How to help Kids Memorize Notes in the Grand Staff
“But I can’t figure out these notes! There are too many, and it’s too hard!”
Yep, that’s a common phrase us piano teachers hear from our students. But I got tired of hearing it. I knew about the music mnemonic/acronym approach, but didn’t realize how effective it was. Something my ADHD brain would have thanked me for if I knew it growing up. It’s a creative way to memorize the notes in the treble and bass clefs.
Let me invite you into one of my piano lessons, so you can see this approach for yourself.
We begin as I show my student the page you’re seeing below. First I point out that there are Treble Clef notes at the top, and Bass Clef notes at the bottom. Also, that there are 5 line notes and 4 space notes in both Treble and Bass Clef staffs.
The first acronyms or mnemonics we look at are Treble Clef Spaces: F, A, C, E: Face on the Space. I point to each note one at a time, saying the letters of the notes out loud. I have my student repeat after me, or say the notes with me. Then, repeating the same process, we look at the rest of the acronyms on the page.
Next we get out the song she is learning, “Ode to Joy”.
I ask my student, “What is the first note in the song?”
Student says, “I don’t know”
I then ask, “Are you reading in Treble Clef or Bass Clef?”
Student: “Treble.”
Me: “Is it a line note or a space note?”
Student: “Line note.”
Back to our Music Mnemonic page, looking at the Treble Clef line notes, E, G, B, D, F: Every Good Bird Does Fly.
We go back to Ode to Joy.
Me: “Let’s climb up the line notes saying the acronym out loud, Every…?”
Student: “It’s an E!.”
Bingo! She figured out the note! Without me giving her the answer!
Now, that might have seemed like a long process to figure out one note, right? But think about this, remember when we were kids just starting school? We had to learn how to sound out words, memorize sight words, and reading a sentence could seem like a century. And now we don’t have to do all that anymore because we learned how to recognize words and quickly be able to read them. This student is learning the language of music, and acronyms/mnemonics is one of the ways she is effectively doing this. It’s a tool to “sound out the words” if you will. And soon she won’t need to use the mnemonics, because she will have memorized what the the first line is in Treble clef, which is?…..
An E! Glad you were paying attention 🙂
Get your download of “Notes on the Grand Staff Music Memory Worksheets” on Etsy or TPT
Photo’s by: danhuntley.com