Most of us learned to read notes on the staff by memorizing some cute rhymes.
For the treble clef lines: Every Good Boy Does Fine, E-G-B-D-F
For the treble clef spaces: F-A-C-E (wish they were all this easy!)
For the bass clef lines: Good Boys Do Fine Always, G-B-D-F-A
For the bass clef spaces: All Cows Eat Grass, A-C-E-G.
There are many variations on these basics, such as “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge,” etc. You can probably think of several. My student Mackenzie said their school music class devised some pretty wild options.
These rhymes can be helpful in finding first notes in a piece, for example, or when identifying less familiar ones. They are painfully slow, though, if used to figure out every note.
Fortunately there are other systems available to help with note reading. (To be continued. . .)