A Guide to Reading Music Notes
Do you ever wish you knew how to read music? Some people dream their
whole lives to be able to play and read music only to be intimidated by
how the music sheets look. But in all reality it is quite easy once you
get use to it and learn a few of the basics. However, in order to get
those basics down pat and understood it does take a bit more
perseverance than many other hobbies do. Here is a bit of help on
learning to read music notes. Clef
The first term to learn would be the clef. A clef is a symbol in music
that is seen at the beginning of the staff. This symbol is what will
determine what the letter names will be of the lines and spaces. The two
main clefs would be a treble clef and a bass clef. When you see a sheet
of music, the music itself will most always be written on either the
treble or the bass clef. The difference between the two is in the sound.
You will notice that the treble clef is notes that are much height in
pitch than the bass clef.
A staff is the five lines and four spaces that make up the area the
musical notes will be placed in. The pitches are all assigned a name,
and those names go with the alphabet. (A B C D E F G)
Playing Notes
When it comes to actually playing these notes you need to be able to
know what the duration of the notes are. This is because each note will
be played for a specific amount of time, or rather, will be considered
to be a specific length. But besides being different lengths they are
also differentiated between different kinds of notes. For example, there
are half notes, clef notes, whole notes, quarter notes, and so on.
When you learn to read music you will need to know what each of these
consist of. The reason for this is because it will help you signify what
the duration should be. For instance, if you are to play a whole note
that has a time signature of 4/4 you would have to hold that note for
the duration of 4 beats.
The meter is what is given after the clef at the very beginning of the
staff. This is also known as what is called a time signature, and is
shown by a fraction. The bottom number of this fraction shows which kind
of note will receive one beat and the upper shows the amount of beats
per measure. A good example of this would be current pop or rock music.
You will find that the time signature is almost always 4/4.
Once you have figured out how to read these notes you can practice on
any instrument to see if you have it down pat. Just imagine being able
to pick up any sheet music and play it to your hearts content. And when
you think of it, the notes are fairly easy to remember because of what
they are named, whole note, quarter note, etc…
Notes
Whole Note: This note is oval in shape and looks like an egg on its
side. This note is held for 4/4.
Half Note: This note looks like a smaller version of the whole but with
a line stuck into its side. This note is of course held for half the
amount of time.
Quarter Note: This note goes down the line looking like the half note
except it is shaded. The beat for this is held for a quarter of the
time.
Eighth Note: This particular note is held for one eighth of the time.
This note looks like the quarter note but with a curly tail at the end.
You will find that these notes can be stuck together into groups.
Sixteenth Note: While you can guess the beat of this the shape itself is
like the eighth except it has a double tail.
While this is just the very most basic information it can help shed some
light on the wonderful world of music notes.
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