The staff

See from the page whether the music goes up or down, by a step or a skip.

Your first page so far. This lesson writes on the blue.

Music is written on five lines, the staff. A note sits either on a line or in a space between two lines, and the higher it sits, the higher it sounds: further right on the keys.

From a line to the next space, or a space to the next line, is a step: the next white key. From a line to the next line, or a space to the next space, is a skip: you jump over one white key.

Good readers read most notes this way, by how far each one moves from the last, rather than working out every name. Seeing a step or a skip at a glance is the first habit worth building.

Steps go space, line, space; skips go line to line. Two notes in the same place are the same key.

The staff

Try it