Connect the note on the staff to its name and piano key.
Counting up from the bottom line every time is slow and never becomes automatic. Instead, memorise a handful of landmark notes until you know them instantly. Then read every other note as a step or skip away from the nearest landmark.
The treble clef is also called the G clef, because its curl wraps around the G line. The right hand usually reads it.
Lines: Every Good Boy Does Fine
Spaces spell F A C E
The bass clef is the F clef. Its two dots sit either side of the F line. The left hand usually reads it. Don't read it like a treble clef: every note is two letters lower than it would be in the treble clef.
Lines: Good Boys Do Fine Always
Spaces: All Cows Eat Grass
Ledger lines extend the staff for one note at a time. Read them in thirds from the nearest landmark. One ledger line below the treble staff is middle C. One above is A, two above is high C. In the bass clef, one ledger line below is E, two below is low C, and one above is middle C again.
Fluent readers read the shape between notes, not each note on its own. From a line to the next space (or a space to the next line) is a step, the next key. From a line to the next line is a skip, missing one white key. Hands learn these shapes and move without naming every note.
A key signature tells you which notes are always sharp or flat in the piece, in every octave, unless an accidental changes them for the rest of the bar. Sharps always appear in the same order, and so do flats:
Sharps: F C G D A E B, Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle
Flats: B E A D G C F, the same sentence backwards
Name the major key: with sharps, go up a half step from the last sharp (F♯ C♯ → D major). With flats, the second-to-last flat is the key (B♭ E♭ A♭ → E♭ major). One flat is F major. Each major key shares its signature with a minor key three half steps lower.
Ready for more? The Chords & harmony course builds on everything here.
Nearly every chord you will meet is a stack of thirds. On the staff a third is easy to see: two notes on neighbouring lines, or on neighbouring spaces. On the keyboard it skips one white key.
Thirds come in two sizes, counted in half steps (one key to the very next key, black or white):
The staff hides the difference: both look like line-to-line. The key signature and any accidentals tell you which one it is. That is why chords that look identical on the staff can sound bright or dark.
Stack two thirds and you have a triad: a root, a third and a fifth. Which sizes of third you stack decides the chord's quality:
| Quality | Bottom third | Top third | Root to 5th | Sound | Symbol |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major | major (4) | minor (3) | 7 half steps | bright, stable | C |
| Minor | minor (3) | major (4) | 7 half steps | darker, still stable | Cm |
| Diminished | minor (3) | minor (3) | 6 half steps | tense, wants to move | C° |
| Augmented | major (4) | major (4) | 8 half steps | dreamy, unsettled | C+ |
Pick a root, a quality and an inversion. You'll see how the chord is spelled on the staff and played on the keyboard, and which thirds it is built from.
Build a triad on each note of a major scale using only notes from the key, and you get the same pattern of qualities in every major key:
I ii iii IV V vi vii°
Roman numerals name a chord by its scale step, so the pattern works in any key. Capitals are major, lower case minor, ° diminished. I, IV and V are the primary chords. Thousands of songs use little else. V wants to resolve to I. That pull is the engine of most Western harmony.
Minor keys follow their own pattern: i ii° III iv v VI VII. In practice, v is usually raised to a major V with an accidental (the leading tone). This is why you'll so often see a sharp or natural that isn't in the key signature in minor-key music.
Next: spotting chords fast →Don't read a chord note by note from the bottom. Read it as one shape:
An inversion puts a note other than the root at the bottom. The notes and the chord name stay the same; only the order changes.
How to spot one: the snowman breaks, and you see a gap of a 4th, one note on a line and the next on a space two letters away. The root is the top note of that gap. Find it, name the chord, then note which chord tone is in the bass.
How they're written: chord symbols use a slash with the bass note, so C/E is a C chord with E at the bottom. Classical analysis uses small numbers instead: 6 for 1st inversion and 6/4 for 2nd (I⁶, I⁶₄).
Why bother? Inversions let chords change with tiny hand movements instead of big jumps. This is called smooth voice leading. Compare the progression below in root position, then with inversions. In the second version, most notes stay put or move one step.
Stack one more third on a triad and you get a seventh chord: root, third, fifth and seventh. On the staff, a root-position seventh is a four-note snowman, with all notes on lines or all on spaces. Sevenths add colour and pull, and they're everywhere in jazz, pop and gospel.
| Type | Triad | + top third | Root to 7th | Symbol | Feel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major 7th | major | major (4) | 11 half steps | Cmaj7 | lush, soft |
| Dominant 7th | major | minor (3) | 10 half steps | C7 | bluesy, pulls to a resolution |
| Minor 7th | minor | minor (3) | 10 half steps | Cm7 | mellow |
| Half-diminished | diminished | major (4) | 10 half steps | Cø7 (Cm7♭5) | wistful, unresolved |
| Diminished 7th | diminished | minor (3) | 9 half steps | C°7 | dramatic, suspenseful |
In a major key, the seven diatonic sevenths are Imaj7 ii7 iii7 IVmaj7 V7 vi7 viiø7. The dominant seventh V7 is the one to know first. Its third and seventh clash, and the clash resolves into I.
Next: inverted sevenths →With four notes there are four positions: root position plus three inversions. The bass can be the root, the 3rd, the 5th or the 7th.
How to spot one: the root and the 7th end up next to each other as a second, two noteheads touching side by side. The upper note of that second is the root. That tells you the chord at a glance.
| Position | In the bass | Slash symbol (V7 in C) | Figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Root position | root | G7 | 7 |
| 1st inversion | 3rd | G7/B | 6/5 |
| 2nd inversion | 5th | G7/D | 4/3 |
| 3rd inversion | 7th | G7/F | 4/2 |
The 3rd inversion has the 7th in the bass. That note wants to step down, so V4/2 almost always moves to I in 1st inversion (G7/F → C/E).
Next: progressions →Chords come in familiar sequences. Once you recognise a progression, reading it becomes predicting it: you see the first chord and your hands already expect the next. Listen to each, then try to hear it in songs you know.
Lead sheets and pop music write chords as symbols above the melody. Every symbol is a root plus a suffix:
| Symbol | Name | Half steps from root | In C |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | Major | 0 4 7 | C E G |
| Cm | Minor | 0 3 7 | C E♭ G |
| C° (Cdim) | Diminished | 0 3 6 | C E♭ G♭ |
| C+ (Caug) | Augmented | 0 4 8 | C E G♯ |
| Csus4 | Suspended 4th (no 3rd) | 0 5 7 | C F G |
| Csus2 | Suspended 2nd (no 3rd) | 0 2 7 | C D G |
| Cmaj7 | Major 7th | 0 4 7 11 | C E G B |
| C7 | Dominant 7th | 0 4 7 10 | C E G B♭ |
| Cm7 | Minor 7th | 0 3 7 10 | C E♭ G B♭ |
| Cø7 (Cm7♭5) | Half-diminished | 0 3 6 10 | C E♭ G♭ B♭ |
| C°7 (Cdim7) | Diminished 7th | 0 3 6 9 | C E♭ G♭ B𝄫 |
| C6 | Major 6th | 0 4 7 9 | C E G A |
| Cadd9 | Added 9th | 0 4 7 14 | C E G D |
| C/E | C with E in the bass | inversion | E G C |