The old outdated way of remembering piano notes is to remember them with a word using the first letter of the note. while on the surface it seems effective, it is actually very slow. Remembering the word to just one note can take 1 second which is WAY TOO LONG while playing a piano piece. And this doesn’t even address the notes above the stage! How would you like to remember all the notes in one second instead of one second for just one note? Here in this investigation, I will uncover a more efficient approach to note memorization: The Tongue Twister Method.
The Tongue Twister Method
Space Notes
So as you can see the notes not on the line are super easy to remember: FACE and ACE-G
Line Notes
But here is where it gets a little tongue twisty for the line notes: EGBDF and GBDF-A
I got used to remembering the line notes by saying them really fast, as fast as I can without getting tongue-tied. You could even remember it easier by breaking it up a little such as E-GBDF and G-BDFA
As you can see that is ALOT faster than trying to remember: Good Burritos Don’t Fall Apart! Yikes!
Now moving on to those pesky Above The Staff Notes! The ledger notes. Arrrr
Remembering the ledger notes easiest
Line Notes starting from F
Let’s start with the notes above the treble clef. Well, I have good news for you YOU ALREADY KNOW IT! but its the opposite. Let me explain. The trick is to start reading from the notes on/within the line. For example, we already know the space notes spell FACE within the line. Now the notes above the staff in the line areas above the line (I know it’s confusing lol) they spell FACE starting from the last line note which is F
Space notes starting from E
start reading from the last top space note E and go up following the space notes and it reads EGBDF
the exact same tongue twister as what the line notes within the staff spell
Remember the notes BELOW the treble clef aka Above the bass clef
Above the Bass Clef
Now, this is easy but I’m not going to include pictures so it forces you to do it yourself. By simply following the method above we can start with the last line or space note and skip upwards to find the note. You will have to remember the tongue twister they make when skipping but as stated above they make the same word but this time on the line instead of the space or vise vera
Line notes
starting from the last line note: ACE
Space note
starting from the last space note: GBDF
BELOW the treble clef
This is where it gets interesting you have to remember the pattern but backward. So as with the above way we will start with the last note either on the line or space and skip down to remember the word:
Line notes
starting from the last line note: ECA
Space note
starting from the last space note: FDBG
Now look at the start of this section and you will notice its an exact reversal of the tongue twister word. TOO EASY. But HOLD ON There’s More! OMG!
Remember the notes BELOW the Bass clef
Line notes
So remember the space notes spelled ACE-G It’s now reversed for the line notes starting with the last line note G.
GECA
which is ACEG reversed
Space notes
So remember the line notes spelled GBDFA It’s now reversed for the space notes starting with the last space note A.
AFDBG
which is GBDFA reversed
The Final Big Secret of Remembering those Pesky Note!
There is a recurring loop in the piano language:
No matter where you start in this chart it always starts again at the same note in a loop but remember that all notes take turns in being either a line note or a space note
In conclusion, this is by far the Fastest why to remember notes and to be honest could save you years of trying to remember them all. Practice this often by writing it all out and tell me how you go with it.