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sheet music is very easy to learn. you can learn the basics in, not kidding, an hour. that is,
1) what each note on a stave represents (the bottom line is an E. the top line is an F with whole notes at half steps between them),
2) bass and treble clefs (bass clef for all scores played before middle C on a piano from left to right. treble clef for all scores played after middle C from left to right)
3) note lengths. a whole note is a single dot with the centre not filled in. all note lengths are written relative to a single whole note. a half note looks like a whole note but it has a 'stem' a line going up or down joined to the dot. a quarter note is a filled in dot with a stem. an eighth note is a filled in dot with a stem and a flag (a flag is a horizontal line at the top of the stem. sometimes a little wavey flourish). a sixteenth note is a filled in dot, stem and 2 flags. a thirty-second note is a filled in dot, stem and 3 flags. the flags join up to form beams sometimes where lots of notes of similar length are played in succession. this just makes it easier to read. each note always has the same beams as they would have flags. thats cuz they are basically the same thing. chances are you have been working in a piano roll and have been unconsciously doing all of this. its exactly the same principle.
4) tempos and time sigs. this is where people (including me) sometimes get problems cuz the tempo affects the time signiture which affects how long each note sustains for on a musical staff (all notes however are ALWAYS relative to each other. so no matter what tempo it is a whole note is ALWAYS 2 half notes, or 8 eighth notes etc). for trance you will probably be using cut time and it'll be allegretto (moderate/fast) allegro (fast). in cut time a half length note represents 1 beat.
so. if you see a staff with a half note, quarter note, quarter note you know its in 2/2 time because 2 quarter notes = 1 half note, thus there are 2 half notes which is 2 single beats, allegro, sustained for 2 whole notes. simple huh? when thats played addagio or largo for example the time sig would be different because a single beat would be longer and slower. this is one reason why music written allegro doesnt mix very well into much faster music (i.e. drum and bass) without sounding silly and sped up. beat length changes in presto (very fast) and prestissimo (crazy fast!). however, freeform hardcore is written like trance (constant kick drum, off hats etc euphoric trance melodies) but you CAN mix that into drum and bass without it sounding silly and sped up. thats cuz freeform is written in prestissimo. or you could argue that freeform sounds silly and sped up whatever speed you play it at
once you know those basics you can read music. you wont be able to pick up some of the subtleties and you wont be able to sight read a piano concerto. but practice and it will just feel more natural and especially to those guitar players out there its much better than tab for telling what to play, where to play it for how long and when. tab just tells you what to play and where to play it on the fretboard.
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