Teaching Note-Reading on the Staff Using Steps & Skips

Today I thought I would share a little demonstration of some ways I like teach my young students to start reading notes on the staff. I think it’s important to get out of the method books and off of the bench to make the musical concepts make sense and come alive.

My six-year-old daughter and I were reviewing steps and skips on the staff today, so I snapped a few pictures to show you my process:

My Giant Floor Staff Banner and my Giant Floor Keyboard Banner continue to be my favorite resources for little students! They are so much fun and are a great way to teach lots of concepts. First we reviewed steps and skips by walking up and down our staircase in steps and skips, then walked steps and skips on the Giant Floor Keyboard Banner (the banner pictured has the staff on one side and the keyboard on the other!). We played some steps and skips on the piano too!

Using the Giant Floor Staff Banner we counted the lines and spaces, and then practiced pointing and saying in order from bottom to top, “Line, Space, Line, Space…” We added some beanbags on each of the lines and spaces and played the pattern on the piano. My daughter was great at counting how many beanbags and playing that many notes, in steps, on the piano.

Then we took away the line notes and were left with notes in skips on all of the spaces! We played some of these on the piano as well.

Next we used my Steps & Skips Strips. These fun little flashcards can be found in either my French Piano Pack or my Sight Reading Tricks Pack. I love these little flashcards! They show a simplified staff with just 3 lines and 2 spaces, and 3 whole notes on each card in different patterns of steps, skips and repeats.

Students get to choose any starting note and then try to play the notes on the card. I think it’s helpful to sing along “starting note,” “step up,” “skip down,” “same,” etc. to help them. Some students like to sing along too! My daughter is on the timid side so she didn’t sing with me. Here is one of her first attempts:

After a couple of tries she started to get every single one right. It’s so exciting when little ones start to actually read music on the staff – and it can happen early if you teach these concepts in fun and engaging ways!

The fun thing about these cards is that once your students get the hang of them, you can line several up in a row for a bigger challenge! They also translate really well into playing on the actual staff.

I love teaching intervallic reading to my young students. It is just so much more intuitive than memorizing note names. Of course knowing the letter names can come later, but having a strong foundation of intervallic reading will translate to awesome sight readers later on!

Check out all of my great piano teaching resources in my Shop!