Note mnemonics, and when to drop them
The classic note rhymes are Every Good Boy Deserves Fun (treble lines E G B D F), FACE (treble spaces), Good Boys Do Fine Always (bass lines G B D F A) and All Cows Eat Grass (bass spaces A C E G). They help at the very start, but landmark reading is faster once you know a few notes on sight.
The classic note-reading rhymes are Every Good Boy Deserves Fun for the treble clef's lines (E G B D F), FACE for its spaces, Good Boys Do Fine Always for the bass clef's lines (G B D F A) and All Cows Eat Grass for its spaces (A C E G), all read from the bottom up. They help in the first week or two. After that, reading from a few landmark notes is faster, and works beyond the staff where the rhymes stop.
The rhymes
| Staff | Lines or spaces | Notes, bottom to top | Rhyme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Treble | Lines | E G B D F | Every Good Boy Deserves Fun (or Does Fine) |
| Treble | Spaces | F A C E | Spells FACE |
| Bass | Lines | G B D F A | Good Boys Do Fine Always (or Good Bikes Don't Fall Apart) |
| Bass | Spaces | A C E G | All Cows Eat Grass (or All Cars Eat Gas) |
Invent your own if you like: a silly sentence you made up yourself is easier to remember than one you were given.
Other useful memory aids
- Every C is just left of the two black keys. Every F is just left of the three. Children often call the pair of black keys "bunny ears".
- The treble clef curls round G. It is a G clef. The bass clef's dots sit either side of F. It is an F clef.
- Middle C is between the staves on its own short line, and belongs to both.
- D hangs, E sits. D hangs under the treble staff; E sits on its bottom line.
- The second space A is the tuning A, the note orchestras tune to.
- Stems turn at the middle line. Notes below the middle line usually have stems up; notes above it, down.
- Order of sharps: F C G D A E B. "Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle." The flats are the same backwards: B E A D G C F.
Why the rhymes slow you down
A rhyme makes you count from the bottom of the staff. To read the top line of the treble staff you say four words before you get to "Fun". That is fine for a single note on a worksheet, and far too slow for music moving at a beat.
The rhymes also stop at the edge of the staff. Ledger lines need something else, and so does the moment when a tune moves from a line to the space next to it and you want to know the note at once.
What to use instead: landmarks and distance
Fluent readers do two things:
- They know a few notes on sight: landmarks. Middle C, treble G (the clef's curl), bass F (the clef's dots), and a few more further out.
- They read the rest by distance from the nearest landmark, or from the last note: a step, a skip, a fourth, a fifth.
So the treble staff's fourth line isn't "Every Good Boy Deserves": it is a step above treble C, or a skip below the top-line F. How landmark reading works.
When to drop them
- Keep the rhymes while you learn where the lines and spaces are.
- Start with landmarks as soon as you know middle C, treble G and bass F on sight.
- Drop the rhymes once you notice you are reciting less and reading more. For most people that is a few weeks in.
If a rhyme still pops into your head for a hard note, that's fine. The aim is not to forget them, but to stop needing them.
How Octotune helps
Octotune's Meet card for each note gives both: where the note sits from its landmark ("a skip above middle C, a step above D: the bottom line") and a memory aid for grown-ups. The E card mentions Every Good Boy Deserves Fun; the bass A card mentions All Cows Eat Grass. The path then builds landmark reading, so the rhymes fade on their own. Open Octotune.
Next: Treble clef notes and bass clef notes, note by note.
Questions
What does Every Good Boy Deserves Fun mean in music?
It is a rhyme for the treble clef's five lines, from the bottom up: E, G, B, D, F.
What is FACE in music?
The treble clef's four spaces, from the bottom up, spell F, A, C, E.
What are the bass clef mnemonics?
Good Boys Do Fine Always for the lines (G, B, D, F, A) and All Cows Eat Grass for the spaces (A, C, E, G), both from the bottom up.
Should I use mnemonics to read music?
For the first week or two, yes. After that, reading from landmark notes (middle C, treble G, bass F) is faster, because you never have to count up from the bottom line, and it keeps working on ledger lines.