Each staff is made up of five line notes and four space notes. Beginning with “E” on the first line on the bottom of the treble clef, the line notes are as follows: E, G, B, D, F. A popular mnemonic device used to remember these notes is to make a sentence using the first letter of each word to correlate each line note. "Every good boy does fine," "Every good boy deserves fudge" and "Elvis’s guitar broke down Friday" are three well-known phrases used by music teachers to help students memorize notes. The spaces on the treble clef spell the word FACE. The lines on the bass clef are represented with the mnemonic sentence "Golf balls don’t fly away." The spaces follow the phrase "All cows eat grass."
For the student who learns well through movement or spatial techniques, try this game. Using sidewalk chalk, draw a life-size staff on a patio or in a driveway. Toss a bean bag onto the staff and ask the student to name the note on which it landed. To add some skill and competition, pair two opponents and give them each a bean bag. Call out a note and challenge the players to toss the bean bag onto that note. Music hopscotch is fun for young students as well. Using the chalk-drawn staff, call out a series of notes. The student must jump onto the notes in the order that you call them.
Flash cards are great for drilling rote facts such as multiplication tables and sight words, and they can also be used for note memorization. Using index cards make your own by simply drawing a staff indicating a note on one side and writing the note name (the answer) on the back. Young musicians can do flashcard drills anywhere and at any time. As with learning math facts, musical note speed drills are an effective memory method. Using blank staff paper, randomly draw in musical notes on the staff. Mix bass and treble, repeat notes and use various types of notes (half notes, quarter notes, triplets). Set a timer for one minute, challenging a learner to finish a page of 60 note names.
It is common for beginning piano students to have prior knowledge of the treble clef, as it is a common learning objective in elementary schools. If this is the case, point out that the bass clef notes are in the same order, only one whole step below their treble counterparts. For example, A is the second space on the treble clef, and it is the first space on the bass. D is the fourth line on the treble and the third line on the bass.