Read Sheet Music

There are many people around the world who are in awe of musicians who can sight read, knowing how to read sheet music is a desire of many.

In today’s article we look at how to read sheet music in 13 helpful steps.

When learning to read sheet music it is important to work through each step carefully to effectively maximise your learning. Build your understanding, and work through each step.

Here’s the 13-step process to reading sheet music:

Forks and Tridents

Learning to read sheet music begins with understanding the notes on a piano. There needs to be a clear understanding of the different white and black notes on the piano. The black and white keys of the piano represent each tone on the piano.

Playing the piano for the first time you will notice that one side of the piano has a very low sound and the other a very high sound, this change in frequency occurs from left to right, left side being low sounds and right side being high sounds.

Many pianos’ start on A, however some piano’s start on C as well.

When we look at the piano it may look like a spaceship with so many buttons to choose from, but the piano only has 7 notes, we can also refer to the notes as tones. The first seven letters of the alphabet make up the 7 different notes on the piano. A, B, C, D, E, F, G. These notes are all white keys and the simplest of the scales on the piano. C Major and A minor.

Notes on the piano have a repetitive form. I like to use the method of Forks and Tridents. We have two black notes grouped together, referred as forks. We have three black notes grouped together, tridents.

Looking at the image below, we can see that there are clear groupings of black notes and this pattern repats up and down the piano.

As you can see, the note to the left of the fork is C. This will always be the case, the note to the left of the fork is C. The note to the left of the trident is and always will be F.

Practising this method in mind on a regular basis will help you with identifying the notes on the piano with more ease as time goes on. See if you can memorise the notes on the piano.

Stave and Clef

In learning how to read sheet music, we must become familiar with what music is written on.

A music stave is 5 horizontal lines with 4 spaces that, with a clef, indicate the pitch of the notation of musical notes.

A clef is a music symbol that indicates the pitch. It helps in identifying the scale to use. The 3 main clefs used, depending on your instrument are: Treble, Bass, and Alto clefs.

One of the challenging things for a pianist is, unlike most instrumentalists, we have to read two different staves. To make it easier and more recognisable, when we put the two together, we create the grand stave.

The grand stave contains the treble and bass clef which are a little bit different when understanding how to read them. Here we will look at the treble and bass clef.

Treble Clef

Now we know what a stave is. Learning how to read sheet music requires some theoretical knowledge, such as the Clef.

Many refer to the treble clef as the G clef. The reason for this is the visual cue to remember where G is when looking at the clef. The curly part of the treble clef symbol creates a target on the line that indicates the pitch G, the second line from the bottom.

The treble clef begins at middle C, the fourth C on the piano, sometimes the third C on smaller keyboards. The pitch of the treble clef ranges from middle C and above. If you aren’t too sure where middle C is, just count how many C’s you have from the left to the right of the piano. Often you can find the brand logo above or nearest to middle C.

We play the treble clef with the right hand, but there are occasions when your left hand has to crossover and play music in the treble. Sometimes music will change the left-hand register from bass clef and put it in the treble clef.

Every Good Boy Deserves Football

A common way to remember the notes order in the treble clef is to remember the following acronym:

Every

Good

Boy

Deserves

Football

This acronym reminds us of the notes that are on the lines on the stave starting from the bottom. The notes are E, G, B, D and F starting from the bottom line to the top. You can of course create your own memorable acronym to remember the notes on the lines.

FACE in the SPACE

For remembering the lines in the space, I use the memory of this simple rhyme. Face in the space. This simple rhyme lets you know the notes that go in the space starting from the bottom space. F, A, C and E from the bottom to the top.

Bass Clef

Bass clef is structured in the same manner as the Treble Clef; however, the difference is the name of the notes on each line and space. The bass clef also has a nickname of the F clef. This is because the two dots in the bass symbol are either side of F, almost highlighting where F is on the stave.

The term bass refers to the lowest adult male singing voice. We use this term to refer to low sounds from instruments such as Bass Guitar, Double Bass, or the left-hand side of the piano. The bottom line of the F clef is G, and the top line is A.

Good Boys Deserve Football Always

We can use an acronym like what we have used for the Treble Clef. However, we have to tailor it slightly. “Good Boys Deserve Football Always”. This is very similar; we simply change the word “Every” to “Good”.

ACEG in the SPACE or All Cows Eat Grass

When remembering the notes on the stave, I like to keep a similar rhyme to the Treble Clef. ACE – G in the SPACE. The lowest space containing A and the highest space containing G. Another method is by thinking of this acronym “All Cows Eat Grass”.

Landmarking

We can also use a landmarking system to remember the different notes by relative position. An example, remember that the bottom line on the stave is E and the top line is F. With these notes in mind, you can always count the lines and spaces to work out the next note.

When we are sight reading, it is most important recognise intervals between notes rather than always reading for the note. Note detection will become more intuitive as you become more exposed to sheet music.

Ledger Lines

The more sheet music you become exposed to, you’ll notice some patterns, such as Middle C being present in both Treble and Bass Clef. Middle C is located by seeing a note with a line through it. See the image below.

In the treble clef, Middle C is located underneath the lowest line on the stave, whereas in the bass clef, Middle C is located above the highest line on the stave.

Each additional line that is added to each of the staffs is called a ledger line. These notes can be added below the staff or above the staff.

Ledger lines are extensions of the stave and allow us to include notes that are played either higher or lower. When extended, the way we label our notes is the same, by using the spaces and lines for each note.

Consider Middle C to be the first use of a ledger line as the note doesn’t fit on either stave. As notes become higher or lower, we may add ledger lines to fit our notes.

Sharp is to the right Flat is to the left

When using a beginner piano book, you may be guided without seeing flats or sharps straight away, with time you will start to see these notes appear more often and although it may seem like a completely new thing to learn, it is quite straight forward.

When playing any note, it’s a great thing to keep in mind that when we go to the right, we are going higher, and when we go to the left, we are going lower.

Sharps are to the right of any note and flats are to the left of any note.

Natural notes can be considered to be notes that are present in either the C Major scale or A minor scale. When we see a natural sign by a note, it simply means play the natural note of the scale. It is possible to see a natural sign on a sharp or flat note, but by observing our Key Signature, you will be able to determine the required notes in the scale.

If you look at the diagram in the Forks and Tridents heading, you will see the way the notes are laid out and with each step on the piano, we have a new note. You may also note that there are 2 names for many notes.

Key Signatures

It is important to become familiar with key signatures as this will help you understand what scale/key you will be playing in. Key Signatures are often found at the beginning of each staff.

A key signature simply indicates what notes are to be augmented with either a flat or a sharp, any time it occurs in the piece. In other places in the piece, you may be met with an accidental note, which may differ from the key signature, nonetheless has been instructed by the composer.

Label the Piano

One thing a beginner pianist can do to help make reading sheet music easier is to write the notes underneath the note on the sheet music. By doing this, you will start to develop an understanding, and recognition of notes on the stave.

When trying to figure out notes, I’d recommend writing only the notes that cause you trouble time and time again. Equally important is labelling the finger numbers so you can work on the distance needed to travel to play a certain melody or harmony.

Writing each note, you see in sheet music will clutter your page and in turn make it more difficult to read the music.

The great thing and challenging thing about the piano are repetition, repetition, repetition. The best way to improve is to practise again and again. With time you will find you’re able to recall these notes quicker and quicker.

With my students, I recommend using this app that helps your sight reading and note recognition on Treble, Bass and Alto clef.

Music Direction

In all types of sheet music, a wide range of instructive symbols are used to help direct the music sound a certain way. Some of the symbols refer to how soft and loud a passage of notes is.

Dynamics

Velocity is a form of dynamics. The force we use to strike notes. You can consider dynamics to focus on the velocity of a note.

Rests

In music, as much as it is important to play the notes you hear and see on the piano, it is also of great importance to play the silences and pauses in music. Rests are how we are able to identify when these pauses are to be played and the exact duration of it.

Articulation

You can play music smoothly or very sharply. You can consider these two variations of style to be articulation. Smooth sections may be accompanied with something like a slur. Smooth playing is a common trait of romance and some classical pieces. Staccato is what we use to describe short and quick playing. It signifies a note of shortened duration. The separation between this and the following note is silence.

Tempo

A combination of frequencies that, when brought together create and evoke either pleasant or uncomfortable emotions.

The speed at which music is or ought to be played, often indicated on written compositions by a descriptive or metronomic direction to the performer.

It isn’t only performed through it’s dynamics, rests and articulation. Music is heavily influenced and guided by the tempo/timing of the piece. Some pieces are made to be performed slowly and the term used for that is “Andante”. Others are played with a quick pace, or fast tempo, being referred to as “Allegro”.

Rhythm

Many views music and feel like they must play the notes exactly and as is, and nothing else. While notes are important, rhythm creates the feel and maintains timing.

When looking at music, it is a good idea to clap through the rhythm of the piece. I recommend doing each hand separately, so clap out the Treble rhythm, followed by clapping the Bass rhythm. This allows your mind to absorb the rhythm more clearly and will translate into your notes more naturally.

Counting out loud will help with cementing the rhythm and timing of a piece. Eventually you will start to hear your voice or a voice in your mind that does the counting for you. An internal metronome is something all musicians should aim to acquire.

When clapping/tapping a rhythm it is most important to work on building the correct timing. Clapping only on the beat and with the metronome.

Tapping a rhythm against a metronome, you will find the metronome sound begins to disappear. This will only happen when you are bang on time with the metronome.

Hands Separate

When learning a song, always start with one hand and work through it nice and slowly. The aim here isn’t to speed through the song, rather to focus on sight reading the music and playing each note perfectly.

Be sure to do this with both hands and work through the piece slowly ensuring accuracy over speed. With sight reading, you will find that there are some pauses, breaks and slurs that may hinder your reading. It will be good practise to eliminate this excess of information to make reading go much smoother.

When listening to the music, take note of every nuance. The reason for this is, with a preview of the song correctly, your ears will pick up the sounds and store them in your mind. This process will then make it easier for you to play the song through as you have a sound in mind and a direction to head in.

Instead of playing through the piece straight away on the piano, you can clap the notes out or tap the rhythm on a flat surface of some sort. Playing off the piano will help you build finger independence and dexterity.

Hands Together

After having performed the music with each hand separately, slowly, and accurately. It is now time to bring the two hands together nice and slowly. Since you have already worked through the piece with your hands individually, we now want to work through the piece in a structured manner. The structure we will use is 2 bars at a time.

Focus on getting both hands moving at the same time. A great way to learn new sections is to focus solely on 2 bars at a time.

To ensure minimal mistakes, practise each section a minimum of 4 times correctly before moving on. When you return to the piano, start on the next section. Refrain from playing the beginning of the piece until tricky sections have been worked through with both hands.

The reason for this is to prevent an extremely well learned beginning, and less competent ending. This does happen quite often, especially when we feel accomplished with playing even just a little bit piano. Continue to work on the bars that you find most challenging. Repetition is key.