Bass Clef Lines

The five lines: G, B, D, F, A

A note is on a line when the line runs straight through the middle of the note head. On the bass staff, the five lines are:

1. G: bottom line
2. B: second line
3. D: middle line
4. F: fourth line, between the bass clef’s two dots
5. A: top line

Lines are always counted from the bottom up, so the “first line” is the lowest one. The letters between the lines (A, C, E and G) belong to the spaces.

Good Boys Do Fine Always and other mnemonics

The first letters of “Good Boys Do Fine Always” give you the five lines in order, from bottom to top. Any sentence that starts with G, B, D, F and A works just as well. Other popular ones include:

• Grizzly Bears Don’t Fly Airplanes
• Good Bikes Don’t Fall Apart
• Great Big Dogs Fight Animals

Pick the one that sticks, or make up your own. As with the treble clef, read it from the bottom line up. Starting at the top turns every note into the wrong one.

If you already know the treble lines, watch out: “Every Good Boy Does Fine” and “Good Boys Do Fine Always” share three words, but the lines they name are in different places. On the bass staff, G is the bottom line, not the second.

Reading line notes without counting

Saying the whole sentence for every note is slow. These habits help you name a line note at a glance:

• Use F as your anchor. The bass clef’s two dots sit either side of the F line, so you can find it without counting. D is the line below it, and A is the line above it.
• Know the middle line is D. It’s the easiest line to pick out by eye, and it splits the staff in half.
• Learn the top and bottom lines as a pair. The bottom line is G and the top line is A.
• Lines skip a letter. Moving from one line to the next skips over one letter: G, (A), B, (C), D. If you know one line, the next line up is two letters further on.
• Coming from treble? Each bass line is two letters later than the treble line in the same place: E becomes G, G becomes B, B becomes D, D becomes F, and F becomes A.

The same pattern continues past the staff on ledger lines, the short lines added for notes above or below it. Above the top line A, the next line up is middle C, then E. Below the bottom line G, the next lines down are E, then C.

Practice the line notes

Practice them on the bass clef practice page. Line and space notes arrive mixed together, as they do in real music, and Trebly brings back the notes you miss or answer slowly more often, so if B and D keep catching you out, you’ll see more of them until they stick.

Next, learn the other half of the staff with the bass clef spaces, or see every note together on bass clef notes.