Skips and Steps

Skips and Steps are techniques used to help the student follow the music as it moves up and down on the staff. On the staff, a step moves from one note to the very next note. A skip will skip a note. Remember that when notes move up on the staff, your fingers play notes from left to right. When notes move down on the staff, your fingers play notes from right to left. Following are some examples.



As you can see in the first two measures, each note steps up or down to the next:
C D E F G F E D C
The last two measures show notes with skips:    C E G E and D F A F
Take a close look at the measures with steps. A step moves from a space to a line and from a line to a space. C is on a line and D is on a space. G is on a line and F is on a space. Skips, on the other hand, move from space to space and line to line. C is on a line and E is on a line. F is on a space and A is on a space. There is a PDF worksheet embedded in this page for the student to use. Please click the link below to open or save the file so you can print it. If you have trouble printing it, let me know and I will have one ready for you at your next lesson.

Lessons          Cordova Music Academy

Open the Steps and Skips Worksheet