Download Music Notation Guide - Delta Academies Trust Arts

How to Read Music Notation
By Alex Cairns
In contemporary sheet music you will see that music can be written on either the
treble clef staff: the high Clef
Or the bass clef staff: the low clef
These Clefs are used to write the musical notes of a piece in such a way that they
can be read and replicated. The treble clef contains notes that are higher in pitch to
the bass clef and the bass clef contains notes that are lower in pitch to the treble
clef. Certain instruments use only one of these clefs, but the piano for example
combines the two together as follows:
The next image shows how notes are placed on the staffs in relation to their pitch.
Below is a picture of a piano/keyboard with the clefs and notes written over the top:
D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E
*
The diagram above shows all of the white notes on the piano written on the staff.
Notice that the lower pitch notes on the left of the piano move in an ascending
order to the higher pitch notes on the right side. Often in music, notes have to be
written below or above the lines on the staff, these notes appear on extra small lines
called ledger lines. For example the middle C (marked above with a * ) can be
written as either one ledger line above the bass clef or as one ledger line below the
treble clef.
Pitches are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet (A B C D E F G) and
follow that same order for both the treble and bass clef.
1 Some standard acronyms to help remember the notes on a staff are:
The smallest interval used in Western music is the half step. A visual representation of
a half step would be the distance between a consecutive white and black note on
the piano. There are two exceptions to this rule, as two natural half steps occur
between the notes E and F, and B and C. A whole step is made up of two half
steps.
Music also contains notes that we call "Accidentals", these consist of symbols being
placed next to the notes of the staff such as a (flat) or a (sharp). A sharp raises a
note by a half-step, and a flat lowers it by the same amount. A natural is an
accidental which cancels previous accidentals and represents the unaltered pitch
of a note. Below is an example of how these symbols look next to notes on a staff:
Accidentals on a Piano are found on the black keys. The
C#
D#
C D
The
F#
E
G#
F
G A
A#
B
(flats) are as follows:
Db Eb
Gb Ab Bb
CD E F G A B
2 sharps are as follows:
Rhythm and Note Durations
There are many different notes in contemporary music:
4 beats 2 beats 1 beat 1/2 beat 1/4 beat A note value may be augmented by adding a dot after it. This dot adds the next
lower note value, making it one and a half times its original duration.
1 beat + ½ beat = 1.5 beats
2 beats + 2/2 beats = 3 beats
Time Signatures
The majority of the contemporary rock and pop music is written in a time signature of
4/4:
The top number tells us how many of the specified notes are in a bar and the bottom
number tells us what duration (ie: how long) that specified note is. For example in 4/4
Time the top number tells us there are 4 notes in a bar and the bottom number tells
us that each note is 1/4 of the length of the bar, or more simply put a quarter note.
Therefore, we can tell that a song written with a 4/4 time signature is made up of
bars (musical units a song is divided up into) which contain 4 quarter note long
beats. Here are some examples of Time Signatures and notes contained within their
measures:
3 Key signatures
A key signature is a series of sharp or flat symbols placed on the staff, that are to be
consistently played one semitone higher or lower than the equivalent natural notes
unless otherwise altered with an accidental. Key signatures are generally written
immediately after the clef at the beginning of a line of musical notation, although
they can appear in other parts of a score, notably after a double barline.
A key signature will have either sharps or flats, but there will not be any key signatures
with both:
Dynamics
Dynamics refers to the volume of a note/piece/sound
The two basic dynamic indications in music are:
n p or piano, meaning "soft"
n f or forte, meaning "loud"
More subtle degrees of loudness or softness are indicated by:
n mp, standing for mezzo-piano, meaning "moderately soft"
n mf, standing for mezzo-forte, meaning "moderately loud“
n pp “pianissimo” meaning “very soft”
n ff “fortissimo” meaning “very loud”
Two Italian words are used to show gradual changes in volume. Crescendo,
abbreviated cresc., translates as "gradually becoming louder", and diminuendo,
abbreviated dim., means "gradually becoming softer". The alternate decrescendo,
abbreviated to decresc., also means "gradually becoming softer“.
4 Tempo
Tempo (Italian for time) is the speed/pace of a given piece.
The tempo of a piece will typically be written at the start of a piece of music, and is
usually indicated in beats per minute (BPM). This means that a particular note value
(for example, a quarter note or crotchet) is specified as the beat, and the marking
indicates that a certain number of these beats must be played per minute. The
greater the tempo, the larger the number of beats that must be played in a minute
is, and, therefore, the faster a piece must be played.
Basic Tempo Markings:
n Largo – broadly (40–50 BPM)
n Adagio – slow/stately (literally, "at ease") (51–60 BPM)
n Adagietto – rather slow (61–80 BPM)
n Andante – at a walking pace (61–80 BPM)
n Moderato – moderately (81–90 BPM)
n Allegro – fast, quickly and bright (105–132 BPM)
n Presto – very fast (168–177 BPM)
Copyright © 2015 Alex Cairns 5