If you learned to read music at any point in the last 50 years, you’ve probably heard of a couple mnemonic devices to help remember the lines and spaces of the treble or bass clef.

(What’s a mnemonic device you ask? A device such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations that assists in remembering something such as Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally for the order of operations or My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas for the order of the planets.)

Here are some you might have remember:

Every Good Boy Does Fine

Elvis’ Guitar Broke Down Friday

F A C EAll Cows Eat Grass 

and so on . . . .

These mnemonic devices are fun to say but often, students don’t remember them accurately, and in this case, accuracy matters. In fact, accuracy in mnemonic devices matter so much that they are basically useless if you cannot recall the exact phrase and how to use it. In my experience, students struggle with both.

Let’s discuss:

Why does recalling the exact phrase matter? The first letter of each word such as in Elvis’ Guitar Broke Down Friday (This is the one I learned from my childhood piano teacher Mr. Bell) identifies the lines in the treble clef. If you miss a word, recall a synonym for the word, etc, the remembrance device no longer works. I’ve often heard students say something like “Uh, it’s something about Elvis having a guitar” or “Good Boys Deserve Chocolate.” Neither of those will get you anywhere close to the names of the notes on the lines in the treble clef. You must remember the phrase exactly for it to work. 

Let’s move on the second problem with mnemonic devices – You must remember how to use it. There are 2 staves students begin learning, treble and bass, and each staff has a different pattern on the lines and spaces. Starting from the bottom, the treble clef is EGBDF for lines and FACE for spaces. For the bass clef, its ACEG for spaces or GBDFA for lines. If you’re counting thats 4 completely different mnemonic devices across 2 staves, and you must remember which saying matches what clef and whether it applies to lines or spaces. 

There’s an easier way! 

If you want to read more about this, read about Elissa Milne’s groundbreaking talk at a piano teacher conference many years ago on her blog:

https://blitzbooks.com/every-good-boy-deserves-forgetting/