Ledger lines · From Zero to Mozart

The staff only has room for about an octave and a half. For notes above or below it you draw ledger lines — little extra lines, one per note as needed. Nothing new to learn: the same step-and-skip rules just carry on past the edge.

Below the staff — most of the G string

Middle C sits on the first ledger line below the staff. Keep going down and you're on the G string: B just under middle C, A on the next little line, open G hanging below that. In first position the whole G string reads below the staff — normal for the violin, not an exception.

56 bpm

The bottom of the G string, on and below the ledger lines: open G, A, B, middle C. Count them as steps down from middle C.

Above the staff — the top of the E string

56 bpm

Above the staff: F on the top line, then G in the space above, A on the first ledger line, B just above it. The E string's high notes.

Anchor from the edge

The trick with ledger lines: don't count from the middle of the staff. Count from the nearest open string — open D for everything below, open E for everything above.

The usual mistake

Freezing at ledger lines. They look like a different language and they aren't — B on the second little line below is just "a skip under middle C", the same as any other skip.

Try

On the G string, play open G, A, B, middle C, and back. Watch the notation as you go — four notes, all below the staff, all steps. Get your eye used to travelling down there.