I got a comment on my last video on naming landmark notes where a person shared the way that they learned notes in the treble and bass clefs, using the popular sayings like “All Cows Eat Grass”, “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge”, and so on. This made me realize that perhaps some of you wonder, do I use those sayings at all?

The answer is basically no! I don’t really like using those sayings in teaching people how to read music and I find I don’t even really need to! Here’s why.

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. Then I showed you two really valuable landmark notes on each staff — treble G and bass F.

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!

The last time I talked about the musical staff, I showed you how we can use the pattern of line-space-line-space to start from middle C and count our way up to find the lowest note on the treble clef and the highest note on the bass clef. Today I’d like to show you two more notes on each staff and explain why these new notes are so valuable to beginner piano players.

If you’ve been following along with my posts, you’ve learned a little about how the music staff works and how we can use ledger lines to extend the staff to reach notes a little higher or lower on the piano. Now let's take a minute to orient yourself to the staff that you will see when you're playing piano music.

Recently, I’ve been published video introductions to the basics of reading music. Today I’d like to expand on a previous video where I talked about how the music staff works so you can learn how we get more notes out of these lines and spaces!

A commenter on my previous video was surprised to hear me call these lines of music a staff rather than a stave. Which name is correct?

Today let’s talk about why we have two names for the exact same thing.

I’m starting a series of videos that provide a gentle introduction to learning piano. My hope is that anyone who wants to learn piano can do so, regardless of whether or not they’re ready to start formal lessons.

Here’s a video that teaches you about how the musical staff works. It’s good to learn how the staff works before you try to learn the notes!

I had the opportunity to meet a boy last spring who told me he loved scary things! This made me think of spooky songs that would be good for a beginner to play.

I landed on this classic, the opening line to Toccata in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. Have a listen!

A is the first note of the musical alphabet, so it’s natural for beginner piano students to want to start there when learning note names at the piano.

But A can be one of the hardest notes for beginners to learn, for two reasons.