MUSIC NOTATION

Musical notation is a series of marks and symbols

made on paper, that instruct musicians how to play a
musical composition.
SHEET MUSIC
• Is a hand written or printed form of musical notation.
The Staff (Stave)- is the basis of written music. It is what the
notes are presented on. It consists of 5 lines with 4 spaces
between them.
• In western musical notation, the staff also occasionally referred
to as a pentagram.
• The most important symbols on the staff is clef, key signature
and time signature.
Clef- is a sign at the beginning of a staff of music which make it
possible for the player to work out what the notes are.
Treble Clef- the large fancy symbol to the far left. The treble staff begins with the first
line as E. Each successive space and line is the next letter in the musical alphabet.
The staff ends with the last line as an F. Many mnemonic devices exist to help a
person remember which line and space is which. One of the most common phrases
to remember the names of the lines is: Every Good Boy Does Fine. (Also popular is
Elvi’s Guitar Broke Down Friday). To remember the spaces, just remember that
they spell FACE starting from the bottom.
Since it curls around the G line, it is also called a G
clef.
Bass Clef- This the bass (pronounced ‘base’) staff. The bass clef, also
known as the F clef because it locates the line known as F, is on the far left.
The bass clef uses the same musical alphabet as treble, but the letters start
in different places. Instead of an E, the bottom line is a G, and the letters
proceed logically from there. Again, simple mnemonics can be used to
remember the names of the notes. The lines on the bass cleft, from bottom
to top are: G, B, D, F, A (Good Boys Don’t Fight Anyone). And the spaces
are A, C, E, G (All Cows Eat Grass).
The bass clef, also known as the F clef because it
locates the line known as F, is on the far left.
C clef- Most music these days is written in either bass clef or
treble clef, but some music is written in a C clef. The C clef is
moveable: whatever line it centers on is a middle C.
The Grand Staff- When the bass and treble clef are combined
and connected by a brace (left) and lines, they become the grand
staff. This greatly increases the range of pitches that can be
noted, and is often used in piano music, due to the piano’s wide
range.
Measures (Bar lines)- The vertical lines on the staff mark the measures.
Measures are used to divide and organize music. The time signature
determines how many beats can be in measure. The thick double bars mark
the beginning and ends of a piece of music. Measures are sometimes
marked with numbers to make navigating a piece easier. The first measure
would be measure one, the second measure two and so on.
 Notes- Different pitches are named by letters. The musical
alphabet is in ascending order by pitch, A, B, C, D, E, F and G.
After G, the cycle repeats going back to A. Each line and space
on the staff represents a different pitch. The lower on the staff,
the lower the pitch of the note. Notes are represented by little
ovals on the staff. Depending on the clef, the position of each
note on the staff corresponds to a letter name.
Ledger lines- extend above and below the staff, allowing for
higher or lower notes to be shown than would otherwise fit on the
staff.
Bar line (or Measures)
Barlines are vertical lines that cross staves in order to show how music is
divided into bars, according to the time signature.
Double bar line
These indicate some change in the music, such as a new
musical section, or a new key/time signature.
Dotted bar line
These can be used to subdivide measures of complex meter into shorter
segments for ease of reading.
Brace
A brace is used to connect two or more lines of music that are played
simultaneously, usually by a single player, generally when using a grand
staff.
Bracket
A bracket is used to connect two or more lines of music that sound
simultaneously. In contemporary usage it usually connects staves of
individual instruments
Note Durations- All notes have length. However, the number of beats they
get depends on the time signature, so only relative note durations will be
discussed here. This graphic shows a hierarchy of note values. At the top is
a whole note (1). A half note is half duration of a whole note, so a whole
note is as long as two half notes (2). Likewise, a half note is as long as two
quarter notes (3). A quarter note is as long as two eighth notes (4), and an
eighth note is as long as two sixteenth notes (5).
 NOTES
• Notes represent sounds of different durations.
 RESTS
Rests represent silent beats that still count towards the
time signature.
WHOLE REST
• A Whole Rest is used to indicate a Whole Measure of Silence in
every Time Signature
HALF REST
• Half note rest: Also called a half rest or minim rest, this
rest covers half of an entire bar of 4/4.
QUARTER REST
• A quarter rest is equal in time value to a quarter note.
It's a period of silence that lasts for one beat in 4/4 time.
EIGHTH REST
• Eighth rests are exactly the same as counting eighth
notes except instead of playing you are not playing on.
SIXTEENTH REST
• The Sixteenth Rest equals the duration of a Sixteenth
Note: 1/4 a BEAT.
 ACCIDENTALS
• Sign placed immediately to the left of (or above) a note
to show that the note must be changed in pitch.
NATURAL
• a natural (♮) is a musical symbol that cancels a previous
sharp or flat on a note in the written music.
SHARP
• Sharp notes are notes that have a key signature at the
beginning of the piece of music indicating that the note
is raised.
DOUBLE-SHARP
• A double-sharp (##) is an accidental for a note that has two
sharps. This means the original note is raised by two half-
steps. In standard music notation the double-sharp symbol
resembles a bold letter "x" but can also appear as ##.
FLAT
• flat means lower in pitch. It may either be used
generically, meaning any lowering of pitch, or refer to a
particular size: lowering pitch by a chromatic semitone
DOUBLE-FLAT
• A double-flat is a musical symbol that makes a note's pitch
lower by two half steps. Double-flats are necessary only in
certain scenarios.
TIME SIGNATURES/ METER SIGNATURES- A time signature tells you how
the music is to be counted.
The time signature is written at the beginning of the staff after the clef
and key signature.
Common time- It derives from the broken circle that represented
“imperfect” duple meter in fourteenth-century mensural time
signatures.
Dynamics- the lower and higher quality of vocal.
Reference
• https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/musical-notation-81030231/8103023
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