Reading piano sheet music
Two staves, one pivot: middle C. Every note with the key it sits on — right hand in treble clef, left hand in bass clef, each with notation and keyboard.
Piano music is written on two staves, one above the other: the upper one is what the right hand plays, the lower one what the left hand plays. Once you know where middle C sits, you can find every other note from there. That is the whole rule — the rest is practice.
Two staves, one brace
On top, the staff with the treble clef for the right hand; below it, the one with the bass clef for the left. The curly brace on the left is called a brace, and it says that both staves belong together and are played at the same time. You still read them the usual way: left to right, both lines at once.
Middle C is the pivot
Between the two staves lies one tone that belongs to both: middle C, roughly in the middle of the keyboard. In the treble clef it sits on a short ledger line below the staff; in the bass clef on a ledger line above it. Written twice, played once — the same key.
From the note to the key
Right hand: treble clef
The right hand usually plays the upper staff. It starts at middle C and goes up one octave. Under each note is the key it sits on.
Left hand: bass clef
The left hand plays the lower staff. It starts an octave lower and ends at middle C — where the right hand begins.
Above and below the staff it keeps going
Five lines cover a little over two octaves, no more. Anything higher or lower gets ledger lines: short strokes drawn for that one note only. They continue the count of the staff lines — one ledger line below the treble staff is middle C, two is the A beneath it. In the bass clef the same happens upwards.
A path to practise
- Learn the signs. The two clefs first: treble clef and bass clef, each with all nine positions of the staff.
- Add duration. How long each note sounds is at note values; how they add up to a bar, at time signatures.
- Try it out. The clickable keyboard plays any tone you are looking for — no instrument in the room needed.
- Play a piece. The easy piano pieces are sorted by difficulty, with notation and sound.
- Write your own. Blank staff paper with braces is here as a PDF; chords for both hands are at piano chords.
Anotona does this for you
Photograph a page of sheet music or play the melody — Anotona finds the key, engraves the notes and transposes them into any other. Free.
See AnotonaEvery note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.