How to read music?

Learning how to read music is like learning how to read and write. There are some basic rules to learning music. The basic format for a piece of music contains 5 lines and a treble clef. These are the fundamentals for anyone who wants to learn to read music. First you must learn to identify the type of clef that is present in the music piece. There are varieties of clef types, including the bass clef. You could usually think of the treble clef as the basic ‘right-hand’ on the piano, and the bass clef the ‘left-hand’. However, music notes are universal and therefore this rule cannot apply for every instrument and there are other clefs which have different rules. Don’t be put off by this, learning the notes on the treble clef and bass clef is enough to have you playing excellent sounding music.

The notes are read by their corresponding positions between or on the lines. For the treble clef, the notes on the line, listed in order from bottom to top are E, G, B, D, F. These can be remembered using a variety of quirky phrases, on such one being Every Good Boy Does Fine. The notes in between these lines correspond with the letters F, A, C, E and can obviously be remembered by the word FACE.

The bass clef is slightly different from the treble clef, since the notes on and in between the lines have different letters. The ones played on the lines include, from order of bottom to top, G, B, D, F, A. Phrases can also help in remembering this, but it’s best if you can memorise the notes or even make up one yourself, because this will enable you to memorize the notes faster. The notes in between the lines are A, C, E, G. By remembering the basic treble and bass clef notes, you will have established a foundation to reading music. Each letter has a note assigned to it on a particular instrument, and if they are the same then the sound made by any instrument will have the same sound. Therefore, if you learn to read music for one instrument, the entire process for learning another becomes much easier.

Is there more to reading music than just these two? Yes there is, there is so much to learn you cannot possibly hope to understand it all overnight. It all comes down to how far you want to take your reading ability. The best at reading music are able to read the notes just like a book, taking a quick look before actually playing the notes. Reading music is just like playing music – it is an art, and has to be mastered.