Key Stage 2 music · Notation

KS2 reading music: notes and pitch on the stave

Pitch is how high or low a note sounds, and the stave is the set of five lines on which staff notation shows it. In Key Stage 2 children learn to read where notes sit on the stave, name them with the letters A to G, and link what they see to a sound they can sing or play. Rhythm, which shows how long each note lasts, is taught alongside it and has its own guide.

Pitch on the stave, explained

Staff notation is written on a stave (also called a staff): five horizontal lines with four spaces between them. A note is either on a line, with the line running through the middle of the note head, or in a space, sitting between two lines. The higher a note sits on the stave, the higher it sounds. Children always count lines from the bottom, so the bottom line is line one and the top line is line five.

The symbol at the start of the stave is the clef, and it fixes what every position means. Most Key Stage 2 work uses the treble clef, whose curl wraps round the second line to mark it as the note G. That suits voices, recorders, glockenspiels, violins and the right hand of the piano. Some schools introduce the lower bass clef in Year 5 or Year 6, but that is a choice, not a requirement.

Notes are named with the first seven letters of the alphabet, A to G, and then the pattern starts again: the next A up is higher but has the same letter name, because the two sound like the same note at different heights. In the treble clef the lines, from the bottom, are E, G, B, D, F and the spaces are F, A, C, E. Many teachers use a phrase to remember the lines, and children often enjoy inventing their own. Middle C sits just below the stave on a short extra line called a ledger line, and more ledger lines extend the range up or down.

Reading notation only matters when it leads to sound, so children sing and play as they read. A typical early step is a tune using just three or four notes on a recorder or tuned percussion, followed by a gradual widening of the range. Teachers also point out how a melody moves: a step goes to the next letter name (from a line to the space beside it), a skip jumps over one letter (from line to line), and a leap is bigger still. Some schools introduce sharps and flats, which raise or lower a note by a small step, but the statutory wording does not require particular symbols.

The National Curriculum asks for staff “and other” notations. Children may draw graphic scores, where marks high or low on the page show high or low sounds, or use letter names, chord symbols or a simple tab. These are not a lesser version of staff notation. Drawing a picture score of a storm, with high squiggles for lightning and low wavy lines for thunder, is the same idea that the stave later makes precise. Secondary school then builds on this by asking for accurate use of staff notation and a range of other notations.

Words your child will hear

Stave (staff): The five lines, and four spaces, on which notes are written.
Pitch: How high or low a note sounds. Higher on the stave means higher in pitch.
Treble clef: The curly symbol at the start of the stave that marks the second line as G.
Ledger line: A short extra line used for a note above or below the five lines, such as middle C.
Step and skip: A step moves to the next letter name; a skip jumps over one note, such as from a line to the next line.
Octave: The distance between one note and the next note with the same letter name, higher or lower.
Sharp and flat: Signs that raise or lower a note by a small step, a semitone.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 2 says:

Pupils should be taught to use and understand staff and other musical notations
Aim: pupils understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: reading three notes on the stave

Three notes are written in a row on a treble clef stave: the first on the middle line, the second in the space just below it, the third on the line below that. What are they called, and does the tune go up or down?

Count the lines from the bottom: line one is E, line two is G, line three is B, line four is D, line five is F. The first note is on the middle line, which is line three, so it is B.
The second note is in the space just below the middle line. The spaces from the bottom are F, A, C, E, so the space between line two and line three is A.
The third note is on the line below that, which is line two. The treble clef curls round this line, so it is G.
Check the shape against the sound. Each note sits lower on the stave than the one before, so the tune steps downwards: high, medium, low. Say the names while you play or sing them: B, A, G.
Now compare with a skip. Play B on line three and then G on line two, missing out A in the space between. Moving from one line to the next line jumps over one letter name. Playing B, A, G and then B, G lets a child hear the difference between a step and a skip.

The notes are B, A, G, and the tune steps downwards. These are often the first three notes children learn on the recorder, and many beginner tunes use only these three.

Common mistakes and how to help

Counting the lines from the top

We read text from the top of a page, so children start at the top line. That makes the note on the second line look like the fourth, and every name comes out wrong.

What helps: Always say “from the bottom” and touch each line with a finger, starting at the lowest. A stave drawn on card with a small counter to move up and down makes this physical.

Confusing lines and spaces

A note in a space can look as if it is sitting on a line, particularly in small print or when a child writes their own music with a wobbly ruler.

What helps: A note on a line has the line passing through its middle. A note in a space is squeezed between two lines and touches both. Draw big staves with a thick pen and practise both kinds.

Thinking notes higher on the page are louder

‘High’ and ‘low’ are also words used for volume in everyday speech, and a note drawn high on the page can look more important.

What helps: Pitch is about height of sound and volume is about loudness. Play the same note quietly and loudly, then a high note and a low note quietly, and ask which word describes which change.

Believing the shape of the note head tells you the pitch

Children see open and filled note heads and assume these are different notes, when they show how long a note lasts.

What helps: Say that the position on the stave gives the pitch and the shape gives the length. Cover the shapes with fingers and read just the positions, then do the reverse.

How to help at home

Draw a giant stave. Use chalk on a path or masking tape on the floor to make five wide lines, then step onto the lines and spaces while you call out the names. It may take a few tries to get E, G, B, D, F in the right order, and that is part of the fun.
Find the pattern on a keyboard. If you have a keyboard or piano, point out that the white keys are named A to G and then repeat. Ask your child to play the notes they are reading in class and say the letter names aloud.
Sing the shape. Draw a short wavy line that rises and falls. Sing it, with your voice rising and falling with the line, and let your child draw a line for you to sing. This is the idea of pitch notation with no symbols at all.
Make up memory phrases. Ask your child to invent a silly sentence for the lines and another for the spaces. A phrase they have made up themselves will stick much better than one handed to them.
Ask them to teach you. Have your child show you where a note is on their recorder or glockenspiel part and explain how they know. Explaining a thing is one of the quickest ways to find out what is still hazy.

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Using staff notation accurately
Key Stage 3: Chord symbols, tab and graphic scores