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Treble clef notes

The treble clef notes are the ones your right hand usually plays on the piano. Learn five lines and four spaces, and you can name every note on the staff.

A large treble clef on a five-line staff, with nine notes climbing from E on the bottom line to F on the top line, each named underneath: E F G A B C D E F. The notes on the lines are lit.EFGABCDEF

What the treble clef tells you

Standard sheet music writes notes on a staff of five lines and the four spaces between them. The clef at the start of the staff says which note each line stands for. The treble clef is also called the G clef: its curl circles the second line from the bottom, and that line is G4, the G just above middle C.

Piano music is written on two staves joined by a brace, called the grand staff, with the treble staff on top. The pianist usually plays the higher notes, on the treble staff, with the right hand, and the lower notes, on the bass staff, with the left.

A grand staff: a treble staff above a bass staff, joined by a brace. The treble clef curls round the G4 line; the bass clef’s two dots sit either side of the F3 line. Middle C, C4, sits on a short extra line just below the treble staff, or just above the bass staff: the same key, written two ways.G4: the treble clef curls round this lineF3: the bass clef’s two dots sit either side of itMiddle CMiddle C
The grand staff. Each clef names one line, and middle C sits on a short extra line between the staves, written from either side.

The lines: E, G, B, D, F

From the bottom up, the five lines of the treble staff are E, G, B, D and F. Music students have long remembered them with the sentence Every Good Boy Does Fine. The bottom line is E4, the E just above middle C, so the top line is F5.

A treble staff with a note on the five lines, bottom to top: E4, G4, B4, D5, F5. Remember them as Every Good Boy Does Fine.EEveryGGoodBBoyDDoesFFine
The treble staff’s lines, bottom to top: E, G, B, D, F. Every Good Boy Does Fine.

The spaces: F, A, C, E

The four spaces, from the bottom up, are F, A, C and E. They spell a word: FACE.

A treble staff with a note in the four spaces, bottom to top: F4, A4, C5, E5. Together they spell FACE.FF4AA4CC5EE5
The treble staff’s spaces, bottom to top: F, A, C, E. They spell FACE.

Lines and spaces take turns. Step from a line to the space just above it and you move up one letter: E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F. On the piano, that is one white key to the right.

Middle C and beyond the staff

When a note is too high or too low for the staff, it borrows short extra lines called ledger lines. Middle C, C4, sits on the first ledger line below the treble staff. Above the staff, A5 sits on the first ledger line and C6 on the second.

The treble staff above two octaves of piano keys, each note drawn right above its own key: C4, D4, E4, F4, G4, A4, B4, C5, D5, E5, F5, G5, A5, B5, C6. Middle C, C4, is lit.C4D4E4F4G4A4B4C5D5E5F5G5A5B5C6
Every white key from middle C (C4) up to C6, on the treble staff. Each note sits right above its key; the lowest and highest borrow short extra lines.

The chart runs from middle C up to C6, and each note sits right above its key, so you can read across it like a map. The free piano keyboard chart has a printable copy, with the bass clef too.

Treble clef next to keyboard staff

A sharp sign (♯) in front of a note moves it up to the very next key, and a flat sign (♭) moves it down. Sharps and flats written once at the start of each line, the key signature, apply to every note with that letter, in every octave. How to read sheet music explains them step by step.

Keyboard staff, the notation every piece on this site is drawn in, works differently: each line is a black key, so there is no clef to decode and no sign to remember. Here are the five notes under a right hand in C position, written both ways.

The same 5 notes, C4, D4, E4, F4, G4, written two ways. Left, standard notation on a treble staff. Right, keyboard staff, where each note sits beside its own key.Standard notationKeyboard staffCDEFG
C, D, E, F, G in both notations. In standard notation they climb line, space, line; in keyboard staff each sits beside its key, middle C just below the bold red line.

Read a real tune

  1. Open Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (Easy). Its tune starts on middle C, the ledger-line note just below the treble staff.
  2. Name the first seven notes out loud: C, C, G, G, A, A, G. G4 is the second line, the one the clef curls round; A4 is the second space.
  3. Press Play and follow the notes with your eyes, then play the right hand yourself.
  4. Turn on the Standard switch on the piece page to see the same notes on a treble staff.
The first 4 bars of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (Easy) in keyboard staffC3441234CCGGAAGFFEEDDCCFCFCGC
Open the full pieceThe opening of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in keyboard staff: C, C, G, G, A, A, G. Press Play to hear it.

Next, learn the bass clef notes for the left hand, or go back to how to read piano notes for the whole picture.

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