“I wish I’d learned to play piano as a kid but I couldn’t read music.” Said by many regretful adults. Fact is research has revealed there are easier ways to learn the names of the notes and decipher the mysterious black dots on a music score.
Every Good Boy Does Fine - EGBDF - was the acronym we all learned to remember the names of the lines in the treble clef. I find students get this confused with all sort of convoluted things. It’s cumbersome to remember the acronym and figure out the name of a given note. The easier way to learn note names uses guide notes and neighboring tones.
Guide Notes: What are guides notes? They are also called landmark notes. They are a few notes on the staff that you learn first. What are neighboring tones? Just like house, neighboring tones are next to each other.
Flashnote Derby is a fun iOS game where students can practice naming notes. It has video tutorials that walk you thru finding and learning the names of guide notes. After learning guide notes you can learn the names of the neighboring tones and notes in-between the guide notes.
Racing to the finish by correctly naming notes is one of the fun graphic themes in Flashnote Derby. The game has a variety of well thought out options so you can adjust the level of difficulty needed to continue advancing your note naming skills.
Take Action: Flashnote Derby is in the app store and bundled with Rhythm Swing, two great apps that compliment each other. They are the best apps for learning note names and rhythm patterns. If you watch the tutorials and play all levels of the games, you’ll be well on your way to reading and playing music. The bundle is reasonably priced for a small one-time charge. Download today and spark the joy of making music. https://flashnotederby.com/
-Words of music teaching wisdom brought to you from Mrs. S'
