How to Read Musical Bar Notes for a Guitar
Reading musical notation for any instrument is complicated, but because notes can be played at three of four different places on the neck of a guitar, reading music for the guitar can be especially difficult. In musical terminology, a bar is a set of beats that make up a segment of time. In what is known as common time (4/4), four quarter notes make up one bar.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Learn where the notes fall on the treble clef. The lines (starting at the bottom) read E, G, B, D and F, while the spaces read F, A, C and E. In order to read music for the guitar, you will have to know that the note that lies three ledger lines (extensions of the musical staff) beneath the bottom line of the staff is a guitar's low E note.
-
2
Learn where the notes fall on a guitar neck. The open low E string sounds an E note, and each fret thereafter marks a half step tonal increase. From the low E string to its octave at the 12th fret, the notes read, in order, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D# and then E again. This pattern of notes repeats. This pattern can be translated to the other five strings of the guitar as long as you take into account the starting note.
-
-
3
Learn key basics. You may have noticed that the notes on the musical staff do not include sharps or flats. These notes are either indicated by accidentals (the signs '#' for sharp or 'b' for flat directly next to a note) or by the key signature. The key signature for a song is located immediately beside the treble clef and looks like a set of sharp or flat signs (some songs will have no marking here which means that all notes are natural). The key signature tells you that certain notes will be sharp or flat whenever they are played throughout the song, thus eliminating the need for most accidentals.
-
4
Learn the basic duration markers. Duration is marked by the style of each note. A note with a hollow inside is a whole note and it lasts an entire bar, a darkened note with no stem is a half note and it lasts half a bar, a note with a stem and no flag is a quarter note and it takes up a quarter of a bar, and a note with a stem and one flag is an eighth note and it takes up an eighth of a bar. More flags equals greater subdivision of the beat.
-
5
Put everything together. Try playing a piece of sheet music on the guitar. Start with single-note melody lines and work your way up to more complicated pieces of music. Start with a melody you are familiar with so you can tell if you are playing it correctly.
-
1
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
