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STANDARD MUSIC NOTATION

Welcome to the standard music notation tutorial. This set of lessons is designed for anyone interested in learning the basics of music notation. Whether you just want to know how the notation system works at a basic level, or want to go on to develop advanced sight reading skills to a professional level, this is a good place to start. You can play most of the reading exercises here by using a pick, or all of them by playing fingerstyle.

Although standard music notation is employed by countless musicians playing a vast range of instruments, it's a skill that most guitarists don’t learn. Apart from classical guitar, in which standard notation is considered essential, all other styles are often learned without using standard notation.

One reason is that certain guitar styles, such as strumming or arpeggio accompaniment styles, can easily be played by following simple chord notation, and for more complex arrangements, most guitarists prefer to use guitar tablature instead (because it’s easier to learn), or their memory, or use their other musical skills to improvise music on the spot.

Standard notation, then, isn’t seen as an essential skill for many guitarists (many of the world’s greatest guitarists don’t read notation), but almost everyone agrees that it’s an extremely useful skill that can broaden your musical horizons enormously, such as:

1. More complete information is present, which enables you to read and play in real time a piece of music that you’ve never heard before. Of course, that depends on the level of reading fluency you’ve attained. The more you practise, the more successfully you can develop your ‘sight reading’ ability. Even if you don’t want to invest the time required to develop advanced sight reading ability, just knowing the system enables you to work out the music note by note – exactly.

2. Unlike tab, music notation isn’t restricted to the guitar. You can understand music notation written for any of the vast range of instruments that use it, and transcribe it to guitar.

3. Music that you’ve composed or arranged can be shared with other musicians, as most instrumentalists, unlike most guitarists, read standard notation.

4. Notation lets you know what’s going on musically. If you have a reasonable knowledge of music theory, you can see what the key is, and whether it’s changing to a new key, which offers more options for improvisation.

Even if you don’t practise it to the level where you can sight read and play music while seeing some sheet music for the first time, you can still understand how it works and use it to work out what’s going on, note by note. Whichever level you take it to, having this skill will certainly open up many new directions in which you can advance, not only as a guitarist, but as a musician.

Lesson 1 - The music staff
Lesson 2 - First string notes E, F & G + timing (4/4 time signature)
Lesson 3 - Second string notes B, C & D + 3/4 & 2/4 time signatures
Lesson 4 - Third string notes G & A + repeat signs
Lesson 5 - Eighth notes
Lesson 6 - Dotted notes + Fourth string notes D, E & F
Lesson 7 - Fifth string notes A, B & C + rests and pick up notes
Lesson 8 - Sixth string notes E, F & G
Lesson 9 - Sharps, flats and naturals
Lesson 10 - Ties, slurs + three eight time
Lesson 11 - Chords
Lesson 12 - Key signatures
Lesson 13 - The second position, key of 2 sharps
Lesson 14 - Shorter note lengths, triplets and staccato
Lesson 15 - Major scales E to Eb in higher positions (I - X)
NOTATION PITCH TRAINER - Flash tool

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Lesson 1 - The music staff
In standard notation, the notes of music are written as symbols placed on a set of five lines (and the spaces between and around them) called a staff or stave. The higher the position of the line or space, the higher in pitch is the note placed there.

Fig 1-1 The lines and spaces that form the staff

To fix the exact pitch of the lines and spaces, a sign is placed at the beginning, called a clef.
The clef that is used at the beginning of music written for guitar and many (but not all) other instruments is called the G clef. It’s actually an ornate letter G. It curls around the second bottom line of the staff, and in this position is called the treble clef. It fixes the pitch of that line as G. The treble clef and the music staff are together known as the treble staff (or treble stave).

The pitches of the other lines and spaces follow the musical alphabet from A to G, repeating as often as necessary. If we need to show notes above or below that range, we can add temporary lines, called leger (or ledger) lines.

Don't try to memorise all of the above pitches. They are shown for reference. They will be learned gradually as you practise the graded reading exercises starting in the next lesson.

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Lesson 2 - 1st string notes E, F & G + timing

The next step is to place notes on the staff that can be read and played.
The first notes to learn are the three notes, E, F & G that appear on the first string on frets 0, 1 & 3. On the staff, these three notes appear as follows:

Fig 2-1: The first string notes E, F & G

Practise the following exercise until you are familiar with those three notes. Don’t worry about the duration of each note. We’ll come to that next. You can speed up the memorisation process for all the exercises in these lessons by naming aloud each note as you play it. Singing the notes is even better as it also trains you to hear in your head their relative pitch just by seeing their position on the staff. You can develop this skill to the extent that you can read and hear a complete piece of music in your head without using any instruments. The ultimate example of this skill comes from the composer, Beethoven, who in later years was profoundly deaf, yet managed to compose some of the world’s greatest choral and symphonic music.

Fig 2-2: Notes E F & G in random order

Timing and duration
So far we’ve dealt just with the pitch of notes, and seen how their pitch corresponds with the height of their position on the staff. An equally important element of notes is their duration. Different durations use different note symbols.
To be more precise, the durations are measured relative to each other, We don’t show the duration of notes in seconds or fractions of a second, we show them in relation to each other, as in one note might be twice as long as another, or twice as short. We show these relative durations by using different symbols for the different note lengths.
The one used in the above exercise is called a whole note. It equals two half notes, which equals four quarter notes, as shown below:

Fig 2-3 Whole note, half notes and quarter notes.

How can we know, when playing a note that it’s exactly twice as long or short as another? Simply, by following the beat. When notating a song, a songwriter chooses one of those note duration to make the beat equal to. For example, a quarter note may be chosen as the unit for one beat so a half note will automatically last for two beats and a whole note for four beats.

Stem direction
Note that the stems attached to the half notes and quarter notes point down. That’s because the notes are high up on the staff. Notes lower than the middle line have upward pointing stems. There is an exception to this rule which occurs when music is written in two parts such as a high melody being accompanied by a bass melody. In that case high melody notes are shown with upward pointing stems and bass melody notes with stems pointing down.

The time signature and measures
A time signature is two numbers stacked vertically at the beginning of written music. The bottom number tells us the note duration that the songwriter has chosen to equal one beat. There is no way to know this by listening, only by seeing the notation. The top number tells us how the beats are naturally grouped in the song. Most songs have a definite pattern of beats that can be easily heard. A waltz can be heard as one two three, one two three, constantly repeated, while many other songs are heard as one two three four, one two three four etc.
The music is divided by vertical lines, called bar lines into equal measures (or bars). The total duration of the notes in each measure must equal the top number of the time signature. Fig 2-4 shows a 'four four' time signature. That means a quarter note is fixed as being equal to the beat and every measure (or bar) contains four quarter beats.

Fig 2-4 Time signature

Listen

Tempo
The tempo or speed of the beat is often not indicated, but left to your discretion. When it is indicated, it can appear above the beginning of the staff as a number of beats per minute, or more generally, by terms (often Italian) such as moderato, (= moderate tempo) or fast, slow, etc.

Now practise the following reading exercise, which is exactly how notation appears in real music, i.e. with no beats or note names added. Reading exercises will form the main feature of all the lessons in this tutorial. Constant practice is the only way to advance.

Reading exercise 1

Listen

The time signature is four-four so every bar (or measure) has notes that add up to four quarter notes. There is no tempo indication, so play it 'slow to moderate' and keep strictly in time, even if you have to go slower than you'd like.

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Lesson three - 2nd string notes B, C & D

This lesson introduces the notes B C & D on string 2 as well as a couple of new time signatures, three-four and two-four.
The note B is quite easy to recognise as it sits exactly on the middle line of the staff. Notes C & D can easily be recognised by counting up from that middle line.

Fig 3-1 The 2nd string notes B, C & D

The example in fig 3-2, (below) is in three-four time. Three-four just means it has one less quarter note than the 'four-four' time signature you played in lesson 2.

Fig 3-2: Three-four time signature

Listen

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Two-four is two less than four four, so you simply count "one-two, one two" constantly.

Fig 3-3: Two-four time signature

Listen

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Reading exercise 2

Listen

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Lesson four - 3rd string notes G & A + repeat signs

This lesson introduces two notes on the third string, G & A. G is the open string and A is on the second fret. Note how the stems of notes below the middle line point upwards.

Fig 4-1: notes G & A on string 3

Repeat signs
As sections of music often repeat, there are musical signs that indicate where and when to repeat a section, or the whole piece.

Fig 4-2: repeat sign

Listen

When you encounter a repeat sign, you either go back to the beginning and repeat the whole section as in fig 4-2, or begin the repeat from the "repeat from" sign if one is present as in fig 4-3.

Fig 4-3: "repeat" and "repeat from" signs

Listen

Reading exercise 3

Listen

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Lesson 5 - Eighth notes

The next note length to become familiar with is the 'eighth note'. As its name suggests, it lasts exactly half as long as a quarter note.

Fig 5-1: Eighth note

To count them accurately when the quarter note is the beat, we count them in pairs as "one and two and" etc.

Fig 5-2: Eighth notes grouped to show the division of the bar at the midpoint

Fig 5-3: Eighth and quarter note timing

Listen

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Reading exercise 4

Listen

A tempo indication of 72 (quarter note) beats per minute is shown at the start, but you don't need to play it at exactly that tempo, which could only be done by using a metronome, a click track at 72 beats per minute or by playing along with the midi file. Play it as slowly as you need - but the timing must be consistent from start to finish. Notice how some low eighth notes have downward pointing stems. That's because they're grouped (beamed) with higher notes. Notes beamed together have tails pointing in the same direction.

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Lesson 6 - Dotted notes + fourth string notes D, E & F

DOTTED NOTES

Placing a dot after a note extends its duration by half its value. That means if a particular note lasts two beats, placing a dot after it, extends its duration by one more beat, making three beats in total. Extending a single beat note by adding a dot, results in a one and a half beat note.

Fig 6-1: Dotted notes are extended by half of the original note length

Try this exercise introducing dotted half notes. As the time signature is "three-four", a dotted half note will equal 3 beats and fill a whole bar or measure.

Fig 6-2: Dotted half notes

Listen


Fig 6-3 introduces the dotted quarter note. As the time signature is "four-four", the quarter note, which would equal one beat, will be extended to one and a half beats.

Fig 6-3: Dotted quarter notes

Listen


FOURTH STRING NOTES D, E & F

Fig 6-4: Fourth string notes: D E & F

The following example introduces the notes D, E & F as the first phrase of a well known melody. If you play it correctly, you'll almost certainly recognise it.

Fig 6-5: Fourth string notes melody

Listen


Reading exercise 5

This is the opening phrase of a well known classical melody from Swan Lake.

Listen


Reading exercise 6: Ode to Joy

This extended reading exercise is (with a few necessary modifications) a section of the famous melody Ode to Joy by Beethoven from his ninth symphony.
Listen

Further Practice
At this stage you should use 'pitch trainer' tool (default setting) in the section after lesson 15 to get practice playing and naming all of the notes that you've learned so far.

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Lesson 7: Fifth string notes A, B & C + rests and pickup notes

This lesson starts by introducing the fifth string notes A, B & C played on the open string, fret 2 and fret 5, respectively. Most people find these low notes harder to read at first. Being so low in pitch they are placed below the staff using small leger (or ledger) lines. With practice they become instantly recognisable.

Fig 7-1: Fifth string notes A, B & C

Play the following exercise over and over until you've got it sounding fluent. Notice how many leger lines are visible for each of those notes. Name the notes aloud as you play them

Fig 7-2: Fifth string notes A, B & C exercise

Listen

Rests
Rests in music are periods of silence. As with notes, they have symbols to indicate their exact duration relative to the beat. Every note duration has an equivalent rest duration. An exception to this is that sometimes a whole note rest is used to indicate a rest for a complete measure, regardless of the number of beats in that measure.

Fig 7-3: Musical rests

Extending rests
As with notes, rests can be extended by adding dots to increase their duration by half, or they can simply be placed together. Smaller rests are grouped in a way that corresponds with the individual beats of the bar.

Fig 7-4: Dotted and combined rests

The important thing to remember when you encounter a rest is that any previously played note must be silenced either by your pick or by your fingers. It mustn't be allowed to ring out through the rest. Read and listen to the following example. A sustaining instrument is used to let you hear that the note stops exactly as the rest begins. Also, in bar 3, notice how two quarter note rests are used on the second and third beats. This is preferable to having a half note rest lying across and obscuring the midpoint of the bar.

Fig 7-5: Notes and rests

Listen

Pickup bars
When the first note of a piece of music doesn't begin on the first beat, it's not necessary to fill up the first bar with rests as shown in fig 7-5 above. More commonly, the first bar is shown as an incomplete bar (pickup bar), begining on whichever beat that note falls on. The first note or notes are called pick up notes. The final bar is also usually shown as incomplete by an amount equal to the value of the pick up notes. Between them they add up to a complete bar. In the example below (fig 7-6) the music sounds identical to that shown in fig 7-5, except that, whereas, in fig 7-5 the introductory rests are repeated, Fig 7-6 repeats from the first note shown.
The final bar
As the first bar is incomplete containing only one beat (the fourth beat) so the final bar is shown one beat short. Between them they make one complete bar. For bar numbering purposes, usually the first complete bar is considered the first bar, however this convention is ignored by some notation writing programs, in which the pickup bar is counted as bar 1.

Fig 7-5: Pickup bar and note

Reading Exercise 7

Listen

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Lesson 8: Sixth string notes E, F & G

Now we come to the lowest notes of the guitar in standard tuning: the sixth string notes, E F & G

Fig 8-1: Sixth string notes E, F & G

These are among the most difficult to read at first because of the number of leger lines involved in writing them, They need to be practised until you can see at a glance how many leger lines are there.

The following exercise focuses on those as well as other bass notes on the fourth and fifth strings. It's very common at first to confuse these similar looking notes on the bass strings, so this exercise provides some practice in recognising them.
This is also a useful technique exercise for playing bass strings using semi-regular fingering of the fretting hand. Practise slowly and gradually increase your speed. The midi demo is at 120 BPM (beats per minute). Aim for that speed only after you're familiar with where the notes are placed on the staff.

Fig 8-2: Bass notes - fingering technique exercise

Listen

Reading Exercise 8

Listen

The above reading exercise covers all the notes covered so far, arranged as an ascending and descending scale. This is also a good exercise for getting to know the names of the natural notes of the guitar if you're not already familiar with them. Saying the note names aloud as you play them will help you learn them more thoroughly.

Further Practice
Use the 'pitch trainer' tool at the end of these lessons for more practice in naming and playing all the notes you've learned so far. Select level 2 (Bass and mid-range)

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Lesson 9: Sharps, flats and naturals

Often in notated music, you'll come across sharp, flat and natural signs placed in front of notes. These accidentals, as they are called, indicate that the pitch of the note is to be raised (sharped or sharpened) or lowered (flatted or flattened) by a semitone or half step. To restore a note previously altered by a sharp or flat back to its original pitch, the natural sign is used.

Fig 9-1: The Accidentals (sharp, flat and natural)

As a semitone is equal to exactly one fret on the guitar, the simplest way to alter any inflected note is by raising or lowering the pitch by one fret. In the example above, the note A is played on string 3 fret 2, so A# (A sharp) is played on string 3 fret 3. and Ab (A flat) is played on string 3 fret1.

Flatted open string notes

Open strings present a slight problem here, though, as they can't be lowered any further. The solution is to locate the same note on a lower string and lower that by one fret:

Fig 9-2: Flatted open string notes

Effects of accidentals.
An accidental affects not only the note it's placed in front of. It also affects all other notes of that pitch within the same bar or measure, unless another accidental cancels it:

Fig 9-3 The effects of accidentals

Reading Exercise 9

This is the melody to Bourree by JS Bach, originally written for lute.

Listen

Further Practice
Use the 'pitch trainer' tool at the end of these lessons for more practice in naming and playing all the notes you've learned so far. Select level 2 (Bass and mid-range) and "include sharps and flats".

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Lesson 10: Ties, slurs and "three eight time"

Ties
Ties are small curved lines placed between two notes of the same pitch.They have the effect of extending the note duration of the first note by the value of the second. For example, if a quarter note is tied to another quarter note, only the first note is played but it will have the value of two quarter notes, or a half note. In fig 10-1, the tied note is at the last beat of the measure, where it's not possible to have a half note. The tie then crosses the bar line to join the two notes, which have the combined duration of a half note. It's the only way to get a half note across two measures.

The second tie in Fig 10-1 is different. It joins an eighth note to a quarter note. The combined duration is equivalent to a dotted quarter note. Although there is enough space within the measure for a dotted quarter note, it would cross the middle of the measure and obscure where the beat falls. Using a tie instead is considered more correct, as it makes the mid point of the measure, i.e., the third beat, visible.

Fig 10-1: Ties

Listen (fig 10-1)

Slurs
Slurs look like ties but they're placed between notes of different pitch. They indicate that the notes have to be played legato, i.e., smoothly connected. The most common way to achieve this effect on guitar is by using hammer on and pull offs

Fig 10-2: Slurs

Three eight time

The three eight time signature is used less often than three four. It's exactly the same to read, except that the beat unit is now the eighth note instead of the quarter note.
There is a misconception that a piece of music written with a time signature of eighth note beats must be twice as fast as one with quarter note beats. In fact, it depends purely on the tempo, which is measured in beats per minute (BPM). So, if a song in three eight time was played at 60 BPM and another song in three four time was played at 80 BPM, the one using quarter note beats would actually be faster than the one using eighth note beats.

It's not possible (by just listening) to identify the bottom number of a time signature, i.e., what unit is being used for the beat. If you listen to a song, you can hear whether it has three beats per measure (called triple time) or not - but you can't know the bottom number of the time signature, i.e., the note length chosen to represent one beat (assuming one has been chosen). That choice is made whenever it's being notated. Two versions of a song could be notated using quarter notes and eighth notes as the beat, and both versions will sound identical provided the BPM is the same.

Fig 10-3: "Three eight" time

Listen (fig 10-3)

The following reading exercise is based on the scale of G major and can make a useful practice exercise for getting to know the notes of the scale.

Reading Exercise 10

Listen

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Lesson 11: Chords

Chords
When two or more notes are to be played at the same time, they are placed vertically on a single stem. Chords are difficult at first, as it takes time to identify each note in turn. With practice, however, the chords begin to appear as recognisable shapes, similar to the way chord shapes on the fretboard become recognisable. At first, though, you have to approach each chord slowly and logically. Identify the bass note first, and move up through the notes one by one. Get into the habit of always doing it the same way. Your recognition speed will gradually increase.

Fig 11-1 shows different types in each of the measures, as follows:
Measure 1 - Not a complete chord but two notes (C & E) forming the interval of a major third. Two notes on adjacent lines or adjacent spaces always form the interval of a third, a very useful visual signpost.

Measure 2 - This chord is A minor (A C & E). When three notes appear on adjacent lines or adjacent spaces, they always indicate a common triad (major, minor, diminished or augmented) in root position (lowest note is chord root). Another useful means of identifying chords

Measure 3 - E minor. Notice again, the notes on three adjacent lines, indicating a simple triad in root position

Measure 4 - The common four-note D major chord shape

Measure 5 - The common five-note A major chord shape.

Measure 6 - The common six-note G7 chord shape.

Measure 7 - A compound (greater than an octave) third interval. This type of interval can't be played by using a pick alone as its notes are not on adjacent strings. It can be played by fingers such as thumb and middle (p & m) or by using hybrid picking technique which involves using a pick to play the bass note and fingers to play upper notes.

Measure 8 - A three-note C major shape also not played on adjacent strings, so played by fingers or hybrid picking. Sometimes, a pick can be used to strum non adjacent strings. It's done by strumming all the required strings and muting any intermediate strings by the fretting hand.

Fig 11-1: Chords and intervals

Listen (Fig 11-1)

Arpeggios
Arpeggios are the notes of chords spread out over time, and forming a repeating pattern of notes. Although here notated as eighth notes, when it's obvious that a chord is being played, we can allow the notes to sustain past their notated value, until its time to change to the next chord.

Fig 11-2: Chords played as fingerstyle 'arpeggio' patterns

Listen (Fig 11-2)

Reading Exercise 11

Here's the famous old English song, Greensleeves, written in two parts (two staffs): melody and chord (fingerstyle) accompaniment. The melody in the upper part is played by synth flute in the midi sample file, so that it can be easily heard, separately from the underlying chords. The vertical line joining both staffs indicates they have to be played at the same time.

Listen

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Lesson 12: Key signatures

Key Signatures
Most of the music we hear is said to be in a key. When we say a song is in the key of E major, for example, it means that most, if not all, of its notes will belong to the E major scale. The notes of the E major scale are:
E F# G# A B C# D# E.
That means if a song in the key of E major is written in notation, it will be seen to consist mainly of those notes. Four of those notes will require a sharp sign placed in front of them (depending on their position within each measure). In order to cut down on the many distracting occurences of those signs that are likely to be required within the music, they are placed at the beginning of each staff on the relevant lines and spaces, and indicate that every occurence of those notes is automatically played as a sharped note.

Fig 12-1 (below) shows an E major scale written in notation, first with no key signature and then with key signature.
With no key signature, the measure looks cluttered and harder to read. With key signature, the measure looks much cleaner and easier to read. You just have to remember to always play the affected notes as a sharp. If the songwriter/ composer wants to include any 'out of key' notes, such as A#, for example, they are indicated within the music as normal accidentals, and not in the key signature.

Fig 12-1: The scale of E major with and without key signature

Key signatures are unique (hence the use of the word 'signature') arrangements of sharps or flats, (never both) and we can deduce the key of the music by recognising the arrangement of flats or sharps. There are 15 key signatures, seven flat keys, seven sharp keys and one which has no sharps or flats. Each key signature indicates a particular major key, or its relative minor key. (The relative minor key is the minor key that corresponds to the sixth degree of the major scale.)
Fortunately, guitar music is mostly written in keys with no more than four sharps or one flat.

The key signature which has no sharps or flats belongs to the key of C major or its relative minor key, A minor. The scales of those keys have no sharps or flats,
C major = CDEFGABC
A minor = ABCDEFGA

To know whether a piece of music is written in the major key or its relative minor you need to look for further clues. The last note of the music will almost always be the key note and chord. Also if it's in the relative minor key, you can expect to see more accidentals within the music, especially the raised (sharped) 7th scale degree. That would be G# in the key of A minor. Even if you're not sure, though, you can still play the music, but it's always better to know the key so that you can emphasise the important notes of that key.
Greensleeves in lesson 11 is in the key of A minor. The last note and chord are A and A minor and there are a few occurences of accidental sharps within the music on the sixth and seventh scale degrees (F# and G#).

Here are the other fourteen key signatures for reference:

Fig 12-2: The list of key signatures

Reading Exercise 12 is the French song Plaisir d'amour in the key of G major, which has one sharp, F#. This corresponds to the single sharp that appears in the G major scale: (G A B C D E F# G). Wherever you see the note F (on any line or space) in the music, you must always play it as F# one fret higher than F.

Reading Exercise 12

Listen

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Lesson 13: Position playing, key signature of two sharps and "six eight" time

Position playing
So far, all the exercises have been played in what's known as the first position of the guitar. That simply means that if a note is to be played on the first fret of any string, then you use your first finger to play it. Second fret notes are played by the second finger and so on.
Sometimes, of course, you have to move up to higher frets, i.e., a higher position. In notation, that's shown by Roman numerals, and indicates that notes on that fret are fretted by your first finger and the next three frets, if used, are each fretted by the subsequent fingers, 2, 3 & 4. Position directions are put there as an aid to playing with efficient hand movement. In published music, you may disagree that a marked position is the most efficient way to play a particular, in which case you're free to improve it. Often, however, they're put there for a good reason and should be followed most of the time. If the Roman numeral is preceded by the letters B or C, it indicates that you should barre that fret. A "half" symbol indicates a half barre, i.e., barre only three strings (or four at most).

The following exercise (Fig 13-1) shows a passage played in second position, and also includes a key signature of two sharps. The 'two sharp' signature indicates the key of D major or B minor. In this case, the last note D, indicates that the key is D major. Remember, when reading it, to automatically sharp all Fs and Cs wherever they occur.

Fig 13-1: Position II (key of D major)

Listen

Compound time: Six-eight time signature
Next, we introduce the time signature: six eight. Although it appears to consist of six eighth note beats, the beat actually equals a dotted quarter note, each of which is equivalent to three eighth notes, and there are two such beats per measure. That's why it's also known as compound duple time. Music written with this time signature can be felt as containing two strong beats, each divided by three subsidiary beats. These 'beats within beats' are why it's called compound time. This is a common time signature for jigs, as in the reading example below.

Fig 13-2: Six-eight time

Reading Exercise 13: Canary Jig

Listen

The above reading exercise contains alternate endings (marked 1. and 2.) for the repeated first section. When you reach the repeat bar (marked 1.) go back to the beginning and play until the bar just before the bar marked with ending 1. This time ignore that bar and jump to the one marked 2. This leads you into section two of the piece, which is played until the end. Notice also the tempo marking showing a dotted quarter note as the unit of the beat

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Lesson 14: Shorter note lengths: sixteenth to sixty-fourth notes, triplets and staccato

Sixteenth to sixty-fourth notes

The shortest note length we've used so far is the eighth note. There are even shorter note lengths, obtained by dividing the eighth note exactly as we did with the whole note:

Fig 14-1: Shorter note durations with equivalent rests

The followings scales are played using each of the note lengths. We can hear how shorter note lengths increase the apparant speed, even though the tempo remains unchanged.


Fig 14-2: C major scale with different note durations

Listen (fig 14-2)

Triplets
Triplets are groups of three notes played in the time of two. Each note has to be shortened so that the extra note can be fitted in to the alloted time. Normally you fit them in by 'feel'. Think of the note value above and instead of dividing it into two, divide it into three equal notes.

Fig 14-3: Triplets

Listen (fig 14-3)

Staccato
Staccato is a direction to play the notes marked with a dot above (or below) the note head, short and detached. Cutting it short means you must fill the remainder of its duration with a rest. It's the opposite effect of legato (slurs). How much to shorten it by is usually left to the discretion of the performer.

Fig 14-4 Notes shortened by playing them 'staccato'

Listen (fig 14-4)

Reading Exercise 14

Listen

Notes
1. Notice in the pick up bar how we 'beam' a dotted eighth note and sixteenth note together.
2. The sign "Rall" is a common musical direction from Italian "Rallentando" meaning to slow down.