Learn Two Simple Rhymes To Read Any Note In Bass Clef

[greghagger]

What if I told you that if you learn two simple rhymes, you can quickly work out the name of any note on the bass clef? 

This is not a trick. It’s what anyone learning to read music uses. 

Find out more in my free video lesson. 

 

 

[paul_c2]

"Green Buses Always Drive Fast" does it for me.

[greghagger]

34 minutes ago, paul_c2 said:

"Green Buses Always Drive Fast" does it for me.

Good one, haven’t heard that one before. I was wondering how the rhymes work in foreign languages!

[Bilbo]

This is a trap. YOu need to learn how to recognise each note independently. If you have to start with 'All Cows Eat Grass' whenever you want to know what the note in the top gap on the stave is, you are putting is a delay in the process of recall. Imagine if every time you want to spell the word sky, you had to go Abcdefghijklmnopqrs, then Abcdefghijk and finally abcedeghijklmnopqrstuvwxy…...you would never get anywhere. Learn the names notes where they are. There are only 8 of them. Your mobile number has 11 digits, your address 5 lines long and is made up of numbers and letters and the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody are massive by comparison. you need to remember ABCDEFG. How hard can it be?

[Frank Blank]

8 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

This is a trap. YOu need to learn how to recognise each note independently. If you have to start with 'All Cows Eat Grass' whenever you want to know what the note in the top gap on the stave is, you are putting is a delay in the process of recall. Imagine if every time you want to spell the word sky, you had to go Abcdefghijklmnopqrs, then Abcdefghijk and finally abcedeghijklmnopqrstuvwxy…...you would never get anywhere. Learn the names notes where they are. There are only 8 of them. Your mobile number has 11 digits, your address 5 lines long and is made up of numbers and letters and the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody are massive by comparison. you need to remember ABCDEFG. How hard can it be?

But Shirley this is an aid until you can recognise each note independently?

[paul_c2]

Its a tool for going from "I haven't got a clue" to "I have a clue".

Once you can actually read, you don't even associate them with the note names, you just translate what's on the page directly to the position(s) on the fretboard. Even with key signatures.

[greghagger]

5 hours ago, Bilbo said:

This is a trap. YOu need to learn how to recognise each note independently. If you have to start with 'All Cows Eat Grass' whenever you want to know what the note in the top gap on the stave is, you are putting is a delay in the process of recall. Imagine if every time you want to spell the word sky, you had to go Abcdefghijklmnopqrs, then Abcdefghijk and finally abcedeghijklmnopqrstuvwxy…...you would never get anywhere. Learn the names notes where they are. There are only 8 of them. Your mobile number has 11 digits, your address 5 lines long and is made up of numbers and letters and the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody are massive by comparison. you need to remember ABCDEFG. How hard can it be?

Interesting reply. I’m not sure how well thought out it is though. 

As a couple of comments have illustrated, initially you have to have a mechanism to work out the notes.   Or how else can you ‘recall’ the notes?

You mention that you have to ‘learn how to recognise each note.’  Learning these rhymes is a tried and tested way to do this.  I’m interested if you might have a different system to do this?  

I do appreciate that for some people, it is difficult to remember the initial process that they went through when they were a beginner.  But learning to read music is a slow process to start with.  I’m assuming that you don’t teach with a comment like ‘how hard can it be?’

If you have a different approach for a beginner to learn the notes then please share it with us. 

[Bilbo]

Start with one note. Then add a second. Keep doing it, a lot, and be patient.

[greghagger]

41 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

Start with one note. Then add a second. Keep doing it, a lot, and be patient.

Excellent advice.  This is exactly where the rhymes help. 

I agree that lots of patience is required when learning to read music. 

My video lesson and the PDF will help explain some of this process. 

[Dirty Soul]

12 hours ago, paul_c2 said:

"Green Buses Always Drive Fast" does it for me.

Except that is incorrect, the lines on the bass clef are G, B, D, F, A. 

[Dirty Soul]

Personally, I’ve never had a problem remembering the notes within the stave. It’s the ledger lines that trip me up. 

[Baxlin]

6 hours ago, Bilbo said:

Start with one note. Then add a second. Keep doing it, a lot, and be patient.

I agree, I find/found it hard to progress from the mnemonics to actually knowing the notes automatically.

I still can’t go straight from the dot to the fret, without going via the Alphabet.  Working on it though.

Edited June 27, 2020 by Baxlin

[Bobthedog]

“Good Boys Deserve Food Always” and “All Cows Eat Grass” was taught to me at an early age. 

[greghagger]

7 hours ago, Dirty Soul said:

Except that is incorrect, the lines on the bass clef are G, B, D, F, A. 

‘Green Buses Drive Fast Aways’  works though! 

[greghagger]

2 hours ago, Baxlin said:

I agree, I find/found it hard to progress from the mnemonics to actually knowing the notes automatically.

I still can’t go straight from the dot to the fret, without going via the Alphabet.  Working on it though.

Plenty of practise helps with this. 

[greghagger]

7 hours ago, Dirty Soul said:

Personally, I’ve never had a problem remembering the notes within the stave. It’s the ledger lines that trip me up. 

You can use the rhymes or memory aids to work out leger lines.  Just start them on the top line or space. 
 

I explain about this in the video lesson. 

The rhymes are great to help find any note, but only practising reading leger lines will help you to eventually know these notes automatically. 

[TKenrick]

To include the ledger lines from open E to middle C in one hit:

Every Good Band Deserves Fans And Cocaine*

 

*can be easily substituted for Chocolate depending on the age/sensitivity of the student

[Bilbo]

If you spend any time reading dots you will quickly realise that the patterns repeat themselves invertedly and that the ledger lines are the gaps on the stave and the gaps in the ledger lines are the lines on the stave. 

You can thank me later 😎

[Stub Mandrel]

On 26/06/2020 at 16:30, Frank Blank said:

But Shirley this is an aid until you can recognise each note independently?

After 40 years I still rely on FACE and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

[greghagger]

16 hours ago, Bilbo said:

If you spend any time reading dots you will quickly realise that the patterns repeat themselves invertedly and that the ledger lines are the gaps on the stave and the gaps in the ledger lines are the lines on the stave. 

You can thank me later 😎

Did you steal that trick from my lesson 😜

No, I haven't watched it but I am pleased to see it here. 

Edited July 1, 2020 by Bilbo

[greghagger]

10 hours ago, TKenrick said:

To include the ledger lines from open E to middle C in one hit:

Every Good Band Deserves Fans And Cocaine*

 

*can be easily substituted for Chocolate depending on the age/sensitivity of the student

Ha!  Brilliant! 

[Baxlin]

11 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

After 40 years I still rely on FACE and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

Err, isn’t this BASSchat?

 

[greghagger]

57 minutes ago, Baxlin said:

Err, isn’t this BASSchat?

 

Good point, apart from possibly reading a few melodies from jazz standards, you aren’t going to need these rhymes for bass clef! 

[greghagger]

12 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

After 40 years I still rely on FACE and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

Don’t use these for bass clef! 

[Stub Mandrel]

5 hours ago, greghagger said:

Don’t use these for bass clef! 

I'm really not sure it would make any practical differnce in my case 🙂

Anyway, the one way music would make sense for me would be for everything to be notated in the same key and transpose, rather than all the notes going wobbly every time there's a key change 😉