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How to Read Sheet Music: Channel Your

Inner Musician with These Simple Steps!

Have you ever heard a song on the radio and thought, “Hey, it’d be really cool to know how to play that.”? Do you have friends who play musical instruments, and you want to get in on thefun? Do you ust want to e!pand your general artistic knowledge? "ell, learning the basics ofhow to read sheet music can help you achieve all of these, and in a shorter amount of time thanyou might have thought#

$t its very simplest, music is a language ust like you’d read aloud from a book. %he symbolsyou’ll see on pages of sheet music have been used for hundreds of years. $nd they represent the pitch, speed and rhythm of the song they convey, as well as e!pression and techni&ues used by amusician to play the piece. %hink of the notes as the letters, the measures as the words, the

 phrases as the sentences and so forth. 'earning to read music really does open up a whole newworld to e!plore#

(ollow our step)by)step introduction to the language of music below, download your (*++ toolsat the end of this article, and you’ll be playing along in no time at all.

Step 1: Learn the Basic Symols o "otation

usic is made up of a variety of symbols, the most basic of which are the staff, the clefs and thenotes. $ll music contains these fundamental components, and in order to learn how to readmusic, you must first familiari-e yourself with these basics.

The Sta 

%he staff consists of five lines and four spaces. +ach of those lines and each of those spacesrepresents a different letter, which in turn represents a note. %hose lines and spaces representnotes named $), and the note se&uence moves alphabetically up the staff.

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Trele Cle 

%here are two main clefs with which to familiari-e yourself/ the first is a treble clef. %he trebleclef has the ornamental letter on the far left side. %he ’s inner swoop encircles the “” lineon the staff. %he treble clef notates the higher registers of music, so if your instrument has a

higher pitch, such as a flute, violin or sa!ophone, your sheet music is written in the treble clef.Higher notes on a keyboard also are notated on the treble clef.

"e use common mnemonics to remember the note names for the lines and spaces of the trebleclef. (or lines, we remember +0D( by the word cue “+very ood 0oy Does (ine.” 1imilarlyfor the spaces, ($2+ is ust like the word “face.”

Bass Cle 

%he line between the two bass clef dots is the “(” line on the bass clef staff, and it’s also referredto as the ( clef. %he bass clef notates the lower registers of music, so if your instrument has alower pitch, such as a bassoon, tuba or cello, your sheet music is written in the bass clef. 'owernotes on your keyboard also are notated in the bass clef.

$ common mnemonic to remember note names for the lines of the bass clef is3 0D($ “ood0oys Do (ine $lways.” $nd for the spaces3 $2+, “$ll 2ows +at rass.”

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"otes

 4otes placed on the staff tell us which note letter to play on our instrument and how long to playit. %here are three parts of each note, the note head, the stem and the la#.

+very note has a note head, either filled 5black6 or open 5white6. "here the note head sits on thestaff 5either on a line or a space6 determines which note you will play. 1ometimes, note headswill sit above or below the five lines and four spaces of a staff. 7n that case, a line is drawnthrough the note, above the note or below the note head, to indicate the note letter to play, as inthe 0 and 2 notes above.

%he note stem is a thin line that e!tends either up or down from the note head. %he line e!tendsfrom the right if pointing upward or from the left if pointing downward. %he direction of the linedoesn’t affect how you play the note, but serves as a way to make the notes easier to read whileallowing them to fit neatly on the staff. $s a rule, any notes at or above the 0 line on the staff

have downward pointing stems, those notes below the 0 line have upward pointing stems.

%he note la# is a curvy mark to the right of the note stem. 7ts purpose is to tell you how long tohold a note. "e’ll see below how a single flag shortens the note’s duration, while multiple flagscan make it shorter still.

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 4ow that you know the parts to each note, we’ll take a closer look at those filled and open noteheads discussed above. "hether a note head is filled or open shows us the note’s $alue, or howlong that note should be held. 1tart with a closed note head with a stem. %hat’s our %uarter note,and it gets one beat. $n open note head with a stem is a hal note, and it gets two beats. $n opennote that looks like an “o” without a stem is a whole note, and it gets held for four beats.

%here are other ways to e!tend the length of a note. $ dot after the note head, for e!ample, addsanother half of that note’s duration to it. 1o, a half note with a dot would e&ual a half note and a&uarter note/ a &uarter note with a dot e&uals a &uarter plus an eighth note. $ tie may also beused to e!tend a note. %wo notes tied together should be held as long as the value of both ofthose notes together, and ties are commonly used to signify held notes that cross measures or bars.

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%he opposite may also happen, we can shorten the amount of time a note should be held, relativeto the &uarter note. (aster notes are signified with either la#s, like the ones discussed above, orwith eams between the notes. +ach flag halves the value of a note, so a single flag signifies 89:of a &uarter note, a double flag halves that to 89; of a &uarter note, et cetera. 0eams do the same,while allowing us to read the music more clearly and keep the notation less cluttered. $s you cansee, there’s no difference in how you count the eighth and 8<th notes above. (ollow along withthe sheet music for “$louette” to see how beams organi-e notes#

0ut what happens when there isn’t a note taking up each beat? 7t’s easy, we take a rest# $ rest, ust like a note, shows us how long it should be held based on its shape. 1ee how whole and&uarter rests are used in the song “$ %isket, $ %asket.”

Step &: 'ic( )p the Beat

7n order to play music, you need to know its meter, the beat you use when dancing, clapping ortapping your foot along with a song. "hen reading music, the meter is presented similar to afraction, with a top number and a bottom number, we call this the song’s time si#nature. %he topnumber tells you how many beats to a measure, the space of staff in between each vertical line5called a ar6. %he bottom number tells you the note value for a single beat, the pulse your foot

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taps along with while listening.

7n the e!ample above, the time signature is ;9;, meaning there are ; beats per bar and that every&uarter note gets one beat. 2lick here to listen to sheet music written in ;9; time, and trycounting along 8,:,=,; > 8,:,=,; with the beat numbers above.7n the e!ample below, the time signature is =9;, meaning there are = beats per bar and that every&uarter note gets one beat. 2lick here to listen to sheet music written in =9; time, try counting the beats, 8,:,= > 8,:,=.

'et’s look again at the above e!amples, notice that even though the ;9; time signature in“%winkle, %winkle 'ittle 1tar” calls for ; beats per bar, there aren’t ; notes in second bar? %hat’s because you have two &uarter notes and one half note, which added together e&ual ; beats.

7n addition to your note values and time signature, the last piece to feeling the rhythm is knowingyour tempo, or beats per minute. %empo tells you how fast or slow a piece is intended to be played, and often is shown at the top of a piece of sheet music. $ tempo of, say < 0@ 5beats

 per minute6 would mean you’d play < of the signified notes every minute or a single note everysecond. 'ikewise, a tempo of 8: would double the speed at : notes every second. Aou may alsosee 7talian words like “'argo,” “$llegro” or “@resto” at the top of your sheet music, whichsignify common tempos. usicians use a tool, called a metronome, to help them keep tempowhile practicing a new piece. 2lick here to see an online metronome tool, and click on the circlesne!t to the 0@ values to see how a tempo can speed up and slow down.

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Step *: 'lay a Melody

2ongratulations, you’re almost on your way to reading music# (irst, let’s look at scales. $ scaleis made of eight consecutive notes, for e!ample, the 2 maor scale is composed of 2, D, +, (, ,

$, 0, 2. %he interval between the first note of your 2 maor scale and the last is an e!ample ofan octa$e. %he 2 maor scale is very important to practice, since once you have the 2 scaledown, the other maor scales will start to fall into place. +ach of the notes of a 2 maor scalecorresponds with a white key on your keyboard. Here’s how a 2 maor scale looks on a staff andhow that corresponds to the keys on your keyboard3

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Aou’ll notice that as the notes ascend the staff, and move to the right on your keyboard, the pitchof the notes gets higher. 0ut, what about the black keys? usically, whole tones, or whole steps between the note letters, would limit the sounds we’re able to produce on our instruments. 'et’sconsider the 2 maor scale you ust learned to play. %he distance between the 2 and the D keys inyour 2 scale is a whole step, however the distance between the + and the ( keys in your 2 scale

is a half step. Do you see the difference? %he + and the ( keys don’t have a black key in betweenthem, thus they’re ust a half step away from one another. +very maor scale you’ll play on akeyboard has the same pattern, whole)whole)half)whole)whole)whole)half. %here are many other types of scales, each with uni&ue sounds, like minor scales, modal scales and more that you’llcome across later on, but for now let’s focus ust on maor scales and the maor scale pattern.'ook at the 2 maor scale again on the keyboard below.

Semitones, or half)steps on the keyboard, allow us to write an infinite variety of sounds intomusic. $ sharp, denoted by the symbol, means that note is a semitone 5or half step6♯ higher  than the note head to its right on sheet music. 2onversely, a lat, denoted by a ♭ symbol, meansthe note is a semitone lower  than the note head to its right. Aou’ll notice on the keyboard pictureand notated staff below, showing each half step between the 2 and the + notes, that whether youuse the sharp or the flat of a note depends on whether you’re moving up or down the keyboard.

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%here’s one more symbol to learn regarding semitones, and that’s the natural+ denoted by a ♮. 7fa note is sharp or flat, that sharp or flat e!tends throughout the measure, unless there’s a naturalsymbol. $ natural cancels a sharp or flat within a measure or a song. Here’s what playing 2 to +would look like with natural symbols.

(inally, in order to read music, you’ll need to understand (ey si#natures. Aou actually alreadyknow one key signature, the key of 2# %he 2 maor scale you learned above was in the key of 2.1cales are named after their tonic, the preeminent note within the scale, and the tonic determineswhat key you play in. Aou can start a maor scale on any note, so long as you follow the whole)whole)half)whole)whole)whole)half pattern. 4ow, following that pattern in keys other than thekey of 2 will re&uire you to use sharps and flats. 1ince that’s the case, we place the sharps orflats for your song’s key signature right before the meter, after the clef, on your sheet music. %hattells you to maintain those sharps or flats throughout the music, unless of course there’s a naturalsymbol to override it. Aou will begin to recogni-e the key signatures of pieces based on whatsharps or flats are shown. Here’s a &uick glimpse at some key signatures using sharps and flats3

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Step ,: 'rint -ut Your .R// Tools!

"e hope you’re e!cited to start reading music# 7n order to help you along on your musical ourney, we’ve created a few (*++ tools to start practicing with.

(irst, we’re offering you a (*++ 0eginner 4otes download# 2lick here for the sheet music to“ary Had a 'ittle 'amb,” and be sure to take a look at our huge 0eginner 4otes sheet musicassortment, all of which you’ll be able to play using the steps above. @lay current hits like“Happy” by @harrell "illiams, “'et 7t o” from B(ro-en’ and “1ay 1omething” by $ reat 0ig"orld, ust to name a few. "e’re adding 4+" 0eginner 4otes daily, so be sure to check backoften and learn to play all your favorite songs#

"e’ve also created a handy guide for lettering the keys on your keyboard or piano. Downloadyour Ceyboard 4ote uide here, to print, fold and place on your keyboard. nce you becomefamiliar with the keys, you can easily remove it and continue to strengthen your note)readingskills.

(or those who don’t have access to a keyboard, you can download a free keyboard app for youri@ad here, or a free $ndroid keyboard app here. Don’t forget to download your usicnotesDecks3 usic (lash 2ards app for i@hone and i@ad as well. (or ust E:.FF you’ll receive threedecks of flash cards, including music symbols, two full octaves of treble clef notes and twooctaves of bass clef notes.

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ood luck, and most importantly, have fun#