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New Released in April 2026
Practice Reading Music Notes With Landmarks and Steps
The fastest way to practice reading music notes is not to memorise every line and space. Learn a handful of landmark notes, then read the rest as steps and skips from them, and practise with notes that keep moving so you cannot stop and count.
No account, no download. The demo has limited content. Advanced features are in ChordRunner Premium.
- MIDI keyboard
- Digital or acoustic piano
- Guitar
- Computer, phone or tablet
Five landmark notes
- Middle C: one ledger line below the treble staff, one above the bass staff.
- Treble G: the line the treble clef curls around.
- Bass F: the line between the two dots of the bass clef.
- Treble C: the third space of the treble staff.
- Bass C: the second space of the bass staff.
Read by distance, not by name
From a landmark, a note on the next line or space is a step; jumping a line is a skip (a 3rd). After a week of this, you will read whole shapes, like "up a step, up a skip", instead of naming every note.
Practice Reading Music Notes With Landmarks and Steps
ChordRunner is a browser game that teaches piano and guitar chords: a chord appears on screen, you play it on a real instrument, and your runner jumps.
Play the demoA 10-minute routine
- 2 minutes: find the five landmarks on the keys without looking down.
- 4 minutes: read short lines of notes, steps only, then steps and skips.
- 4 minutes: real-time reading where the notes keep scrolling, slow tempo.
Why real time beats flashcards
Flashcards let you stop and count lines. Music does not wait. ChordRunner has sight reading on a real staff: notes scroll toward a play line and you play them on a MIDI keyboard or a piano near the microphone, at a tempo you choose. It also has single notes in any octave for pure note-finding practice.
The levels in ChordRunner
- Beginner: major, minor, augmented and diminished chords.
- Intermediate: adds sus2 and sus4.
- Advanced: adds 6th, 7th and 9th chords.
- Pro: adds 11th, 13th and altered chords; an adaptive mode adds the next family when you are ready.
Common questions
How can I practice reading music notes?
Learn five landmark notes, read everything else as steps and skips from them, and practise daily with notes that move in real time.
How long does it take to learn to read notes?
With ten minutes a day, most beginners read single notes in both clefs comfortably within one to two months. Fluent reading takes longer.
Is reading music hard to learn?
Not the basics. Seven note names repeat on every octave; what takes time is reading fast, which comes from daily practice.
Which instruments work?
A USB MIDI keyboard, detected automatically, or a piano or guitar through the microphone. Everything runs in Chrome or Edge on a computer, tablet or phone.
How is this different from apps where you tap the screen?
Tapping trains your eyes and fingers on glass. Here you press real keys or fret real strings, and the game hears the actual notes, so what you practise is exactly what you will play on your instrument.
Is everything in the demo?
The demo has limited content. Advanced features are in ChordRunner Premium.
Your instrument is the controller.
ChordRunner is a browser game that teaches piano and guitar chords: a chord appears on screen, you play it on a real instrument, and your runner jumps. MIDI keyboard or microphone, both work.
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