to answer your questions:

if there are two staves, that means there are two parts. in piano, the bottom is the left and (usually) bass cleff (because the left hand is farther down the scale), and the top staff is (usually) treble cleff (because the right hand is farther up the scale)


hollow notes and solid notes indicate the length that the note is held. You should really buy a little music theory book, this would be on page one.

this is what you'd see (that took me 1 sec on google)




a whole note lasts the entire measure, a half note is 2 quarter notes, etc etc


http://www.cinderzelda.com/musictutor/musictut.htm


the direction of the stem of the note is purely to save room on the page. if it's above the third line of the staff it points down, if it's below, it points up.

i think by 'bar' you mean 'rest'. whole rests are indicated by a short bar below the line, half rests are above.



you need to distinguish between "notes" and "rests". notes are round little things, they can have stems, flags, or neither, they can be hollow or solid.

rests are either bars or little circles and lines

look at this picture

I'm really appreciative of the 7 years I spent in the school band. On the outside it looks kind of dumb, but I swear you learn so much if you have a good conductor.

I thought reading music means to understand how the music will sound by just reading the full score. Like 1.identifying all the chords and interval and have the impression of their actual sound colour 2.know how the timbre of the instruments sound like at different register 3.anticipate the resolution of dissonance and get an image and understanding of the out of norm practice. and etc.
definitely not just knowing what the definitions of those little symbols are.

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well, obviously you have to know what the little notes are first, before you can interpret the color of the sound.

fucking lol, what are you thinking? the guy doesn't know the difference between a rest and a whole note...

baby steps, man

quote:

Originally posted by iammesol I'm really appreciative of the 7 years I spent in the school band. On the outside it looks kind of dumb, but I swear you learn so much if you have a good conductor.

truth. school band, piano lessons from mom, jazz band, and band camp is where i learned everything.

Axer - do you play any instruments? i think the best way to learn to read music is by actually playing the music. piano lessons might be a good start. you could easily learn the basics of reading music and a whole lot more if you have a good teacher.

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quote:

Originally posted by lücid truth. school band, piano lessons from mom, jazz band, and band camp is where i learned everything. Axer - do you play any instruments? i think the best way to learn to read music is by actually playing the music. piano lessons might be a good start. you could easily learn the basics of reading music and a whole lot more if you have a good teacher.

I play drums, a little bit guitar and little bit of keyboard and a harmonica. I still have to figure out how to read it out proper. If there's something called progressive jazz...that's me! LOL. I think, I'll be taking piano lessons during my semesters.

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quote:

Originally posted by Frenchie My pussy is cold, please light my fire.

quote:

Originally posted by Axer I play drums, a little bit guitar and little bit of keyboard and a harmonica. I still have to figure out how to read it out proper. If there's something called progressive jazz...that's me! LOL. I think, I'll be taking piano lessons during my semesters.

guitar that you learned from TAB on the internet doesn't count when it comes to reading music bro

any other questions other than the ones that adam answered (quite well) feel free to post em

quote:

Originally posted by Axer What about notations that has the bars up and down? Say, four notations jointed together on the same staff, should be keyed fourtimes, right? Horray for notations!!!

1. that doesn't make any sense, bars are the "musical phrases" of a piece, unless you meant rests (as adam mentioned) which never changes notation-wise (unlike the direction of the "flag" of a note)

2. four notes joined together... you know what here just look at this

quote:

The system uses a five-line staff. Pitch is shown by placement of notes on the staff (sometimes modified by accidentals), and duration is shown with different note values and additional symbols such as dots and ties. Notation is read from left to right, which makes setting music for right-to-left scripts difficult. A staff of written music generally begins with a clef, which indicates the particular range of pitches encompassed by the staff. Notes representing a pitch outside of the scope of the five line staff can be represented using ledger lines, which provide a single note with additional lines and spaces. Following the clef, the key signature on a staff indicates the key of the piece by specifying certain notes to be flat or sharp throughout the piece, unless otherwise indicated. Following the key signature is the time signature. Measures (bars) divide the piece into regular groupings of beats, and the time signatures specifies those groupings. Directions to the player regarding matters such as tempo and dynamics are added above or below the staff. For vocal music, lyrics are written.

read this, and if you have any questions, post em

Last edited by Omega_Blue on Jun-25-2008 at 22:11

trust everything Omega_Blue says. he sleeps with a quilt that has music written all over it.

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quote:

Originally posted by nefardec yes, it's really quite easy to read music just remember treble clef: (E)very (G)ood (B)oy (D)oes (F)ine if it's on the LINE and the notes in the spaces in treble clef spell out FACE from bottom to top stupid, but when i was 7 years old this worked really well http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1134378

You humans and your pesky treble clef.

I got a letter from the college last weekend. I think, I'll some how manage to get into the program as a mature student. If I have more questions I'll definitely refer and bump this thread again.

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quote:

Originally posted by Frenchie My pussy is cold, please light my fire.

Music theory for dummies - srsly, pretty good book. I went to music school for 4 years and I sucked at music theory. I played all my recitals by ear and had mostly A's. My teacher was shocked when he found out in my 4th year that I could not read the sheet music. To this day I still struggle. I even installed Sibellius to force myself to learn it and write my melodies down in music notation.

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