How to Read Notes Fast - The Landmark System

[00:00] all right in this video i'm going to

[00:01] teach you as quickly as i can how to

[00:03] read notes on a page so first here's a

[00:05] piece of music we have the title at the

[00:07] top the composer in the upper right hand

[00:09] corner and the music below

[00:12] all these dots with stems are notes and

[00:14] correspond to an exact note on the piano

[00:17] for example this note here is g but it's

[00:20] not

[00:21] that g or

[00:23] that g it's specifically

[00:25] this g

[00:27] so every note is an exact note on the

[00:29] piano and reading music is just reading

[00:32] these exact notes and playing them left

[00:34] to right

[00:36] these notes are all lined up together so

[00:38] you play them together

[00:39] [Music]

[00:41] as you move forward it's just like this

[00:44] [Music]

[00:52] okay now that you understand that each

[00:53] of these notes corresponds to an exact

[00:56] note on the piano and playing notes is

[00:58] just playing it left to right

[01:00] now let's get into actually how to read

[01:02] these notes so notice these notes fall

[01:04] into two areas a top area and a bottom

[01:07] area each of these areas is called the

[01:09] staff the foundation upon which notes

[01:11] are drawn now notice both staffs have a

[01:14] different sign the top sign is called

[01:15] treble clef and the bottom sign is

[01:17] called bass clef what kind of notes does

[01:19] a bass player play while he or she plays

[01:22] low notes so the bass clef covers all

[01:24] the low notes on the piano the treble

[01:27] clef

[01:28] covers all the high notes

[01:30] now notice in each staff how many lines

[01:32] are there

[01:33] if you counted correctly you'll see that

[01:35] there are five lines with four spaces in

[01:37] between those lines notice that the

[01:39] notes in the music either fall on a

[01:40] space or on a line there are notes that

[01:43] fall outside of the staff as well these

[01:46] are called ledger lines and we're going

[01:47] to get into that very soon now here we

[01:49] have a clean staff and here the first

[01:51] line in the treble clef is an e

[01:54] however the first line in the bass clef

[01:57] is a g

[01:59] the second space from the top is a c

[02:03] but in the bass clef that same note is

[02:05] an e

[02:05] [Music]

[02:07] the lines and spaces are different in

[02:09] both clefs so reading music becomes a

[02:12] memorization challenge how music

[02:15] teachers have approached this challenge

[02:17] is by giving students mnemonics to

[02:19] memorize like every good boy does fine

[02:22] memorizing that phrase helps you

[02:23] memorize the five lines of treble clef

[02:26] are e g b d f

[02:29] and the spaces are face f a c e the bass

[02:33] clef also has its own mnemonics to help

[02:35] you memorize the lines and spaces there

[02:36] as well

[02:37] the problem with this method is if you

[02:39] want to play the last line

[02:41] of the treble clef you have to think

[02:43] every good boy does fine oh it's an f

[02:47] that's slow and painful because you have

[02:48] to go through the whole acronym to get

[02:50] to that f it also teaches you to

[02:52] memorize that that line is an f but it

[02:54] doesn't teach you which f one thing you

[02:56] can get from looking at this picture is

[02:58] noticing a pattern notice as you go from

[03:01] line to space to line to space you're

[03:03] moving up the alphabet you're moving

[03:04] consecutive letters so the first line

[03:07] there is e right every and then you go

[03:09] to the space which is f you know the f

[03:11] in face then the next line is g then the

[03:14] space is a and you go

[03:16] up to b and the next space is c right

[03:18] then line space line you're at f

[03:21] and that's the pattern of going from

[03:23] line to space you're moving up letters

[03:25] now another important concept is what if

[03:27] we want to keep going higher well we

[03:29] have the final line there at f

[03:31] we know that you have to go line space

[03:33] line space so the next thing has to be a

[03:34] space so we draw the g at the top of the

[03:37] line it doesn't have a line running

[03:39] through it so it's technically space

[03:41] and then we have the g there now what

[03:43] happens now that we've ran out of lines

[03:45] because after a space is a line so what

[03:47] you do is you start drawing your own

[03:48] lines and these are called ledger lines

[03:51] so the next note is going to be an a we

[03:52] know right after g is a and it's going

[03:54] to look like this so now we have our a

[03:56] which is on a line and now we need a

[03:58] space so we draw the line and we draw

[04:00] the note right above it so it's a space

[04:03] and then we need a line again so we draw

[04:05] two ledger lines and we have a c

[04:08] and you can just continue this pattern

[04:10] and that's how ledger lines work so

[04:11] you're just drawing in the lines and it

[04:13] also works as you go below a staff for

[04:16] example in the bass clef like here

[04:18] so with this knowledge now of lines and

[04:20] spaces we can replace every good boy

[04:22] does fine with what i call the landmark

[04:24] system instead of memorizing 18 lines

[04:27] and spaces in a specific order memorize

[04:30] just a few landmarks evenly spaced

[04:32] across the keyboard so our first

[04:34] landmark in the music is middle c

[04:37] right here so middle c is the c in the

[04:39] middle of your piano it's the fourth c

[04:42] from the bottom of an 88 key keyboard

[04:45] and the third c from the bottom on

[04:48] smaller sized keyboards

[04:50] now our next landmark is treble g

[04:54] see it's going to be the second line

[04:57] from the bottom in the treble clef so

[04:59] the second line from the bottom is

[05:00] treble g

[05:02] now see how we can connect the two

[05:03] landmarks you have middle c

[05:05] then after above that you have d right

[05:07] line to space then you have the next

[05:09] line e

[05:11] and then you have space f

[05:13] and then look you're at g

[05:15] c d e f g

[05:18] treble g is the g above middle c

[05:21] now our next landmark is in the bass

[05:22] clef

[05:23] this is going to be bass f right you

[05:25] have an f in the bass so that's going to

[05:27] be

[05:28] here

[05:29] and that is the f below middle c

[05:31] notice what happens when we move up from

[05:33] bass f so we have f on a line then space

[05:36] is g

[05:37] line a space b

[05:39] and then line ledger line right there

[05:42] middle c

[05:44] middle c is the first ledger line above

[05:46] bass clef and the first ledger line

[05:49] below treble clef so a lot of people

[05:51] when talking about landmarks write out

[05:53] three landmarks like this middle c looks

[05:55] the same in base clef and treble clef so

[05:57] it's just right there in the middle

[05:59] notice also that g and f are equally

[06:02] four notes away from middle c so you

[06:04] have middle c here you have treble g

[06:06] here and you have bass f there between c

[06:09] and g you have three letters

[06:11] d e f and between f and c you also have

[06:13] three letters

[06:16] and visually you can see a sort of

[06:17] relationship treble g is the second line

[06:20] from the bottom of treble and bass f is

[06:22] the second line from the top of bass

[06:24] clef now that we've memorized these

[06:26] landmarks figuring out the notes around

[06:27] them is easy if this is g what is this

[06:30] note well it's right above g right so

[06:32] right above g is a

[06:34] and this note here would that be well

[06:36] it's right above middle c

[06:38] so it's d

[06:39] and this note here it's below f so it's

[06:43] e

[06:44] alright so now that we have these three

[06:45] core landmarks let's expand outward to

[06:48] the next landmarks so our next two

[06:51] landmarks are treble c and base c notice

[06:53] again you're expanding equally outward

[06:56] so you have your treble g

[06:58] and your bass f now you go three letters

[07:00] out

[07:02] and you have your two cs so you have

[07:04] your

[07:05] base c

[07:06] and your treble c

[07:08] and notice that they look visually very

[07:10] similar too so

[07:12] again with the treble from the bottom up

[07:15] it's the third

[07:16] space

[07:17] and in the bass clef from the top bottom

[07:20] it's the third space and again we can

[07:23] just figure out notes around it so what

[07:24] is this note well it's above c right so

[07:27] it's a d what is this note it's below c

[07:29] so it's a b

[07:31] and if you wanted to go even lower

[07:33] what's this note well it's just two

[07:35] notes below c so it's an a abc right cpa

[07:38] all right now let's expand out again to

[07:41] our next two landmarks and what we have

[07:43] is high g

[07:45] and low f

[07:46] [Music]

[07:47] and visually they look very similar too

[07:50] high g is touching the top of the clef

[07:53] in treble clef and low f is touching the

[07:56] bottom

[07:57] of the bass clef right it's the space

[07:58] that's touching the outsides

[08:00] and say we look at high g here right

[08:02] above high g is our first ledger line

[08:05] that's an a then we have the space b

[08:08] then we have two ledger lines c

[08:10] and that's our final landmark so we have

[08:13] high c

[08:14] which is two ledger lines out can you

[08:16] guess what low c is gonna look like

[08:19] well it's always gonna be like a mirror

[08:21] right it's always gonna be an inverse so

[08:23] two lines out is high c two lines

[08:26] out is low c so two lines below the bass

[08:29] clef

[08:30] so there we have it we have our nine

[08:32] landmarks in treble clef the landmarks

[08:35] are just c's and g's and in bass clef

[08:37] the landmarks are all c's and f's

[08:40] visually it's easy to remember on the

[08:42] outsides you have

[08:43] high c

[08:44] and low c which are two ledger lines out

[08:47] and then you have

[08:48] high g

[08:49] and low f which are touching the stabs

[08:51] on the outside right just on the space

[08:53] and then within the clefs it's inverse

[08:55] so you have your treble c which is three

[08:58] lines from the bottom of treble and you

[09:00] have your bass c which is three lines

[09:02] from the top of bass

[09:04] and then from there you have your

[09:06] treble g which is two lines from the

[09:07] bottom

[09:08] and you have your bass f which is two

[09:10] lines from the top

[09:12] and then right in the middle you have

[09:13] your middle c which looks very similar

[09:15] in the treble and the bass clef and

[09:17] because now you know the line and space

[09:19] relationships you can figure out the

[09:20] notes around these landmarks very easily

[09:23] and if you memorize these nine landmarks

[09:25] you'll have access to all these notes

[09:28] if you're interested in becoming a fast

[09:30] note reader i've actually already

[09:32] created a note reading boot camp where i

[09:35] go in depth on this method and drill you

[09:37] through exercise after exercise until

[09:39] you can read notes really fast feel free

[09:42] to check that out in the description

[09:43] below alright thanks so much for

[09:45] watching and i hope to see you again in

[09:47] another video