Learning to read music is not difficult. If you know the alphabet from A to G, understand basic fractions, and are able to count to four, you are ready!
Octopus Tree | Duet with the sky
Pitch
The main properties symbolized by music notation are pitch and rhythm. In this chapter we focus on pitch. We'll take up rhythm later.
Staff Notation and Musical Pitch | Professor Frary
Pitch is the highness or lowness of a musical tone. Sing The Star-Spangled Banner. The lowest pitch is sung on “say” while the highest pitch is on “see.”
An awareness and control of pitch is of vital importance to musicians. As you gain musical experience, your sense of pitch will become increasingly refined.
Notes
Musical pitches are written with symbols called notes. Notes are oval shaped symbols to which a stem, flags or beams can be added:
Staff
The staff is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces:
How Pitch is Written
Notes are placed on the staff to indicate pitch. The staff is like a ladder: the higher the placement of a note, the higher the resulting pitch.
Unlike a ladder, both lines and the spaces between the lines serve as steps.
Staff and TAB
What's the difference between the staff and tablature? The staff indicates pitch and rhythm and is universal to all musical instruments. Tablature is specific to the guitar and simply indicates where to place your fingers on the fretboard.
Treble or G Clef
A symbol called a treble or G clef is placed at the beginning of the staff. The G clef indicates the position of the note G: the scroll of the clef wraps around the second line from the bottom, fixing that line as G.
Other clefs exist, but are not used for guitar.
Note Names
In the United States, the first seven letters of the alphabet—A B C D E F G—are used to name notes. Most other countries use solfège: do, re, mi, etc. These seven letters are repeated across the entire pitch range: A B C D E F G A B C, etc.
Children's Mnemonic Device
Chant "Every Good Boy Does Fine" to remember the names of the lines and FACE to spell out the spaces.
E G B D F (lines)
F A C E (spaces)
When moving up the staff—higher in pitch—count through the alphabet. When moving down the staff—lower in pitch—count backwards through the alphabet:
In the graphic below, notes replace the letter labels. Play the audio and observe how the pitch rises as the flute plays each note:
Octave
The interval (distance) between two notes with the same name but eight notes apart is called an octave. Sing the first two notes of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. The interval between the first two notes, C to C (some- to where) is an octave.
As a child you may have sang the major scale as solfège syllables: do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. The interval from do to do is an octave.
The octave is the point in which the scale names start over.
On the next page, we explore rhythm.
Study Questions
1. What are the letter names of the spaces on the staff?
2. What are the letter names of the lines on the staff?
3. Identify the letter names of these notes: [answers below]
Counterpoint | Pigeons trying to be notes on a skyward staff.
Answers
1. F A C E
2. E G B D F
3. A, F, G, F, D, G, C, D
Download this worksheet for more practice recognizing notes on the staff:
•••
Pitch
Notes
Staff
How Pitch is Written
Treble or G Clef
Note Names
Study Questions
