Reading music isn't as difficult as some may think. There are a few simple tricks to help you remember how to identify notes. But before we get into that I'm going to introduce you to the
staff:
|----------------------
|
|----------------------
|
|----------------------
|
|----------------------
|
|----------------------
As you can see the staff is composed of five parallel lines. The placement of a
note on the staff determines its
pitch. Notes are placed eiher directly on one of the lines of the staff or in one of the spaces in between the lines of the staff. First we will take a look at the notes that are on the lines:
|------------------F----
|
|--------------D--------
|
|----------B------------
|
|------G----------------
|
|--E--------------------
There are several nmeumonic devices used to remember these notes, such as Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, Every Good Boy Does Fine, Every Good Boy Deserves Fun, and even Elvis' Guitar Broke Down Friday. Pick your favorite or even make up your own, which ever your perogative.
Now that we know how to identify the notes that fall on the lines we can take a look at those that fall on the spaces:
|----------------------
| E
|----------------------
| C
|----------------------
| A
|----------------------
| F
|----------------------
Notice that 'the notes on the space spell the word face'. This is another trick often used. Now we can put the lines and spaces together and we will notice a neat pattern:
|------------------F----
| E
|--------------D--------
| C
|----------B------------
| A
|------G----------------
| F
|--E--------------------
One of the coolest things about music is that it's circular. If you start at A and move your way up the staff you will move from A to B to C, D, E, F, G, and then A again. Using this knowledge we can easily identify any note that lies outside the staff. For instance the note that lies in the space directly above the staff is a G and the note that lies on the first line above the staff is an A:
-A-
G
|------------------F----
| E
|--------------D--------
| C
|----------B------------
| A
|------G----------------
| F
|--E--------------------
So those are the basics of reading music. Next we will discuss
sharps and flats,
key signatures,
time signatures, the
treble and bass clefs, and much much more!
Just for clarification all of the above applies to reading music for the
treble clef aka the
g clef