Have you ever watched a beautifully crafted ballet or other form of dance and seen the right hand of the dancer gracefully sway through the air while the left hand rests idle? Unlikely, right? Just like with ballet dancers, the left hand in piano plays 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 you through the basics of learning the bass clef.
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. The bass clef is generally used to notate pitches below middle C.
The bass clef is also known as the F clef because it marks the position of the F note, sitting on the fourth line from the bottom of the staff.
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.
Why do we need the bass clef?
You may ask, “Why do we need the bass clef when we already havethe treble clef?” Let’s take a look at the wonderful qualities of the bass clef.
First, the bass clef covers lower-pitched notes that the treble clef can’t notate without ledger lines, the imaginary lines that we add to pitches below the staff. It lets us document and play the full spectrum of sounds that musical instruments, like the piano, can produce.
On the piano, the bass clef typically covers the notes played by the left hand. Understanding it is essential for pianists to coordinate their left and right hands. Likewise, 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!
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.
How to read bass clef piano notes
As a budding pianist, understanding how to read 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.
Here are the notes on the lines of bass clef:
We use the mnemonic device Good Boys Do Fine Always to memorize the notes on the lines of bass clef.
Here are the notes on the spaces of bass clef:
We use the mnemonic device All Cows Eat Grass to memorize the notes on the spaces of the bass clef.
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 notes on piano.
Here you can visualize all the notes on the bass clef and how they correspond to the notes on the keyboard:
Once you have understood what the bass clef notes are you can start developing your sight-reading skills with the bass clef notes on piano. Regular sight-reading practice is the key.
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 ofthe 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:
Learn how to play ‘Only If’ on piano. Start a 7 day trial today – no card details required!
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.
What other pianists say about learning how to read bass clef
Pianists on the r/piano forum on Reddit have given lots of advice on how to read bass clef piano notes. Here are some tips and strategies that more experienced pianists have given there:
How do I read bass clef?
byu/Catman360 inmusictheory
- Familiarize yourself with different clefs over time to get used to them.
- Learn each clef as you learned the treble clef; occasional confusion will improve with practice.
- Use mnemonics:
- “Good bikes don’t fall apart” for the lines.
- “All cows eat grass” for the spaces.
- Create and practice with flashcards.
- Utilize flashcard apps on your phone to enhance reading skills, even for experienced players.
- Read music using intervals; they are visually distinct and help reference known notes.
- For notes on ledger lines, use known notes and intervals to identify them (e.g., middle C and a fifth to find G).
- No shortcuts—consistent daily practice is more effective than infrequent long sessions.
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 onthe 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 yourbest 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.
