{"id":251,"date":"2020-01-28T06:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T14:45:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-01-16T12:11:05","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T20:11:05","slug":"read-ledger-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/read-ledger-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Read Ledger Lines (Fast &#038; Easy)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This lesson is a sequel. Now I know most sequels aren\u2019t as good as the original (Thanks, <em>Speed 2: Cruise Control<\/em>), but I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll find this one useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get the most out of it, you should be able to read music on the grand staff. You\u2019ll find the <a href=\"\/blog\/how-to-read-notes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first lesson right here<\/a>, and if you haven\u2019t watched it yet, I strongly recommend getting comfortable with that first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<iframe class=\"email-form-include-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/weekly-email\" frameborder=\"none\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><strong>So, what are ledger lines?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ledger lines are super simple. They are the little lines that go above or below the staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each staff (treble and bass) has 5 lines and 4 spaces. But we know the keyboard has a lot more notes than that, so ledger lines are used to show notes that go beyond the staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is what a ledger line looks like:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/pianote.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/blog\/2020\/Read%20Ledger%20Lines\/Scott%27s%20A%20-%20Score.png\" alt=\"Take your music reading outside the musical staff. Ledger Lines can look confusing but they're not too hard to understand. Learn how to read ledger lines.\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><strong>How to Read Ledger Lines<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ledger lines can look scary &#8212; but remember they are just an extension of the musical staff. That means all the rules and patterns for reading notes still apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember your super-great musical alphabet skills? How the musical alphabet goes from A-G before repeating again? Well, that happens here too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s look at the treble clef as an example. Here are the notes of the treble clef:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/pianote.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/blog\/2020\/Read%20Ledger%20Lines\/treble-clef.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>And straight away you can see a ledger line &#8212; middle C! Because middle C is below the lines and spaces on the treble staff, we need to add a little ledger line for it to sit on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Middle C is one example of a ledger line, but the more common examples are found ABOVE the treble clef. Let&#8217;s take this section of &#8220;Minuet in G&#8221;:<br><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/pianote.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/blog\/2020\/Read%20Ledger%20Lines\/minuet-in-g.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"842\" height=\"189\"><br>Looking at the treble clef, we can immediately see a ledger line and a note ABOVE the ledger line. So what does it mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, we need to remember our musical alphabet. The top line of the clef is an F. So what would the SPACE above the F be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A G! Now we&#8217;ve run out of lines and spaces, so we add that ledger line to keep going up the keyboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That little line is the next note up from G, which is an A. And we can see that the note here is the space above that line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we know that the note is a B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, in that entire first measure, all of the notes are above the treble staff, and three of them use ledger lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The important thing to remember is that the patterns never change. Moving from a line to a space means you&#8217;re moving up ONE note on the keyboard. And the musical alphabet constantly repeats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><strong>The Bass Clef<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s look at the bass clef for a minute now. Here are the notes of the bass clef:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/pianote.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/blog\/2020\/Read%20Ledger%20Lines\/bass-clef.png\" alt=\"Bass clef ledger lines\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>If we keep going DOWN from that low C, the patter would repeat. The line below it is B, then the space is A and the bottom line is G.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if we keep going beyond the lines on the staff, we get notes that look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/pianote.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/blog\/2020\/Read%20Ledger%20Lines\/minuet-in-a-minor.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>That looks like a middle C, right? But remember we&#8217;re in the bass clef. So if the bottom line of the bass staff is a G, then the space below it is an F and that note on the ledger line is an E.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><strong>Ledger lines take time to learn<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ledger lines above the treble staff and below the bass staff take a little bit of time to learn, but because they follow the same pattern they are not super difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But did you realize you can also have ledger lines in BETWEEN the treble and bass staff? Make sure you watch the lesson where I break it all down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My biggest piece of advice on how to read ledger lines would be to remember your patterns and try not to get frustrated if things don&#8217;t come quickly. Sight-reading is NOT one of my strengths, and it&#8217;s something that I still have to work on often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Happy practicing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<iframe class=\"email-form-include-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/weekly-email\" frameborder=\"none\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Take your music reading outside the musical staff. Ledger Lines can look confusing but they&#8217;re not too hard to understand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":1279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[525,510],"tags":[1091],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sight-reading","category-theory","tag-7dsr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11071,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/11071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}