AbleStable Tools: Essential Music Notation

Introduction

Music is a very rich and beautiful art. The ability to read or write music allows us to record and exchange musical ideas.

Although there are very many symbols and subtleties in written music that are beyond the scope of this primer, this resource presents the essential elements and concepts of music notation.

Music takes time. It is not like a painting which is complete for you to explore at your leasure. Music takes place in the now, not in the past, nor in the future.

Beat and Rhythm

The fundamental property of music is rhythm, that is, sound with differing intervals between each sound. A beat is the often unheard structural element that provides context (a beat is often 'kept in your head' as a musician). The beat has the same interval between each 'beat element':

Notice how 'THE BEAT' starts on a count and has a duration (signified by the arrow line). When we count '1' that beat is not complete until '2'. This is a very significant issue and one that is often overlooked (even by musicians). When for example we count '4' the musician needs to continue making the sound until the point of the last arrow on the right. To count the whole 4 beats one needs to count 1, 2, 3, 4, END (count silently in your head).

If we look at the simple rhythm above we can see that a sound is made on beats 1, 2, and 4. Each of the note symbols are called 'quarter notes' and last the full duration of a beat. The last quarter note for example is not fully played until the 'END'.

Note Values - The Division of Time

Let's look at the division of a circle:

We can divide the circle in half, in a quarter, into eighths, and so on...

The simplest-looking note, with no stems or flags, is a whole note:

All other note lengths are defined by how long they last compared to a whole note. Rather than showing a note value as a half circle which would be difficult to distinguish on the page, a tale is placed on the 'whole note' to create a 'half note'. For a quarter note the centre is filled with black, for an eight note a 'flag' is added, and so on.

Note lengths work like fractions in arithmetic: two half notes or four quarter notes last the same amount of time as one whole note.

A note that lasts half as long as a whole note is a half note. A note that lasts a quarter as long as a whole note is a quarter note. The pattern continues with eighth notes, sixteenth notes, thirty-second notes, sixty-fourth notes, and so on, each type of note being half the length of the previous type. In written music third notes, sixth notes, tenth notes, etc. do not exist, however there are 'triplets'.

A triplet is a more complex division of time. Instead of simply dividing the value in half, it is divided into a third. In reality, this is not 'exactly' possible. Triplets define certain musical styles like Jazz, but are also found less frequently in western art music (sometimes known as classical music).

Notice how the last note of the triplet group needs to sound until the next beat.

Pitch and Duration

In standard notation, a single musical sound is written as a note. The two most important things a written piece of music needs to tell you about a note are:

1. its duration - how long it lasts

2. its pitch - how high or low it is

Let's look at the annatomy of a note:

All of the parts of a written note affect how long it lasts

Notice the 'DOT' after the first note. A dot after a note adds half it's durational value again. So for a whole note that usually lasts 4 beats, the dotted whole note would last 4 + 2 beats, that is 6 beats. A quarter note that is worth 1 beat would be worth one and a half beats, and so on...

The Stave and Bar Lines

To find out the pitch of a written note, you look at the clef and the key signature, then see what line or space the note is on. The higher a note sits on the staff, the higher it sounds. To find out the duration of the written note, you look at the tempo and the time signature and then see what the note looks like.

The 'stave', or 'staff', consists of five parallel, equidistant lines with spaces in between. 'Bar Lines' divide written music into measures (groups of beats), and the 'Double Bar Line at the right signifies the music is ended.

The pitch of the note depends only on what line or space the head of the note is on:

The Treble Clef is one of many symbols that defines the pitch in written music.
The Bass Clef is often seen in piano music, and presents a context for lower notes.

If the note does not have a head, this means that it does not have a definite pitch.

Such a note may be a pitchless sound, like a drum beat or a hand clap.

The head of the note may be filled in (black), or not. The note may also have (or not) a stem, one or more flags, beams connecting it to other notes, or one or more dots following the head of the note. All of these things affect how much time the note is given in the music.

Conclusion

Music, like all our experience, is enriched by knowledge. By acquiring the knowledge of how music can be recorded in symbolic form we come to understand its nature that little more. Written music however is not music, it is there simply to record and exchange musical ideas, it is an aid to memory of that art that is most sublime.