How To Read Music

Learning How to Read Music Notes is much easier than learning to read a spoken language. In article 1, we introduced the musical staff, the 5 horizontal parallel lines on which musical notes are placed. We found what middle C looks like when written on a musical staff. Now let’s discover or recall that the notes which are directly to the right or going higher in tone are as easy to name as the first 7 letters in the English alphabet. Starting at C and going upward or higher in tone, they are: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. (Show diagram of treble staff with these notes.) The tones are the same as in the ones sung about in the world famous musical, The Sound of Music. The tones are doh, rae, me, fah, so, la, tee, doh. The doh tone at the beginning and end is the same except the higher doh is exactly 8 whole notes higher. This set of 8 notes is called an octave.

(Show diagram of one octave C scale treble clef with the doh , rae, me ect. words written directly under the appropriate note names.)

Practice saying the note names and then sing the tones or gently strike the white piano keys going to the right or upwards until you get to C exactly eight whole tones higher than middle C.

Now notice that some of the music notes bisect or rest on a line and some are in between the staff lines. Middle C slices a line added to accommodate it. D, one whole tone higher or to the right on the keyboard sits in between two musical staff lines. E, which is one whole tone higher than D, again bisects a musical staff line. This pattern continues. This helps identify the exact tone the music is telling the musician to play or sing. Practice and memorize the placement of the 8 notes discussed on the musical staff. Now you can sing or play the 8 notes of the key of C from middle C to the C eight notes higher. Spend time repeating this lesson over the next week or so. Study this consistently instead of trying to master reading music notes in a night or two. Twenty or thirty minutes a day of practice will help you retain what you learn much more than an hour or two every few days.

So there you have it, get to work learning how to read music!