How To Read Music

If you are interested in music but have no idea how to read the notes or play a particular melody that you heard somewhere, then this article may help you. Learning to read music is one of many excellent skills that you can add to your collection of skills.


Music is like reading, writing, or speaking any other language that you may be using. The musical language has been around for hundreds of years. Using the pitch, speed, rhythm of the musical language, the musicians can read and write music of different kinds.


The world's best singers use the notes as the musical letters, the phrases as the sentences, and read the music in a very captivating way with their singing skills. You won't believe yourself in the beautiful world you have brought yourself in once you learn to read music.


Here is a step-by-step process to guide you through the process of learning to read music.

Learn The Basic Symbols

Learning to read the basic symbols is the first step towards learning to read music. There are several symbols of music. The staff, the Clef, and a few other notes are the fundamentals of learning to read music. Therefore, the first thing for a learner is to learn these basics properly.

The Staff

There are five lines and four spaces in the staff. The lines and the spaces represent a letter for each of those lines and spaces. The notes that those lines and spaces represent are named A-G notes; the notes sequences move up the staff in alphabetical order.

Treble Clef

You have to learn two clefs, the first one of these being the Treble Clef. On the far left side of the treble Clef, there is the ornamental letter G. The inner loop of G encircles the G line on the staff. Instruments with higher pitch require treble clefs to write the music they produce.


Flute, saxophone, and violin use the treble clefs. Even keyboards use treble clefs to write the high notes.

Bass Clef

The bass clef identifies the lower registers of music. The two bass clef dots around beside one line make that line, and the F line we refer to as the F clef. The musical instrument with a lower pitch like cello, tuba use the Bass clef to write the notes.

Notes

The notes are essential musical symbols as they suggest the order of musical notes to play in our instrument and the duration of those notes while playing. There are three parts of the notes, the note head, stem, and flag.

Note Heads

The notehead is either black or white. The position of the note heads within the staff determines which not to play. Sometimes the noteheads position outside the lines and spaces of the staff. In such cases, musicians draw ledger lines through, above, or below the note heads, indicating the proper note letter to play.

Stem

The stem is a thin line that extends from the note head either upwards or downwards. This helps the readers to read the notes in their upward and downward directions. However, the direction of the notes does not affect the way someone plays a note.

Flag

The flag tells the reader about how long they can sing or play that note. Musicians use a curvy mark to notify the flag. The flag stays on the right of the note stem.

Other Factors Related To The Notes

• The fact about a note being filled or open are the values of that note

• A filled note head with a stem is a quarter note.

• An open note head with a stem is a half note.

• An open note that does not have any stem is a whole note.

• The openness or the filling inside of a note shows whether the value of a note.

• Adding a dot beside the note head allows the musicians to extend the note by another half of duration.

• There is another way of extending the note, which is using a tie. Musicians combine two notes to create a tie. They hold the tie as long as the value of both of the notes.

• The way to signify the fast notes is by using a flag or using beams between the notes.

• If no note takes up each beat, then the musicians take a rest. There is the whole rest and half rest.

Conclusion

The top Hollywood singers you look up to also went through the basics of reading the musical language. It may seem complicated initially, but with regular practice, you will get the hang of it.


In music, there are other essential steps like learning the meter, time signature, bar. But first, I will suggest that you know to read the notes first.


If this article was helpful, don't forget to share it with other music enthusiasts.

Ani Johnson is a passionate blogger. She loves to share her thoughts, ideas, and experiences with the world through blogging. Ani Johnson is associated with TheLegalGuides, EssayWritingGuides,