Reading music is perceived to be as hard and complex as it is with any other new thing, but if we put forth the effort to study at least the basic fundamentals of reading music, the complicated sheet music will now somehow become comprehensible.
A good place to begin is the musical staff. The staff consists five lines and four spaces; these spaces and lines are the places we will be inscribing our notes. The first symbol written on the staff is the clef. The two most common clefs are the Treble Clef, also known as G-Clef, and the Bass Clef, also known as the F-Clef.
The Treble clef is used for most musical voices and a large portion of the stringed, woodwind and high-brass instruments, while the Bass clef is used for lower-pitch instruments.
The next symbol is the time signature . The top number in the time signature indicates the number of beats per measure-- a measure being the space between two bars or vertical lines in the staff; meanwhile, the bottom number in a time signature indicates what type of note receives one beat.
For instance, if the top number is six, then there will be 6 beats to the measure. If the bottom number is eight, then the eighth note will receive one beat.
The third item is the musical notes and rests. This is one of the most crucial parts in learning how to read music, and you must know the various types and values of notes. There is the round whole note; the whole note with a bar attached to it is the half note; a half note with a filled in circle is called a quarter note; a quarter note with a single tail is an eighth note; while a quarter note with double tails is a sixteenth note.
The fourth concept is the musical rests; each rest corresponds to the values of the notes we have discussed previously.
We have covered the foundation of music notation, but there is much more to learn about reading music, One must understand basic timing of the beats, other musical symbols like the fermata and tie, and the shaping and volume of music. The latter is divided into three: the volume of notes, markings that affect the notes and markings that affect the speed of the notes.
With all this in mind, you can now begin to practice reading those sheets of music!
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Angela Nazario
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