Being able to read music is an extremely powerful skill.
For myself, growing up, I played piano and ukulele. I relied very heavily on my ear to learn how to play songs. I’m very thankful for my ear, but this really limited me in the types of songs I could play.
So, for example, whenever I would visit my grandparents, it wasn’t uncommon they would want me to play a hymn on piano for them, or if it was around Christmas, a carol. They would put the songbook in front of me, and unless I knew the hymn or carol from memory, I would freeze or have to fumble my way through it.
Whenever I looked at a piece of music, I was completely intimidated by it.
How to Read Music
Looking at the sheet music of a song you’ve never played or heard before can be a little overwhelming, but it shouldn’t deter you from learning the song.
After this post, you’ll be reading music like a champ.
The Musical Staff & Notes
A piece of written music is built on the staff. The staff is a set of five horizontal lines that run across the page of a sheet of music.
Musical notes are placed are either right on the lines or in between the lines.
Notes that fall below or above the staff are placed on ledger lines.
Treble Clef & Bass Clef
Notes placed higher on the staff are higher in pitch, while notes placed lower on the staff are lower in pitch. Makes sense.
Note values are represented by the first seven letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
Where these note values are placed on the musical staff depends on the clef. There are two types of clefs: treble and bass.
The treble clef is represented by a big “G” shaped letter at the beginning of the staff. As ukulele players, we will be frequently using the treble clef to read music.
The bass clef is represented by a curve with two dots to the right.
If you’ve ever seen a piece of piano music, the bass clef is written below the treble clef. Instruments that play in a lower range like a bass guitar, trombone, or tuba will use the bass clef as well.
Note Lengths
As seen above, the position of a note on the musical staff determines its pitch. There are different types of notes to determine the duration or how long a note is played.
A whole note is the longest note sounding out the entire duration of one measure.
A half note is half the duration of a whole note. This means two half notes = one whole note.
A quarter note is half the duration of a half note. This means two quarter notes = one half note; or four quarter notes = one whole note.
An eighth note is half the duration of a quarter note. This means two eighth notes = one quarter note.
A sixteenth note is half the duration of an eighth note. This means two sixteenth notes = one eighth note; and again, to take it even further, four sixteenth notes = one quarter note.
These are the most common note lengths.
Time Signatures & Bar Lines
As you can see, there is some math behind playing music. Whenever you play a song, the song is based around a consistent timing structure.
This count is dictated by a time signature.
A time signature is a pair of numbers at the beginning of a song that lets you know how a song is counted.
Here are some common time signatures:
The number on the top tells you how many beats there are per measure. The musical staff is separated into measures with vertical bar lines.
Take a look at this example. This is the first four measures of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
The number on the bottom tells you what kind of note length each beat gets.
For example, in a 4/4 time signature, the most common time signature, there are four beats per measure and each beat gets a quarter note in length.
In a 6/8 time signature, there are six beats per measure and each beat gets an eighth note in length.
The most important number is the top number because that tells you how you count the song.
Rests
Some of the most effective parts of a piece of music can be when the music stops and nothing is played at all.
When you look at a piece of music, you might see some rests. When you see a rest, that means don’t play!
Rests have equivalent durations to other regular notes.
That means when you see a whole rest, you rest for a measure.
When you see a half rest, you rest for half a measure.
When you see a quarter rest, you rest for one beat.
When you see an eighth rest, you rest for half a beat.
And when you see a sixteenth rest, you rest for a quarter of a beat.
How to Put All This Into Practice
By now, you’re pretty well equipped to look at a piece of music and have a sense for what’s going on. You might print off this page so you can refer to it later.
There are still some things we haven’t discussed like key signatures, dots and ties, and accidentals (sharps and flats). I want to save some of these things for future posts where there will be more application of all this theory.
Right now, this is just head knowledge, but I really wanted to do this post because I’ve been getting a lot of requests for more fingerpicking lessons and songs, and in order for me to teach those, we need to make sure we know how to read music.
While I’ve done lessons on fingerpicking Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and fingerpicking the 12-bar blues, what I get asked most about is solo fingerpicking songs–songs where you can fingerpick the melody of the song without singing.
To teach and demonstrate these songs, we need to make sure we have an understanding of some of the basics of reading music.
Next week, I want to look at a really simple song we can fingerpick on the ukulele and exercise our newly acquired music reading skills.
I can’t wait to get more into this stuff with you all. It’s going to be fun!
Your Questions and Comments
Whenever we’re looking at music theory, I know there is bound to be questions and input. Don’t be shy. Post your comments below!
Looking forward to this! Thanks Brett
Now we are talking, Mister. This is the start of some really important information that you teach very effectively. I’ll be back for more!
tks for this and other lessons its a bit above me just yet but getting into it im busy learning the circle of fifths just now
Having just finished a music theory course I found your article to be to the point and not too much to absorb at once. This is a subject that has a lot to it and can become overwhelming, very easily.
Looking forward to your next.
Thanks for your feedback, Tom. I was a bit nervous about doing a post like this just because it’s easy to go off in the deep end really quick, but I knew that if I was going to be incorporating a little bit of written music in my future lessons, I’d need a post to refer back to.
Looking forward to getting into this more as well.
Once again crisp clean info… fantastic!
Awesome. Thanks for your comment, David!
Hi Bret, I am a very new and keen uke learner. I also have always wanted to learn how to read music, but it always seem too daunting. Now you make it so doable because you give a reason to learn music literacy and a journey to go on. I will most deffinately order your online video course. Thank you
I’m really happy to hear you found this lesson beneficial! To your continued success! Cheers.
Help! I am trying to learn basics of music but am having problems with the Circle of Fifths as well as how to figure out the major chords. I know the major chord is the 1st, 3rd and 5th note. But when you identify those three it doesn’t match the chord illustrated. What am I doing wrong?
This is a hard question to answer in a single comment, but I’ll do my best!
While it’s true that a major chord is built on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a scale, it’s also true that a minor, augmented, and diminished chord is built on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a scale.
For example, a major chord… between the 1st and 3rd there is an interval of a major 3rd which is equal to four half steps between the notes. Between the 3rd and 5th, there is an interval of a minor 3rd (three half steps).
On a minor chord, it’s flipped around, because you actually drop the 3rd a half step. So between the 1st and 3rd there is an interval of a minor 3rd and then between the 3rd and 5th there is an interval of a major 3rd.
Hopefully I haven’t confused you too much, but essentially, all triads are built on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th scale degree, however, the 3rd and 5th can alter the type of chord. I wonder if this is the problem you are running into. I wrote a post about this here explaining the different between different types of chords:
http://www.ukuleletricks.com/major-minor-diminished-augmented-chords-explained/
Feel free to post any other questions you might have! I love talking about this stuff.
I am just a little bit confused. How do you apply this to the ukulele?
Hey Ryan, it’s important to be able to know the basics of reading music if you want to learn how to play fingerpicking songs like these:
http://www.ukuleletricks.com/ukulele-fingerpicking-nursery-rhymes/
I am so happy to have found you. I just purchased a ukulele at 64. I have always wanted to learn to play and I am determined to succeed. I am really enjoying your website. There is so much more information provided then I thought. Thank you for being out there.
Welcome to the world of playing ukulele! It’s great to have you here.
This is great, I have just started to learn finger picking.
Thanks thanks
That’s great, Norah! This is a good place to start.
this made it so much easier than trying to memorize the “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge” and that kind of stuff that alternates lines and in the end just gets more confusing. I think you’ve made it a lot simpler by just putting it down clear cut! Thanks for the awesome website!
Hey Zach, I’m glad you found this so helpful!
my husband bought an ukulele and i though let’s give it a try. I’ve learned how to read music cos i played the flute for 8 years when i was little. I could only play the flute by reading the notes, I never memorized songs. I’m trying to learn the notes on the ukulele now and wanted to start with twinkle twinkle little star. When I read your music for that song i notice there are some double written notes, that confuses me. can you explain a little what to play there and what note(s?) to read? I realize that i’m starting to memorize the song without reading the notes.
Thanks in advance
Hi Lilian, those double written notes are notes that are sounded at once to create a “chord.” This adds harmony between the notes and creates a fuller and more interesting sound. On those pieces of music, be sure to look at the tab to see how to play those notes on the fretboard. If there is a specific measure in a song that you have a question about, just let me know and we’ll take a look at it.
Tanx men, i look forward to hearing from u
I just purchased a ukelele and will be using it in my preschool class with children. I was watching you play twinkle, twinkle and was wonder how to read the tabs. I know how to read music but i don’t know to play guitar or ukelele but im very determined to learn how.
Hi Wendy,
You can check out a lesson reading tabs here:
http://www.ukuleletricks.com/how-to-read-ukulele-tabs/
hi i’m John from the comment above
i had read this: http://www.ukuleletricks.com/how-to-read-ukulele-tabs/
but the thing that i don’t understand now is how it is played when it only has 0′s in the bar e.g the first bar of twinkle twinkle little star: http://www.ukuleletricks.com/media/music/twinkle-twinkle-little-star.pdf
Hi John, 0′s represent open strings. When you see a zero, pluck the string without fretting any notes.
Thanks a lot man! It’s for people like you, we can learn these staff while sitting in the couch. Thanks again.