In my 30 years of teaching I have noticed a huge mistake that most beginning teachers make that damages their student’s ability to read music. What is it? The use of mnemonics to help students remember the lines and spaces of the staff.

For example, they may teach a student something like “Grizzly Bears Don’t Fly Airplanes” to remember the names of the lines of the bass clef staff.

This might seem helpful at first, but in the long run it only hinders the student and slows down their ability to truly read music. As a musician, you need to be able to recognize pitches instantaneously. It takes time to run through a bunch of

silly sayings just to name a pitch. This is time which you don’t have when you are actually reading and playing music.

In this course you will learn to instantaneously recognize notes on the staff. You will do this through memorizing a small group of “landmark” lines and the pitches near them. You will also learn to locate

them on the keyboard. Other items you will learn include, upper, mid, and lower ledger lines, octave signs, and sharps and flats.

What will students learn in this course?

• You will learn to read notes on the staff (treble, bass, and grand staff)

• You will learn to locate notes on the keyboard

• You will learn the relation of the staff to the keyboard

• You will learn to read upper, mid, and lower ledger lines

• You will learn how to read sharps and flats

• You will learn about octave signs

• You will learn scientific pitch notation

Who is this Course For?

• Anyone who was taught to read notes using mnemonics and never learned to instantly recognize notes

• Beginning students who want to learn how to read notes on a staff