The Basics of Music
The Staff
Music is written on a Staff, which consists of 5 parallel lines. Bar Lines are drawn across the staff, which dived the music into different sections called Bars or Measures. The end of the music is indicated by a Double Bar Line, and two dots placed before a double bar line indicate a Repeat Sign. A Treble Clef is placed at the beginning of the staff.
Note
Notes can be written on the lines or spaces of the staff and are names as such:
Extra notes can be added by the use of short lines, called Ledger Lines.
Note Values
The following table sets out the most common notes used in music and their respective time values (i.e., length of time held). For each note value there is an equivalent rest, which indicates a period of silence.
If a dot is placed after a note it increases the value of the note by half of its original value, e.g.:
The Tie
A tie is a curved line joining two or more notes of the same pitch. The second note(s) is not played, but its time value is added to that of the first note. Here are two examples:
Time Signatures
At the beginning of each piece of music, after the treble clef, is the time signature.
The time signature indicates the number of beats per bar (the top number) and the type of note receiving one beat (the bottom number). For example:
Thus in * time there must be the equivalent of 4 quarter notes per bar, e.g.:
* is the most common time signature and is sometimes represented by the symbol called common time.
The other time signature used in this book is ^ time, indicating 3 quarter note beats per bar. E.g.:
