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Piano notes chart, C2 to C6
Every white key from two octaves below middle C to two octaves above, on the grand staff and the keyboard. Click a key or a note to hear it, then test yourself with the quiz.
Piano notes chart, C2 to C6 · playablenotes.com
● Landmark notes · ● Selected · Middle C is marked on its key. Swipe sideways for more keys.
Name this note. Type its letter, or tap a button.
Right answers move on by themselves.
How to read notes on the staff
Piano music is written on the grand staff: two five-line staves joined together. The top one, with the treble clef, usually holds the right hand; the bottom one, with the bass clef, the left hand. Each line and each space is one white key: move up one line or space and you move one white key to the right.
Notes use the letters A to G, then start again. The number after a letter says which octave it is in. Every octave starts on C, so C4 is middle C, D4 is the next white key up, and B3 is the white key just below middle C.
| Staff | Lines | Spaces |
|---|---|---|
| Treble | E4 G4 B4 D5 F5 “Every Good Boy Does Fine” | F4 A4 C5 E5 spells “FACE” |
| Bass | G2 B2 D3 F3 A3 “Good Boys Do Fine Always” | A2 C3 E3 G3 “All Cows Eat Grass” |
Landmark notes to read from
Rhymes help at first, but reading by landmarks is faster: learn a few notes by sight, then read the others as steps and skips from the nearest one.
- Middle C (C4): the ledger line between the staves, and the C nearest the middle of the keyboard.
- Treble G (G4): the second line of the treble staff. The treble clef is a fancy G, and it curls around this line.
- Bass F (F3): the second line from the top of the bass staff. The bass clef is an F, and its two dots sit either side of this line.
- Treble F (F5) and bass G (G2): the outside lines of the grand staff, the top line of the treble staff and the bottom line of the bass staff.
- The other Cs: treble C (C5) in the third space of the treble staff, bass C (C3) in the second space of the bass staff, and low and high C (C2, C6) on two ledger lines.
The chart shows these in violet. Practise just the landmarks in the quiz.
Ledger lines
Notes too high or too low for the five lines get short ledger lines of their own. Count them like the lines of the staff: middle C needs one, below the treble staff or above the bass staff. A5 is one ledger line above the treble staff and C6 two; E2 is one below the bass staff and C2 two.
The same key can be written on either staff. Middle C appears twice in the chart for that reason: a piece puts it on whichever staff the hand playing it reads from.
The black keys
A sharp (♯) raises a note to the very next key on the right, and a flat (♭) lowers it to the next key on the left, usually a black key. So the black key between C and D is both C♯ and D♭. E–F and B–C have no black key between them, which is how you find your way around: C sits just left of each group of two black keys.
Practise with real music
Reading improves fastest with music you want to play. The free piano library has more than 300 public-domain pieces you can open, hear with the notes highlighted, slow down and print. Start with the easy piano pieces.
Have a page you’re stuck on? Read it into PlayableNotes and listen to it note by note, hands separately and at any tempo, or make an easier version for a student.
Frequently asked questions
What note is middle C?
Middle C is C4, the C nearest the middle of the piano keyboard. On the grand staff it sits on a short ledger line between the two staves: just below the treble staff, or just above the bass staff. Both are the same key.
What do C2, C4 and C6 mean?
The number is the octave, in scientific pitch notation. Each octave starts on C, so C4 is middle C, C5 is the next C up, and C2 is two octaves below middle C. On an 88-key piano the lowest C is C1 and the highest key is C8.
How do I remember the notes on the treble staff?
The lines, bottom to top, are E G B D F (“Every Good Boy Does Fine”), and the spaces spell F A C E. Many teachers prefer landmarks: find treble G, the line the treble clef curls around, and count up or down from it.
How do I remember the notes on the bass staff?
The lines, bottom to top, are G B D F A (“Good Boys Do Fine Always”), and the spaces are A C E G (“All Cows Eat Grass”). The bass clef’s two dots sit either side of the F line, which is why it is also called the F clef.
What are ledger lines?
Short lines added above or below a staff for notes that don’t fit on its five lines. Middle C uses one ledger line. On this chart, C2 needs two ledger lines below the bass staff and C6 two above the treble staff.
Where are the sharps and flats?
On the black keys. The black key just right of C is C sharp, which is the same key as D flat. E to F and B to C have no black key between them.
Can I print this chart?
Yes. Use “Print the chart” above (or your browser’s print command): the chart prints on its own, landscape, with every note on the staff and every key named.
Is the chart free?
Yes. The chart and the quiz are free, with no account. They run in your browser and play recorded piano samples.