How To Read Music Notes

The core of reading music is the music notes. Sure, you couldn’t really read it right if you didn’t understand the base and treble clefs or the rests, but the notes are the music. The notes tell you the melody and the harmony. You can’t read music if you can’t read music notes.

It’s not the music note itself that decides the note, it’s where it is placed on the bar. When you see a sheet of music, you don’t see letters, you just see notes. There are seven different notes named from A to G. Let’s first talk about the treble clef, or the top bar. The note across the bottom line is E and the note that sits on that line is F. As you go up, the notes are either on the line or between the lines. Note D is right under the bottom line and C sits alone underneath with a small line through it. Once the notes have gone from C to B up the bar, it starts back at C. These next notes are another octave lower. On the base clef, it is the same except that it goes down.

Not every note is help for the same amount of time. The black notes you are used to seeing are help for one count by themselves. If there are two attached together by the stems, each count as one half count. If three notes are strung together, the counts must add up to one. When notes are strung together, they are shorter.

There are also longer notes. A note with a stem that is a circle and not filled in is help for two counts, a note filled in with a stem and a dot is help for three counts, and a large circle without a stem is held for an entire measure. The length of these notes also depends on the time of the piece of music. Some music is counted in fours, others longer or shorter.

These are just the bare basics of reading music. There is so much more to learn before you can begin to play. You need to know the notes and everything around them. Don’t feel intimidated because it’s not as difficult as it sounds. Check out the link below to find more information and advanced study. You can find more visual help if words are too difficult for you.

By: Samantha Asher

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