The last in the series of understanding written sheet music!

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Wow, not so bad.
Well this has been the basic course on understanding written music.
There is plenty of information on the Internet giving you examples of the many symbols. I would like to leave you with the last piece of information I will provide. Unless you catch me in video chat!

OK, I hope you now have a basic understanding of sheet music and how to read it! Catch me at Zingingstrings if you have questions!

Cheers

Learn to read sheet music! Guitar for beginners!

Hi Everyone!
Well, I hope you did the lesson!
Here is mine.
It wasn’t so hard.
As I was doing it I figured you should know the order in which you place the sharps and flats on the music.
If you notice I put a word above each staff. One is the backwards version of the other!

So this is the order to place your sharps or flats on the staff!

To look at mine click here

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Cheers,
Jay

The time to practice is NOW! Guitar for beginners, understanding written sheet music!

Ok time to put it in to practice.

On the staff draw the treble clef.

Then put the key. Use every key! C – C the whole major octave

Then put 2/3 time signature use common time use 6/8 time etc.

Why practice writing music, I only wanted to learn to read it?

If you can write in Spanish trust me you can READ it!

My example coming soon!

Don’t get discouraged enjoy life and playing guitar!

Remember It’s your art!

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Cheers!

Jay

Learning to read sheet music. Guitar for beginners!

A recap of what we learned so far!.

The lines and spaces are called staff
At the beginning of the staff we put our clef.
After the clef we notate the key by placing sharps and flats on the lines or spaces!
Now What Next?

The Time signature!

After the key and before any notes can be placed on the staff, there is a symbol or a fraction telling us the timing! This has nothing to do with TEMPO.

If a fraction is used the the top number gives you the beats per measure.
The bottom number gives you the type of note which gets the beat!

3 beats per measure and the quarter note gets the beat!

THIS is The bottom number legend!
1 equals whole note
2 equals half note
4 equals a quarter note
8 equals an eighth note
16 equals a 16th note

The standard key signature is 4/4 time. It is usually denoted by a large black C.

Other common time signatures are 2/2 time (cut time), 2/4 time, 3/4 time, and 6/8 time. Again the time signature is written after the key signature, but before any notes on the staff.

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Enjoy!
Cheers

Continuing education understanding how to read sheet music!

Wow, what have we learned! Music is fairly easy to read.
It’s kind of like a road map except you need to memorise the legend! The legend being what the notes and rests look like, time signatures and the important things that make up sheet music. The most important thing is if you want to learn to read it you must PRACTICE. Every day. The captain of a ship constantly looks at maps which improve his/her skill. Well, if you are the captain of music you need to read it and practice it often!

With that being said ONWARD!

We will put a little of what we learned so far into practice! Next thing to learn is the KEY. Well, there can only be 12 major keys. All the notes of the chromatic scale. (12 pitches all separated by half steps!)

Look at the circle of fifths. Keep it handy. Of course if you use it a lot you will find you are actually memorizing the number of sharps or flats in a certain KEY.

The key is written on the staff after the clef using the sharp or flat symbol as pictured below!

For Example
By looking at the circle of fifths I know the key of G has one sharp in it. And the F is sharped.
So to write the key of G I put a sharp on the F The key of G has a relative minor which is Em

Or the key of Em

My next example has 4 sharps. What is the KEY
The key of E has a relative minor which is C#m

Or the key of C#m

Now on the left side of the circle of fifths we notice that the flat is not the leading semitone before the KEY. On the right side of the circle or the sharp side you can use this!
On the flat side you can NOT use this! All you have to remember is THE KEY OF F HAS ONE FLAT which is Bb. All flats now are 3 steps above the previous flat!

For the key of Bb we have 2 flats Bb and Eb
For the key of Eb we have 3 flats Bb and Eb and Ab
So on until we get to the Six o’clock position!

Now we know how to read or write the key of a song! Dont forget to have a look at the zingingstrings forum, it might just be the place for you!
Until next time!

The Circle of fifths at the Zingingstrings shop!

Cheers,
Jay

Continuing lesson on reading written music!

For the most part we will be working on the treble clef! Are there any more clefs? YES There are more clefs! Do we need to learn about them?
No not really.

Lets look at our treble clef. The center spiral tells you where the G before middle C is located on the Staff.  Likewise on the bass clef the line or space between the dots references the F below middle C. If you put the 2 clefs together you have a complete range of note encompassing a wide range of instruments! 4 octaves of range!

OK are we grasping the STAFF and Clef?

Lets look at the types of notes we can place on the staff.

These are the notes you can place on the staff!
A whole note is the largest note we can place on the staff aside from a double whole note!
A half note is exactly that HALF of a whole note!
Quarter note is half of a half note!
Eight note is one half a quarter.
Sixteenth note is half of a eight note!

Practice making these notes on your staff. The stems should be contained within the staff meaning the music should look condensed within the staff. The stem should be drawn no longer than 3.5 lines of staff! The rules, (which can be broken is some instances), say that the stems point up on any note below the B and point down on any note above the B and it is up to the writer which way the stem points on the B note itself!

Lets Look!

Correct way

The stems are mostly contained within the staff. and it looks condensed.

Wrong Way

Now the stems could collide if I added a BASS Clef! It makes reading music a lot HARDER if not done the correct way!

Practice drawing notes on your practice sheet!

Till next time!

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Cheers,
Jay

A beginners lesson on understanding written music!

You can download blank staff paper here

Please print a worksheet!

You will notice groups five spaced lines on your printed sheet!
The group of 5 lines and spaces is called STAFF
On the staff, you will find notes, a time signature, a clef sign, a key signature, and various markings that will affect the tempo and pitch of each note.

Depending where you sing or what instrument you play determines what clef you read!
For example violin plays from the treble clef!
Tuba from the bass clef.
Piano plays right hand treble clef left hand bass clef!

Lets look at the treble clef placed on the beginning staff.

The treble clef tells me the notes of the lines and spaces!

Easy Acronyms are FACE for the four spaces between the lines
and
Every Good Boy Does Fine for the Lines!

Notice the notes of the treble clef!  E F G A B C D E F

Bass Clef
Lets look at the bass clef placed on the beginning staff.

The Bass clef tells me the notes of the lines and spaces!

Acronyms are!

Lines – Good Boys Do Fine Always
Spaces – All Cows Cat Grass

Notice the notes of the bass clef! G A B C D E F G A

Practice drawing Both Clef Signs on your work sheets.

See you next time or at our Forum!
Cheers

Continuing education, lead lessons, guitar for beginners!

The last lesson covered the major scale box. And you were told the minor is only 3 frets away.
Let’s write the notes of the bass E String out! All 12 frets.
Lets also look at the circle of fifths. The relative minor associated with the CMaj is A. The C is the 8th fret and the A is 3 frets down!
Lets look at BMaj. The relative minor associated with the key of B is G# The B is at the 7th fret The G# is at the 4th fret!
O 1
E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D   D#   E

OK so Big Deal right
Lets take Box 2 of the minor pentatonic and the major scale box and overlay!
The black notes are the minor pentatonic and the blue notes are the major. The black and blue note are the shared notes!
Now the important part. WHAT MAKES THEM DIFFERENT?

The ROOT NOTES makes the different!

Next is a picture of the minor scale. I painted all the notes with a red slash showing you the notes not used when you play a pentatonic minor. I hope this helps you visually see how the Box 2 of the pentatonic minor scale is derived from the minor scale!

Have Fun!

Don’t miss the entire lesson at the Zingingstrings Forum! It’s in the beginners section!

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Cheers,
Jay

Learn to play Lead Guitar! Guitar Beginners

Wow, we have done an amazing job. We learned the 5 interconnecting boxes of the minor pentatonic scale but have we really learned it? Were my text diagrams easily understandable? Did you go to the forum and check out the thread on learning lead?

Well, I will make it easy on you and post the 5 movable boxes of the minor pentatonic scale here!

Box 1 connects to box 2 which connects to box 3 etc. It is important to practice each of the 5 boxes with a metronome!

 General Notes,
1. We are going to learn to play lead in this series! If you have questions don’t be shy, ASK them! You will never learn if you don’t ASK.
2. The first box or patten we are going to learn is the 2nd pattern of the MINOR PENTATONIC SCALE. Notice I called it minor pentatonic and didn’t give it a letter. That is because where I place the Root note on the Bass E string determines the Key I am playing. If I want to play an A (minor pentatonic scale) I would start this pattern on the A of the Bass E which we should have learned by now is at the 5th fret! So what key would I be playing if I moved it a semitone down? G#!
3. You must understand 2 in order to be proficient! If I want to play a D# (minor pentatonic scale) I would start the pattern on the 11th fret!
4. Root notes are important. Learn the positions of them. There are 3 root notes in this pattern! Learn them! They kind of form a triangle if you look at the pattern!

OK here is the shape of the first box!

Why do people study music theory?
To learn shortcuts and to become better players.

We are playing a minor pentatonic pattern. That means the scale has 5 notes repeated throughout the scale PENT = 5!
So every root note is 5 notes away from the previous root note! Easy to remember!
We can also assume that the circle of fifths is correct. By that I mean there is only one relative minor scale associated with the Key. That association is the number of sharps and flats in the key.
C major scale has no sharps or flats!
Am scale has no sharps or flats
G major has 1 sharp in the scale F#
Em has one sharp in the scale F#
D major scale has 2 sharps in it F# and C#
Bm scale has 2 sharps F# and C#

So really you cannot play a Am scale over the A major! WHY?
A major scale has 3 sharps in it! F# C# G#
Am scale has no sharps in it. So 3 notes out of the scale will be WRONG or sound really out of place!

OK practice time.
Please use a metronome because timing is very important. Don’t push yourself to be a speed freak! Set the metronome to 60 BPM that’s one note per second.
From the bass root note, down the strings and back up! Only. Back and forth! All the way! 5 minutes!
Bass root note to the next root note and back! 5 mins
Bass root note to the last root note and back! 5 mins
Last 5 minutes jamming to the backing track!

Simple Backing Track!
This happens to be in the key of G

So we start this our minor pentatonic box on the open fret or on the 12th fret! Look at you circle of fifths! What is the relative minor associated with the key of G. Em.

Box one is just like box 2 as it only has two notes per string! This box should be very easy to learn! All the ending notes of the first box are the beginning notes of our second box. The boxes connect at this point!
Same practice as box two!

use both sets of boxes to practice to the Backing track!

Same Practice Regiment!

 

Here are all 5 boxes of the minor pentatonic scale! This is excerpted from my learn to play lead series on our FORUM.

Cheers,
Jay

Guitar For Beginners Questions and Answers

Why does one pick up a guitar? It may be a new art form someone wants to try! A creative outlet! Why does one pick up a paint brush or a pencil? The zen of playing!

We have covered a lot in our little lessons. Most important do you understand what I have given you?

If I tell you to add grey to your oil paints for you to get a certain color value you would listen and mix grey when you wanted a shadow color!

Same goes for guitar. You need to understand the western octave. How it is derived from a keyboard! No sharp or flat between BC and EF.

The important thing is if you are lost ask questions. Get answers, DEMAND answers!

You are putting your time into learning a musical instrument. So ASK QUESTIONS

 We at the Zingingstrings Forum will try to answer your questions if you have any, because we believe in the power of music.

Just Ask.

Circle of Fifths Gifts

Cheers,
Jay