No matter which musical instrument you choose to master, it all begins with learning to read musical notation. Musical notes are to music as words are to literature or numbers are to mathematics. They are the critical basics that need to become second nature to musicians before any other musical theory can be appreciated. While there are complete lesson books dedicated to learning the notes on a musical staff, this article is a crash course on interpreting musical notation. If you'd like more detailed instruction, I highly recommend Reading Music Notes With Ease for children, and the fantastic How to Read Music in One Evening for adults.
Let's learn how to read musical notes:
1. When you look at a piece of music written for the piano, you should notice two separate collections of five lines. One will have a very stylized letter G on the left hand side and the other will have a curved line and two dots. Originally, this was an equally stylized letter F, but the horizontal lines were dropped. These are called staffs or clefs. The one with the G is called a treble clef and the one with the F is called a bass clef. You may see a note written on a short line between the two clefs. The short lines above and below the main staffs are called ledger lines. A note called middle C is on that central ledger line.
2. Every musical note has several values to interpret at one time. You need to know how high or low the pitch of the note is and how fast to play it. Let's start with reading a note for pitch. Each line or space on the staff represents one specific note on the piano. Musicians assign letters to each of these notes, A through G. We know middle C sits on its own ledger line below the G clef, so the space above it must be a D note. The first line of the treble clef is therefore an E, then the space above it must be an F and the next line a G. After G, the notes start over again with A and continue up the lines and spaces.
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Let's learn how to read musical notes:
1. When you look at a piece of music written for the piano, you should notice two separate collections of five lines. One will have a very stylized letter G on the left hand side and the other will have a curved line and two dots. Originally, this was an equally stylized letter F, but the horizontal lines were dropped. These are called staffs or clefs. The one with the G is called a treble clef and the one with the F is called a bass clef. You may see a note written on a short line between the two clefs. The short lines above and below the main staffs are called ledger lines. A note called middle C is on that central ledger line.
2. Every musical note has several values to interpret at one time. You need to know how high or low the pitch of the note is and how fast to play it. Let's start with reading a note for pitch. Each line or space on the staff represents one specific note on the piano. Musicians assign letters to each of these notes, A through G. We know middle C sits on its own ledger line below the G clef, so the space above it must be a D note. The first line of the treble clef is therefore an E, then the space above it must be an F and the next line a G. After G, the notes start over again with A and continue up the lines and spaces.
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