PPP004: Understanding the Grand Staff

Episode Highlights:

Historically, until Guido d’Arezzo devised a form of written notation, music was passed orally from generation to generation. If a song was forgotten, it was lost forever.

Today, part of a student’s piano lesson is teaching them to read music notation. Music is a type of language and piano students truly learn to READ music.  Every music symbol has meaning that must decoded to create beautiful music.

Piano students in particular learn to read multiple notes on multiple staves. This makes piano an excellent beginning instrument because piano students are able to transition to band, orchestra, and choir fairly easily because these activities read single notes on one staff.

The treble clef identifies G above Middle C.

The bass clef identifies F below Middle C.

Help your child to be patient.  Learning to read music is extremely challenging – just give it a try yourself! This is why regular practice is so important.

Mnemonic Devices – good or bad?

Ask your teacher.  Support their method of teaching this complex concept.

Mnemonics are very popular and can be helpful for getting the big picture.

You may have heard these sentences to teach the order of treble clef lines:

Every Good Boy Does Fine

Elvis’ Guitar Broke Down Friday

How about these sentences for the bass clef?

Good Boys Do Fine Always

Great Big Dogs Fight Animals

Try to include your child’s initials or personal interests in the sentence to make a stronger connection.

Mnemonics can slow down the reading process and deter students from reading and playing fluently.

Many teachers prefer intervalic reading; teaching students to read the direction and distance from one note on the staff to the next.

The ultimate goal is for students to see a note on the staff and associate it with a specific piano key.  Anything that gets in the way of that process is a crutch rather than a tool.

Piano keys work on a horizontal plain. The Grand Staff works on the vertical plain.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Purchase Roth’s Book: Do Re Mi: If You Can Read Music, Thank Guido D’Arezzo *this is an affiliate link

Grand Staff Information Sheet from Susan Paradi