Reading Music

Key Signatures

A Key signature is shown to the right of the clef symbol and will show a series sharp symbols or flat symbols which can be interpreted to deduce which key the piece is written in.

Time Signatures

A Time Signature indicates how many beats there are in each bar and which note is to be used as a beat.

musical clef

The two main clefs are Treble clef and Bass clef - if these are combined it is called a grand staff. When reading music you will have a Clef Type, a Key Signature and a Time Signature.

Musical Scales

a scale is an ascending or descending series of notes or pitches. Each note in a musical scale is referred to as a scale degree. Though there are many different types of musical scales from chromatic scales, modal scales and whole note scales to minor, pentatonic and Arabic scales. The usual scale which people learning an instrument for the first time, will depend on the instrument they are learning and the key of the instrument.

musical staff

set of five horizontal lines on which musical note symbols are placed to indicate pitch and time. The staff is read left to right and the higher a position on the staff, the higher the pitch of the note to be played. If a note appears above or below the 5 lines, ledger lines are used to indicate the exact note.