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Have you ever watched a beautifully crafted ballet where the right hand of the dancer gracefully sways through the air while the left hand rests idle? Unlikely, right? In the symphony of piano music, both hands, just like the ballet dancers, play an equally significant role. As you have mastered your right hand’s rhythm on the treble clef, it’s high time we bring the left hand in sync and uncover the beauty of the bass clef. If the notion of understanding this new musical symbol makes you break a sweat, fear not! Skoove, your trusted piano learning app, is here to guide your steps on this dance floor.
Key takeaways
- The bass clef allows us to play below middle C without ledger lines
- Bass clef will almost always be played by the left hand
- The rhyme to remember lines and spaces is different than for the treble clef
- The bass clef is included in the grand staff, but can be written by itself
- We call the Bass Clef the F clef because it circles around the note F
What is the bass clef?
The bass clef is a notation system for pitches. It’s the stalwart guardian of the lower spectrum of notes, the emblem for those profound, resonant tones that provide music with its full-bodied sound. Also known as the F clef, it marks the position of the F note, sitting on the fourth line from the bottom of the staff, indicating the F note just below middle C.
Ever wondered why the bass clef looks like an artful ‘C’ with two dots? That’s because it originated from an old notation symbol for ‘F’, which over time, has stylized into the icon we know today. Music, it appears, carries its history in every symbol we use.
But let’s bring our focus back to the present and your musical journey. Mastering the bass clef opens up a new world of depth and richness in your piano playing. If you’re ready to give your left hand the spotlight and delve into the world of bass notes, you’ve come to the right place.
Why do we need the bass clef?
You may ask, “Why do we need the bass clef when we already have the treble clef?” Here are a few reasons why the bass clef is integral to music:
- Full-spectrum music: The bass clef covers lower-pitched notes that the treble clef can’t notate. It lets us document and play the full spectrum of sounds that musical instruments, like the piano, can produce.
- Harmony and depth: It allows the creation of harmonies and adds depth to the music. By playing notes on both the treble and bass clefs simultaneously, we can create rich, layered musical pieces.
- Signifies left-hand notes: On the piano, the bass clef typically notates the notes played by the left hand. Understanding it is essential for pianists to coordinate their left and right hands.
- Universal understanding: It is part of the universal language of music notation. This means a musician from Berlin to Portland can understand and play the same piece of music, thanks to standard symbols like the bass clef.
How to draw a bass clef
Drawing the bass clef, like any other musical symbol, can seem like an art form. But fret not! We’ll break it down into simple steps for you. Remember, practice makes perfect.
- Start with a dot: Begin by drawing a dot on the fourth line from the bottom of the staff. This line represents the note F, hence the name F clef for the bass clef.
- Draw the curve: Now, starting from the dot, draw a curve that goes down to the space below the bottom line, then curves around and finishes just above the top line.
- Add a hook: At the end of this curve, add a small hook that turns inward, back towards the bottom of the staff.
- Draw the dots: Finally, add two dots on either side of the F line (the second line from the top).
And there you have it! Your very own bass clef. Keep practicing this, and soon you’ll be able to draw it with your eyes closed! Remember, the bass clef is more than just a symbol; it’s the gateway to the rich, resonating notes that will give your piano music a whole new depth.
What is the best way to learn bass clef?
The best way to learn bass clef piano notes is by practicing slowly and consistently. Just like learning to read treble clef, learning to read the bass clef notes on piano takes a bit of practice. However, there are a few helpful tricks that will help to increase your learning speed and ensure that the information sticks with you longer. We will practice with two methods here. The first is to memorize the notes by rhyming, mnemonic tricks like we commonly do with treble clef. The second is an interval method, where we base our reading off a few common interval spacings.
Once you have understood what the bass clef notes are you can start developing your sight-reading skills in the bass clef. Regular sight-reading practice is key here and our brand new Sight Reading Bass Clef course will help you with exactly that in a fun, approachable, and effective way.
How to read bass clef piano notes
As a budding pianist, understanding how to read the bass clef piano notes is a crucial skill that will enhance your musical journey. To read the bass clef piano notes, you need to familiarize yourself with the lines and spaces of the staff. Each line and space represents a specific note on the piano:
- Lines: The lines of the bass staff, from bottom to top, correspond to the notes G, B, D, F, and A. A handy phrase to remember this is “Good Boys Do Fine Always”.
- Spaces: The spaces, from the lowest to the highest, represent the notes A, C, E, and G. A quick way to remember this is the mnemonic “All Cows Eat Grass”.
Now, when you’re looking at a note on the bass clef, simply identify which line or space the note is on, and you have your answer! With this basic understanding, you’re well on your way to reading and playing the beautiful, rich tones signified by the bass clef.
Rhymes help you remember bass clef notes
Using the note chart to identify each bass clef note would be really slow and cumbersome. That’s why it is common practice for beginners to learn two rhymes that can help them to quickly identify piano notes.
Here is the rhyme for all the line notes:
And the rhyme for all the space notes:
Try to memorize these two rhymes, or even make up your own!
Reading by intervals
When reading music, you could rely on the rhymes above to quickly identify notes. However, it would be a slow process.Here is the solution: Most of the time you can actually just use something called “reading by intervals.” Intervals describe the distance between two notes. This distance is measured in terms of the scale degree, which is the position of a note in a scale. Now is the time to open the Skoove app and navigate to Beginner Course 2. Open the Lesson “Only If II & Left Hand” or alternatively look at this score:
Identify the first note by using the rhymes. In this example the first note is F. The F is a “line note.”
The second note is a “space note” (G) and therefore directly neighbors to the F. This simply translates to the next white key on your keyboard.
Other than to find the starting note, how many times are you going to use the rhymes in order to play this left hand part? That’s right, none! Once you’ve got the starting note, the notes only ever move up and down by jumps of one. Simply transfer these jumps into single upward or downward steps with your fingers, and you’ll easily be able to play the bass notes for a quick piano practice.
Integrating what you’ve learned
There are two ways of reading piano bass clef notes: using the rhymes to identify each note and using the “reading by intervals” technique. Always use the rhymes to find the starting note on the piano keys. From then on, read the intervals (jumps) between notes and make the same jump on the piano keys using your fingers. Only revert back to using the rhymes if the jump between two notes is greater than 2.
Make sure you put this new approach into practice by taking your best piano posture and playing through all the songs in the Piano Beginner 1 course. Intermediates should check out all the great songs from the Intermediate song courses as well.
Author of this blog post
Eddie Bond
Eddie Bond is a multi-instrumentalist performer, composer, and music instructor currently based in Seattle, Washington USA. He has performed extensively in the US, Canada, Argentina, and China, released over 40 albums, and has over a decade experience working with music students of all ages and ability levels.
