Score reading
Turning notation into sound and action — and reading music you have never seen before.
Score reading
Turning notation into sound and action — and reading music you have never seen before.
Level 1
The staff, the treble clef, and the first five notes — C to G.
The staff, and your first five notes
Five lines and four spaces. Once you see that it is a map of high and low, most of reading stops being memory work.
5 minStart →
The rest of the staff
Six more notes and there is nothing left on the treble staff to learn — every line, every space, all of it read from two landmarks.
6 minStart →
The bass staff
The five notes your left hand already plays, now on the page — and the clef that is named after the line it points at.
6 minStart →
What finishing this level means
- Read all five notes from C to G on the treble staff
- Read every line and space of the treble staff
- Read the first five notes on the bass staff
- Recognise them in under three seconds, not work them out
Level 2
Read the gap, not just the note. Seconds and thirds as shapes on the staff.
Seconds and thirds
Reading stops being a lookup when the gap between two notes becomes a shape you recognise instead of a distance you work out.
7 minStart →
Repeats and endings
The marks that say "play that again" — and how four minutes of music fits on one page.
6 minStart →
Up to middle C (dó)
Three more bass-clef notes, ending on the one that belongs to both staves at once.
6 minStart →
What finishing this level means
- Name seconds and thirds by sight, major and minor
Level 3
Past the edges of both staves, and reading a line you have never seen.
Above the staff
Three notes past the top line, and the counting rule that finds any of them.
6 minStart →
Below the staff
The same rule pointing downwards, at the bottom of the bass staff.
6 minStart →
Reading at sight
Playing music you have never seen — and the one habit that makes it possible.
8 minStart →
What finishing this level means
- Read the ledger notes above the treble staff and at the bottom of the bass
- Play four unseen bars in C or G without stopping
Level 4
Keys with accidentals you remember rather than read, and the bottom of the bass staff.
Reading in D (ré)
Two sharps, held in your head instead of read off the page.
8 minStart →
Reading in B♭ (si♭)
Two flats — and the notes they sit on are ones you are used to reading plain.
8 minStart →
The bottom of the bass staff
Below the ledger lines, where a real left hand plays.
6 minStart →
What finishing this level means
- Sight-read four unseen bars in D or B♭
- Read the notes below the bass staff
Level 5
Three accidentals either way, and leaps read as shapes rather than counted.
Reading wider leaps
Fourths, fifths and octaves — read as shapes, not counted as lines.
8 minStart →
Sight-reading in A (lá)
Three sharps to hold, and four bars you have never seen.
9 minStart →
Sight-reading in E♭ (mi♭)
Three flats — and they land on the notes you read fastest.
9 minStart →
What finishing this level means
- Sight-read four bars in A major and in E♭ major
- Read a fourth, a fifth and an octave at sight