More landmark notes: High C and low C

We’ve talked about landmark notes a bunch on this site lately because they’re my favourite way to teach my students how to feel comfortable around the musical staff.

First I showed you how to find middle C, and how we can use the pattern of line-space-line-space to count our way up to find the lowest note on the treble clef and the highest notes on the bass clef.

Then I showed you two really valuable landmark notes on each staff — treble G and bass F. These are great landmark notes because the G line in the treble staff corresponds with the curl of the treble clef, and the F line in the bass staff corresponds with the two dots in the bass clef.

Today I’d like to show you two more landmark notes that will expand your ability to read music near the middle of the treble and bass staff!

High C and low C

Today I’d like to teach you the landmark notes of high C (or the C above middle C) and low C (or the C below middle C). In the picture, these two notes are the ones written in blue.

So what’s an easy way to remember these notes? Well, it helps to see high and low C as being mirror opposites of each other, if middle C were the centre of our perspective. High C is three spaces up the treble staff, and low C is three spaces down the bass staff.

So there is a little bit of memorization that goes along with these landmark notes, as there is no natural signpost on the staff the way there was last time for F and G, but memorizing the placement of high and low C so you can count up and down to other notes is wayyy easier than memorizing the letter names of all the lines and spaces!

That’s it for my lesson today! I hope you’re finding these mini-tutorials helpful. As always, if you have any questions about any of this, feel free to leave a comment or write me using the Contact page. Bye for now!