---
title: 'How to Read Notes Fast - The Landmark System'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=jSOU-J9KHbg'
video_id: 'jSOU-J9KHbg'
date: 2026-06-30
duration_sec: 588
---

# How to Read Notes Fast - The Landmark System

> Source: [How to Read Notes Fast - The Landmark System](https://youtube.com/watch?v=jSOU-J9KHbg)

## Summary

This video teaches a fast method for reading musical notes called the Landmark System, replacing slow mnemonics like 'Every Good Boy Does Fine'. Instead of memorizing all lines and spaces, you memorize a few key reference notes (landmarks) and use the alphabetical pattern to quickly identify surrounding notes.

### Key Points

- **Notes correspond to exact piano keys** [0:00] — Each dot on the staff represents a specific piano key; reading music means playing these notes left to right.
- **Staff, treble clef, and bass clef** [1:00] — Music is written on two staves: treble clef (high notes) and bass clef (low notes). Each staff has 5 lines and 4 spaces.
- **Problem with mnemonics** [2:07] — Mnemonics like 'Every Good Boy Does Fine' are slow because you must recite the whole phrase to find a note, and they don't tell you which octave.
- **Alphabet pattern on the staff** [2:56] — Moving from line to space to line moves up consecutive letters (A-G). This pattern helps figure out notes without memorizing every position.
- **Ledger lines explained** [3:27] — When notes go above or below the staff, you add short lines (ledger lines) following the same line-space pattern.
- **The Landmark System** [4:20] — Memorize only a few evenly spaced landmarks: middle C, treble G (second line from bottom), bass F (second line from top). Then expand to treble C, bass C, high G, low F, high C, low C.
- **Visual symmetry of landmarks** [8:40] — Landmarks are visually mirrored between treble and bass clefs (e.g., high C and low C both use two ledger lines). Memorizing 9 landmarks gives access to all common notes.

## Transcript

all right in this video i'm going to
teach you as quickly as i can how to
read notes on a page so first here's a
piece of music we have the title at the
top the composer in the upper right hand
corner and the music below
all these dots with stems are notes and
correspond to an exact note on the piano
for example this note here is g but it's
not
that g or
that g it's specifically
this g
so every note is an exact note on the
piano and reading music is just reading
these exact notes and playing them left
to right
these notes are all lined up together so
you play them together
[Music]
as you move forward it's just like this
[Music]
okay now that you understand that each
of these notes corresponds to an exact
note on the piano and playing notes is
just playing it left to right
now let's get into actually how to read
these notes so notice these notes fall
into two areas a top area and a bottom
area each of these areas is called the
staff the foundation upon which notes
are drawn now notice both staffs have a
different sign the top sign is called
treble clef and the bottom sign is
called bass clef what kind of notes does
a bass player play while he or she plays
low notes so the bass clef covers all
the low notes on the piano the treble
clef
covers all the high notes
now notice in each staff how many lines
are there
if you counted correctly you'll see that
there are five lines with four spaces in
between those lines notice that the
notes in the music either fall on a
space or on a line there are notes that
fall outside of the staff as well these
are called ledger lines and we're going
to get into that very soon now here we
have a clean staff and here the first
line in the treble clef is an e
however the first line in the bass clef
is a g
the second space from the top is a c
but in the bass clef that same note is
an e
[Music]
the lines and spaces are different in
both clefs so reading music becomes a
memorization challenge how music
teachers have approached this challenge
is by giving students mnemonics to
memorize like every good boy does fine
memorizing that phrase helps you
memorize the five lines of treble clef
are e g b d f
and the spaces are face f a c e the bass
clef also has its own mnemonics to help
you memorize the lines and spaces there
as well
the problem with this method is if you
want to play the last line
of the treble clef you have to think
every good boy does fine oh it's an f
that's slow and painful because you have
to go through the whole acronym to get
to that f it also teaches you to
memorize that that line is an f but it
doesn't teach you which f one thing you
can get from looking at this picture is
noticing a pattern notice as you go from
line to space to line to space you're
moving up the alphabet you're moving
consecutive letters so the first line
there is e right every and then you go
to the space which is f you know the f
in face then the next line is g then the
space is a and you go
up to b and the next space is c right
then line space line you're at f
and that's the pattern of going from
line to space you're moving up letters
now another important concept is what if
we want to keep going higher well we
have the final line there at f
we know that you have to go line space
line space so the next thing has to be a
space so we draw the g at the top of the
line it doesn't have a line running
through it so it's technically space
and then we have the g there now what
happens now that we've ran out of lines
because after a space is a line so what
you do is you start drawing your own
lines and these are called ledger lines
so the next note is going to be an a we
know right after g is a and it's going
to look like this so now we have our a
which is on a line and now we need a
space so we draw the line and we draw
the note right above it so it's a space
and then we need a line again so we draw
two ledger lines and we have a c
and you can just continue this pattern
and that's how ledger lines work so
you're just drawing in the lines and it
also works as you go below a staff for
example in the bass clef like here
so with this knowledge now of lines and
spaces we can replace every good boy
does fine with what i call the landmark
system instead of memorizing 18 lines
and spaces in a specific order memorize
just a few landmarks evenly spaced
across the keyboard so our first
landmark in the music is middle c
right here so middle c is the c in the
middle of your piano it's the fourth c
from the bottom of an 88 key keyboard
and the third c from the bottom on
smaller sized keyboards
now our next landmark is treble g
see it's going to be the second line
from the bottom in the treble clef so
the second line from the bottom is
treble g
now see how we can connect the two
landmarks you have middle c
then after above that you have d right
line to space then you have the next
line e
and then you have space f
and then look you're at g
c d e f g
treble g is the g above middle c
now our next landmark is in the bass
clef
this is going to be bass f right you
have an f in the bass so that's going to
be
here
and that is the f below middle c
notice what happens when we move up from
bass f so we have f on a line then space
is g
line a space b
and then line ledger line right there
middle c
middle c is the first ledger line above
bass clef and the first ledger line
below treble clef so a lot of people
when talking about landmarks write out
three landmarks like this middle c looks
the same in base clef and treble clef so
it's just right there in the middle
notice also that g and f are equally
four notes away from middle c so you
have middle c here you have treble g
here and you have bass f there between c
and g you have three letters
d e f and between f and c you also have
three letters
and visually you can see a sort of
relationship treble g is the second line
from the bottom of treble and bass f is
the second line from the top of bass
clef now that we've memorized these
landmarks figuring out the notes around
them is easy if this is g what is this
note well it's right above g right so
right above g is a
and this note here would that be well
it's right above middle c
so it's d
and this note here it's below f so it's
e
alright so now that we have these three
core landmarks let's expand outward to
the next landmarks so our next two
landmarks are treble c and base c notice
again you're expanding equally outward
so you have your treble g
and your bass f now you go three letters
out
and you have your two cs so you have
your
base c
and your treble c
and notice that they look visually very
similar too so
again with the treble from the bottom up
it's the third
space
and in the bass clef from the top bottom
it's the third space and again we can
just figure out notes around it so what
is this note well it's above c right so
it's a d what is this note it's below c
so it's a b
and if you wanted to go even lower
what's this note well it's just two
notes below c so it's an a abc right cpa
all right now let's expand out again to
our next two landmarks and what we have
is high g
and low f
[Music]
and visually they look very similar too
high g is touching the top of the clef
in treble clef and low f is touching the
bottom
of the bass clef right it's the space
that's touching the outsides
and say we look at high g here right
above high g is our first ledger line
that's an a then we have the space b
then we have two ledger lines c
and that's our final landmark so we have
high c
which is two ledger lines out can you
guess what low c is gonna look like
well it's always gonna be like a mirror
right it's always gonna be an inverse so
two lines out is high c two lines
out is low c so two lines below the bass
clef
so there we have it we have our nine
landmarks in treble clef the landmarks
are just c's and g's and in bass clef
the landmarks are all c's and f's
visually it's easy to remember on the
outsides you have
high c
and low c which are two ledger lines out
and then you have
high g
and low f which are touching the stabs
on the outside right just on the space
and then within the clefs it's inverse
so you have your treble c which is three
lines from the bottom of treble and you
have your bass c which is three lines
from the top of bass
and then from there you have your
treble g which is two lines from the
bottom
and you have your bass f which is two
lines from the top
and then right in the middle you have
your middle c which looks very similar
in the treble and the bass clef and
because now you know the line and space
relationships you can figure out the
notes around these landmarks very easily
and if you memorize these nine landmarks
you'll have access to all these notes
if you're interested in becoming a fast
note reader i've actually already
created a note reading boot camp where i
go in depth on this method and drill you
through exercise after exercise until
you can read notes really fast feel free
to check that out in the description
below alright thanks so much for
watching and i hope to see you again in
another video