There are rhymes to help you remember the note names for space and line notes. The rhymes that will be covered below are for the treble clef and bass clef.
As a quick recap, space notes are where the note-head is squashed between the lines. Line notes are where the line goes through the middle of the note-head. It's also important to remember that the rhymes below start from the bottom of the stave and work their way up.
Note rhymes for the treble clef:
- Space notes - F A C E
- Line notes - Every Green Bus Drives Fast (I moved away from 'Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge' seen in the video as some of my younger female students complained that good girls should get fudge too. A green bus seemed safer!)
Note rhymes for the bass clef:
- Space notes - All Cows Eat Grass
- Line notes - Grizzly Bears Don't Fear Anything
A few examples - if the note was a space note at the bottom of the treble clef, this would be F from F A C E. If there was a line note at the top of the bass clef, this would be A ('Anything' from Grizzly Bears Don't Fear Anything).
Further note name tips
You can get away with just remembering one rhyme for each clef and counting up/down from the nearest note that you know. For example, if you had a line note at the top of the treble clef and you only remembered the space rhyme (F A C E), you could simply count one note forward in the alphabet from E - so the note would be F.
Another tip is that notes in the treble clef are two letters before the same note in the bass clef (and vice versa). For example, if you had a D in the right hand, you would count to letters forward to find it in the bass clef, which is F. Obviously it would then be an F in a lower octave.
This post was updated on 01 Aug, 2023.
