How to read Music

and welcome to how to read music very quick yet hopefully helpful overview the it won't and I can promise you that you will be signed reading after watching this video but I can promise you that you will understand music sheet much better after this so let's begin let me show you an example of music sheet right here this is a highly complicated music sheet and even I if I see this I get scared but I do understand everything in it because all music sheet is essentially the same so let's jump to something more simple like this this is more along the lines of what you will be seeing in my videos it doesn't necessarily mean that the song is easy but it's definitely easier than on the last music sheet so the again my goal is for you to understand what music sheet is about so let's get started the basic of the basics is the staff the staff are those five horizontal lines and each line represents a note it has spaces in between and between those spaces those are notes as well so I know it can be on a space or on a line for example let's play four random notes there we go and those are placed on spaces you can see the first note goes underneath the S staff you can go way below the staff or you can go way above the staff we'll look into that a little bit later so let's continue and a good trick if you have never read music before is to you need to memorize where what what each note is a good way to do that is if you if you know that the a middle line on the staff is the B note and any note that's placed on that middle line is going to be a B so memorize that remember that and then also remember the top line and the bottom the top will be an F and the bottom will be an e so with that you have three notes and you can find notes in between and let me give you an example we we start with a note B and now we're going to climb up all the way to that F that we have marched so we count up after the becomes a C then a D then an e and we get to the F and and we can do the same thing counting down let's go back to our trusty B so we count down the next note down is an A then we have a G and F and we get to the e and this technique of counting is the way you you're gonna have to start with I had to go through with everybody and I'm sure motor that too so you can you can be born knowing this so you're going to have to count up and down and then with time you will memorize every single note so let me give you the SC scale this is the most typical scale always played is just played on a white keys on a piano keyboard and it's a series of eighth notes and we start with a see right here you can see that C has an auxiliary line because it goes below the staff then we have a d e G a B and we go back to C this C sounds the same as this one no twice but it's an octave higher we can do that with it all all C's are the same note only different octaves oh well that was any Yi sorry um anyway I think the point is clear and what you need to memorize is this sequence right here c d e f g a b c and this will allow you to see any note let's say you have a note on the b and what comes below the B well let's look be a ok what's above the a be a C hmm what's this next line and after the C comes a d again so this loops over and over and over so it's a nice sequence to memorize and then use when you're trying to find a note on a music sheet and let's move on to the cliff's we're back to the basic we have our staff and then M on every music sheet or sheet music rather and you're going to have a clef that this symbol here is a clef symbol it's the assemble of G and you can see it ends right there and it should be if properly done then it'll end on this line and this line is a G that's why it's called the a G clef the G clef is also known as a treble clef because it's used for high-pitched notes there are different kinds of cliffs and you have an F clef this is used for low notes it's a low register cliff and it's also more commonly known as the bass clef and then there is this cliff this is a sea cliff and this is something in between very few instruments use this the ones I know of for sure is em violas use the Seacliff cellos sometimes jump to the sea cliff and it has different positions but we we we don't worry about it we we just use the G clef and that's one of the big advantages of playing violin there's only one cliff one staff you have to worry about I mean look this is an example for a piano player look at this poor guy he needs to sight-read to STATS at the same time and they're different cliffs and the a difference in the clamps they're not exactly the same for example this F as you can see the end two dots that marks the F line but on the a treble clef that would be a D the same line so each clef is different and a piano player has to memorize both cliffs and be completely comfortable reading them so just be glad that we are sticking to the ng no matter what and that's enough about cliffs it's just background information and for you to know why it's their DM next step is going to be keys keys is what makes a song a certain pitch like for example let's play the song I'm playing it in a major let's go to C major I'm sure you heard the difference it's the same song but it's played in different keys and keys are important because there are certain instruments that play better with certain keys and maybe if you're a singer you want to tune that song up or you want to tune it down to adjust better to your voice so that's why keys exist and also it gives a little bit of a different flavor to to e song keys are written right after the clef symbol and it can be either shards like this or it can be flats like this and each sharp or each flat added or even if there is no sharp and no flat this is a key in itself the key of C major and on the piano again just to give you a visual example C major just uses the white keys on the piano each key also has a relative minor scale which the C major relative minor is a minor why because it uses the same keys it just uses the white keys let's hear a minor scale it sounds darker doesn't it but it's it's the same keys as a C major scale the only difference is that instead of starting it on a C I'm starting it on an a so again this the sharps or the flats in the beginning determine the key the song is going to be played in now if keys don't make sense to you yet don't worry about it it's not important you will understand it with time as we go along the important thing to remember with these is that the key signature is written right next to the cliff and these symbols mean that let's say this one is written on an F C it's right on the line and then this one is on the space where the C should be so we have an F and a C and these are sharps and this means that all our FS and all our C's will be shorts throughout the entire sheet music unless otherwise indicated which we'll get to that later but that that is the important thing that's what you need to remember not so much which sharp is which key and the relative minor and then you'll understand that on your own I'll come to you later you don't need to worry about that but what is very important is to know that whatever is marked in the beginning for example here this is above the staff this wasn't remember F that's right and the note right above the F is a G so this is a G sharp and this means that all our g-sharp snow matter where they are even if it's down here or way below here is still going to be sharp okay and the order of these sharps is always the same so if you want to memorize the key signatures you can it's the same with the flats they have a specific order they always are added the same way it starts with a b-flat then an e-flat then an a-flat then D flat then a G flat okay and here is a little graph for you to have a visual cue of the major and minor scales like we talked about the one that has no key signature which is a key signature in itself and that's a C major scale or the relative a minor scale then if we look at the next one it has just an F sharp and that means that we will play all our s sharp so I mean G major scale is G a b c d e f sharp gee see because the only note that's that that's marked a sharp is the F and now the relative minor would be e minor and that's a scale we start em e and again it's the same rule it's just the F that we play sharp so an E minor scale is e f g a b c d c that that scale sounds darker and and the same applies to all of these the flats is exactly the same principle it's not hard to understand but it does get confusing now we have our our signatures right here di keys and let's stick to the F sharp as an example and this means all our FS are sharp but then maybe the composer or if you're playing a song you don't want the F sharp you want to play it natural that's where this guy comes in this is the assemble for a natural note and this goes right in front of a specific note and what this does is it cancels out the the initial setup but it only works for this measure only for the measure it's n so we have a D and F it's supposed to be sharp but the natural symbol is here so we play it natural and by sharp I mean a half a tone higher up right flat is half a tone lower and natural is the exact tone so an F on the piano the white key is this an F sharp is half a tone higher so idea in the beginning is telling me to play this song but it's been naturalized so we play the F natural then we have an e right here and then an F again since this F is still within the first measure we know that we have to play it natural again so we go natural now here we begin a new measure this line divides the M measures and every time we have a new measure we default back to the ground rule so all our s are sharp again so here we have a random B here we have an F and this F is sharp because this natural only works for this measure and only what for whatever comes after that note and then we have a D and a we don't really care about those I hope that's clear and that is important to understand so if you have trouble understanding that and go back revisit and see it again I hope I explain myself clearly there and the next thing we're going to talk about is the at time signature so we know what this is the clef we know what this is it's the key signature and now we get to the data time signature and those are those funny numbers that are and the very beginning of every score sometimes you will see a C or a C with a line through it those are special markings well not really that special I mean a C means exactly the same as 4/4 but let's not worry about that that's just trying to understand these numbers usually it's most songs are 4/4 4/4 especially in today's music and and that means that on each measure like we talked about before measure one measure to measure three on each measure it wants to have four quarter notes or equivalence of quarter notes so an example would be easy enough right here one two three four and and what I mean with equivalence and if we look at this graph we can see the quarter notes right here one quarter note is the same length as two eighth notes so if this is one quarter note this would be the eighth notes and this will be the 16 notes okay I hope that makes sense so one quarter note is four sixteenth notes and then we got this is our basic because it's four forts and but we can also write one of these because one of these is the same length as two quarter notes and then have two quarter notes that will give us four fourths we have this note and then this in one measure since this is the same as two quarter notes we can play this one two three four see I hope that makes sense and then just so you know each note also has a value and silences so this is the same graph these are the quarter notes but these are rests so this means that you are not playing the note and it doesn't have an actual pitch it's just a marking on the sheet music but it means to shut up don't play okay and each rest has a certain value this is a quarter note rest so you are just silent for the duration of a quarter note so let's say we have a measure with one quarter rest and then three quarter notes it would be like this one two three or that make sense hopefully and these are eighth note rests and these are sixteenth and so forth half notes and whole notes now let's go back to our rhythmical example so here we have one two three four and that would be the same as this this is the four fours because here is one two then there are two eighth notes two eighth notes equals one fourth note so that's three and then here we have a fourth fourth note well yeah well I think I think that makes sense so on the piano this would sound like this one two three four okay it's still four beats and an even more complicated example would be this it's still four fours we got one fourth here these four count us one fourth because these are sixteenth notes these two eighth notes are the same as 1/4 and then here we have again 1/4 so it's one two three four on the piano LV one two three four and then as a last example and let's make the notes longer than a fourth we got the a half notes so even though there are only two notes in this measure it's still 4/4 because each one of these has a value of two see we're we're basing ourselves with the fourth note because that's what this bass number is that's actually a good way to remember it base number is the basic so let's count these this would be one two three or I hope that makes sense and and this will make it much easier to for you to play rhythmically now if I don't know if you notice mmm but seeing these two notes looks kind of messy watching these sixteenth notes is it makes everything a little bit more confusing so there is an alternate way of writing these notes and make it easier on the eyes and that will be right here here are the eighth notes they're joined by by a horizontal line and the 16 notes are joined all four of them are joined with two horizontal lines why because the eighth note is only one stem right there and the f-16s to see and then here we have eight notes again so you will see music written this way and let's go back to the at times the control we talked about four fourths but it could pretty much be anything and let's see 3/4 3/4 is a what would that be it would be three what's the base is the basic so quarter four so we need three quarter notes on each measure an example right here and this is usually used with mean words you know Bachman wet and Mozart and Tintin that's 3/4 then em vowels the those are usually 3/4 and that's why I'm using this example because it sounds a lot like a like about rhythm so the you can see that it's three beats three beats of quarter notes one two three there is more than one note right here but and that just means that the N notes are played at the same time it does not change the length of the note there the beat it doesn't change the beat it's still three beats and this example would sound something like this can you hear it dun dun dun dun dun dun 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 and that's the 3/4 then we got a 6/8 is another example and let's see if you can figure this one out I'm going to talk you through it anyway and you know it the 8 right here is the base that's right so our base is eighth notes this time not four notes like the last I'm not quarter notes mmm and what we want is we 1/6 of an eighth notes on each measure and that would look something like this and usually when it's like this the eighth notes are joined right there and then right here to make it visually more clean but I'm doing a PowerPoint presentation and got too complicated to change that the whole thing so this is it's kind of like a 3/4 you know 3/4 is actually equivalent to 6/8 and but it's usually played a little faster there are more notes and a measure and and this is generally used to play arpeggio style an arpeggio is a chord that's being played note by note like for example versus the court and I'm going to play those notes does that make sense 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 ok and again we're basing the on the eighth notes not on the fourth notes but the most common ones are well these are the three more common ones then you can go crazy with the time signatures mmm but we will be working with these mainly especially in the beginning now I hope this sheet music right now makes more sense to you hopefully you can figure it out and let's take a quick gander at it so we know what this is it's a clef the treble clef so that's not going to change for us then we need to pay attention to the key signature since there is nothing there we know it's probably C major or a minor but it's C major I mean look at the first note here it's a C so that's usually a giveaway mm then we've got the numbers this is our time signature and it's telling us it wants three quarter notes on each measure and sure enough it has one two three and then here one two three these two eighth notes count as one quarter note here just straight quarter notes one two three a half note so that's one two three and so on and I'm sure you have noticed if you haven't you're not paying attention but I'm sure you notice that this first measure does not have three beats in it mmm and that's very observant of you and very true as well but this is a very common thing in music it's kind of like a jumping into the melody like a little start a little push to start the song and I'm sure you recognize this song this is I miss played that one I'm sorry um but I'm holding a microphone too so it's not easy and I'm not being patriotic here and it's a recognizable melody and it's very nicely spread and one can very clearly see what's going on here is the interesting instance like we talked before there is no key signature here yet it wants us to play this f-sharp goes from right and that is because of what we talked before the a composer needs an f-sharp it doesn't sound right if it were natural so he put that in front of the note to change just that note and any note that would follow it as long as it's within the measure this is a last note of that measure mmm we're starting a new one here so new measure goes back to the ground rules like we talked before so if there is another F now coming up or here are a couple there is one this one is natural because it's an it's a new measure and it goes back to the a ground rules if FS were to be sharp then it would say here and it would be marked on each line and the time signature is only marked once unless it changes and let's see here's another F it's natural another F it's natural another F it's natural so this part would sound like I am I'm sure you recognize that part mmm and then right here it plays yeah main melody again no no no it doesn't yes it does and and it wants to sharpen this F again okay and that's pretty much it for now there are more details to be explained like what the hell is this what is this what does this dot mean what does this line mean and we're going to get into those kind of things when we play violin together mmm I'll be reviewing each sheet music and I'll be explaining every new thing that appears but at least right now you have a basic concept to start playing get your own music sheet or sheet music and you try as an exercise to write down which note you see on each individual note it's a great practice and you will learn you will memorize the notes on a staff very quickly that's that's how I had to learn and it went fast I think after two weeks I was pretty much fluent and knowing exactly which note was what so do that when you're bored you know when you're in history class or math and know I like math do it in history class no no I don't want to come down that kind of behavior but do it whenever you're bored and you have a second or it's actually you therapeutic and relaxing so this will give you a good start to start playing the violin and hopefully I'll see you on the on the videos let's make some music together thank you very much for watching I hope this helped and until next time

Channel: Measure By Measure

Views: 727,514

Rating: 4.9138083 out of 5

Keywords: how to, read music, music, violin, measure, by, werner, hoefner, como, leer, partituras

Id: PZ1ai7y59I8

Length: 31min 52sec (1912 seconds)

Published: Fri May 20 2016