How to Read Music Notes Easily

Memorize the anatomy of a music note. Music notes have three elements that are used to convey information about note pitch and timing. These three elements are the note head, the stem and the tail. Not all notes use all of these elements. A whole note is an uncolored oval, a half note is an uncolored oval with a small stem drawn from the note head and extending straight up about 1/2 an inch. A quarter note looks like a half note, but the note head is colored black. An eighth note looks like a quarter note, except it has a small tail hanging from the top of the stem.

Learn the note values indicated by whole, half, quarter and eighth notes. Written music is broken down into measures (or bars). Each bar should contain a number of beats specified by the time signature written at the beginning of the sheet music. A 4/4 time signature, known as common time, means you should write four beats in each bar of music. These four beats can be any combination of note values. A whole note equals four beats in common time, a half note equals two beats, a quarter note equals one beat and an eighth note equals half a beat. This means you can fit one whole note to a bar, two half notes, four quarter notes or eight eighth notes. You can also combine note values to fill a measure, such as one half note and two quarter notes. Each of these time values indicates how long the note is held when it's played.

Read the music staff to know which note to play. The basic music staff consists of five lines and four spaces. Each of these lines and spaces represent a note name. The lines and spaces of the treble clef are E-G-B-D-F. The spaces are F-A-C-E. For the bass clef, the lines are G-B-D-F-A and the spaces are A-C-E-G. Notes are placed on these lines and spaces to indicate which note you should play. Notes that go above or below the basic staff are written on additional lines called ledger lines. The notes above the staff repeat the musical alphabet forward; notes below the staff go in reverse order. The musical alphabet consists of the letter C-D-E-F-G-A-B and repeat over and over.

Learn how to recognize a sharp sign and a flat sign. A sharp sign (#) raises a note by a half step. A flat sign (b) lowers the note. Sharp and flat signs are placed on the music staff after the notes they affect. The stems for notes can go on either side of the note head and face up or down. This does not affect the note name. Notes on the third line of the staff or above have the stem on the left side, pointing down. Notes below the third line of the staff have a stem on the right side of the note head and point up.