Practice writing music notes as you learn them. There are two clefs: the treble clef and the bass clef. Both clefs use the basic five-line, four-space music staff. The method of writing notes down is the same for both clefs, but the names of the lines and spaces is different. Draw a treble clef on one staff and a bass clef on the other. A treble clef looks like a fancy cursive G and is sometimes called the G clef. A bass clef looks like a large comma followed by a colon (See resources).
Label the lines and spaces on the music staff in pencil. Writing the names of the lines and spaces can help you memorize them. The first line (starting at the bottom) of the music staff is E, the second is G, the third is B, the fourth is D and the fifth is F. The note names for the spaces are F, A, C and E. The phrase "Every good boy does fine" can help you remember the lines, while the word "face" can help you remember spaces.
Label the lines of the bass clef as you did the treble clef. The lines and spaces have different note names than the treble clef. The lines are G, B, D, F and A, while the spaces are A, C, E and G. Use the phrase "Grizzly bears don't fly airplanes" to help you memorize the lines and the phrase "All cars eat gas" to memorize the spaces.
Practice drawing note values. Start with a whole note, which takes up a whole measure of music. It's worth four beats in common time. Draw a slanted oval on the second line of the blank music staff. This is a whole note G. Since it takes up the entire measure of music, draw a vertical line after this note that goes from the fifth line of the staff to the first line. This is a bar line and indicates a new measure of music.
Draw a half note next. A half note has a slanted oval head like the whole note, but qith a stem attached to differentiate it from the whole note. Draw the oval note head over the first line of the treble clef, making it an E. Draw a small straight line beginning on the right side of the note head. This is the stem. A half note takes up half a measure, so you can fit two of them in a measure. Draw another half note. Place the note head on the second line, making this note a G. Draw a bar line to complete the measure.
Practice placing other notes on the staff paper. In common time, a quarter note equals one beat. It looks like a half note, except you'll color the note head black. Write four quarter notes, placing them on any line or space you want to. If you place a note on the third line or above, the stem is on the left side and pointing down. Notes below the third line have the stem on the right side, facing up. Eighth-notes equal a half beat. They look like quarter notes, except the stem has a small tail hanging from the end of it. You can fit eight eighth-notes in a measure of music. If you have two or more eighth notes played one after the other, you can leave off the tails and connect them with a horizontal line going across the tops of the stems.
Go to the fifth line of your music staff. You now know this is an F on the treble clef and an A on the bass clef. To figure out the notes above this staff, follow the notes of the musical alphabet forward. This means the space above the line on the treble clef will be an F, one line drawn above the staff (called a ledger line) is a G, etc. Figure out notes below the music staff by following the musical alphabet backward. This applies to both the treble and bass clef.