|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reading
Music Basics |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Clefs
There are 2 basic kinds of clefs. The clef you will see on your music depends on what instrument you play.
You might wonder why there are 2 different clefs. The reason is that most instruments using the bass clef usually have a lower pitch (sound) and regulary play low notes. If they were to use the treble clef the notes would appear so far below the staff it would be hard to read. Here are the the names of the notes for both clefs. Although you only really need to know 1 or the other, it is good practice to know both. The treble clef:
Time Signatures Time signatures tell you how many and what kind of notes per measure there are. The number on top is the number of notes per measure, and the bottom number is what kind of note. Let us explain further. Let us take for example the
most popular time signature, 4/4. Looking at 4/4, you saw the 4 on top. You already knew that meant there were 4 somethings per measure. Then looking at the bottom number probably confused you. The bottom number can be 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. Look at this chart. Bottom Number Value
There are also 2 other common things you might see where the time signature should be.
Types of Notes: 1 of the most important parts of music is learning the types and values of notes. Here you will gain some understanding of how the notes look and sound. The icon means you can listen to it. All of the music samples are recorded at the same speed and are just 1 measure. The whole note:
an egg on its side, either with a line through it or not
The half note
the same as a whole not but with a vertical line attached to it.
The quarter note
the same as a half note except the circle is filled in.
The eighth note
the same as quarter notes but with a curly off the line. They can also be put in groups of 4, 3, or 2.
The sixteenth note
the same as an eighth note but has double curlies. Can also be grouped in 4, 3 or 2 but are joined by a double line.
Types of Rests The whole rest... a dark rectangle attached to a bar line, facing downwards.
The half rest... a dark rectangle attached to a bar line, facing upwards.
The quarter rest... a squiggly line.
The eighth rest... a slanted line with a dot.
The sixteenth rest... a slanted line with a double dot.
Basic Counting 1 One of the most obvious questions is how musicians know when to play. Well, its easy.. they learn to count the beats. First let us present you with this. 1 whole note = 2 half notes
= 4 quarter notes = 8 eighth notes = 16 sixteenth notes. Lets start with this example.
First off, looking at the time signature you know that there are 4 quarter notes per measure. In the first measure the whole note gets all the beats (1, 2, 3 and 4) because 1 whole note = 4 quarter notes, and there are a total of 4 quarter notes per measure. In the second example, each half note gets 2 beats because 2 quarter notes = 1 half note. In the third example, each quarter note gets its own beat because there are 4 quarter notes per measure (time sig).
The half note get the first
2 beats, and each quarter its own beat. This makes sense because the
4/4 time signature means there is 4 quarter notes per measure. 2 quarter
notes + 1 half note (which is really 2 quarters) = 4 quarter notes,
the total number of quarter notes for that measure (time sig).
In this example there is something new. The + sign. It just means "and". If you said 1 + 2 + ... out loud it would sound like this.
This may seem a little confusing now, but all of the sudden it will click. You will hit yourself in the head and wonder how you never understood it. After you understand this, go on to the basic counting 2 Basic Counting 2 Let's introduce a mixed example
When many different kinds of notes are intermingled, it starts to become tricky to count. Musicians will sometimes subdivide the notes so the counting flows more easily. Let's use the above example, but this time sub divide it.
Here every note in the measure is subdivided into 8th notes thus making it a lot more "fluid" to count. Its pretty easy to understand too... one quarter note is two 8th notes, so it gets "1 +". The half note is really four eighth notes so it get "2 + 3 +". And the each 8th note get a half so one is "4" and the other is the "and" of 4. Here would also be a good place to throw in a few examples with rests. These will just show the counting and will not explain them. Just think of the rests in terms of their corresponding notes and you'll have no problem!
Counting the 16th note.
asically counting 16th notes is similiar to 8th notes except that you need to add more things to count with. I was taught using "e" and "a", but feel free to use what you want. Each part, the "1", "e", "+", "a" are all 1/4 of 1 quarter note. Together they add up to 1 beat according to the time sig. (4 sixteenths = 1 quarter)
Remember.. from this time sig you are counting the 8th notes.
Remember you are counting half notes, and therefore you have to subdivide the eighth notes and quarter notes accordingly. Symbols in Music This section contains some of the symbols you might come across while reading music.
Shaping and Volume of Music
Volume of notes
In order to play music, you need to know its meter, the beat you use when dancing, clapping or tapping your foot along with a song. When reading music, the meter is presented similar to a fraction, with a top number and a bottom number, we call this the song’s time signature. The top number tells you how many beats to a measure, the space of staff in between each vertical line (called a bar). The bottom number tells you the note value for a single beat, the pulse your foot taps along with while listening.
In the example above, the time
signature is 4/4, meaning there are 4 beats per bar and that every
quarter note gets one beat.
Let’s look again at the above examples, notice that even though the 4/4 time signature in “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” calls for 4 beats per bar, there aren’t 4 notes in second bar? That’s because you have two quarter notes and one half note, which added together equal 4 beats. In addition to your note values and time signature, the last piece to feeling the rhythm is knowing your tempo, or beats per minute. Tempo 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. A tempo of, say 60 BPM (beats per minute) would mean you’d play 60 of the signified notes every minute or a single note every second. Likewise, a tempo of 120 would double the speed at 2 notes every second. You may also see Italian words like “Largo,” “Allegro” or “Presto” at the top of your sheet music, which signify common tempos. Musicians use a tool, called a metronome, to help them keep tempo while practicing a new piece. Click on the circles next to the BPM values to see how a tempo can speed up and slow down.
Play a Melody Congratulations, you’re almost on your way to reading music! First, let’s look at scales. A scale is made of eight consecutive notes, for example, the C major scale is composed of C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. The interval between the first note of your C major scale and the last is an example of an octave. The C major scale is very important to practice, since once you have the C scale down, the other major scales will start to fall into place. Each of the notes of a C major scale corresponds with a white key on your keyboard. Here’s how a C major scale looks on a staff and how that corresponds to the keys on your keyboard:
You’ll notice that as the notes ascend the staff, and move to the right on your keyboard, the pitch of the notes gets higher. But, what about the black keys? Musically, whole tones, or whole steps between the note letters, would limit the sounds we’re able to produce on our instruments. Let’s consider the C major scale you just learned to play. The distance between the C and the D keys in your C scale is a whole step, however the distance between the E and the F keys in your C scale is a half step. Do you see the difference? The E and the F keys don’t have a black key in between them, thus they’re just a half step away from one another. Every major scale you’ll play on a keyboard has the same pattern, whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half. There are many other types of scales, each with unique sounds, like minor scales, modal scales and more that you’ll come across later on, but for now let’s focus just on major scales and the major scale pattern. Look at the C major scale again on the keyboard below.
emitones, or half-steps on the keyboard, allow us to write an infinite variety of sounds into music. A sharp, denoted by the ? symbol, means that note is a semitone (or half step) higher than the note head to its right on sheet music. Conversely, a flat, denoted by a ? symbol, means the note is a semitone lower than the note head to its right. You’ll notice on the keyboard picture and notated staff below, showing each half step between the C and the E notes, that whether you use the sharp or the flat of a note depends on whether you’re moving up or down the keyboard.
There’s one more symbol to learn regarding semitones, and that’s the natural, denoted by a ?. If a note is sharp or flat, that sharp or flat extends throughout the measure, unless there’s a natural symbol. A natural cancels a sharp or flat within a measure or a song. Here’s what playing C to E would look like with natural symbols.
Finally, in order to read music, you’ll need to understand key signatures. You actually already know one key signature, the key of C! The C major scale you learned above was in the key of C. Scales are named after their tonic, the preeminent note within the scale, and the tonic determines what key you play in. You can start a major scale on any note, so long as you follow the whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half pattern. Now, following that pattern in keys other than the key of C will require you to use sharps and flats. Since that’s the case, we place the sharps or flats for your song’s key signature right before the meter, after the clef, on your sheet music. That tells you to maintain those sharps or flats throughout the music, unless of course there’s a natural symbol to override it. You will begin to recognize the key signatures of pieces based on what sharps or flats are shown. Here’s a quick glimpse at some key signatures using sharps and flats:
Rhyming is a great memorization tool. If you can make anything rhyme, you'll recall it much faster simply by reciting the rhyme. Acronyms are another great way to remember difficult bits of information. We'll use both these memorization techniques to help you read music faster!
Mnemonic devices are tricks that we can use to help us remember things more easily. Rhyming is a great memorization tool. If you can make anything rhyme, you'll recall it much faster simply by reciting the rhyme. Acronyms are another great way to remember difficult bits of information. We'll use both these memorization techniques to help you read music faster!
Remember- The top staff is called the Treble Clef. Use these Mnemonic devices for the Treble (top) lines and spaces: FACE is for the Space Every Good Boy Does Fine is for the lines The bottom staff is called the Bass Clef. Use the following memory tricks for the bass cleff lines and spaces (bottom): Lines = Good Burritos Dont Fall Apart Spaces = All Cows Eat Grass Use the memorization tricks, we talked about! You'll get faster at reading the grand staff (both clefs in piano music). Counting up each note works, but its a slower method than saying to yourself Every Good Boy Does Fine. We hope you’re excited to start reading music!
Dynamic Markings: Notice at the beginning of this piece there is a little ‘p‘. That means ‘pianissimo/piano’ which means softly. The dynamic markings allow the composer a way to articulate her musical vision. When we are reading music, we must be aware of the dynamics to fully bring the piece to life.
To be continued... |
© 2014 Progressive Edge Records