Teach Me Trombone

Music notes are written on a staff of five lines and four spaces.  The musical alphabet only includes the letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.   You can figure out the pitch by where the note head sits on the staff.  There are notes that sit on the lines, and there are notes that sit inbetween the lines.  Using sentences like those below will help you to remember the names of the notes.  For pitches that are higher or lower than the music staff, we use ledger lines to help us read them.   If you are switching over from the trumpet than you are used to reading treble clef notes.  As you can see below what would normally be an E on the first line in treble clef is now the pitch G for bass clef.

With a little bit of practice it won't take you long to learn bass clef.  

 

Here are some fun websites to help you learn:

http://www.musictechteacher.com/music_quizzes/quiz_word_warrior_bass.htm  

 

http://www.studybass.com/tools/bass-clef-notes/

 

http://musicteachersgames.com/bassClefOne

 

http://www.pedaplus.com/games/flashnotes/bassbeg.html

 

Here is a link to some printable flash cards:  http://makingmusicfun.net/pdf/lesson_resources/flash-cards-bc.pdf