Reading Musical Notation
Read staff notation and other ways of writing music down: note names on the stave, note and rest lengths (crotchets, quavers, minims), and graphic scores; follow a written melody and match notation to what is heard
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name notes on the treble stave and explain that higher positions mean higher sounds
- Identify note and rest lengths (e.g. a minim lasts twice as long as a crotchet)
- Follow a simple score while listening and point to where the music has got to, or match a short rhythm they hear to the right notation
1 · Read
A stave has five lines and four spaces. Notes sit on lines or in spaces. A clef gives their note names. With plain notes in the same clef, a higher position means a higher pitch. Height does not show loudness.
In treble clef, read lines from bottom to top as E, G, B, D, F. Read spaces as F, A, C, E. Note names go A to G, then repeat. Moving up one line-or-space position moves to the next letter.
Count a crotchet as one beat here. A crotchet has a filled oval and stem: 1 beat. A minim has an open oval and stem: 2 beats. A semibreve has an open oval without a stem: 4 beats. A quaver has a filled oval, stem and flag, or shares a beam: half a beat.
Add note lengths to find the total. A minim and a crotchet last 2 + 1 = 3 beats. Rests mark silence. A minim rest is a small solid rectangle sitting on the middle stave line: two quiet beats here. A crotchet rest looks like a short zigzag with a curved tail: one quiet beat. Keep counting during a rest.
A quaver rest has one dot attached to a sloping stroke. It lasts half a beat here. Follow written music from left to right. Point to the note or rest happening now. Keep your finger there for its whole length, then move to the next symbol.
A graphic score uses pictures or marks to guide sounds. Its key explains their meanings. A line might mean a long sound, but check the key. To match a written rhythm to one you hear, compare the sound lengths in order. The same number of sounds does not guarantee a match.
Height on the stave shows pitch, note shapes show length, and following the page while you listen ties reading and hearing together.
Original readings and flashcards written for this dataset.
More to read
Find a note on the treble stave
Before naming a written note, check the clef. The treble clef marks the second line from the bottom as G.
For treble-clef lines, use E, G, B, D, F from bottom to top. For spaces, use F, A, C, E. These are two separate lists. A notehead crossing a line uses the line list. A notehead between lines uses the space list.
Try finding the fourth line. Count only lines: E, G, B, D. Its note is D. Now find the second space. Count only spaces: F, A. Its note is A.
The clef matters because another clef gives the positions different note names.
Find the repeating note names
Look for a group of two black piano keys. The white key just to its left is C. Moving right through the white keys gives C, D, E, F, G, A, B, then C again.
The letters repeat across the keyboard. Two keys called C can make different pitches. The C farther right sounds higher.
Pick one group of two black keys and find its C. Say the note names as you move through the white keys toward the next C. Then try the same task at another group of two black keys.
Naming a key tells you its pitch name. Choosing a finger is a separate playing decision.
Practise names and positions both ways
Write the treble-clef line names in a list: E, G, B, D, F. Beside each one, write its position counted from the bottom. Make a second list for the spaces: F, A, C, E.
Cover the letters and choose a position. For the third space, count F, A, C. Check that your answer is C.
Now reverse the task. Choose D from the line list and find its position. Counting upward gives the fourth line.
Keep saying whether you mean a line or a space. A letter alone may appear in more than one place when the music reaches higher or lower notes.
Give silence its full time
For this practice, count a crotchet as one beat. A minim lasts two beats, a semibreve four and a quaver half a beat. Add the lengths when sounds follow one another.
Rests take time too. A minim rest is a small filled rectangle sitting on the middle line of the stave. Count two quiet beats. A crotchet rest has a zigzag stroke with a curved tail. Count one quiet beat. A quaver rest has one dot attached to a sloping stroke and lasts half a beat.
Try one beat of humming, two beats of silence, then another beat of humming. Count all four beats steadily. Silence does not stop the count.
Count the time inside a bar
Bar lines divide written music into bars. Begin with the time signatures 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4. For these signatures, the lower 4 makes a crotchet one beat. The upper number gives two, three or four of those beats in each full bar.
A full bar of 3/4 could contain a minim followed by a crotchet rest. Count two sounding beats and one quiet beat. Together they fill the bar's three beats.
These instructions describe the three signatures named here. Other time signatures can group shorter notes into larger beats. Tapping a steady pulse helps you follow a piece, but it does not always reveal its exact written time signature.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
This opens up
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.