How to Read Music (An Introduction for Beginners)

Learning the names of music notes is easy. The challenge of reading music is to learn how to read notes quickly and accurately, and later, to learn how to read by intervals (steps), so that you don't have to determine the name of every single note. This article offers steps to learning the names of notes. This article is intended for music of the piano or other instruments that use treble and bass notes. It assumes that the reader can identify notes on the piano keyboard.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. 
    

   Understand that many instruments such as the piano are designed for music that is written on two different music staves. The top staff is labeled with a treble clef, and is generally used for high notes (above middle C). The lower staff is labeled with a bass clef, which is generally used for low notes (below middle C).

2. 
    

   Take a look at this music staff. First of all, on the left we have what is called a treble clef. That tells us that for the most part, we'll be playing high notes (notes above middle C). Notice how the music staff is comprised of five lines and four spaces. To read music well, you must learn how to quickly tell if a note head is on a line or a space, and furthermore, which one.

3. Look at the first note on the left (outside the box). That note corresponds to Middle C on the piano keyboard. It is written on what is called a ledger line. We had to make a special auxiliary line to accommodate it.

4. All of the notes on the staff are all on lines. The spaces are skipped. The general idea is that as we move up, from a line to a space, or vice-versa, we move to the next note (next letter). If we move up from a line to another line, we skip two notes (two letters). Jumping from the auxiliary Middle C line to the lowest line of the staff, we get to the E above Middle C, skipping D. The next line up takes us to G. Remember that there is no H. After G we skip A, then get to B. Next is D, and then F. We can make an auxiliary ledger line above the staff, and then that would be A, skipping G.

5. You can use the mnemonic device Every Good Boy Does Fine to help remember that the lines of the treble staff, from bottom to top are EGBDF. However, try to break that habit as quickly as you can. Learn how to recognize the notes on sight, just as you would with an actual letter. In another article you'll learn how to just look for patterns between notes, and you won't have to determine the name of each one.

6. 
    

   Here is the treble staff again, but now we will look at the spaces. Basically it's the same thing as before, but we're looking at all the notes that we skipped when we examined the notes that were on lines. You can use the acronym FACE to help remember the names of the notes that are in the four spaces from bottom to top, but again, try to break this habit as quickly as you can. To read music quickly, there is no time to stop and recite acronyms.

7. Take special note of how ledger lines were used, and how there is a virtual space above and below the top and bottom lines.

8. 
    

   Now take a look at this new staff. On the left is what is called a bass clef. The general idea is that notes on this staff are low (below Middle C). Take a look at the rightmost note on a ledger line, which is a C. In particular, it is Middle C—the same Middle C that we saw on the ledger line below the treble clef. This can be a little confusing, but it represents the same key on the piano. Even if the treble and bass clefs have a lot of room (vertical space) in between them, the ledger line below the treble clef and the ledger line above the bass clef are both Middle C.

9. Knowing that, we can now easily deduce the names of the notes that are on the lines of the bass clef. From bottom to top, we can use the mnemonic device Good Boys Don't Fool Around to remember the pattern of GBDFA. Again, try to break the habit of using that device as quickly as possible, and also try to break the habit of first determining what the note would have been if it was in the same position on the treble clef. This can take some time and practice.

10. 
     

    Now look at the spaces of the bass clef, whose notes we can easily deduce. From bottom to top, we can use the mnemonic device All Cars Eat Gas (ACEG), or just "Ace G" to help us remember. Again, the same suggestions apply as in the step above. That's the basics of reading music, but of course this article just skimmed the surface. Other articles of mine explain more. ♫ Enjoy! ♫

[lordkhomar]

on 12/19/2008 Awesome article, 5 stars!

[lordkhomar]

on 12/19/2008 Awesome article, 5 stars!