Week 2 - Reading Music

Basic Music Notation

Music notation is a language that describes the mechanics of musical performance. The earlist forms of musical notation were marks around the hebrew or greek words to indicate to the cantor or singer what to sing. The problem with this approach was that the singer already had to know the musical components that the marks referenced to be able to sing it. In the same way we have discovered written languages we can read, but cannot now know how to speak out loud, some of our rediscovered ancient music is lost to us as well.

Using modern music notation, it is possible for composers to note with specificity the musical elements that represent the music itself. Just like written English can guide the phonetic pronounciation of its spoken form to someone who does not speak it fluently, music notation can describe the details of music even to someone completely unfamiliar with it. For example, a composer can now describe the exact notes to be sung, along with how loud and long to sing each word and phrase.

Learning to read the notated language of music is not really any harder than learning any other technical jargon and skills. It has unique challenges, but there have been times in history when most educated people could understand and perform the popular music of the day. As long as we continue to teach the basics of reading music, we will never loose our musical heritage again.

Musical Definitions

Notation describes the various definable aspects that make up modern music. The following list summarizes those general aspects.

• Pitch - the primary frequency of a note
• Duration - the length of time a note is held
• Dynamics - the degree of loudness of a note
• Rhythm - the relative time between adjacent notes
• Tempo - the speed at which notes are performed
• Timbre - the quality of a note determined by its overtones

All sounds are vibrations of air. A pitch is the base frequency the vibration of a note occurs. The human ear and brain have the ability to hear the frequency of pitches and classify them based upon their relationships. For example, in the United States, the tuning for the note 'A4' or 'concert pitch' is 440 Hertz (Hz) or pulses per second. When we hear an 'A5' at 880 Hertz we percieve that note as the same as the 'A4' only higher. This relationship of doubled frequencies is called an octave, meaning 8 notes. In music we refer to these 8 notes using the first 8 letters of the English alphabet, A, B, C, D, E, F, G and then A again for the octave note.

Music Notation

Music notation uses symbols to represent the various audible components that make up a song. Since music takes place over a period of time, music is intended to be read like a book.

The staff

The staff is the basic structure of music. It is composed of five parallel lines. The pitch is notated from top to bottom where higher notes are on top and is read over time from left to right. It is divided by bar lines that define measures in the music. The end of a piece of music is marked by a double bar line.

A single staff does not provide enough space to express the full range of human hearing, so a clef symbol is usually present at the beginning of a staff to indicate what part of the scale the staff is intended to cover.

Clef	Description
	Treble Clef - This is a form of the G-clef where the note G4 is encircled by the curl of the clef.
	Alto Clef - This is a form of the C-clef where middle C passes through the center of the clef.
	Tenor Clef - This is also a form of the C-clef where middle C passes through the center of the clef. Note that the clef is aligned on a different line than the alto clef.
	Tenor Clef - This is the same G-clef as the soprano, but the little "8" on the bottom means the notes in this staff are one octave lower than normal.
	Bass Clef - The bass clef is a form of F-clef where the two dots mark the F on the staff.

The treble and bass clef staves can be combined to form what is called a grand staff, pictured above. Note the bar lines are joined together and there is a brace on the left side.

For notes that extend above or below the staff, ledger lines are drawn in with the notes.

A note is composed of a notehead with some types of notes including a stem and and a flag.

Here is a friendly reminder for the notes of the lines and spaces on the grand staff.

Here are the notes one octive up and down from middle C.

Time signatures

Time signatures define how many beats there are in each measure marked by bar lines and the value of the note to get one beat.

In a four-four staff, each measure has four beats and the quarter note gets one beat.

In a six-eight staff, each measure has six beats and the eighth note gets one beat.

Six-eight time is often counted in two pulses of three beats each. Three-four time is usually felt in one pulse of three beats each.

Notes and rests

	Whole notes and rests
	Half notes and rests
	Quarter notes and rests
	Eighth notes and rests
	Sixteenth notes and rests
	Thirtysecond notes and rests

Dotted whole note
Dotted half note
Dotted quarter note
Dotted eighth note

Dynamics

Marking	Italian	English
	Fortississimo	Extremely loud
	Fortissimo	Very loud
	Forte	Loud
	Mezzo-forte	Moderately loud
	Mezzo-piano	Moderately soft
	Piano	Soft
	Pianissimo	Very soft
	Pianississimo	Extremely soft

Dynamic Indications

Tempo indications

Basic Italian indications

Tempo

Key signatures

Key Signature		Major Key		Minor Key
No sharps or flats		C major		a minor
Key Signature	Major Key	Minor Key	Key Signature	Major Key	Minor Key
1 sharp	G major	E minor	1 flat	F major	D minor
2 sharps	D major	B minor	2 flats	B♭ major	G minor
3 sharps	A major	F♯ minor	3 flats	E♭ major	C minor
4 sharps	E major	C♯ minor	4 flats	A♭ major	F minor
5 sharps	B major	G♯ minor	5 flats	D♭ major	B♭ minor
6 sharps	F♯ major	D♯ minor	6 flats	G♭ major	E♭ minor
7 sharps	C♯ major	A♯ minor	7 flats	C♭ major	A♭ minor

Accidentals

Reading Music and Singing