Ideally, a piano pupil should learn the treble and bass clefs simultaneously, absorbing both without difficulty. There is, however, an increasing number of children and adults, including students at training colleges, who begin piano lessons with a working knowledge of the treble clef but who are entirely ignorant of the bass.

Many have gained their knowledge of the treble, but not the bass clef, in good singing and aural training classes at school; others, and there are many of them, play th...