How to read notes

Reading Piano Sheet Music (the Basics)

In the last chapter we introduced the notes and how they are placed on the keyboard. This chapter will put notes on a page by introducing musical notation, the written communication of music. If you aren’t sure whether you should learn reading sheet music, then read on. If you have already decided that you do, then reading it anyway will reassure you. Spoiler warning: We think that learning to read music, although not a must for beginners, is a very good idea.

What is musical notation?

Music is a language. Like any language, music has a written form.

Music is a language. Like any language, music has a written form. It’s about communication. Notation gives musicians around the world a medium to communicate. A composer notes down a piece of music with specific symbols, and if you can read music, you can understand it. They may never meet, separated by continents and centuries, but communication still takes place.

Humans have been writing music since we have been writing at all. Before notation, music was only passed on first hand, through performance, but examples of early notation have been found on tablets dating back as far as 2000 BC. Modern “staff notation”, the form we use now, was created by Catholic monks to standardize church music.

Communicating music has changed. Audio and video recording has progressed to the point where we can document a performance precisely. This adds depth and understanding, but does not take away the need for notation, since every performance is unique. In other words, the musical notation written by the composer is the only “perfect” record of exactly what they intended. The moment it is played, the music takes on a life of its own.

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Why should you learn to read music?

People may tell you that learning to read music takes time and effort when you don’t need to. Some incredible musicians never learned, and there are methods that teach you to play by ear, or using only chord patterns (more on this later).

Let’s be clear: If you don’t learn to read music, you limit yourself.

We challenge you to find a pianist who learned to read music and regretted it. But there are plenty who wish they had learned earlier. Like any language, you can get by without taking the time to read or write, especially in the beginning. In the long term, however, being able to read music holds a range of benefits, and you limit yourself without them.

It’s quicker than you think. This isn’t strictly a “good thing”. But if the only downside to learning is time and effort, it’s worth stressing that it doesn’t take that long. Notation may look like lines and dots on a page right now, but you will be reading and playing your first piece of music in no time. Work systematically, gradually build up knowledge of new notation, and you will be surprised how quickly you understand literally everything.

Sight reading. This is the ability to read a piece of music for the first time and play as you go, as easy as reading this sentence out loud. It takes time and practice, but eventually if you have the written music, you can play it. Since written music is widely available online, learning to sight read music gives you the ability to immediately play practically anything.

Reading removes doubt. Your “musical ear” develops naturally over time. But learning by ear alone requires training to identify notes, intervals and chords at an advanced level. This is a powerful skill, but even pianists who spent years developing their ear will have difficulty sometimes. It is especially tough to identify one note among many, or a rapid succession.

Say you hear a piece of music and you want to learn how to play it. If you can’t read music, you need to slow it down, play over and over, and still be unsure if you have heard it correctly. If you read the music, you will know instantly what the notes are and how they are supposed to be played, ready to get on with it.

A permanent memory aid. Playing by ear means remembering everything you ever decided to learn. Written music offers a record of anything you have ever learned, or plan to learn. If you don’t have a perfect memory, you can develop your own notation. But when there is a universal language already in place, why bother?

No boundaries. Just because you know how the composer intended it to be played, it doesn’t limit you to playing it in this way. You need to know the rules before you can break the rules. Duke Ellington created jazz masterpieces based on Grieg’s Peer Gynt and Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. But first he was note-perfect on the originals, which meant studying and building upon the composer’s written music.

Genres like pop or jazz are often less specific about what the backing instruments play, so full staff notation offers unnecessary detail. Instead, musicians just need to follow a sequence of chords. A chord is a set of notes that creates a specific harmony, with a naming system that tells you which notes to include.

Chord notation usually appears in chord charts, which give chord changes and sometimes add rhythmic notation. This is useful if you plan to play in bands, jazz or otherwise. If you go this route, we recommend that you still learn staff notation. Understanding both gives you flexibility, and allows you to use variations like lead sheets. These give the lyrics and melody in staff notation, but also gives the chord changes for a lead performer to follow.

Notation Basics

The Staff

Staff notation is structured around the grand staff: two staves of 5 lines and 4 spaces, connected by a brace on the left. The top staff is usually marked with a treble clef and typically played with the right hand while the bottom staff is usually marked with a bass clef and typically played with the left hand. Middle C lies in the gap between the staves, on an imaginary line. Just as it is the centre point for orientation on the keyboard, so it is on the staff.

The lines and spaces of the staves are home to various musical symbols, including notes. Notes can sit on a line or in a space. The height of the note determines the pitch. A higher line means a higher pitch, so moving up the stave represents moving right along the keyboard. We add ledger lines above or below the staff if a note is higher or lower than the 5 staff lines.

The notes

We’ll focus on the top staff for now, the treble clef. Find middle C (see Chapter 4) on the keyboard and on the staff below. From here, follow the sequence of the musical alphabet (A to G) to name all the notes found on the treble staff. On the staff, the head of the note shows the pitch.

To avoid counting up from middle C every time, we can use memory aids to identify the notes.

The four spaces of the treble staff spell out “FACE”

The five lines of the treble staff are EGBDF. We’ve heard “Every Good Boy Does Fine” or “Every Girl Boss Does Fine.” Use either of these, or feel free to make up your own.

Now that you can identify and locate notes of the treble staff, let’s look at the C position on paper.

The first five notes we played with our right hand are found in the bottom half of the treble staff. Our C is on the middle C ledger line, D is just below the first line of the staff, E is on the first line, F is in the first space, and G rests on the second line. Try playing them.

Note lengths

Moving from left to right represents moving forward through the music. Just as the position of the note tells you which key to play, the shape of the note tells you how long to play it. We will cover time signatures, subdivisions and timing symbols in Chapter 8, but to get you started:

A whole note is an empty circle and lasts four counts.
A half note adds a stem and lasts two counts.
A quarter note fills in the circle and lasts one count.

That’s all you need (for now)

How To Read Sheet Music: A Step-by-Step Guide

Wondering how to read sheet music? In this article, we give a full introduction to the language of music and free tools for your music journey.

Have you ever heard a song on the radio and thought, “Hey, it’d be really cool to know how to play that?” Do you have friends who play musical instruments, and you want to join in on the fun? Do you want to expand your general artistic knowledge? Well, learning the basics of how to read sheet music can help you achieve all of these, and in a shorter amount of time than you might think!

At its very simplest, music is a language just like you’d read aloud from a book. The symbols you see on pages of sheet music have been used for hundreds of years. They represent the pitch, speed, and rhythm of the song they convey, as well as expression and techniques used by a musician to play the piece. Think of the notes as the letters, the measures as the words, the phrases as the sentences, and so on. Learning how to read music really does open up a whole new world to explore!

Follow our step-by-step introduction to reading music and, with a little practice, you’ll be playing along in no time. Keep reading to the end for some free tools and sheet music arrangements to help you learn.

How to Read Music

Step 1: Learn the Basic Symbols of Musical Notation

Music is made up of a variety of symbols, the most basic of which are the staff, the clefs, and the notes. All music contains these fundamental components, and to learn how to read music, you must first familiarize yourself with these basics.

The Staff

The staff consists of five lines and four spaces. Each of those lines and each of those spaces represents a different letter, which in turn represents a note. Sheet music notes, represented by lines and spaces, are named A-G, and the note sequence moves alphabetically up the staff.

Treble Clef

There are two main clefs with which to familiarize yourself; the first is a treble clef. The treble clef has the ornamental letter G on the far left side. The G’s inner swoop encircles the “G” line on the staff. The treble clef notates the higher registers of music, so if your instrument has a higher pitch, such as a flute, violin, or saxophone, your sheet music is written in the treble clef. Higher notes on a keyboard also are notated on the treble clef.

We use common mnemonics to remember the note names for the lines and spaces of the treble clef. For lines, we remember EGBDF by the word cue “Every Good Boy Does Fine.” Similarly, for the spaces, FACE is just like the word “face.”

Bass Clef

The line between the two bass clef dots is the “F” line on the bass clef staff, and it’s also referred to as the F clef. The bass clef notates the lower registers of music, so if your instrument has a lower pitch, such as a bassoon, tuba, or cello, your sheet music is written in the bass clef. Lower notes on your keyboard also are notated in the bass clef.

A common mnemonic to remember note names for the lines of the bass clef is: GBDFA “Good Boys Do Fine Always.” And for the spaces: ACEG, “All Cows Eat Grass.”

Sheet Music Symbols and Notes on a Staff

Notes placed on the staff tell us which note letter to play on our instrument and how long to play it. There are three parts of each note, the note head, the stem, and the flag.

All music notes have a note head, either filled (black) or open (white). Where the note head sits on the staff (either on a line or space) determines which note you will play. Sometimes, note heads will sit above or below the five lines and four spaces of a staff. In that case, a line (known as a ledger line) is drawn through the note, above the note or below the note head, to indicate the note letter to play, as in the B and C notes above.

The note stem is a thin line that extends either up or down from the note head. The line extends from the right if pointing upward or from the left if pointing downward. The direction of the line doesn’t affect how you play the note but serves to make the notes easier to read while allowing them to fit neatly on the staff. As a rule, any notes at or above the “B” line on the staff have downward pointing stems, those notes below the “B” line have upward pointing stems.

The note flag is a curvy mark to the right of the note stem. Its purpose is to tell you how long to hold a note. We’ll see below how a single flag shortens the note’s duration, while multiple flags can make it shorter still.

Now that you know the parts to each note, we’ll take a closer look at those filled and open note heads discussed above. Whether a note head is filled or open shows us the note’s value, or how long that note should be held. Start with a closed note head with a stem. That’s our quarter note, and it gets one beat. An open note head with a stem is a half note, and it gets two beats. An open note that looks like an “o” without a stem is a whole note, and it gets held for four beats.

There are other ways to extend the length of a note. A dot after the note head, for example, adds another half of that note’s duration to it. So, a half note with a dot would equal a half note and a quarter note; a quarter note with a dot equals a quarter plus an eighth note. A tie may also be used to extend a note. Two notes tied together should be held as long as the value of both of those notes together, and ties are commonly used to signify held notes that cross measures or bars.

The opposite may also happen. We can shorten the amount of time a note should be held, relative to the quarter note. Faster notes are signified with either flags, like the ones discussed above, or with beams between the notes. Each flag halves the value of a note, so a single flag signifies 1/2 of a quarter note, a double flag halves that to 1/4 of a quarter note, et cetera. Beams do the same while allowing us to read the music more clearly and keep the notation less cluttered. As you can see, there’s no difference in how you count the eighth and 16th notes above. Follow along with the sheet music for “Alouette” to see how beams organize notes!

But what happens when there isn’t a note taking up each beat? It’s easy, we take a rest! A rest, just like a note, shows us how long it should be held based on its shape. See how whole and quarter rests are used in the song “Here We Go Looby-Loo.”

Step 2: Pick Up the Beat

To play music, you need to know its meter, the beat you use when dancing, clapping, or tapping your foot along with a song. When reading music, the meter is presented similar to a fraction, with a top number and a bottom number. We call this the song’s time signature. The top number tells you how many beats are in a measure, the space between each vertical line (called a bar). The bottom number tells you the note value (the length) of each beat.

In the example above, the time signature is 4/4, meaning there are four beats per bar and that every quarter note gets one beat. Click here to listen to sheet music written in 4/4 time, and try counting along 1,2,3,4 – 1,2,3,4 with the beat numbers above.

In the example below, the time signature is 3/4, meaning there are three beats per bar and that every quarter note gets one beat. Click here to listen to sheet music written in 3/4 time, try counting the beats, 1,2,3 – 1,2,3.

Let’s look again at the above examples. Notice that even though the 4/4 time signature in “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” calls for four beats per bar, there aren’t four notes in the second bar. That’s because you have two quarter notes and one half note, which added together equal four beats.

In addition to your note values and time signature, the last piece to feeling the rhythm is knowing your tempo, defined by the beats per minute. Tempo tells you how fast or slow a piece is intended to be played, and often is shown at the top of a piece of sheet music. For example, a tempo of 60 BPM (beats per minute) means you play 60 of the signified notes every minute or a single note every second. Likewise, a tempo of 120 doubles the speed to two notes every second. You may also see Italian words like “Largo,” “Allegro,” or “Presto” at the top of your sheet music, which signifies common tempos. Musicians use a tool called a metronome to help them keep tempo while practicing a new piece. Click here to see an online metronome tool and click on the circles next to the BPM values to see how a tempo can speed up and slow down.

Step 3: Play a Melody

Congratulations, you’re almost on your way to reading sheet music! Next, let’s look at scales. A scale is made of eight consecutive notes. For example, the C major scale is composed of C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. The interval between the first note of the C major scale and the last is an example of an octave. We recommend practicing the C major scale as much as possible, since knowing it makes it easier to learn the other major scales. Each of the notes of the C major scale corresponds with a white key on your keyboard. Here’s how the C major scale looks on a staff and how that corresponds to the keys on your keyboard:

Notice that as the notes ascend the staff, and move to the right on your keyboard, the pitch of the notes become higher. But what about the black keys? Musically, whole tones, or whole steps between the note letters, would limit the sounds we’re able to produce on our instruments. Let’s consider the C major scale you just learned to play. The distance between the C and the D keys in the C scale is a whole step. However, the distance between the E and the F keys in the C scale is a half-step. Do you see the difference? The E and the F keys don’t have a black key in between them, thus they’re just a half step away from one another. Every major scale has the same pattern: whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half. There are many other types of scales, each with unique sounds, like minor scales, modal scales, and more that you’ll come across later. For now, let’s focus only on major scales and the major scale pattern. Look at the C major scale again on the keyboard below.

Semitones, or half-steps on the keyboard, allow us to write an infinite variety of sounds into music. A sharp, denoted by the ♯ symbol, means that note is a semitone (or half step) higher than the note head to its right on sheet music. Conversely, a flat, denoted by a ♭ symbol, means the note is a semitone lower than the note head to its right. Notice on the keyboard picture and notated staff below, showing each half step between the C and the E notes, that whether you use the sharp or the flat of a note depends on whether you’re moving up or down the keyboard.

There’s one more symbol to learn regarding semitones, and that’s the natural, denoted by a ♮. If a note is sharp or flat, that sharp or flat extends throughout the measure, unless there’s a natural symbol. A natural cancels a sharp or flat within a measure or a song. Here’s what playing C to E would look like with natural symbols.

The last key to learning how to read music is understanding key signatures. As an example, the C major scale you learned above was in the key of C. Scales are named after their tonic, the preeminent note within the scale, and the tonic determines what key you play in. You can start a major scale on any note, so long as you follow the whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half pattern. Following that pattern in keys other than the key of C will require you to use sharps and flats. Since that’s the case, we place the sharps or flats for your song’s key signature right before the meter, after the clef, on your sheet music. That tells you to maintain those sharps or flats throughout the music unless there’s a natural symbol to override it. You will begin to recognize the key signatures of pieces based on which sharps or flats are shown. Here’s a quick glimpse at some key signatures using sharps and flats:

Step 4: Free Tools to Help You Learn

The steps above are a great place to start as you learn to read music. To help you along on your musical journey, we’ve also created a few free tools to begin practicing with.

First, download a free arrangement of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Just add the song to your cart and proceed through checkout. For more variety, check out the rest of our sheet music for beginners, all of which you’ll be able to play using the steps above. Play popular hits like the Star Wars Theme, “Let It Go” from ‘Frozen’, “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen, and more. We’re adding new Beginner Notes daily, so be sure to check back often and learn to play all your favorite songs!

We’ve also created a helpful guide for lettering the keys on your keyboard or piano. Download your Keyboard Note Guide here to print, fold, and place on your keyboard. Once you become familiar with the keys, you can easily remove it and continue to strengthen your note-reading skills.

Finally, don’t forget to download the free Musicnotes app! Enjoy instant access to all your Musicnotes sheet music files, plus tools and features created by musicians, for musicians. As you progress and learn how to read sheet music, your collection of arrangements will grow. Our app makes it easy to keep everything organized on the go. If you have any additional questions or need help finding songs to practice, reach out to our team of experts and we’ll be happy to help. Good luck and, most importantly, have fun!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above may be «affiliate links.» This means if you click on the link and make a purchase, Musicnotes will receive an affiliate commission. We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255: «Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.»

How To Read Notes

Lisa Witt / Reading Music / Mar 19

Sight reading has never come easily to me. I’ve struggled with it from the beginning. At one point in my early piano years, I had to repeat an entire level because my teacher realized I’d learned nothing. I was hearing her demonstrate the song and then playing from memory, never actually knowing how to read the notes!

Along the way, I’ve learned some things that have made sight reading much easier for me, which I’ll share in this lesson. As you watch, keep in mind that some people will naturally find sight reading easier than others. Those of us with strong ears and the natural ability to play without music tend to struggle the most when it comes to reading notation. The reverse is also true for those who are strong sight readers. Strong sight readers will often have trouble playing by ear. The important thing to keep in mind is that we all have our own unique strengths and weaknesses and we need to celebrate both.

You can read a summary of the lesson below. Hope you enjoy it!

🎹 Sight Reading Made Simple 👓

Learning how to read music is like learning a new language. It can feel intimidating and frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be. With proper training, you can quickly and easily read music and unlock the songs you know and love. Take a look at Sight Reading Made Simple, our 100% FREE course on how to painlessly read notes.

How To Read Notes

A staff is made up of 5 lines and 4 spaces, and each line and space has a note name attached to it. We have a treble clef (or ‘G clef’) up above – usually reserved for the right hand – and a bass clef (or ‘F clef’) below, played lower down on the piano and usually reserved for the left hand.

Treble Clef

The treble clef is also called the ‘G clef’ because the line that runs through the center of the treble clef is the G note. That should give you a quick reference when you’re sight-reading.

The next space up from G is the next note: A. After that space, you hit another line, which is B. Then there’s another space, which is C. After that we have D, E and F. It keeps going from there, but we’ll keep it within the staff for now.

In the video, you’ll notice there’s a small line right below the staff with a note on it. That’s middle C notated in the treble clef, which will be your landmark note! We then have D, E, F, and back to that G we talked about earlier.

Anytime you move from one line to the next line, you’re skipping a note on the piano. If you can practice skipping through the alphabet (A-G) in your head and going back and forth, this can help you with your sight-reading. You’ll start seeing the patterns and get faster as you go. Look at the distance between the notes, and use C and G as your landmark notes.

Bass Clef

The spaces and lines on the staff for the bass clef are totally different from the staff for the treble clef, and this may seem confusing for beginners. But it’s still based on middle C, which is how everything connects between the two clefs. Start with C, and the space below it is B. The next line is A, the next space G, and the line after that is F…which is your landmark note for the bass clef.

Again, if the note on a space is followed by a note on the next possible line, you’ll know it’s the next note on the keyboard. If the note on a space is followed by a note on the next possible space, you get an interval (where you skip a note).

Look for patterns in the music – it really helps!

What About Notes OUTSIDE The Staff?

What happens when we run out of lines and spaces? After all, there are more keys on the piano than lines on the Grand Staff.

That’s where “ledger lines” come in. We have a lesson on them right here.

And how about sharps and flats?

This is a common question. If you’d like to learn all about the musical symbols ( A sharp (#) indicates that a note needs to be raised one semitone or up one half-step.

Lisa Witt has been teaching piano for 19 years and in that time has helped hundreds of students learn to play the songs they love. Lisa received classical piano training through the Royal Conservatory of Music, but she has since embraced popular music and playing by ear in order to accompany herself and others.

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How To Read Notes Part 2

Lisa Witt / Reading Music / Jan 22

One of the most important skill sets to have at your disposal as a piano player is knowing how to read musical notation so you can learn to play the songs that you love.

We’ve touched base on this before, and in some detail, with our previous rundown on “How To Read Notes”. It’s been a very helpful lesson for a lot of people, but I was left wondering:

How can we do it better?

There are many different ways to learn– but I have a few new tricks up my sleeve that I thought might be helpful for players trying to get a better scope of how to read notes.

Review of Part 1

First, let’s review what we know from Part 1:

THE TREBLE CLEF

In musical notation, we have something called the Treble Clef. For many, it’s the symbol of music itself. For pianists, it means you are likely going to be playing these notes with your right hand.

THE BASS CLEF

This one might be less familiar to some players, but the Bass Clef is representative of the notes you will play with your left hand– and generally the ‘bass notes’ of the song.

LINES AND SPACES

The treble clef and the bass clef are both host to a series of lines and spaces.

5 lines and 4 spaces, to be precise.

When combined on a piece of notation, these two clefs form what’s called the Grand Staff.

The Grand Staff is the world standard template for musical notation. There are almost 4000 different written languages in the world, but just 1 standard for reading notes.

MIDDLE C

Now, after all the importance I’ve placed on understanding The Grand Staff– I’m going to throw a wrench in the works:

‘Middle C’ is named (appropriately) for its position on The Grand Staff (and likely your keyboard). It sits in between the two clefs, connecting them together.

It may appear as though Middle C is 2 different notes in your sheet music, but it is just the spacing of The Grand Staff that makes it look this way. In reality:

You’ll see it sitting one line below the treble clef, or one line above the bass clef. It’s actually the same note!

🔥🎹 Hot tip: Use Middle C as your jumping point for reading notes. For the treble clef, simply count up your musical alphabet to get all your note names. For the bass clef, count backward.

ACRONYMS

Back when I was learning to read music, I was taught to memorize the lines and spaces with a series of acronyms.

For the Treble Clef: Simply use the word “FACE” for the spaces, and the words “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge” (or whatever you helps you remember best), and for the Bass Clef, “All Cows Eat Grass” for the spaces, and “Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always” for the lines.

This is a tried and true method that has been used by countless different piano teachers over the
years.

What I’d like you to keep in mind, is this system creates the misconception that the treble clef and the bass clef are independent of each other, when in reality they are two halves of the same whole.

It might seem like a lot to keep in mind, but I have good news for you:

YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ EVERY NOTE.

When I was learning to read music, I was made to believe I had to know every line and space and detail of the music I was attempting to perform.

Well I have a little bit of a cheat for you that I have learned over the years…

LANDMARK NOTES

Landmark notes are easily identifiable notes that you can use to help spot others.

In addition to Middle C, a good ‘landmark note’ to be familiar with on the treble clef is ‘G’. The treble clef is otherwise known as the ‘G clef’, because it creates a little crosshair around the note of ‘G’, making it a lot easier to notice.

(This can also be said for the bass clef, only the bass clef is known as the ‘F clef’ for similar reasons, the two points of the symbol surround the ‘F’ note on the bass clef.)

“High C” is another easy one to spot. It is one An octave is the interval between two notes where one note is double the frequency of the other. The distance between Middle C (C4) and the C above it (C5) is an octave.

INTERVALS

Now that we’re a little more familiar with the notes on the page, I want to show how you can quickly discern the spaces (or intervals) between them.

2nds

The difference between a note that sits on a line, and one that might sit on a space directly above or below it, is a 2nd.

You might see a note on a line (for example, the aforementioned ‘middle C’), and then you might see a note next to it, perhaps it sits in the space directly above middle C:

Reading the notes would tell me that the next whole-note following C, is D.

But if you are familiar with spaces in between the notes, then you’d know just to play one note up from your landmark note. C, to D.

Using this system you can walk up the keys– C, D, E, F, G and so on.

Notes moving up in 2nds on The Grand Staff.

This is an extremely basic example, but it is the smallest interval after all! The trick is when you need to spot bigger gaps, or ‘jumps’.

3rds

Next up is the 3rd. Like 2nds, this interval is very quick and easy to identify. It always sits one full line or space above the root note.

4ths

A 4th, simply, is just the next space up from a third. You’ll notice a 4th always moves from a line to a space… or from a space to a line.

This is where things might start to become a little harder to spot immediately, but with a little training and experience your brain will calculate these intervals like second nature.

5ths

Now, 5ths are one of my favorites because they are actually pretty easy to catch. They are sort of like a stretched out 3rd. Just like the 3rd, a 5th goes from space to space, or from line to line– only this time we’re leaving a space or a line in between the two.

I’ve got some smart examples in the video to help you better identify this popular interval.

6ths

Perhaps the most beautiful interval, the 6th is not terribly difficult to notice– it’s just a little bit farther apart than a 5th.

Like a 4th, it sits opposite on a line and a space.

7ths

The spacing on a 7th can be harder to recognize. It’s a big gap! Once you get to the bigger distances like this it can seem a lot more daunting.

My best advice is something I’m going to keep repeating– get to know your landmarks and use them as your jumping point.

OCTAVES (or 8ths)

An octave is the distance between one note (like C) and the next note bearing its same name (the next C that’s either higher or lower).

On a sheet of music this can be difficult to identify, but coming back to our landmark notes you could easily know the positions of ‘Middle C’ and ‘High C’ are one octave apart. Using that knowledge, it’s just a matter of mentally transposing those points on the page to recognize the spacing between other octaves and intervals.

Different Options

There are so many ways to learn to read notes. I think the most important thing is allowing yourself to get creative, and to mix and match different thinking in a way that works for you.

PATTERNS

So we’ve talked about acronyms, intervals, and landmark notes, but lastly I want to talk about the patterns you might recognize when you are attempting to read notes on a page.

Patterns are ultimately what makes music, well, music.

The ups and downs, common intervals between different notes… Being able to identify these patterns and repetitions will improve your sight-reading ability immensely.

REVIEW

Using these tips and tricks, I’m sure the notes on the page are going to start to become more familiar to you, and a whole new language of musical ideas and harmonies will become more accessible.

We can talk about this for a long time, but what we really need to do is put it to practice!

I have a made up a worksheet for you with all these intervals and ideas so you can improve your ability.

Don’t worry– we’ll work through it together.

Follow along on the video and we’ll go step-by-step.
Download the sheet music here

Lisa Witt has been teaching piano for 19 years and in that time has helped hundreds of students learn to play the songs they love. Lisa received classical piano training through the Royal Conservatory of Music, but she has since embraced popular music and playing by ear in order to accompany herself and others.

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How to Read Music: The Illustrated Guide

Learning how to read music is essential for all musicians. Reading music opens up lots of new possibilities for your creativity.

Whether you want to write down your ideas, play sheet music, or just understand what’s going on in a song, reading music is the best way to move forward.

But reading sheet music is hard, especially for beginners. Music is a language and studying music theory to read and write it can take some practice.

But the basic concepts aren’t difficult once you understand how they work. Once you grasp the foundation you’ll be on your way to reading music well.

In this article I’ll go through everything you need to learn how to read music.

How to read sheet music

When you first look at a piece of sheet music you’ll see lines, spaces and different types of notes and markings.

I’ll break down each element of music notation and explain how it works.

Music note names: The musical alphabet

The notes of the musical alphabet are A-B-C-D-E-F-G

The letter names of the musical notes identify their pitch. Each note letter has a specific place on the musical staff to let you know it’s letter name.

Let’s take a closer look at the staff.

Staff lines and spaces

The musical staff is made up of five lines and four spaces.

The position on the lines and spaces tells you the pitch and letter name of a note on the staff.

The position on the lines and spaces tells you the pitch and letter name of a note on the staff.

I’ll get to how to identify notes in a second, but first you’ll need to pay attention to the symbol at the beginning of the staff.

Treble Clef and Bass Clef

The staff marking at the start of each line tell you the register of the instrument and how to read the notes.

Notation for bass instruments is written in bass clef and notation for other instruments is commonly written in treble clef.

There are other clefs as well (like alto clef for viola music!) but they’re used much less often, so I’ll focus on bass and treble clefs here.

How to find notes on the staff

The names of the notes on the lines and spaces follow a set order that you can remember easily with a rhyme.

The names of the notes on the lines and spaces follow a set order that you can remember easily with a rhyme.

There are two for the treble clef:

The pattern is the same for the bass clef, beginning on a different note:

The notes above and below the staff follow the same pattern.

Ledger lines

Ledger lines are added to notate pitches above and below the staff. These notes follow the same order and naming pattern as the notes on the staff.

Ledger lines are added to notate pitches above and below the staff.

They’re written with short lines that just cover the span of the note head itself to help you see the lines and spaces.

Sharps and flats: Music accidentals

The notes on the staff alone won’t give you all twelve musical notes.

If you’ve been watching closely you might have noticed that the notes you’ve seen so far don’t include the black keys on the keyboard.

To write the notes in between the white keys you’ll need to modify the notes on the staff with accidentals.

A sharp is written with the # symbol. It tells you to raise the note one semitone higher.

A flat is written with the ♭ symbol. It tells you to lower the note one semitone lower

The natural symbol cancels a sharp or flat and returns the note to its original state. It’s written with the ♮ symbol.

Key signatures

The key signature is the collection of sharps or flats at the beginning of a line of sheet music that indicates the key of the song.

The key signature is the collection of sharps or flats at the beginning of a line of sheet music that indicates the key of the song.

Unless the score tells you otherwise with accidentals, maintain the sharps and flats on the lines and spaces written in the key signature throughout the song.

To fully understand key signatures you’ll have to take a look at the circle of fifths. But there’s a simple tip to read key signatures quickly to know which key you’re in.

For major keys with sharps: the last sharp in the key signature is the leading tone of the key.

The leading tone is 7th degree in the scale. Count up one semitone from the last sharp to determine the key’s root.

For major keys with flats, the second to last flat in the key signature is the key’s tonic—it’s as simple as that.

Time signature

Musical passages are divided into segments called measures. Each measure contains a set number of beats.

The time signature shows you how many beats are in a measure and which note value is equal to one beat. It’s written at the start of the piece with two numbers stacked on top of each other.

The top number indicates the number of beats in a measure and the bottom number tells you note value of a single beat.

The time signature shows you how many beats are in a measure and which note value is equal to one beat.

The most common time signature is 4/4. In 4/4 time there are four beats in a measure and the quarter note is equal to one beat.

Above the time signature at the beginning of the music you will often see a tempo marking with a BPM range or an Italian term that describes the feel of the tempo.

This tells you how slow or fast to play during a performance.

How to read rhythm

Each note has a rhythm value that determines its duration in a piece of music.

Rhythms are written using the shape of the note heads, stems and the beams between connected notes.

Rhythms are written using the shape of the note heads, stems and the beams between connected notes.

Each rhythm value is a fraction of the total time in a measure.

Even further divisions are possible, but these are the main note values you’ll see as you’re learning how to read music.

Dotted notes and triplets

There are more rhythmic possibilities than just equal subdivisions of the measure.

A dot symbol beside a note means that it’s duration is extended by half its original value.

A dot symbol beside a note means that it’s duration is extended by half its original value.

That sounds a lot more complicated than it is. Let’s look at the common example of a dotted quarter note.

In 4/4 time a quarter note is one full beat. The dot adds another half quarter note value to its total duration.
Half a quarter note = one eighth note. That means that a dotted quarter note is worth a total of 1.5 beats—simple!

Hot tip: a dotted note is normally followed by the note value that will “fill in” the missing partial division.

For example, a dotted quarter note will often be followed by an eighth note.

Triplets are another special case. They’re written with a “3” symbol above the beam or bracketed above the stems.

Triplets are a type of irregular rhythm where three notes are meant to fit into the space of one. It sounds complicated on paper—but it’s easy to feel when you hear it in context.

Ties and rests

So far we’ve only talked about notes and how long they last. But what you don’t play is just as important.

Rests are the music notation for intervals of silence between notes. They have their own rhythmic values to tell you how long they last.

Rests are the music notation for intervals of silence between notes.

The duration of a rest is determined by its shape.

Here are the types are rests and their duration:

The last element of rhythmic notation I’ll cover are ties.

Ties are curved lines that connect notes of the same pitch together. They tell you to hold the note for the duration of both values combined.

Read between the lines

Reading music is like learning a whole new language. It’s tough at first, but it leads to serious developments in your skills.

Use this guide to start learning how to read music, and refer back to it if you get stuck.

Now that you have a head start, go start playing, making—and reading—your favourite sheet music.