Learn how to read sheet music TODAY

Learn How To Read Sheet Music is a resource for musicians who want to take their musicianship to the next level by learning how to read music.

Whether you’re just starting to learn an instrument or wanting to become an expert musician then learning to read music will definitely help you get ahead of the pack.

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You can check out the different video lessons and music theory worksheets aimed at helping you learn how to read music quickly.

If you are a complete beginner you should start with the Beginner Lesson

FREE How To Read Music Lessons and Videos

October 17, 2011

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Pitch

How to read music – Getting Started In this beginner lesson we’re going to look at some of the basics of sheet music. The only background knowledge you need when learning how to read music is a basic understanding of the fact that some notes sound higher than others – this difference is called pitch. [...]

August 31, 2011

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Time Signatures

A time signature appears at the start of every piece of sheet music and consists of two numbers on top of each other (a bit like a fraction in math, but without the line). I’m going to look at why we need a time signature and give you a quick practical activity to try. I’ll [...]

June 22, 2011

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Bass Clef

Bass Clef Made Easy Why do we need a Bass Clef? The Bass Clef always poses problems for people trying to learn how to read music. I often get asked what the point of the Bass Clef is because its existence just seems to make life harder for no good reason!! Well, the reason we [...]

June 16, 2011

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How To Read Sheet Music For Piano

Learning how to read sheet music for piano can be quite daunting at first because it looks like a series of lots of lines and dots with several random symbols thrown in for good measure. The key thing to remember is that piano music simply uses the basic elements of sheet music – it just has a lot [...]

June 16, 2011

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How To Read Drum Music

Many people who want to learn how to read drum music get put off by the fact that drum notation can look quite complex at first. However, it’s actually pretty simple to grasp because there are only 2 main things you need to be able to work out from the notation: 1. Which drum to [...]

April 21, 2011

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Learn The Notes

A crucial first step in learning how to read music is to be able to remember which lines and spaces refer to which notes. The easiest way to do this is through a series of rhymes. These rhymes have been around for absolutely ages, but they really are a very quick way to learn the [...]

April 21, 2011

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Sharps and Flats

Reading Sharps and flats If you’ve looked at the lesson on Getting Started then you will now know how to read sheet music for the white notes (otherwise known as the naturals) on a piano/keyboard. However, we need to also know when to play the black notes. The black notes are known as sharps and [...]

April 21, 2011

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Key Signatures

Key Signatures Music is often described as the universal language. However, there are variations within this language. Key signatures tell us what dialect/variation of this universal language we are speaking at any one time. In order to understand key signatures when learning how to read sheet music we need to learn about scales and keys. [...]

April 21, 2011

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tempo

The choice of tempo (speed) of a piece of music has a crucial bearing on its feel and the genre it sits in. There are some styles of music which have specific tempos – e.g. romantic ballads tend to have a fairly slow tempo, whilst disco music tends to have a fast tempo. When you’re [...]

April 20, 2011

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Note Lengths

Working Out A Note’s Length When learning how to read sheet music you need to ask yourself 3 questions about a note’s appearance in order to work out its length…. Is the notehead filled in? Does the note have a stem? Does the stem have a tail? These 3 variables combine to tell you [...]

April 20, 2011

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Dotted Notes

Sometimes you will see a dot after a note (don’t confuse this with a dot above or below the note – that is something totally different and we’ll look at that in a different post). A dot placed after a note makes the note 50% longer than it is. It’s really that simple – all [...]

April 14, 2011

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Tied Notes

Sometimes you will see a curved line joining 2 notes together. If the 2 notes are the SAME pitch then these 2 notes are joined together rhythmically. Note: If they’re not the same pitch then ignore this line for the moment – it is something different and I’ll cover this in a later post. Let’s [...]

April 2, 2011

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Vocal Music

I know that many of you are singers and want to learn how to read music either as soloists or in a group/choir. It can be quite daunting when you first look at a piece of vocal music, but do not fear as it is actually quite easy to grasp. There are 2 main types [...]

March 25, 2011

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Dynamics

Playing changes in volume (or dynamics) in a performance is one of the techniques that separates basic musicians from more advanced players. When you are learning how to read sheet music it is really important to be able to work out how loud to play at any given moment. If you can do this quickly [...]

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Learn how to read sheet music TODAY

FREE How To Read Music Lessons and Videos

Pitch

Time Signatures

Bass Clef

How To Read Sheet Music For Piano

How To Read Drum Music

Learn The Notes

Sharps and Flats

Key Signatures

tempo

Note Lengths

Dotted Notes

Tied Notes

Vocal Music

Dynamics

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