mike’s music pages

Archive for the ‘how to read music’ Category

In previous lessons we have discussed only 4/4 time. You learned that in 4/4 time there are 4 beats to a measure and a quarter note gets 1 beat. You learned that a measure is the space between two bar lines, so if there are 4 beats to a measure there must be notes and rests between the bar lines that add up to 4 beats.

Fig. 1

You learned that in 4/4 time a whole note gets 4 beats, a half note gets 2 beats, a quarter note gets 1 beat, an eighth note gets 1/2 beat, and a sixteenth note gets 1/4 beat. You also learned that there are rests that correspond to each note value: whole rests, half rests, quarter rests, eighth rests and sixteenth rests.

In this post you will learn about some other time signatures and how to count them. Read the rest of this entry »

In an earlier lesson we learned about simple repeats. In this lesson you will learn about the following repeat instructions:

• Da Capo or D.C.: Repeat from the beginning
• Da Capo al Fine or D.C. al Fine: Go back to beginning and sing to Fine
• Dal Segno or D.S.: Repeat from the sign
• Dal Segno al Fine or D.S. al Fine: Go back to the sign and sing to Fine

Read the rest of this entry »

In your music you will often see various markings and abbreviations. Some of these markings are “dynamics” markings and are used by the composer or arranger to indicate the relative loudness or softness desired in the music. See the table below for the more common abbreviations and their meanings.

Note that these are relative terms. The director will guide you in setting the correct volume level, but your knowing what these abbreviations mean will be helpful to you and the choir.

Dynamic markings are part of larger set of markings called “expression markings” that are used to indicate how music should be performed. I will address other expression markings in another post.

Music is written with notes that indicate a sound of a given pitch and duration. Some note names are: whole note, half note, quarter note, eighth note, sixteenth note. The names of notes indicate the relative duration or length of the sounds they represent. For example, if a whole note has a duration of 2 seconds, then a half note has a duration of 1 second, and a quarter note has a duration of 1/2 second.

The absolute length of a note depends on the tempo of the music and the time signature. The time signature defines the beat and the tempo marking tells you how fast or slow the beats are. The tempo marking may be a metronome mark, or it could be words such as andante, allegro, adagio or largo, which are all Italian words. You could also see German or English words.

Quarter notes in 3/4 time