Riddim Up · Reading music · Lesson 4

Ledger Lines: Above and Below the Staff

Music does not stop at the edge of the staff. Notes that are too low or too high get short extra lines called ledger lines. Here are the first four: E and F below the staff, B and C above it.

Grey letters are notes you already know. Red letters sit on a ledger line (highlighted in gold). Green letters sit in the space just outside the staff.

What is a ledger line?

A ledger line is a short extra line for a note that is too low or too high to fit on the staff. Picture the staff carrying on past its edge, but with only the small piece of line that the note needs. Ledger lines are the same distance apart as the staff lines, and only a little wider than the note.

A note on a ledger line has the line through its middle, just like a line note. A note in the space just outside the staff needs no ledger line at all. It simply hangs under the bottom line or sits on top of the top line.

Memory trick

Up from the top: A B C

Down from the bottom: G F E

Above the staff is as easy as ABC. Below the staff, just say the alphabet backwards from G.

How to read a note outside the staff

Find the nearest staff note you already know. That is the bottom line G (Great) for low notes, or the top line A (Animals) for high notes.
Step one letter for every line and space. Going up, go forwards through the alphabet: A, B, C. Going down, go backwards: G, F, E.
Check what the note touches. A line through its middle means it is on a ledger line. No line through it means it is in the space just outside the staff.
Do not count ledger lines as part of the staff. The staff is always five lines, and the sayings from Lessons 1 and 2 only cover what is inside it.

The four new notes at a glance

E1st ledger line belowE2 · open E string on bass

FSpace below the staffF2

BSpace above the staffB3

C1st ledger line aboveC4 · middle C

On a bass guitar, the E on the ledger line below the staff is your open E string, the lowest note on a standard 4-string bass. You will see it a lot.
The C on the ledger line above the staff is middle C, the C in the middle of the piano keyboard.
Notes further from the staff get more ledger lines. Keep stepping one letter per line and space and you can work out any of them.

Practice: the whole staff and beyond

Name the note. The four new notes come up more often.

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