How to read the bass clef and the grand staff for the left hand

After this lesson you can read bass F and the notes around it, and play a left-hand tune from the bass staff.

Your right hand now reads from the treble staff. Your left hand needs a staff of its own, lower down, and that is what the bass clef provides. Put the two staves together and you have the grand staff, the layout used for almost all piano music. As with the treble clef, you will start from a single landmark note and step outwards from it.

The bass clef

The bass clef marks a staff of lower notes, usually played by the left hand. It looks a little like a backwards letter C with two dots beside it. Those two dots are the important part: they sit either side of the fourth line from the bottom (the second line from the top).

That line is F, specifically the F below middle C. This is why the bass clef is also called the F clef. Just as the treble clef curls round G, the bass clef points at F with its two dots.

Landmark 3: bass F

Bass F is the F just below middle C. On the keyboard, start at middle C and count down the white keys: B, A, G, F. That F, the white key just left of a group of three black keys, is bass F.

Bass F is four white keys below middle C, just left of a group of three black keys

Stepping from bass F

Steps work on the bass staff exactly as on the treble staff: each move to the next line or space is the next letter. From bass F you can step to every note of the left hand's C position.

G is one step above F, in the top space.
E is one step below F, in the third space.
D is on the middle line.
C is in the second space.

C, D, E, F and G on the bass staff: bass F is on the fourth line, between the clef's two dots

These are the notes from the C an octave below middle C up to the G below middle C. They sit under the left hand in C position: little finger (5) on C, up to the thumb (1) on G.

Left hand in C position: little finger on the C below middle C, thumb on G, with bass F under finger 2

The grand staff

The grand staff is a treble staff and a bass staff joined at the left by a curly bracket called a brace. The right hand normally reads the top staff and the left hand the bottom one.

Middle C sits halfway between them. It can be written on a ledger line just below the treble staff, or on a ledger line just above the bass staff. Both mean the same key; which staff it is written on hints at which hand should play it.

The three landmarks on the grand staff: bass F, middle C between the staves, and treble G

The landmarks are neatly balanced. Treble G is four white keys above middle C, and bass F is four white keys below it, so they sit like mirror images either side of the centre. Almost any note in beginner music is only a step or two from one of the three.

Hands taking turns on the grand staff

At first, the hands share the grand staff by taking turns. The right hand plays a bar on the treble staff, then rests; the left hand plays a bar on the bass staff, then rests. You never play both at once yet. Follow the music downwards and across: while one staff has notes, the other has a rest.

Bass Walk

The Academy's left-hand piece is Bass Walk. Its first four bars go: C D E F, then G and E as half notes, then F E D C, then D and G as half notes. Little finger on C, and if you lose your place, look for bass F between the clef's dots.

The first four bars of Bass Walk for the left hand, on the bass staff

How to practise

Draw a bass clef staff and mark the fourth line from the bottom as F. Add C, D, E and G by stepping.
Find bass F on the keyboard by counting down from middle C: B, A, G, F.
Set your left hand in C position and play C D E F G and back, reading from the bass staff. Name each note aloud.
Read Bass Walk bar by bar. Check every note against bass F if you are unsure.
Practise hands taking turns: right hand C D E F in C position, then left hand G F E D, then right hand G and E as half notes, then left hand E D C.
Test yourself on single notes from all three landmarks, jumping between the staves.

Common mistakes

Counting lines from the top. Bass F is the fourth line from the bottom, which is the second from the top. Pick one way of counting and stick with it.
Playing an octave too low. Bass F is the F just below middle C, not the one further down.
Left-hand finger muddle. In left-hand C position, the thumb plays G and the little finger plays C.
Losing your place between staves. When hands take turns, glance ahead to the other staff before your current bar ends.

Try it in Pianuvo

The third lesson of Unit 2: Reading landmark notes has you play the left-hand five-finger pattern from the bass staff, find bass F on the keys, pass a phrase between the hands on the grand staff and then play Bass Walk. You can use the on-screen keyboard, a MIDI keyboard or a real piano with a microphone, and the Academy keeps track of which bass notes you read correctly.