How to Understand Clarinet Music Sheets
Music is written in note form on staves, which are a series of horizontal lines and spaces. The staves have two or more vertical dividing lines along their length and it is these separated areas which are called "measures" in music terminology. Different instruments play the notes differently even though they may be on the same lines or spaces and this depends on whether the instrument is a bass-clef (tuba, trombone, etc.) or treble-clef (clarinet, saxaphone, trumpet, etc.) instrument. The clarinet is part of the treble-clef series of musical instruments.
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Instructions
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Orient the music page with the top facing away from you and the bottom edge facing toward you. Identify the first horizontal line on the bottom of the staff. In treble-clef music, as it will be for a piece of clarinet music, the far bottom line is the location for the note "E" on the staff.
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Move your eyes up to the next horizontal line and memorize that this second line up is the location for the note "G" on the staff.
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Continue moving up the lines, the third being the location for the note "B" on the staff, the fourth line being the location for the note "D" and the fifth line for the note "F" on the staff. To make the horizontal line note locations easier to remember, think "Every Good Boy Does Fine" (EGBDF) with the bottom line being the "E" on the treble-clef staff.
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Look at the first open space between the far bottom line and the line above it. This first open space on the staff is the location for the note "F" and, continuing up to each additional space, the second is "A", the third is "C" and the fourth is "E" on the treble-clef staff. The easy way to remember these open spaces is to memorize "FACE" with the low space being the note "F."
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Identify the time signature of the piece of music to determine how many beats there are to a measure. Standard music is written in 4/4 time, which means 4 beats to a measure. Beats means number of "clicks" if using a metronome for keeping time to play the music. A metronome should be set to 4/4 time if learning how to play 4/4 time music. There different time signatures, with the top number signifying number of beats. Always set a metronome to learn the "feel" for each different kind of time signature when playing a piece of music.
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Identify how many beats the different notes have. In 4/4 time, a quarter note is given one beat, a half note is given two beats and a whole note is given four beats. Fractional notes are given partial beats which means they are played faster. Remember that in 4/4 time, 4 quarter notes makes a whole note, while it takes 8 eighth notes to equal one quarter note. Further, it takes 16 sixteenth notes to make a quarter note.
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Consider at least one or two semesters of music in either high school or college to learn the finer aspects of how to read, write and play music, as music is technical enough to warrant a lifetime of study and practice. Music is broken down into two segments: theory (technical) and practice (putting the technical into sound the ears can hear) and deserves attentive study.
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Tips & Warnings
Until the note locations are memorized, write a simple sample staff on a piece of paper with five lines and four spaces, writing each of the notes in the proper places as mentioned in this article. Study the diagram you create and play the notes with an actual instrument, which will further assist in memorizing the notes.
Some notes are played sharp or flat. The symbol for sharp in music is the pound (or number) symbol, which looks like a tic-tac-toe emblem. The symbol for flat appears as a small mangled letter 'b' next to the note. If there are sharp or flat signs at the beginning of a piece of music just right of the clef symbol, then that note is played sharp or flat throughout the entire piece of music unless a "natural" symbol is next to any given note, which exempts that note only. The "natural" symbol looks like a lopsided distorted letter 'h' with two horizontal bars in the middle rather than just one.
References
- Photo Credit statuette music note image by Leonid Nyshko from Fotolia.com
