Learn to Read Music and Write Music

Have you always heard a song on the radio and thought, "Hey, information technology'd be really absurd to know how to play that?" Do y'all accept friends who play musical instruments, and you want to bring together in on the fun? Do yous want to expand your general artistic knowledge? Well, learning the basics of how to read canvas music tin can help you lot accomplish all of these, and in a shorter amount of time than y'all might call up!

At its very simplest, music is a linguistic communication just like you'd read aloud from a book. The symbols you lot see on pages of canvas music accept been used for hundreds of years. They represent the pitch, speed, and rhythm of the vocal they convey, besides every bit expression and techniques used by a musician to play the slice. Call up of the notes equally the letters, the measures as the words, the phrases every bit the sentences, then on. Learning how to read music actually does open upwardly a whole new world to explore!

Follow our pace-past-footstep introduction to reading music and, with a lilliputian do, you'll be playing along in no time. Go along reading to the end for some free tools and sheet music arrangements to help yous learn.

How to Read Music

Step 1: Learn the Bones Symbols of Musical Notation

Music is made upwards of a variety of symbols, the most basic of which are the staff, the clefs, and the notes. All music contains these fundamental components, and to learn how to read music, you must first familiarize yourself with these basics.

The Staff

The staff consists of five lines and four spaces. Each of those lines and each of those spaces represents a dissimilar alphabetic character, which in plough represents a note. Sail music notes, represented by lines and spaces, are named A-Chiliad, and the note sequence moves alphabetically upwardly the staff.

Treble Clef

At that place are two main clefs with which to familiarize yourself; the first is a treble clef. The treble clef has the ornamental alphabetic character G on the far left side. The Yard'due south inner swoop encircles the "G" line on the staff. The treble clef notates the higher registers of music, so if your instrument has a higher pitch, such every bit a flute, violin, or saxophone, your canvass music is written in the treble clef. College notes on a keyboard also are notated on the treble clef.

Nosotros use common mnemonics to remember the note names for the lines and spaces of the treble clef. For lines, we recollect EGBDF by the discussion cue "Every Good Boy Does Fine." Similarly, for the spaces, FACE is just like the give-and-take "face up."

Bass Clef

The line betwixt the two bass clef dots is the "F" line on the bass clef staff, and information technology's besides referred to as the F clef. The bass clef notates the lower registers of music, then if your instrument has a lower pitch, such equally a bassoon, tuba, or cello, your sheet music is written in the bass clef. Lower notes on your keyboard also are notated in the bass clef.

A common mnemonic to remember note names for the lines of the bass clef is: GBDFA "Good Boys Do Fine E'er." And for the spaces: ACEG, "All Cows Consume Grass."

Canvass Music Symbols and Notes on a Staff

Notes placed on the staff tell us which annotation letter to play on our instrument and how long to play it. There are three parts of each note, the note head, the stem, and the flag.

All music notes have a annotation head, either filled (blackness) or open up (white). Where the note head sits on the staff (either on a line or space) determines which note yous will play. Sometimes, note heads volition sit above or below the five lines and iv spaces of a staff. In that case, a line (known every bit a ledger line) is fatigued through the note, to a higher place the notation or below the note head, to indicate the annotation letter to play, every bit in the B and C notes to a higher place.

The note stem is a sparse line that extends either up or down from the note head. The line extends from the right if pointing upward or from the left if pointing downward. The direction of the line doesn't bear upon how you play the note but serves to make the notes easier to read while assuasive them to fit neatly on the staff. Equally a dominion, any notes at or to a higher place the "B" line on the staff have downward pointing stems, those notes below the "B" line have upward pointing stems.

The notation flag is a curvy marker to the right of the note stalk. Its purpose is to tell you how long to concur a notation. We'll come across beneath how a single flag shortens the note'south elapsing, while multiple flags tin can make it shorter still.

Now that you know the parts to each note, we'll have a closer look at those filled and open up note heads discussed above. Whether a note caput is filled or open up shows us the note's value, or how long that annotation should be held. First with a closed note head with a stalk. That's our quarter note, and it gets ane trounce. An open up note head with a stem is a one-half annotation, and it gets two beats. An open note that looks like an "o" without a stem is a whole note, and information technology gets held for four beats.

At that place are other ways to extend the length of a notation. A dot after the note caput, for case, adds another half of that notation's duration to it. So, a half note with a dot would equal a half note and a quarter annotation; a quarter note with a dot equals a quarter plus an eighth note. A necktie may besides exist used to extend a note. Ii notes tied together should be held every bit long as the value of both of those notes together, and ties are usually used to signify held notes that cantankerous measures or bars.

The opposite may also happen. Nosotros can shorten the amount of fourth dimension a notation should exist held, relative to the quarter note. Faster notes are signified with either flags, like the ones discussed above, or with beams between the notes. Each flag halves the value of a annotation, so a single flag signifies 1/ii of a quarter note, a double flag halves that to 1/4 of a quarter note, et cetera. Beams exercise the same while allowing usa to read the music more clearly and keep the notation less cluttered. As you can see, there'south no difference in how you lot count the eighth and 16th notes above. Follow along with the sheet music for "Alouette" to see how beams organize notes!

But what happens when there isn't a note taking upwards each crush? Information technology's easy, we take a rest! A balance, merely like a note, shows united states of america how long it should be held based on its shape. See how whole and quarter rests are used in the song "Here We Go Looby-Loo."

Step 2: Pick Up the Beat

To play music, you need to know its meter, the vanquish you use when dancing, clapping, or tapping your foot along with a vocal. When reading music, the meter is presented similar to a fraction, with a elevation number and a bottom number. Nosotros phone call this the song's fourth dimension signature. The acme number tells yous how many beats are in a measure out, the space betwixt each vertical line (called a bar). The lesser number tells you the note value (the length) of each trounce.

In the instance above, the time signature is 4/iv, significant there are 4 beats per bar and that every quarter note gets one vanquish. Click here to mind to sheet music written in 4/4 time, and endeavour counting forth 1,2,3,4 – 1,two,3,four with the beat out numbers above.

In the example below, the time signature is iii/4, meaning there are three beats per bar and that every quarter note gets 1 beat. Click hither to listen to sheet music written in 3/4 time, try counting the beats, 1,two,3 – 1,two,3.

Let's look again at the higher up examples. Detect that even though the 4/iv time signature in "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" calls for iv beats per bar, there aren't iv notes in the second bar. That'south considering you accept two quarter notes and one one-half annotation, which added together equal four beats.

In addition to your note values and time signature, the last piece to feeling the rhythm is knowing your tempo, defined past the beats per minute. Tempo tells you how fast or slow a piece is intended to be played, and often is shown at the top of a piece of sail music. For example, a tempo of sixty BPM (beats per minute) ways yous play 60 of the signified notes every minute or a unmarried note every 2nd. Likewise, a tempo of 120 doubles the speed to 2 notes every second. Y'all may also meet Italian words like "Largo," "Allegro," or "Presto" at the top of your sheet music, which signifies common tempos. Musicians use a tool chosen a metronome to help them keep tempo while practicing a new piece. Click here to see an online metronome tool and click on the circles side by side to the BPM values to see how a tempo can speed up and slow down.

Step 3: Play a Melody

Congratulations, you lot're nigh on your fashion to reading canvas music! Next, allow's look at scales. A scale is made of eight consecutive notes. For example, the C major scale is composed of C, D, E, F, Yard, A, B, C. The interval between the showtime note of the C major scale and the last is an example of an octave. We recommend practicing the C major scale as much as possible, since knowing it makes it easier to larn the other major scales. Each of the notes of the C major scale corresponds with a white primal on your keyboard. Here's how the C major scale looks on a staff and how that corresponds to the keys on your keyboard:

Notice that equally the notes ascend the staff, and movement to the right on your keyboard, the pitch of the notes become higher. But what about the blackness keys? Musically, whole tones, or whole steps between the note letters, would limit the sounds we're able to produce on our instruments. Permit's consider the C major calibration y'all simply learned to play. The altitude between the C and the D keys in the C calibration is a whole stride. Nevertheless, the distance between the Eastward and the F keys in the C scale is a half-step. Do you see the difference? The E and the F keys don't accept a black key in betwixt them, thus they're but a half step away from ane another. Every major scale has the aforementioned pattern: whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-one-half. There are many other types of scales, each with unique sounds, like minor scales, modal scales, and more than that you lot'll come across after. For now, let's focus only on major scales and the major scale pattern. Await at the C major calibration once more on the keyboard beneath.

Semitones, or one-half-steps on the keyboard, let the states to write an infinite diverseness of sounds into music. A precipitous, denoted by the ♯ symbol, means that note is a semitone (or half step) higher than the annotation head to its right on canvas music. Conversely, a flat, denoted by a ♭ symbol, means the note is a semitone lower than the notation caput to its right. Notice on the keyboard pic and notated staff below, showing each half pace between the C and the E notes, that whether y'all use the sharp or the apartment of a note depends on whether you lot're moving up or down the keyboard.

There'southward ane more than symbol to learn regarding semitones, and that's the natural, denoted by a ♮. If a notation is sharp or flat, that sharp or flat extends throughout the measure, unless there's a natural symbol. A natural cancels a sharp or flat within a measure or a vocal. Here's what playing C to Eastward would look similar with natural symbols.

The last key to learning how to read music is understanding cardinal signatures. As an example, the C major calibration yous learned to a higher place was in the key of C. Scales are named after their tonic, the preeminent note within the scale, and the tonic determines what key you play in. You tin can start a major scale on whatever note, so long as you follow the whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half pattern. Following that pattern in keys other than the fundamental of C will require you to use sharps and flats. Since that's the case, we place the sharps or flats for your vocal'south fundamental signature correct earlier the meter, after the clef, on your sheet music. That tells you to maintain those sharps or flats throughout the music unless there's a natural symbol to override it. You volition begin to recognize the key signatures of pieces based on which sharps or flats are shown. Here'due south a quick glimpse at some key signatures using sharps and flats:

Step 4: Gratis Tools to Help You Larn

The steps above are a great place to start as you learn to read music. To help you lot along on your musical journey, we've also created a few free tools to begin practicing with.

First, download a free system of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Only add together the song to your cart and proceed through checkout. For more diversity, check out the rest of our sail music for beginners, all of which you'll be able to play using the steps to a higher place. Play pop hits similar the Star Wars Theme, "Permit It Go" from 'Frozen', "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen, and more. We're adding new Beginner Notes daily, so be sure to check back frequently and learn to play all your favorite songs!

We've also created a helpful guide for lettering the keys on your keyboard or pianoforte. Download your Keyboard Notation Guide here to print, fold, and place on your keyboard. One time you become familiar with the keys, y'all tin hands remove information technology and go along to strengthen your note-reading skills.

Finally, don't forget to download the gratuitous Musicnotes app! Relish instant access to all your Musicnotes sheet music files, plus tools and features created by musicians, for musicians. As you progress and learn how to read sheet music, your collection of arrangements will grow. Our app makes it easy to keep everything organized on the become. If you have whatsoever boosted questions or need help finding songs to practice, attain out to our team of experts and nosotros'll be happy to assistance. Practiced luck and, most importantly, have fun!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the mail service in a higher place may be "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and make a buy, Musicnotes will receive an chapter commission. We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Merchandise Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Apply of Endorsements and Testimonials in Ad."

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