Look at the staff paper. The staff consists of two “clefs,” the treble clef on the top and bass clef on the bottom. The notes from the bottom line to the top line of the treble clef are E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E and F. The notes of the bass clef from the bottom line to the top are G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G and A.
Learn how the notes are positioned. Notes appear on and between the lines of the staff. For example, the lowest E on the treble clef appears on the bottom line, while the F that follows appears just above the E in the space between lines. The G appears on the line above the F, and so on.
Write the sharp symbol just above the top line at the left edge of the treble clef, on G. The symbol is just like a number sign except that it’s slanted to the left. Write another sharp on F, the line directly below the G. Write two more sharps, one on D, and one on C. This is the key signature of the E major scale, and will serve as our example from here on.
Draw a circle on the bottom line of the treble clef so that the top of the circle only takes up half of the space above it. This represents an E note. Draw a second circle on the line above it — on G. Align the two circles vertically. Draw a third circle on the next line above — B. You now have three notes stacked in a column — E, G sharp and B. Note the G is sharp because of the key signature. This is an E major chord. It is similar to any chord you label in that its notes are stacked, thus indicating that they are to be played all at once.
Label any chord of your choice on the staff. Note that some chords, like E major, contain sharp or flat notes. The way these are labeled changes depending on the key in which they appear. This is why we label the key before writing out the notes. For example, the C major key has no sharps or flats. If you were to label an E major chord in the key of C, you’d have to draw a sharp symbol beside the chord’s G note. Doing so is not necessary in the E major scale because the sharp is already labeled at the beginning of the staff.