Acoustic Lesson 05 - Reading Traditional Notation

In order to read and interpret music notation you first must familiarize yourself with the symbols and terms used. At the base of all written music is the staff. The staff is composed of five horizontal, parallel lines with spaces in between.  Clefs are used to notate the octave range of each staff, in other words the beginning and end of the range of notes on each staff.  The two clefs are the treble and bass clef. The bass is the lower clef and is always found below the treble clef. Here is an example of a staff with treble and bass clefs. For guitar we will be mainly focusing on the treble clef.

 

 

Each line and space and the spaces above and below the clefs have a particular note for that space or line. The spaces in the treble clef in ascending order are F, A, C, E.  In accordance with the spaces; the lines in the treble clef are E, G, B, D, F. This means that a note appearing on the second space of the treble clef staff would be an A. In the bass clef the spaces are A, C, E, G and the lines are G, B, D, F, A. It may be helpful to make up acronyms to help you remember the lines and spaces. Here is how the treble clef looks written out.

Notes that appear above or below the staff continue the pattern of notes and every other note (that would be a line) is marked by a ledger line to notate it’s position (and therefore it’s name). They appear as such.

To notate the sharps and flats (the black keys on a keyboard) two symbols are used. The symbol # is used to notate a sharp and the symbol b is used to notate a flat. They can be marked as an accidental by placing them next to the note or be place in the key signature by the clef. The key signature tells us what key we are in by notating the sharps or flats that will be used in the piece of music. Any sharps or flats found in the key signature apply to every note in the music. For example a b on the E (in the fourth space in treble clef) in the key signature would mean all E’s played in the music will be flattened a half step to a Eb. The key signature dictates the key we will play in by how many sharps or flats are in the music. For example playing in the key of G would give us one sharp (F#) and the key signature would look like this.

The key of Db , which has 5 flats would look like this.

 

These are just some of the fundamentals in reading notation and this may seem like a trip back to elementary school music class but learning and understanding music notation can be an introduction to theory that will send you on your way to becoming a great guitarist.