Mastering the pitch: doing it the right way

Music teachers and theorists are happy to share the sacred knowledge of music with anyone, but no sooner than when one is able to understand musical notation and read sheet music.

Reading the score is an essential skill that is absolutely necessary to study music theory in depth. Learning music by ear alone is like trying to study science without knowing how to read.

And that’s a huge pain point to amateur musicians who really love music and would like to study it more seriously but who are often scared away by the sheer complexity of the musical notation and amount of efforts needed to master it.

In this article I will share an alternative approach to the very basics of the score reading, a technique to read note pitches effectively, a technique that I believe works better than the traditional method.

By the end of this article you would be able to read at least 20 note positions on the treble and the bass clefs without counting the lines, even if you have never done this before.

Disclaimer

When I say, “mastering the pitch the right way,” I do not mean to cause offense. I am neither putting down the talent and efforts of teachers, who put their souls into their students, nor the importance of the music theory or solfeggio.

I’m just trying to have a different look on the very first steps of learning musical notation from an amateur’s perspective in order to reduce the steepness of the learning curve a bit.

I’m not claiming that I am the first who discovered this new approach. Still, I could not find any evidence of its prior usage, which is quite strange on its own, given all those years of music history. It’s just so simple and obvious that it absolutely must have been discovered before!

Introduction

Musical notation evolved to be sight-read effectively. So why is it so hard to grasp for a newcomer? You see, actually, there’s a big difference between a thing that’s easy use and a thing that’s easy to master. We are so spoiled by modern “intuitive” interfaces that we often think these two concepts are identical, but in fact, they aren’t.

What could be more simple and intuitive than a pencil? Just take it in your hand, press it against the paper, move your hand accordingly — and voilà! But remember how much time it takes for a child to start drawing even the simplest forms or straight lines, not to mention being able to write. However, when you have learned the basics, it all starts to feel easy and natural.

The same may be said for almost any musical instrument. Just pluck the string and press it somewhere on a fingerboard to control the pitch. But “for some reason” musicians that play the violin spend their whole life mastering the instrument. So, being “intuitive and easy to use” does not mean that it would be as easy to master.

The very same thing happens with musical notation and sight reading.

Let’s imagine how a person usually gets introduced to the musical notation. Independently or with a teacher, the future musician gets familiar with the basic elements of the notation: the staff with a clef and a key signature, some bars, a bunch of notes with alteration marks.

Eventually, our musician discovers that clefs may be different: a beautiful treble clef (that everyone knows), a fancy bass clef, and a lot of others that are used rarely (unless you play a stringed instrument or the organ).
Maybe our student would even realize that, actually, clefs are nothing more but Latin letters, changed beyond recognition over time. Upon a closer look, one may find that the central curve of the treble clef is, in fact, the capital letter G, whereas the bass clef with its dots resembles the capital F.

But usually, teachers just say that the treble clef marks the position of a note G on a staff, whereas the bass clef marks the note F. All other notes on a staff are defined and remembered accordingly to the clef note.

And that’s basically it. What’s next? Practice. A lot of practice, actually.

Usually, students start with the treble clef as the most commonly used to write a melody.

Students in English-speaking countries usually use mnemonic phrases, like “Every Good Boy Does Fine” and “FACE”. The first phrase encodes the notes of the treble clef on the lines from bottom to top, whereas the second phrase encodes the notes in between.

When main lines are more or less remembered, infamous ledger lines come into play. Generally, the more extra lines are added, the harder it is to read the note. Mnemonics are no longer helpful here. In the worst case, line counting and scale mumbling occurs, which ruins the whole idea of “reading” and replaces it with “counting”. Still, it would be a lesser problem if our student were already confident with the intervals.

After the treble clef is mastered, our student tries to move on to the bass clef. And that’s actually where the problem arises. The student’s brain got used to the treble note names and this knowledge is now conflicting with the new data: the line that previously was known as G should now be read as B!

I think, it happens because the human brain learns by associating things. And the only meaningful information so far (before another clef was introduced), was the note position on the staff. Because the clef was always the same, it was treated as a background and was simply filtered out by the brain.

To make things worse, students learning how to play a stringed instrument or an organ may be surprised by finding an alto or even tenor clefs in the score, thus effectively quadrupling the number of note positions to remember! Also, some historic scores may be transposed differently, or may even be written in an old-fashioned way using now-outdated clefs, like the French violin, or one of the baritone clefs. And we haven’t even mentioned the issues with key signatures.

Sure, sooner or later, by practicing diligently, our student would remember correct associations between the notes and their positions on the staff, and the whole problem would be delegated to the next generation of musicians.

Unfortunately, not all students would reach this point. Many would not succeed, and some would even end up thinking that “notes are just too hard to grasp”, or even “notes are for nerds, real musicians should learn by ear.” This is especially true for amateur musicians, who simply could not afford to spend the whole day practicing their reading skills. So, after some time of trial and error, they just give up.

In all cases, survivorship bias prevents us from realizing that there might be a better way to learn note pitches without spending too much time on it.

I believe, this is partly due to the wide use of aforementioned mnemonics that betray the very nature of the notation and replace its internal structure with meaningless phrases that just give an illusion of understanding.

Why is it so hard to read the notes?

Let’s try to figure out why it is so hard for an inexperienced person to start reading the notes, especially when compared to a reading of an ordinary text.

Since our childhood, we have gotten used to the fact that words are often pronounced very differently when compared to their spelling. This is an example of a context dependency. The same letters in two different words may be read differently. In English, this may be due to, among other reasons, the Great Vowel Shift. But something similar may be found in many other languages.

At the same time, every letter on its own is pronounced in a very specific way, and thus context-free.

Note signs work in a similar manner. But unlike letters, outside of their context, notes do not have meaning at all! Without knowing the clef, we simply would not be able to name the note. By forgetting about an active accidental, or by misinterpreting a key signature, we’re risk reading the note incorrectly.

Depending on the notation element, such context may vary and span from a single note (for accents), one bar (for accidentals), and up to the whole piece (for clefs and key signatures).

In order to master the musical notation, the beginner musician needs not only to remember all graphical signs and their meaning but also to figure out the rules of their context usage.

Therefore, the whole complexity of a musical notation arises from its nonlocal and context-dependent nature, coupled with quite repetitive graphics (all notes are drawn very similarly, in contrast to letters that are very distinct).

In this situation, our brain simply cannot find a proper reference to learn note pitch effectively. Moreover, naively selecting references often ends up being incorrect and results in wasting time memorizing the correct answer without trying to understand the logic.

So what should we do?

In order not to waste our time, we need to guide our learning process and operate with proper abstractions from the very beginning.

We need to find an invariant that would not break when we change our clef. It would be even better if we would find a pattern that would help us gain more by studying less.

Both math and physics scientists say that symmetrical object is much easier to research and analyze. Laws and equations that are built upon symmetry happen to be much simpler than their non-symmetrical counterparts.

Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe spent most of his life editing precise astronomical tables. Based on those tables, as well as the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus, German astronomer Johannes Kepler formulated his famous laws of planetary motion.

Prior to Kepler, astronomers tried to predict the motion of planets and other celestial bodies, but it wasn’t very accurate. When observed from the Earth, planet trajectories may look very complicated with their counterintuitive zig-zag patterns. But the perception of complexity changes drastically once you realize that it’s just a projection of a much simpler and symmetric elliptic trajectory to the celestial sphere.

So, symmetry is often a key to understanding.

In search of symmetry

Let’s try to find a symmetry in the musical notation. At a first glance, it’s impossible, since all notes on a staff are placed linearly and their pitch monotonically increases:

Actually, I like Italian note names more, but for the sake of simplicity, I will use letters on all diagrams.

In order to find a solution, we often need to go outside of our normal perception. Remember the puzzle, where one needs to strike out nine dots with four strokes without lifting the pen?

Look!

All these notes are one octave away from each other, so they would always be the same, no matter what clef we choose.

Right now we’re looking at a symmetry that was in front of us for nearly 500 years!

By using this idea, very soon we will be able to easily read three positions on the staff. Together with neighboring positions and a clef note (which is usually remembered first anyway) that would add up to ten notes in each clef.

The rest is just a matter of time and a tiny bit of practice, trust me.

Easy as ABC

We’ve just found the isles of symmetry, from which we may build bridges to other notes. I believe, that the reader is not only able to count to three perfectly, but also knows the Latin alphabet or even Italian note names: do re mi fa sol la si (or ti).

So be it, let’s start with the treble clef which, as discussed earlier, marks the position of the G note on the staff:

In order to read the notes in the treble clef, the only thing we need to know is that the middle line of the staff is B (or si in Italian style). Those still keen to use mnemonics may remember it as “B is the center of simmetry”. Others may like that the triplets of neighboring notes form the sequence, well known since the childhood: ABC.

Without sticking much to the treble clef, let’s move on to the bass:

Actually, this is very important. It is absolutely not necessary to study all notes of the treble clef, prior to the bass one. Remember: we are learning patterns, not the notes themselves.

Bass clef marks the note F on the staff and has D (or re) on its middle line.

So, what mnemonic lovers may suggest here? Maybe something like “D rests in the middle”? Again, note triplets form another well-known sequence: do re mi.

Just in case, I repeat: for now, the only thing we need to remember is which note corresponds to what clef (B for treble, D for bass). Everything else would be remembered automatically, but a bit later.

By using this method we switch our attention from “Gee, it’s so complex” to “Oh, I know that!”. Complex knowledge is made easy by splitting it into small, manageable, and non-conflicting parts.

Without paying much attention to the symmetry, all note positions would seem equally inconvenient, clefs would interfere with each other, and the whole task of mastering the musical notation would look very unpleasant.

How do you think, how much time would it take to learn the notes, if all staves were like this?

If we clean this up a little bit by leaving the note heads only, it would be clear that all notes are situated right on the line, above or below it:

I think it would not be super hard to choose one of three notes depending on their position on the “staff”.

The thing is, using our method, we may reduce the huge task of mastering the notation down to small and easy subtasks of parsing note positions within our isles of symmetry, and then inferring the remaining positions through them using very simple and intuitive rules.

Over time, the brain would start reading remaining positions directly, no slower than the isle ones. By the way, I have some tricks for them as well.

So how should I learn?

As far as I know, traditional approach expects to learn notes by playing simple melodies that gradually introduce notes one by one, pitch after pitch.

Of course, I tried this approach, but having a decent ear, usually I remembered the melody faster than the notes it is built from. So, after playing the sheet a couple of times, I simply started to see it as a hint at to which melody I should play.

Therefore, I strongly believe that note pitches should be remembered independently, without any melody whatsoever. If we’re studying note pitches, then nothing else should be in our field of view.

For that, one of the best tools out there is the Anki, which is a free software that helps you memorizing things by using flashcards.

Anki tracks your learning progress, automatically showing you cards that you’re not good at, while still periodically showing you well-remembered cards to ensure you retain the memory. Repetition intervals are carefully chosen for optimal performance.

By the way, from 17 most commonly used positions on the staff (5 main lines with 4 intervals between them, and 2 ledger lines and 2 intervals from both sides of the staff), we can read 10 already. See for yourself: three isles of three notes on the staff plus the clef note. And all of that is both in the treble and the bass clefs!

Need to learn the alto clef too? No problem. Just remember that the central line is C and those isles of symmetry form the BCD sequence. Done.

Without noticing the symmetry, we would have no other option, but to remember all 34 staff positions independently (51 with alto clef).

Up to this point, we have only 7 positions left to remember, and Anki can help us memorize these.

The method

Below is my method that you will be able to use to memorize all common staff positions in the treble and the bass clefs in a couple days’ practice.

Learning the fundamentals

As was said before, the main idea is to split all positions into two parts. For the sake of simplicity, I call them “fundamentals” and “derivatives”.

First, we need to remember all fundamental positions that comprise the notes from the isles of symmetry, as well as the clef notes (G for treble, F for bass). When fundamentals would be memorized, we may then proceed with the derivatives.

But before that we need to set up our environment:

1. Install the Anki software
2. From a plethora of music-related card decks, we need to select one to work with. Personally, I like this simple deck. To not only see the notes but also hear their sound, I’ve extended it by adding sounds from another deck.
3. In the deck edit mode, set the tag for all fundamental positions. I named it “fundamentals” and added all fundamental notes from treble and bass clefs. For now, we do not need the derivatives.
4. Create new filter deck with our tag as filter criteria. For that open the deck, click “custom study” button below the window, select “study by card state or tag” mode and
5. If all was configured correctly, you should now have a separate deck with 20 cards in it.
6. Relax and play “guess the note” game. Don’t forget to enjoy! :)

Please note there’s absolutely no need to rush. Don’t force yourself to answer quickly, please take your time. Proceed as slow as it takes, it will definitely pay off afterward.

The golden rule of music education: do not practice your errors. The idea is that you should not try to play fast unless you can play correctly. The same with our study — don’t increase your speed if you still make mistakes.

Therefore, our algorithm should be as follows:

1. Pick the next card.
2. Before looking at the note, first look at the clef — treble or bass?
3. Recall that treble clef means the isle center is B, bass clef means it is D.
4. Figure out which part of the symmetry isle does the note belong to: center, bottom or top?
5. Select the appropriate note based on the answer from the previous step.
6. If you’d like, sing the note aloud to help memorize the pitch.
7. Continue repeating all of the above up to the point when you realize that you just know the answer, even before you can explain it to yourself.

Again, please make sure to memorize all of the clefs at once. This is extremely important for success.

Learning the derivatives

At this point, the feeling of immense complexity and counterintuitive nature of notation should go away. Both clefs should now be perceived naturally.

If all was successful, you should now read all fundamental notes easily:

Look how far we get just by knowing a couple of notes per clef!

If we added to this set the outermost lines of the staff, then all remaining positions (except for very distant ledger lines and spaces) would be only one step away from the positions that you have already memorized.

Such positions may be memorized using the following observation:

The difference between the bottom and the top lines is the whole octave plus one more step: E→F, G→A.

So, if you’ve memorized that the bottom line of the bass clef is G, then you would know that the top line is A. Also, the top line’s note is equal to the note one space above the bottom line, and vice versa.

To memorize which outermost notes correspond to what clefs, tie them to the clef note as shown on the picture above.

The last trick to this process is to note that there’s only the ledger line between the treble and the bass clefs. This is the note C, the very same C as in the middle line of the alto clef. It’s often called the “middle C”, although some musicians, like the concert flute players, may name it differently.

As you see here, the second ledger line above the bass clef is, in fact, the same note as the bottom line of the treble clef and it is E.

Conclusion

Unfortunately this article is not comprehensive. We haven’t talked much about the details of the musical notation; we haven’t mentioned how to work with more distant ledger lines; nothing was said about key signatures.

But hopefully by knowing a general idea, you may invent something similar for yourself, something that would work best for you.

Finally, I think it should be noted that my method also has some advantages over the traditional approach:

• From the very beginning, students are taught to start reading notes from the clef (forgetting to do so is a common beginner’s mistake)
• The method gives a good and natural understanding of the staff’s octave structure, all octaves are studied in connection with each other.
• Ledger lines are introduced early and are used on equal terms.
• The whole process is easy, comfortable and stress-free (at least that was in my case).

I hope that you find my article useful, or at least interesting. I will be really happy if it helps you to start climbing the learning curve and studying the musical notation without worrying much.

Special thanks to Alexandra Heller and Lisa Vaisman for editing aid.
Originally published at geektimes.ru on January 8, 2018.