How to Read Sheet Music: The Basics
By Dylan Simon
Photography by SETO fotografias | Adobe Stock
Plenty of amazing musicians have been able to go their entire careers learning songs only by ear, but it’s quite handy to be able to read sheet music. If you plan on getting a degree in music or becoming a professional in the industry you are definitely going to want to pick up this skill sooner than later. I would like to teach you how to read sheet music. I am a multi-instrumentalist that started on the piano over a decade ago. I also went to an arts school and studied music for about 6 years.
First, print or pull up a piece of sheet music for a song you would like to learn. For me, I’m looking at Claire de Lune. (I will not be teaching how to read tabs for stringed instruments in this post.) For piano, there will be 2 lines with music on them. These are called staves. For other instruments, like guitar, you may only have 1 stave. On occasion, you may see 3 staves, this is often present on piano music with vocals on top.
Staves: a set of five parallel lines and the spaces between them, on which notes are written to indicate their pitch.
Image by Arcady | Adobe Stock
Next you may notice a symbol at the start of the lines, this is called a clef. A clef will indicate your pitch or how high or low the sound. Going to the right, like reading a book, we get to the key signature. A key signature just tells you which notes (regardless of octave) are sharp or flat. Lastly, before the first notes, you have the time signature. This time signature is going to tell you how many beats are in each bar of music or between two vertical lines crossing the staves. It’s also going to tell you the standard note. This is one of the main indicators of a song’s speed and rhythm.
Clef: A clef is a musical symbol used to indicate which notes are represented by the lines and spaces on a musical staff.
Pitch: Pitch is the position of a single sound in the complete range of sound.
Image by Kateryna Sushchova | Adobe Stock
Key Signature: a key signature is a set of sharp, flat, or rarely, natural symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music.
Octave: an interval whose higher note has a sound-wave frequency of vibration twice that of its lower note. So, on a piano, A at 440 Hz plus 12 keys, gets you to A at 880 Hz.
Sharp: raises a note by a semitone. Or a piano half note above.
Flat: lowers it by a semitone. Or a piano half note below.
Time signature: Indicates how many beats are in each measure of a piece of music, as well as which note value is counted as a beat.
Bar: one small segment of music that holds a number of beats.
To truly know how fast to play your song it is best to simply listen to it but this isn’t always applicable, like if you’re writing music. Along with the time signature, another indicator for song speed is words like “moderately fast” present above the start of the song. Loudness is also a factor often noted on the sheet music. From very quiet to very loud you may see, pp, p, f, ff. This symbol is usually between the staves on piano music or under the single stave.
Image by Dylan Simon | Contagion Media
To navigate the page of music you will also need to know the symbols in the following image:
The most common notes are eighth notes, quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes. These will tell you when to play a note. Rests will tell you when not to play and are pretty much the exact opposite of notes. They can show up as quarter, half, whole, or eighth rests. A whole note/rest will take up a “whole” bar of music. The rest of the notes are just divisions of the whole note. This is similar to how an inch is broken down into 8 or 16 pieces on a ruler.
For example, a 4/4 time signature means that each bar of music contains 4 beats and the quarter note gets the beat. If it were a 4/8 time signature, this would indicate that there are 4 beats and the eighth note gets the beat.
In conclusion, knowing how to read sheet music will put you well on your way to reading your first song. Start simple and work your way up to the hard stuff. Knowing how to read sheet music could mean the difference between figuring out a last-minute set change before a show. It could prevent an embarrassing rhythm or pitch mistake during your next live performance. With enough sheet music practice, you’ll be able to play any song in minutes! If you are an inspiring musician serious about your craft, reading sheet music is an essential skill. Good luck on your journey!
