Given To Wail 2.0 - The Mike McCready Page

Introduction

This section deals with how to read musical notation - sort of. I'll be focusing mainly on notes, and how to identify them on a musical staff, as this is all one really needs to know for chord analysis. I won't be discussing some of the more complicated things such as time values of notes (whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, etc), or time signatures...we'll save that for another time. For people unfamiliar with reading music, there is a lot of information to get through here. Take your time and make sure you understand what's going on or you may have trouble with the later lessons.

In this lesson I will first talk about notes, what they are, and their names. Then I will discuss how to read and write notes on a music staff. Finally, I will talk about some special symbols that act to modify notes.

The Staff

So, first of all, let's take a look at a blank piece of music:

This is called a staff. It is made up of 5 horizontal lines, evenly spaced. That weird looking symbol on the left is a type of clef. More specifically, it is called a treble clef. When a treble clef is present at the beginning of the staff, the staff is sometimes referred to as a treble staff. You can ignore this concept for now, as we will revisit this at the end of the lesson.

Notes

The majority of music is made up of notes. When you pluck any string on your guitar, you are playing a note. In western music, there are only 12 notes, and their names are based on the first seven letters of the alphabet: A B C D E F G. We place symbols on a staff to indicate the pitch (how high or low it sounds to our ears) and duration (how long it is played) of a note - but in this lesson we will only concern ourselves with pitch.

On a staff, the horizontal lines, and the spaces between these lines, represent areas where we can place the symbols for notes. Each line, and space, represents a different note.

Let's start with the lines. From bottom to top, the lines of a staff represent the notes E, G, B, D, and F:

And now for the spaces - from the lowest space to the highest space are the notes F, A, C, and E:

Q: "Wait a minute! The notes F and E show up twice - they're both lines and spaces! How can this be?"
A: If you know the names of the open strings on your guitar, you'll notice that the lowest and highest strings on the guitar are both E strings, that is, when plucked they play the note E. While the two E notes don't have the same pitch, they are in fact the same note. In other words, there is more than one "version" of every note. So the top space of the staff and the lowest line of the staff both refer to the note E, but the lowest line refers to an E that has a lower pitch than the E referred to by the highest space of the staff.

Back to the staff. So how do we actually write a note? Glad you asked. Here's an example:

Above is the note E. It is represented by a hollow oval placed on the lowest line of the staff, which as we just learned, represents the note E. Another example:

Above is the note C, represented by the hollow oval placed in the 2nd space from the top, which we know represents the note C.

Let's write out every note that we know so far:

You'll notice that the notes all go in the same order as the alphabet, A B C D E F G, with one exception. When we reach the note G, there is no H note, so the next highest note is an A, and then a B, and so on. This repeats in both directions - when we get to the note A, the next lowest note is a G. Also, you'll notice that the notes alternate by lines and spaces - the lowest line of the staff is an E, and the space above this line is the next highest note, F. The line above this space is the next highest note after F, which is a G, and so on.

For those of you familiar with tablature, here is the tab for the notes in the above diagram:
(Don't know how to read tab? Refer to this guide.)

----------------------0--1-
-------------0--1--3-------
-------0--2----------------
-2--3----------------------
---------------------------
---------------------------

Ledger Lines

Q: "Ok, so that's all well and good...but what if we want to play notes other the ones listed above? There's only 9 notes there!"
A: Only a very limited range of notes actually fit on the staff. When we want to write notes with a higher or lower pitch than the above notes, we add extra lines, called ledger lines, and place the notes on these ledger lines. Here's an example:

Above is the note C. The short, extra horizontal line below the staff is the ledger line. How do we know that this is a C? We know that the lowest line of the staff is the note E. When we add the ledger line below the staff, there is now a space between the staff and the ledger line - this space is for the note D, which is the note below an E. And finally, we go down one more note below D, which is a C, and now we are on the first ledger line...hence, it is a C. Incidentally, when we write the note D that goes under the lowest line of the staff, the ledger line is unnecessary:

There really is no limit to the number of ledger lines we may add. Whenever we run out of lines or spaces above or below the staff, we keep adding ledger lines until we have enough lines and spaces for the note. Below are the notes from the low open E string, up to the D on the 22nd fret of the high E string, with accompanying tablature:

Hopefully by now you are starting to understand the idea of notes and how to read and write them. There are a couple more things you need to know before we can move on to the next lesson.

Sharps, Flats, and Naturals

Earlier, I mentioned that there are 12 notes, but so far we've only covered 7 of them - A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. (Side note: when I say there are only 12 notes, I really mean there are only 12 unique note names. As evidenced by the above diagram, there are certainly more than 12 notes you can play!)

If we play an F (6th string, 1st fret) on our guitar, and then a G (6th string, 3rd fret), we notice that we have skipped a fret - specifically, the second fret. This is also a note, and it is halfway between an F and a G. It actually has two names: F# and Gb. What!?!?! Well, let me explain.

Some notes, like F and G, are two frets apart on the guitar. To write the note that falls between those two notes, we must use either a sharp (#), or a flat (b). The sharp symbol, #, tells you to raise a note by a half step (one fret on the guitar). The flat symbol, b, tells you to lower a note by a half step (one fret). So, to write the previously mentioned note, we have two options: we can start with the F (6th string, 1st fret), and raise the F by one fret to an F#. Or, we can start with the G (6th string, 3rd fret), and lower it by one fret to Gb. Therefore, we have two ways of referring to the same note! F# is the same note as Gb - both can be played on the 2nd fret of the 6th string on the guitar. To say the note F# aloud, we say "F sharp." Gb is pronounced "G flat."

In general, the sharp (#) of a note is equivalent to the flat (b) of the next highest note. Therefore: A# = Bb, C# = Db, D# = Eb, F# = Gb, G# = Ab. There are two exceptions to this rule. You'll notice that I left out B#/Cb and E#/Fb from the previous list. The reason for this is that there is no intermittent note between a B and C or an E and F. If we play a B on the open 2nd string, the next highest note is a C at the 1st fret of the 2nd string - there is no "extra" note in between! Technically, B# = C, Cb = B, E# = F, and Fb = E, but you will rarely see this written.

So, we can now write out all of the 12 notes, in order:

A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab

That's it. Now, let's see what these new sharp and flat symbols look like on a staff:

The above note is a C# (2nd string, 2nd fret). We first notice the note is in the 2nd space from the top, meaning C, and the # symbol next to it makes it C# - as we just learned, this C# is played one fret higher than a regular C.

The above note is a Db (2nd string, 2nd fret). Again, we first see the note on the second line from the top, meaning D, and the b symbol next to the note makes it Db, and so we play it one fret lower than a regular D. Even though the C# and Db look completely different on a staff, they refer to the same note, and can both be played on the 2nd fret of the 2nd string.

And finally, one last concept before we finish this lesson. You may sometimes see sharp symbols (#) or flat symbols (b) at the far left of the staff, next to the clef. Here is an example:

The space just to the right of the clef where sharps and flats go is called the key signature. In this instance, there is a flat symbol (b) at the very beginning, on the middle line, which as we know is the line for the note B. So everytime the note B appears afterwards, it is automatically modified to a Bb - we don't need to put the flat symbol next to each note. So in the example above the four notes are all the note Bb, not the note B. Putting flats or sharps in the key signature is just a way of not having to write the # or b symbol over and over throughout the music. The sharp or flat symbols can only be on certain spaces or lines at the beginning of the staff, and there is a specific order in which they must be added - you will never see just one # symbol sitting in the key signature on the second line from the top of the staff. We'll talk more about key signatures once we get to the major scale and keys lesson.

Say we have a flat symbol (b) at the beginning on the middle line, as before, but we want to write the note B. In this case we must use an additional symbol, called the natural symbol:

The above note is a B, and in this case can also be referred to as "B natural," although they both mean the same thing. The symbol in front of the note B is the natural symbol, and its purpose is to cancel out the flat symbol for that one note. So even though there is a flat symbol in the key signature, because of the natural symbol in front of the note, it is a B (natural), and not a Bb. (You'll notice that in the last two examples I don't use the hollow oval on the staff to designate a note. For our purposes, the only important thing to notice is where the oval, whether solid or hollow, lies on the staff. This determines what note it is).

And finally, I said I would revisit the treble clef, so here we go. The treble clef's purpose is to let you know what notes are associated with the lines and spaces of the staff. Specifically, it tells us that the 2nd lowest line of the staff is a G, and from that information we can figure out what notes correspond to the other lines and spaces of the staff. The other main type of clef is called a bass clef. If there is a bass clef at the beginning of the staff, then all the information I told you in the beginning is not applicable - the lowest line of the staff is not an E, the second lowest line is not a G, etc... But since guitar music deals with the treble clef, we don't have to worry about other clefs for now.

Summary

In this lesson we discussed what notes are, how to read and write them, and learned the names of the 12 notes - A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab. We also discussed using ledger lines to write notes above and below the staff, and the sharp, flat, and natural symbols which serve to modify notes. We also talked a little bit about key signatures and the treble clef.

And that's it! I haven't covered everything you need to know to be able to read music, but there is enough information here to help you get through the next parts of the guide. You may need to reread this lesson a few times to fully understand everything. Afterwards, if something is still unclear, don't be afraid to ask questions on our message forum or send me a private message. After finishing this lesson, I recommend you try to figure out where the notes are on a guitar. Start with the open low E string, and move up one fret at a time. Each time you play a note, say it out loud. Repeat this for each of the six strings.

If you're ready to move on, click here to go to the next lesson, Intervals. Click here to return to the top of the page.

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