Most music students I’ve known go through and intermediate phase on their way to being musically literate. During this phase, they know what the middle line on treble clef is, but fail to take into account the accidentals or key signature.
“What note are you singing there?”
“B.”
“B….?”
“Oh, um, B-flat.”
B is not B-flat.
How can we get students through this intermediate phase more quickly?
Step 1. Drive home the difference between B and B-flat. (Maybe play each note with a G and a D, or with an E and a G-sharp). Which note it is makes a tremendous difference!
Step 2. Acknowledge that our notation system has flaws. The fact that two notes share the same line or space is not a given, it’s a flaw of the system as it evolved. There are better systems, sure, but since they aren’t used, we have to use the one we’ve got.
Step 3. NEVER accept wrong description. A better response in the above conversation than “B….?” is actually “Incorrect.” Because B-flat is not just a B with a funny end to its name, it’s a distinct note.
Step 4. Practice. Tricks and shortcuts to figuring out notes are worthwhile, but the only surefire way to become literate is drilling. Whether on Musictheory.net, Tenuto, paper, or some other tool, it will only take a few hundred times practicing to be able to correctly recognize the twelve distinct notes of the Western musical alphabet.