Which tool to start with
If you’re new to reading music, start with the treble clef. Most beginner piano music puts the right hand there, and its notes around middle C are the first ones to learn. Once you can name them without counting up from the bottom line, do the same for the bass clef.
Then mix the two on the grand staff. Knowing each clef on its own isn’t quite enough: in real music your eyes jump between them, and the classic slip is reading one with the other’s names. After that, go outside the staff with ledger lines.
Key signatures and chords come last. They’re less about naming a single note and more about reading what the page doesn’t spell out: the sharps a key implies, or a chord’s root hiding in an inversion.
Already reading well in one area? Skip ahead and use the times on the cards to see where you’re slow.
How the quizzes work
- Twenty cards a round. Your score counts the cards you get right first time, and each right answer shows how long it took.
- Mistakes are shown, not just counted. A wrong answer leaves a dashed note where you played, names the likely slip (one step off, the wrong octave, the wrong clef, a forgotten key signature) and shows you the answer to play before moving on.
- Missed cards come back sooner. A card you miss returns a few cards later in the same round, and slow cards return too, so the round spends its time on what you don’t know yet.
- Answer however suits you. Click the piano, plug in a USB MIDI keyboard (in Chrome or Edge), use the computer keyboard, or tap the note names. On the piano keys the octave counts; with the names it doesn’t.
Note reading isn’t sight reading yet
Naming notes quickly is the first step. Sight reading asks for more: reading ahead while you play, in time, with both hands. When single notes feel easy, move on to the sight-reading exercises, and see the guides for how to practise reading music day to day.