How to read sheet music

Reading sheet music is daunting to many people who want to learn how to play musical instruments. Learning how to read sheet music requires understanding some basic points. You must know five basics before you can play.
Learn the notes on the staff

Staff notation is formed upon a collection of five horizontal lines which is called a staff (or stave) and is the basis on which music is written.
A note can be inserted on specific lines or spaces - the higher up the stave, the higher the note sounds. Undoubtedly music utilizes a tremendous amount more than simply just the 9 notes of a stave (5 lines and 4 spaces), and so we have to have some way of being able to indicate these further notes.

Learn the various dividers of the piece

Second, you have to know the basic marks that divide the entire piece into measures and sections. Single vertical lines called bar lines divide the piece into measures. At the end of the piece, there will be an ending bar line formed by a bar line followed closely 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.

Clefs

Clefs are symbols placed at the beginning of a stave to designate specific lines/spaces to designated pitches. The most straightforward way to comprehend this is to start thinking about the note Middle C. Middle C is this particular note that you'll hear about quite a lot. The truth is, there's nothing especially special about middle C; it's not really in the middle of anything! It is the C which happens to be closest to the middle of a piano. (To help you find a C on the piano you should search for the white note to the left of the 2 black notes. As a way to track down middle C identifies the one which is closest to the center of the piano.) Middle C is assigned to a specific line the instant we use a clef at the start of the stave.

By making use of these clefs we have significantly multiplied the number of notes that can be shown on merely these 5 lines and 4 spaces. Mix this with a number of ledger lines and you will have loads of notes!

So we understand the notion of the stave, ledger lines and clefs. The second step when studying how to read sheet music is to determine which lines/spaces refer to which notes in these 2 clefs. The optimum way of learning the note names is through the use of these simple and easy rhymes....

Learn the time signature

Third, you must know basic information about the overall timing of the song in each measure. At the beginning of the piece, after the clef symbol, look at the two numbers stacked one on top of the other. These numbers are the time signature for the piece. The top number tells you how many beats there will be in one measure. The bottom number tells you what kind of note will get one beat. These numbers along with the time values of the notes show you how to count each measure.

Learn the notes and the rests

Fourth, learn some basic information concerning the time values of various notes and rests. Every note will have an oval note head. It may 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 side opposite the oval). Based on differing combinations of these parts of the notes, you will play and hold notes for differing numbers of beats. In a song with a time signature of 4/4, here is the duration of four basic notes that you will play: 

·         Whole note - clear note head - lasts for 4 beats - count "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" but play only on beat 1

·         Half note - clear note head with stem - lasts for 2 beats - count "1 and 2 and" but play only on beat 1

·         Quarter note - blackened note head with stem - lasts for 1 beat - count "1 and"

·         Eighth note - blackened note head with stem and flag - lasts for 1/2 a beat - count either using the number of the beat alone (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 beat)

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

·         Whole rest - thin horizontal rectangle hanging down from the D line of the staff - silence for 4 beats

·         Half rest - thin horizontal rectangle sitting on the middle line of the staff - silence for 2 beats

·         Quarter rest - special symbol that looks somewhat like a vertical lightning bolt - silence for 1 beat

·         Eighth rest - looks somewhat like a fancy cursive "7" - silence for ½ a beat

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