it does, you can see two notes placed in two adjacent spaces on the staff and you will have no idea whether it is a minor or major third unless you have memorized that the distance between F and A is not equal to the distance between A and C, in the treble clef. The intervals look equal on paper, but are not equal on the piano keyboard. (In fact , F to A in treble clef looks identical to A to C in the bass clef!)

In order learn how to play a major second you would need to memorise twelve different combinations. How to play a second starting on C, how to play a major second starting on C sharp, and so on. That would end up in huge amount of memorization. Furthemore, you would still have to learn the note names in order to identify the starting note for each interval you play.

What am I missing here? Is there some trick that makes it possible to identify an interval without resorting to counting skips/steps?

That's why it's important to teach intervallic reading first, and gradually introduce letters across both staves later.

Intervallic reading is about recognizing shapes and patterns. If you see a row of parallel sixths, you can (with the understanding of keys/key signatures) effortlessly play them instead of reading one individual note at a time. Same thing with triads in their various inversions. Of course, you'd have to practice the chords and inversions in different keys, but once you understand that, you can read chords "by shape" much faster than individual notes.

Think "chunking." You see groups of notes in their proper intervallic relationship with each other rather than seeing individual notes in isolation.

About the Synthesia, can I turn off all the "falling note" in green and blue color and just use the sheet music?

As a student I have used these other landmark notes or patterns to help my reading.

But admittedly, I am a fairly old student (and engineer) so these techniques may not be as suitable to young students.

To find F's and G's everywhere use Pattern 1 and Pattern 2
Pattern 1
-The Treble (G) clef - The top note on the clef is ..... G!
-The Bass (F) clef - The bottom note on this clef is ..... F!
Gee what a coincidence.

Pattern 2
-Hmmm, and also the Treble Clef does the squiggle around the G, which is 2 lines up.
-And also the Bass Clef has the dots around the F, which is... you guessed it.. 2 lines down


To find C's everywhere, picture a mirror on the Middle C line, and using pattern 3 you will see the symmetry of the C's.

Pattern 3 (Symmetry of the C's around middle C)
-Going up from middle C one octave to find the next C -> It is 3 spaces up
-Going down from middle C one octave to find the next C -> It is 3 spaces down.
-Extending even further, going another octave up find C 2 ledger lines above the Treble Clef
-Likewise going down another octave, find C 2 ledger lines below the Bass Clef

How do flash cards help? Don't students see the notes they need to learn in their music?

Yes, I've just been using the app (I'd assume the computer version is the same) - you can select either sheet music or falling blocks when you choose your song to play.

Umm.. I think you've got this around the wrong way? The top line on the treble clef is an F, unless you mean the space above. Similarly, the lowest line in the bass is a G, not F.

I do use all the other mirror-images when giving students important notes to remember. Much more useful IMO than the "every good boy..."

I've been using the computer program for a while and it works the same as the app. In advanced settings you can turn off the falling blocks.

Thank you very much for taking the time to explain. It does make things clearer. I agree to that understanding the notes in the context of a key, recognizing shapes, chords, and how the melody flows is important and would make sight-reading faster. Just recognizing the notes is not really enough to read music. I am a little surprised though, that it is possible to teach intervallic reading before the student is familiar with the note names. Or maybe this is done in parallel but the focus is on the intervallic reading... Thanks, the explanation makes it easier to follow the discussions here.

Teaching intervals before note-naming is quite simple, actually. You can play on a limited staff without a clef anywhere on the keyboard.

For a beginner, a third is a third is a third. There is no such thing as a major third or a minor third to someone just starting out. A third is simply a relationship from line to line or space to space that demands a response from the hand of 1-3, 2-4, or 3-5. Ideally, this would be first set up aurally, then physically and, finally, visually.

Limiting the kinds of intervals to 2nds and 3rds, then gradually adding 4ths and 5ths, builds a fluent reading process. I actually do very little with note naming in the first year beyond landmark identification and relationship to the landmark. It's simply not necessary.

My students that are in their 2nd year of study are reading quite fluently via interval and are now gaining fluency in naming specific pitches.

The best readers can do both -- read fluently by interval and name pitches easily, but it's a process and one I find is more fluid and natural by starting with intervals.

Great explanation Minniemay, thanks.

Well, music has many notes, which can be overwhelming. I find it's helpful to require students to look at only a few notes, one at a time, and learn those. Also, since I have intervallic readers on my hands who still sometimes ask where to put their hands to get started, taking the notes out of context forces them to learn the name rather than just the note's relationship to other notes on the page.

Also, flash cards allow for strategic repetition in a way music doesn't. The way I require my students to practice their flash cards is to go through all five once. The second time through, if they get a note right in one second or less, they can put it down on the table/piano/bench/whatever. Any notes they miss or get with hesitation go to the back of the stack. What happens is that the notes they miss every time are seen more and more frequently until they get them. Then, when all the cards are "down," they pick them all up and start over. Ideally, they'll get to a point where they can put all the cards down the first time.