Many children want to learn the note names before they begin music lessons.

Do you want to learn the note names?

pre piano and Little Composers has developed apps which teach the name names. All you need to get started is a computer or an iPad or iPhone. Don’t worry if you only have a computer. That’s OK.

The image bellow will be easier to understand if you read a little more of what I am just about to tell you.
The secret of how you can learn the note names faster is to take a look at the colors. Do you see all the red notes? They all have the same name. So do the yellow and blue and orange and green and brown and gray ones.

The three grey notes which you can see on the left side are all called A. Just like the first letter in the alphabet, music notation starts with A.
Did you just guess that the next note name would be B? If yes, well, you are right.A
Move one note to the right and take a look at the three brown notes.

Try to find all the other note names by remembering this: A B C D E F G


Why are there three gray, brown and red notes?
Think of the three notes this way. The bottom one is a low sounding note. The top one is a high sounding A and the middle one is just a simple A.

What else do I need to know in order to learn the notes?

The last thing to figure out are the five lines. Do you see more than five lines? For now, don’t count the short grey lintes because those are helper lines which are only needed to help us placing the notes.

The five long lines are called staff.
To the very left side of the staff is the treble clef. Try to remember what the treble clef looks like so that you can recognize it when you see it. Don’t worry, in a few days you will know the treble clef instantly.

Music is always written on or between the lines.
Maybe that is what makes it so confusing? Take a look at the picture again and find all the notes which are on a line. On a line means that they have a line behind them like the upper yellow one does. The upper green one is also on a line.
The lower yellow one is not on a line and the lower orange one is also in between the lines.

Exercise to learn the note names

Look at the lowest left note, the gray one and say A. Move one note to the right, the brown one and say B. Continue moving to the right and find the C, D, E F and finally the green G.
A B C D E F G

The upper row works the same way. Gray is A and moving one note to the right you find the B, C, D, E, F and G too.
There are three very high notes which you don’t need to know right away but if you want to know their names just start at the high grey note which has the same name as all the other grey notes and work your way to the right. A B C.

How long does it take to lean the note names?

Let me tell you a secret. No one just looks at the note names once and gets it.
When I was little, my parents bought me a puppy and my brother named the puppy Sam. We called it Sam every time but at the beginning, the puppy did not know that it was Sam.
But in a few weeks, the puppy started to listen and slowly it knew that it was Sam.

Learning stuff works the same.
Learning the notes names is slow at first but if you keep working on it you will start to memorize a few names. The more you work with the picture and the more you say those names out loud the more you will remember.

If you have an iPhone, you can go to the Apple App Store and search for “Little Composers”
There are two apps available. One app teaches the treble clef notes and the other the bass clef notes.
The bass clef is important for piano and trombone or baritone players.

Use the FEEDBACK button to contact me if you have questions as you learn the note names.
To test you knowledge, click on the top image or this link which will open a cool app which helps you understand and learn the note names faster