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Appendix A: How to Read Music
333
Review the notational elements in order, referring to the explanations that
follow for each number. Numbers 1 to 6 explain the mechanics of reading
pitches; 7 to 19 explain the mechanics of reading durations; and 20 to 26
explain expression and articulation markings.
Reading pitch
Table A-1 explains what the various symbols dealing with pitch mean in music
notation. Refer to Figure A-1 and this table for the meanings of the symbols.
Table A-1 refers to the symbols numbered from 1 to 6 in Figure A-1.
Table A-1
Number in What It’s What It Means
Figure A-1 Called
Pitch Symbols and Their Meanings
1 Staff Composers write music on a five-line system called a
staff. In talking about the individual lines of the staff,
refer to the bottom line as the first line. Between the
five lines are four spaces. Refer to the bottom space
as the first space. You can place noteheads on lines or
in spaces. As the noteheads get higher on the staff,
they get correspondingly higher in pitch. The distance
from one line to the next higher space (or from one
space to the next higher line) is one letter of the
alphabet (for example, A to B).
2 Clef The staff alone doesn’t tell you the pitches (letter
names) of the various lines and spaces. But a symbol
called a clef, at the left edge of each staff, identifies a
particular note on the staff. From that note, you can
determine all the other notes by moving alphabetically
up and down the staff (line to space to line, and so
on). The clef that you use in guitar music is called the
treble clef (or G clef — see G note following).
3 G note The clef that you use in guitar music is the treble clef
(sometimes called the G clef ), which vaguely resembles
an old-fashioned letter G. It curls around the
second line of the staff and indicates that this line is G,
and any note on that line is a G note. Some people
memorize the letter names of all the lines (E, G, B, D, F,
bottom to top) by the mnemonic “Every Good Boy
Does Fine.” For the spaces (F, A, C, E, bottom to top),
they think of the word face.
(continued)
TEAM LinG