About How to Read Sheet Music
Looking for tips on how to read sheet music and understand general music theory?
This site is not exhaustive to say the least - yet. As a work in progress, I expect it to grow and become more in depth. To Navigate, use the tabs at the top of the page. If you have questions, comments or advice, please feel
free to leave a comment on the comment page.
Cheers,
Tony
How to read sheet music - Note duration and counting
Music Staves
In learning how to read sheet music, there are certain fundamentals or "rudiments" that are an essential starting point. The duration of the notes and being able to count along with music is one of these essential fundamentals.
First of all, at the beginning of the staff, (the 5 parrallel lines upon which music is written), is the clef. This is an example of a "Treble" or "G" clef.
There are other types of clefs, the first example below is an example of a bass clef. It is used for instruments that operate in the lower register like bass guitars or a double bass in an orchestra. The next image shows the staff for music written for piano. It contains a treble and a bass clef. Left hand plays the bass, the right plays the treble
Bars and Repeat signs
Across the staff are what are known as "bars" or "measures". These divide the piece of music up into sections.
A double bar line signifies the end of an important section. A double bar with 2 dots placed before it indicate that the music is to be repeated. After the clef there is usually a combination of either one of 2 symbols (called "accidentals" see image below).
These represent the Key signature of the music. I won't get into that here, as it goes beyond the basics.
Counting
After the key signature, there is the time signature. This is represented by 2 numbers, one above the other.
(See piano staff above for an example) For simplicity, I'm only going to use what is known as common time or 4/4. This is the most commonly used time signature in Western popular music. The upper number represents how many beats are in a bar (or "measure"). The lower number represents the note value of that beat. So 4/4 is 4 beats per bar, each beat being a quarter note in value (ie 4 quarters = 1)
To explain, take a look at these 5 types of notes. First of all we have a Semibreve or "Whole Note" (see example above and to the left)
This note, if struck on the first beat of a bar of 4/4 time would last for the entire bar.
Next, we have what is known as a Minum or "Half note" (see image below)
This note lasts for half a bar, that is, 2 beats.
Below is a crotchet - a quarter note.
Each crotchet makes up one beat in a bar
And so we continue....
By now you should be slowly getting the idea. You can keep dividing sub-dividing the notes to fit more into a bar or measure. Below are a quaver and a semiquaver, which have the values of an eigth note and a sixteenth note respectively
So to summarise.......
That's a brief introduction on note duration and counting. A key part in learning how to read sheet music. It's worth getting hold of some sheet music for pieces you may be familiar with. Particually pieces for a single instrument with a slow tempo, so you can follow along and get a feel for how the note durations interact with each other. Next I'll go into some rest symbols
Rest symbols
A very important aspect of learning how to read sheet music is recognizing note rests. Each note has an equivalent rest, which is basically the note value held for a period of silence. I've only gone as far as 32nd notes to illustrate a few concepts, as I develop this site a little more, I'll expand the visuals
I'll attempt to explain rests a little in the following example. It may get a little complicated if you are a beginner, but bear with me.
In this example, the first note, a quarter rest occurs on beat 1. On beat 2 there is an 16th note rest, and dotted 8th note is played ( a dotted note increases any note by half its value). So in effect on beat 2 there is a 16th note rest, an 8th note and the value of a 16th note played. As a 16th note is a quarter of a quarter note, 2 of these plus the 8th note (half of a quarter note) make up the value of a crotchet. On beat 3 there is a quarter note. The curved line linking it to the dotted 8th note is called a Tie. A tie is used to join 2 or more notes of the same pitch where the 2nd note(s) is not played. At the end on beat 4 is another quarter note rest. Confused?
Hopefully not. I'm looking into embedding some audio into this site to try to explain some of these examples a little better.
