How to Read Music

February 19th, 2009 by Mike

Ever hear of the great jazz saxophonist who couldn’t read music? He would play to gigs a night at adjacent clubs in Chicago; in between performances he sat down and learnt how from a book. When he finished the book he was able to score his own songs!

There are lots of stories in the music world of wonderful musicians self-taught in reading music; after all Louis Armstrong started off that way. Learning to read music is like learning to read. It’s just that instead of letters you read notes (which represent sounds). Each sound is discreet; that is, each note represents one and only one sound. So there are three basic things you need to know.

First you have to know the clefts, the two most important being treble and bass. Imagine a piano (or better yet sit down in front of one). Find middle C– it’s right there in the middle of all those white keys. Everything above middle C is in the treble cleft, below bass.

Secondly you have a staff, those five lines on which the notes hang. Each note that the line runs through is a sound that is a third above the previous note: C/E/G/A/C (the notes are alphabetical ABCDEFGAB etc.). Sing the notes and you’ll recognize the sound. The notes that rest between the lines vary in their relation to their fellows below and above it. Play in your mind or on the piano the simple scale from middle C to the next higher C: ABCDEFGABC. You have just played the C major scale!

Thirdly before the first note you may see a # or another mark sort of like a funny “b”; the # is called a sharp, and it indicates that the notes that fall on that line are to be increased by a halftone: C-C#. The “b” is called a flat, and it indicates that each note on that line is to be reduced by a half tone: Db-C. On the piano C# and Db are the same sound.

There are a lot of other markings possible on a musical text, but those you can pick up as you go along. It’s like learning to read: start with a simple song scored for piano. Sing and/or play the notes. It will be slow at first, but gradually you’ll pick up speed. And don’t ever lose heart. Remember that great jaszzman!