It seems everyone has a theory on how best to teach piano students to recognize notes on the staff. Some teachers live and breathe mnemonics while other teachers loathe mnemonics. Some teachers drill with flashcards while other teachers find this practice old-fashioned and archaic.
The truth is… everyone is right and everyone is wrong.
When it comes to recognizing notes on the staff, there is no agreement on best teaching practice because there is no one right way. There simply can’t be! Different piano students learn to read notes on the staff in different ways. Furthermore, the same students may learn to read notes on the staff in different ways on different days.
So, how does one go about teaching notes on the staff?
Trial and error… or success! While there is no single best way to teach notes on the staff, there is the BEST way for your piano students to learn notes on the staff.. and that is to have a multitude of varied experiences.
Here are 5 different ways to teach note reading
1. Verbal Note Learning
Some piano students love to talk and process language and therefore learn best through verbal and aural practices, and this is where the mnemonics come in. Some teachers may hate the fact that “spaces spell face”, or that “Green Bananas Don’t Feed Apes”. But, for some students, it works!
2. Use Guide Notes
Guide notes won’t necessarily help your piano students recognize every single note, but they will help your students remember where a specific note is that then helps them step and skip their way to decoding the notes. For your logical thinkers, this technique will work wonders.
3. Drill and Repetition
Some of your piano students are highly visual. By seeing repeated images of a note on a flashcard or worksheet they will easily commit it to memory (much like kids learning to read who memorize sight words so they don’t have to spend all of their time sounding out “the”, “when”, and “look”). Check out this book for your students who need repetition.
4. Something For Your Kinaesthetic Learners
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you probably have a few wiggly, active piano students. These kids need to work with their hands, get up and move and manipulate objects. Have these students draw the staff on a whiteboard and then, with round magnets in hand, create the notes you ask for. Or buy or make a floor staff and get them hopping!
5. Note Printing
For many piano students, the lightbulb moment happens when they physically print notes on the staff and then play what they’ve printed. This strengthens their understanding of how the grand staff works and builds a clear key-to-note connection. Note printing simple pieces is a motivating way of adding this strategy to your teaching toolkit.
Try one… try them all!
As mentioned earlier, none of these strategies will work all of the time. But each and every one of them will work some of the time. When teaching notes on the staff, be sure to try each of the different learning styles above with different students on different days.
I’ll bet you’ll discover that mixing it up will take the mundane out of note learning!
Piano student workbooks to the rescue
Andrea and Trevor Dow’s Piano Student Workbooks were designed to touch on many different ways of teaching and reinforcing note-reading. Repetition, note printing, one-line exercises… it’s all here and ready to take the frustration away from note-reading in your studio. See inside here.
Wendy says
Very good article today on note reading.
So true, that there is no one right way. The ideas you mentioned all are good. We as piano teachers best not take for granted that our students know their note names, and continually use these exercises with our students.
Remember to use the exercise of writing the notes on the staff.
This helps us, the teacher, really see if the student understands the concept.
We assume much too often, and too soon, that our students know the names of the treble and bass lines and spaces .
Help your students learn …. What a privilege!
Teacher Wendy
Ginny Abbotts says
Excellent information on note reading. I can’t tell you how many students I’ve had over the years, who have been taking piano for a year or more from another teacher before coming to me, but never learned the first thing about “sight reading”. Iam always astounded!
anna says
I’m fairly new at this, so this article opens the door for me to see outside of the box of the couple of methods I’ve been using. I don’t want to be one of those teachers that doesn’t prepare students correctly, which is why I love this site. Just for some more needed insight for myself, would you share a little as to what you do to teach sight reading? Any tips are appreciated. Thank you 🙂
Andrea says
Hi Anna! Absolutely 🙂 The three links below are the posts we’ve written about sight reading.
https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2012/09/03/the-sight-reading-secret-how-to-teach-piano-students-to-sight-read-fast/
https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2013/01/30/teaching-kids-to-sight-read-on-the-piano-stop-pulling-teeth-and-start-this-instead/
https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2014/01/26/how-popcorn-can-improve-your-piano-students-sight-reading/
And this one will be of help to you too!
https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2012/03/22/note-reading-issues-no-more-7-solutions-for-success/
anna says
Thank you so much 🙂
Laura DeCesare says
Thanks for validating so many different methods – while also reminding us to keep learning and expand our teaching abilities!
SuzAnne Albright says
I have tried all of these at different times, with different students. How do they learn? How many different ways can we think about the notes?
Andrea says
Hi SuzAnne – a great “rule of thumb” is to teach all students using all of these ways. Variety does nothing but good – even if your student isn’t a kinaesthetic learner (for example) the reinforcement that comes from demonstrating understanding in different ways is really valuable.
Jamila Sahar says
Great post, yes this a very common problem in lessons and it is true every student learns in various ways and different ways on different days!
But mostly students just have to do it consistently even if it is just two or three minutes a day, consistent sight reading practice is the key to improving this important skill. Thanks for sharing
Sandy Fortier says
The one I’m not sure about is students who transfer to me and I ask them about a note and they do some counting on the piano from C position and play the note, but they can’t seem to tell me what the note name is (or very quickly). They wouldn’t be able to name the note without stepping up or down on the piano keys either. Is this ok?
Andrea says
Hi Sandy – having a good understanding of the relationships between notes and having “intervalic understanding” is a good thing, but you still also need to be able to read notes on the staff. Give these 5 strategies a try and see if you can get the two skills working together instead of in an “either or” arrangement.
Nathan says
You didn’t mention iPad apps! These blend flashcards with kinesthetic techniques. I use Flashnote Derby, Nota, and Learn Notes in almost every lesson!
Andrea says
Great point Nathan! This blend is a great solution for those kids who learn visually and kinaesthetically.
nancy says
I don’t have a tablet, but my students either have a tablet or iPad. Are the apps you mention good on both? If not, could you suggest something for the tablet?
Lisa says
Love this! I’m sure I’ve used all of these at some point (just this week, lol!). The fun way we’re note naming in the studio this week is with plastic Easter eggs. I drew the notes on the top half of the egg and the letter on the bottom half and they have to match the eggs together. They (even the older ones) are having fun with it! 🙂
Judys has says
Such a cute idea! I will use it!
Sue Dugan says
I use all of these. I think the one thing that has amazed me the most, is when I have a “new student” that has taken from another teacher and moved to our town and they can’t read notes ( most of the time they can’t read the bass clef, but sometimes both). I am amazed at the ways these students have progressed without reading the notes. Obviously, they understand steps and skips and high and low because that is how they have previously learned their songs. I try to keep continually reinforcing note reading with composition and other things to make sure they stay focused.
Andrea says
Kids do a great job of “coping” and while learning to follow the shape of a melody is a good skill, you still obviously need to be able to read music too! Once the two abilities are combined then you have a great little reader on your hands 🙂
Jean Kroll says
I would LOVE to see the best ideas everyone has. Mine is Giraffe G – draw a giraffe and explain that it is the tallest animal so the head peaks over the top of the staff and the feet are under the staff. G for the note directly above the staff and F for feet, the note directly below the stuff. Draw this for your students and it seems to stick!
I did not come up with this idea, I took it from a book which I cannot name at the moment.
Andrea says
This is a cool visual Jean! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hope Noar says
Some students pick it up right away without note drilling, and others just can’t seem to grasp it. It seems to be related to their individual thought process. I have students who totally get it and others who keep forgetting things I have taught them. My theory is that the students who don’t get it just need to play more and eventually it will come. Flash cards and drilling don’t seem to work well. It is playing the actual notes over and over that do the trick. The students who practice the most get it faster.
Judys has says
The biggest break-through in teaching note reading to my youngest beginners was when I realized they did not comprehend “lines” and “spaces.” I spend (sometimes) many lessons being sure the student understands we count the lines and spaces from bottom to top and then use a number of methods to teach them how to draw the notes “exactly” on a line or in the space. Once this has been grasped, teaching how to read seems to be much easier. I also make sure they recognize a note by name, immediately play it on the piano and speak the name of the note, as quickly as possible. Thank you for all of the comments and “tips”! So fun and helpful!
Linda Potter says
Another method I’ve used is having them learn the Music Alphabet forward and backwards the first week (this, plus a practice trophy are my only tangible rewards) for their favorite candy bar. I want them to also know the relationship between notes and that as you go higher, you go forward in the alphabet and as you go lower, you think backwards. Just another aspect
Nancy Gerdes says
A few note reading ideas:
Middle D is the Dog peeking under the fence (staff)
Middle C is in the Middle! (of the blank space between the two staffs)
High G is the Girl sitting on top of the fence (staff) but l like the giraffe idea too!
Most useful has been calling the bass clef the “alphabet clef”–you start with bass A on the bottom space and say the musical alphabet as you move up the lines and spaces.
I also teach that the treble clef is alternately called the G clef and show them the fancy G in the symbol and how the G line comes through it.
Similarly, I teach that bass clef is also called the F clef and teach F is between the two dots on the bass clef symbol.
Bass G is Ground level G on the bass clef staff.
Hope some of these are helpful!