Read Music Easily By Combining Bass and Treble Clefs

Help for those learning to play the piano. Also for cellists, and tenors in amateur choirs. Using this method you will soon learn to read all the notes and be able to switch to ordinary music easily.

Steps

Piano

  1. If you are learning to play the piano, the chances are that you learn to read the right hand music (treble clef) quite quickly, but then struggle with the left hand music (bass clef). What if the music for the two hands were the same?! This can be arranged quite simply. What you do is doctor your pupils' music with a red biro going over the bottom (E) line in the treble clef and on the top (A) line in the bass clef, and adding a red line for middle C, as shown in Diagram One.
  2. The point is that the black lines are GBDF in both hands (and the red ones ACE). I've found that most pupils soon learn to read both right hand and left hand. You have to be careful of course to play in the right octave; the G line in the left hand is not for the G just below middle C, but the next one down. What of the spaces? You may find your own way of learning these, but the easiest way is probably to read the note on the next line.
  3. Another problem that arises later on is reading notes on ledger lines - the short lines above the treble clef or below the bass clef. The same trick can be used here: the first three ACE can be coloured red and then go back to black. So, for example the note on the 4th ledger line in the right hand is obviously G, and the not on the 3rd in the left hand is A.

Cellists

The poor cellists have to cope with three clefs! - Bass, treble and tenor. Red lines can be used for ACE and the rest GBDF will be black, as in Diagram Three Below. Similar help can be given to anyone switching from violin (treble clef) to viola (alto clef)

  1. If someone takes up this idea to the extent of publishing music with red and black lines, it may occur to them that the logical conclusion is to dispense with clefs! But we would still need some indication as to which octave we were in. If this happened we'd be returning to the Middle Ages! At one time they used a clef-less stave with coloured lines to pin-point important notes.

Tenors

  1. They have to cope with treble and bass clefs. They may find my ideas given above for pianists helpful, especially if they do as tenors in my choir do - transfer their music onto a piano and record that. A nasty problem occurs if a piece switches between clefs. You must realise that the music in the treble clef is written an octave higher than it is sung, so the G on the first black line must be played and sung as the G below middle C. Other notes must be lowered similarly. From experience; tenors think they are actually singing in the treble clef, so may prefer to raise the notes in the bass clef by an octave.



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