[00:00] Learning to read sheet music and actually getting good at reading sheet music can be a very difficult task and although many people think that learning to read music is just about learning to read notes on a page very quickly there is actually a lot more to it so in today's video i'm going to walk
[00:14] you through these four stages of getting very good at reading sheet music and the notes that i used to make this video are available in the description and they are from my weekly news letter called monday music tips so if you find them useful feel free to sign up to that as well so let's get into
[00:27] So the first stage of learning to read music is learning to read the individual notes on the page. And there are a couple of different ways that people use to do this. Now when we read piano music, we read music using something called a stave or a staff.
[00:40] And a stave or a staff is just five lines on a page. And in piano music specifically, we use two different staves in order to read both hands. In the right hand, we read music using something called a treble clef. And in the left hand, we read music using a bass clef.
[00:54] And these two clefs change how we read notes on the stage. In treble clef, for example, this note, which is a middle C, because it's the note C and it's in the middle of the piano, can be written underneath the stage with its own line through it.
[01:09] Whereas in bass clef, this exact same note, so middle C, can be seen on top of the five lines with its own line going through it instead. This is because, for the most part, treble clef kind of deals with middle C
[01:21] and all of the notes above middle C on the piano, and the bass class deals with middle C and all of the notes lower than middle C on the piano. Now, when we see notes on the stave, we're either going to see the note with a line going through it, or in between two lines.
[01:34] And from middle C, if we move the note up so it's touching the bottom line of the stave, then that becomes the next note on the piano, which is a D. If we move up one more step so that the bottom line of the stave is going through the note,
[01:46] then that is an E. Another step would be in the lowest space on the stave, and that would be an F. after that we would have a G and then after that we would get an A because the musical alphabet only uses the letters A to G. So we go A, B, C, D, E, F, G and then we start again. And similarly
[02:01] in the bass class if we have middle C above the stave on its own line if we go one note lower than that C so it's touching the stave that would be a B because that's one before C. And if we go down again so that the note has got the top line going through it that would be one before a B
[02:16] which is an A, and one before that, so the top space on the stave would be a G, and so on. And this is the first of three ways that you can find notes on the page, and that's finding middle C in either the treble or bass class,
[02:29] and counting up or down to find the notes that you need. However, this is not the most practical method, because obviously, if you were reading a piece of music, it would take a lot of time to try and count up to every single note. So the second method that is used is using mnemonics.
[02:41] mnemonics. Now in the trouble class each of the spaces on the stave actually spells the word face and this is why people like to remember face is space and for the notes that have the lines going through them there are lots of phrases that people like to remember but a good one is
[02:56] every good boy deserves food so e g b d and s. For the spaces in the base class you can use all cows eat grass so a c e and g and for the lines in the base class there is great big dogs fight
[03:10] and Albert, so G, B, D, F and A. This is a slightly quicker method than counting from middle C, because there's a lot less notes that you have to work through to find the note that you want. For example, if I am reading treble clef, and I have a note that has the
[03:22] middle line going through it, then I can just say, every good boy, and I know that that's a B. But this still is not the most efficient method, because if you were reading a piece of music, then once again, if you have lots of notes on the page, especially if you've
[03:34] got more than one note at the same time, it would take a lot of time working through each the different mnemonics for every single note on the page. And not only that, but this method also doesn't account for the fact that reading music is a two-step process. First of all,
[03:47] you have to recognize the note on the page, and then you have to translate that note to the individual key on the piano. If you work through these phrases and you work out that the middle line on Trouble Class is a B, that doesn't actually tell you which B on the piano
[04:00] it is, because there are lots of Bs on the piano. And this is why I think the best method for for learning the individual notes on the page is a method called the landmark system. Now, the landmark system is a method where you select two or three notes across the stage. So, in
[04:15] treble-pressed, that might be middle C, that might be G, for example, and then that might be the next C. And the idea here is that you actively remember these three notes, and these are going to be your landmark notes And the important thing here is to not only remember what the note is on the page but also which individual key on the piano that note relates to And by actually remembering just two or three notes that are spread out across the stage you can work out other notes that surround those landmark notes
[04:42] And when these three landmark notes become instantly recognisable for you, then you can add another landmark note to those three notes. And within quite a short period of time, you'll get to the point where every single note is a landmark note, and therefore you instantly recognise all of the notes on the page.
[04:56] Now the reason that I think this method is the best method, because it kind of combines the previous two methods, but it also removes that extra step of having to count up through the notes, or count through the words that are in a new money.
[05:08] So you still can count from one of your landmark notes to find notes that you're less familiar with, but also you are accumulating instant recognition of the notes. It's also important in the first stage to understand how long the notes are.
[05:20] And in music, note lengths are determined by what the note actually looks like. So if the note is coloured in and it has a stem, then this is a 1 beat note. If the note is not colored-in and has a stem, then that is a 2 beat
[05:32] note. So that lasts twice as long as the 1 beat note. If the note is not colored-in and doesn't have a stem, then that is a 4 beat note. If the note is colored-in, has a stem and a tail, then this is a half beat note. So this is twice as fast as a 1 beat note. And if it has two tails,
[05:47] then that's a quarter beat note. So that's four times as fast as a 1 beat note. You can also keep adding tails and half the note length each time or you can add a dot next to the note length and that will times the note length by 1.5. For example if it was a two beat note, so a note that isn't
[06:02] coloured in and has a stem and we put a dot next to it that becomes a three beat note because 2 times 1.5 is 3. However for a lot of musicians this is where they start and stop with learning
[06:14] to read music. They think that learning to read music is all about reading individual notes very quickly. But that is not actually the case and I always liken this to reading the alphabet. In the English language when we read sentences we don't actually think about the individual letters
[06:28] that make up the words. We think about the words and then we think about the sentence that those words are part of and what that sentence means. And this is why although it's very important to know what the notes actually are on the page, once you instantly recognize those notes the next step
[06:43] is to start learning the words, or in the case of music, the patterns that those notes form. And there are many different types of patterns that notes can form. There are scales, there are chords, there are things like octaves, where you play two of the same letter on the piano. Each of
[06:58] these patterns work together in order to form a sentence in music. And recognizing these patterns that notes are forming on a page helps us read much, much quicker. For example, one of these patterns is something called a key signature. And a key signature is usually seen at the beginning
[07:12] of a piece of music. And a key signature tells us which scale that piece of music is going to be using and therefore which notes on the piano we're going to be playing. For example, if the key signature shows us at the beginning of the piece of music that we have one sharp, then the scale
[07:26] that has one sharp is the scale of G major and that scale has an F sharp in it. So in this piece of music instead of playing F on the piano we're going to be playing F sharp instead. So learning the patterns of key signatures helps us narrow down and predict what the music is going to be
[07:41] be doing. And if the piece of music has one sharp in the key signature it is always going to be an F sharp. So the next time you see a piece with one sharp in the key signature you already know what you're going to be playing. Another pattern that is used is the pattern of scale. Now a scale
[07:55] is just using consecutive notes that are in a key. So in the key of key major which has an F sharp a scale would look like this. And you actually see scales written into music all of the time and they're a good pattern to recognize. And a good example of this is the piece Minuet in G
[08:11] by Bach. In the first bar of this piece of music we have the notes G, A, B, D and D which is the first five notes of the G major scale and if we were trying to read this piece of music for the first time we would only really need to look at the first note and the last note to know what the
[08:26] notes are going to be because we can see that it's a scale and we just need to know where to start and stop the scale. In the third bar of the same piece we get another scale which is from C to G and this is a G major scale but starting on a C instead so that would be the notes C, D, E, F sharp and G
[08:41] And once again, knowing that this piece of music is using a G major scale, and being able to see that the first and last note of this particular set of notes is a C and a G, is going to save us a lot of time working out each of the individual notes. Another pattern that is often used, and is probably the most important to recognise, is chords.
[08:57] Now, every single piece of music is constructed using chords and melody. And as a player, it's important to recognise where the chords are and where the chords change. And it can also help an awful lot with predicting what the notes are going to be Now normally in a scale we construct chords by playing every other note in that scale starting on one of the notes in the scale
[09:16] For example, in G major, chord 1 would be a G major chord, and that is the notes G, B, and D, because that's every other note in the scale. But we can construct one of these chords starting on each of the notes of the scale.
[09:30] So chord 1 would be that G chord, chord 2 would be A, Chord 3 would be a B chord, 4 would be a C chord, 5 would be a D chord, 6 would be an E chord, and 7 would be an F sharp chord before we return back to another type of G chord.
[09:45] That means that in a piece of music that is using the scale of G major and using the key of G major, we're likely to see those 7 chords. And on top of those chords, we're going to see a melody that is using that scale.
[09:57] Now in this same piece, the Minuet in G by Bach, the first two bars of this piece are based around a G major chord, which is chord number one. And the first three notes in the left hand are actually just a G major chord, which is the notes G, B and D.
[10:10] But also, a lot of the melody and the notes in the left hand are going to be based around those Gs, Bs and Ds, because those are the notes that are in the chord. And oftentimes, if a melody is jumping around rather than moving by step and using notes in the scale,
[10:25] they're probably going to be jumping to another note that is in the chord. And the reason for that is because the notes that are in the chord that is being played at the time are the notes that sound the most safe and secure. So for these two bars, any time that the melody is jumping around, it's jumping to one of those three notes.
[10:40] And if it isn't jumping around, then you're just playing a scale. And in the left hand, we have a similar situation. So we have a G chord, and then we have an A, which goes to a B, and a B is in the chord, and the A is just another scale note that's in between.
[10:54] In bar 3 of this particular piece, the chord changes, and the chord changes to chord number 4, which is a C chord, and a C chord consists of the notes C, E, and G. And the way that we know that is because the left hand is playing a C, and the right hand is playing an E,
[11:10] and those notes are two of the three notes that make up a C chord. And once again, as soon as we've played those notes, the right hand jumps down to another note that's in the chord, which is a C, and then we play through that scale again. And then in the fourth bar, we go back to chord number one, which was that G chord again.
[11:25] And the reason that we know that is because we have a B in the left hand and we have Gs in the right hand. And those notes are two of the three notes that make up the G chord. Being able to recognise and see chords and when chords change in a piece of music is probably the most difficult thing to be able to do in all of music reading.
[11:40] But it's also the most valuable because that is the single biggest thing that allows us to predict what the notes are going to be. And when reading music, we want to latch onto as many things as we can to be able to predict what's going to happen so that we don't have to read every single individual note.
[11:54] One final pattern that's evident in this particular piece is the fact that it's called minuet in G. And a minuet is a pattern in itself because it's a type of dance. And a minuet actually usually has three beats in a bar and it's very similar in style to a waltz,
[12:08] which means you have kind of a strong beat 1 and then a weaker beat 2 and 3 so you might get 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3.
[12:20] Even small patterns like this enable us to characterise and understand how many beats there are in a bar. This brings us to the third stage which is all about bringing these patterns together. In the second stage it is important to recognise what a scale looks like on the page
[12:32] where you might see chords and what those chords might be. But the key signatures are, and of course it's still important to be able to read the notes individually to find these patterns. But in the third stage we need to start being able to read how these patterns actually interact together to form the piece of music.
[12:47] For example, in a G major scale, chord 1 is G major. And knowing that that is chord 1 in the scale is incredibly important for many different reasons. One of those reasons is the fact that chord 1 in a major scale is a major chord, and a major chord has a very specific type of sound.
[13:02] And actually, chords 1, 4 and 5 in a major scale are major chords, chords 2, 3 and 6 are minor chords, and chord 7 is something called a diminished chord. And each of those types of chords have very different qualities of sound.
[13:17] A major chord sounds kind of positive and uplifting, whereas a minor chord sounds a bit more dark and mysterious or negative. And a diminished chord sounds kind of shocking. And while we can learn to recognise these types of chords independent of anything else going on in the piece of music,
[13:34] if we know that the piece of music is using a G major scale then we already know which chords are major which chords are minor and which chord is diminished Also knowing that we are in the key of G major means that when we play these scale passages that are in the first and third bar we can directly relate how those scales work in relation to the chords that are underneath it and the scale that the piece of music is using
[13:56] For example, the first scale starts on a G and finishes on a D, and it also starts on the first note that is in the chord underneath it, because it was a G major chord that was underneath that scale. Whereas in the third bar, when the scale reappears, this time the scale starts on the note C.
[14:11] But because you have a C major chord underneath it, that is the first note in a C major chord. So that scale is following a very similar pattern to the scale in the first bar, because it's starting on the first note of the chord that is underneath it. So the chords that are being used, the scale passages that are being used,
[14:26] and the key of the piece of music, so the scale that the piece of music is using, all relate to each other very heavily, and the more familiar you become with reading chords, scales, and keys, the more these patterns become very, very predictable. The fourth stage is not only being able to bring all of these patterns together, but it's also about conveying meaning.
[14:43] Now ultimately, playing music is all about finding and conveying meaning in whatever piece of music you're playing. And that can sound like an impossible task if you are singing a piece of music for the first time. And this is why finding meaning when you are reading music becomes so important.
[14:57] In the same way that if reading the individual notes is like reading the alphabet, and reading the patterns is like reading words, and bringing all of those patterns together to see how they relate to each other
[15:09] is like putting words together to form a sentence. The final step is working out what those patterns and what those patterns collectively actually mean in the same way that when we read a sentence, we're really trying to understand what that sentence means
[15:21] rather than just saying words that don't mean anything. So in this particular example, a minuet is kind of like a waltz. It's a dance and it has a stronger beat 1 and a weaker beat 2 and 3. And the reason for that is because it's much easier if someone is dancing
[15:34] to be able to feel the pulse if it has a strong beat once. The difference between a minuet and a waltz, however, is that a minuet is often a little bit livelier. So in this case, we might want to push through the music a little bit more. The key signature is G major, and that is a major key.
[15:48] So it's going to sound more positive than if we were using a minor key, for example. And there are also no key changes throughout this entire section of music, and there's no odd notes that we aren't expecting using the scale of G major. So that tells us that it's probably going to sound quite stable,
[16:00] and we can play it with a confident, stable sound. The chords in this section are, for the first two bars, it's a G major chord, for the third bar it's a C major chord, and for the fourth bar it's a G major chord again.
[16:12] So that's chord 1, going to chord 4, going back to chord 1. All of these chords are major, so they're all going to sound kind of positive. G major is chord 1 in the scale, so that's going to feel like home, and C major, while it's positive and a very strong and stable chord, it's going to sound like we're venturing away and exploring, before returning back home to chord 1 in bar 4.
[16:31] In the first bar in the left hand we have a G major chord which is very strong and stable, and then we have an A which leads to a B, and a B is also in the chord of G, and that A is going to feel like it's leading towards that B because it's a note that doesn't
[16:45] belong to the chord and therefore feels like it wants to go to a note that does belong to the chord, and that A will add just a little bit of tension before being released when playing the B. Both of the scale passages in bar one and three are both part of a G major scale,
[16:57] and they're both rising through the scale opposed to descending. This means that when we reach the final note of each of these two scale passages, it'll feel like we've arrived at some kind of destination at the top of the scale. And because the scale is in bar three is higher than the scale
[17:10] in bar one, and that coincides with that C major chord which will feel a little bit more exploratory, that scale might sound even more uplifting than the first scale. All of these things can be taken from the music before you've even played a single note. Music reading always
[17:23] starts with learning to read the individual notes, but it's important to know that that is only really the beginning of learning to read music. And learning to read patterns requires time, practice and seeing the same patterns appear in multiple different contexts. The important thing
[17:37] is to try and notice these things and the more times you notice them and see them in pieces, the better and quicker you will get at reading music. So here is the first four bars of Bach's Minuet in G and see if you can hear how those patterns interact with each other in order to
[17:50] create meaning. There are lots of difficult things about playing the piano and learning music in
[18:02] general and I often get a lot of questions about learning music and in this video I answer 30 of those questions so if you're interested in that then head on through and I will see you there.
[18:20] you