Reading sheet music is daunting for many people who want to learn to play musical instruments. Learning to read sheet music requires understanding some basic points. You must know five basic concepts before you can play.

Learn the notes on the staff

Before you can play music, you must first learn the names of the notes on both the lines and spaces of the staff. To learn them, look at the key symbol at the beginning of each staff. It tells you the key of your piece. The treble clef is usually the common key used by many beginning musicians. For this key, from bottom to top, all five lines are EGBDF. Remember, “every good boy does well.” Next, learn the word “face” to learn the spatial notes from bottom to top (FACE).

Learn the different dividers of the piece.

Secondly, you have to know the basic marks that divide the entire piece into measurements and sections. Single vertical lines called barlines divide the piece into measures. At the end of the piece, there will be a final bar line made up of a bar line closely followed by a thick vertical line. Some songs will also have one or more pairs of closely spaced double vertical lines that divide the piece into sections.

Learn the time signature

Third, you need to know the basic information about the overall beat of the song in each measure. At the beginning of the piece, after the key symbol, notice the two numbers stacked on top of each other. These numbers are the time signature of the piece. The top number tells you how many beats there will be in a bar. The bottom number tells you what type of note a beat will have. These numbers along with the time values ​​of the notes show you how to count each measure.

Learn the notes and rests.

Fourth, learn basic information about the time values ​​of various notes and rests. Each note will have an oval note head. It can also have a vertical stem (attached to the note head on the right side of the head in simple songs) and one or more flags (attached to the stem on the opposite side of the oval). Depending on the different combinations of these note parts, you will play and hold notes for different numbers of beats. In a song with a 4/4 time signature, this is the length of four basic notes you’ll play:

• Full note – light note head – lasts 4 beats – count “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and” but play only on beat 1
• Half note – light note head with stem – lasts 2 beats – count “1 and 2 and” but play only on beat 1
• Quarter note – blackened note head with stem – lasts 1 beat – “1 y” count
• Eighth note – blackened notehead with stem and flag – lasts 1/2 beat – count using only the number of the beat (if the eighth note is on the first half of a beat) or the word “and” (if it is on the second half of a time)

A dot after any note increases the note’s time value by fifty percent of its original value. Rests denoting silence for different lengths of time match the four basic note durations above and are counted in the same way:

• All the rest – thin horizontal rectangle hanging from the D line of the staff – silence for 4 beats
• Half rest – thin horizontal rectangle sitting on the middle line of the staff – rest for 2 beats
• Rest room: special symbol that looks like a vertical lightning bolt: silence for 1 time
• Octave rest – looks a bit like a fancy italicized “7” – rest for ½ beat

learn the accidentals

Finally, you need to know the basics about special symbols called accidentals that indicate when the pitch of a note is altered from its normal pitch. Accidentals found between the clef symbol and the time signature show which notes are altered each time they occur in the piece. The basic accidents to learn are the following:

• Acute: looks a lot like a pound sign; raises the pitch of your note one half step (move to the next key to the right on a piano or to the next fret closest to the body of a guitar)
• Flat – lowercase letter “b”; lowers the pitch of your note a half step (move to the first key to the left on a piano or to the next fret closer to the head of a guitar)
• Natural – cancels the effect (for the rest of the measure it is in) of a preceding sharp or flat; a natural also cancels (for the rest of the measure it is in) any sharp or flat indicated at the beginning of the piece in the key signature; a natural thus restores a note to its normal pitch

In addition to accidentals that can be found at the beginning of the piece, accidentals can also occur in other parts of the piece. Such accidentals only apply for the rest of the measure they are in and will be just before the head of the note whose pitch they alter.

These are just basic points for learning to read sheet music; You will learn much more as your ability to play sheet music further increases. However, by learning these five basics you need to know before you can play, you’ll be well on your way to learning how to read sheet music.