How To Read Sheet Music

Almost all the sheet music you’ll find online or in a songbook is printed in one of
two formats.

The first format is what I call “full-on” sheet music. It includes the lyrics, the
melody line and the chords.

Sometimes with full-on sheet music you’ll also get the chord names above the
melody line:

Full-on sheet music is great for anyone who wants to know exactly what notes to
play in the melody and in the harmony (the chords.)

The other—and in my opinion, easier—format is “lead sheet” format. A lead

sheet gives you the lyrics, the melody line and the chord names, and leaves it up
to you to decide how to play those chords:

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In both formats, the melody line is almost always written on the treble clef.

There are occasions when the composer will put the melody on a different clef, but
for our purposes here we only need to learn to read the notes on the treble clef.

The treble clef represents notes in particular octaves, but since we just want to
know how to read the melody we only need to know that notes on the bottom are
lower than notes on the top.

The lowest note on the treble clef is E. It appears on the bottom line:

Each line and space on the treble clef represents a different note. From bottom to
top the notes are E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, and F.

E F G A B C D E F

The high E and F on the treble clef (the ones near the top) are one octave higher
than the ones on the bottom.

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You can extend the range of the treble clef by putting notes on ledger lines above
or below the clef:

Filling in the lines and spaces between the ledger lines, you get:

F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E

Now, most likely the melody line will only span one octave to maybe one and a
half. But, the notes could fall anywhere within this range, so it’s important to
know these notes.

The next thing you need to know is that every note on the treble clef can be made
either sharp (#) or flat (b) by simply placing the appropriate symbol in front of the
note:

G G# Gb D D# Db

If you play a G# or Gb, and the next note is a G, you will see the natural sign:

G G# G G Gb G
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The last thing you need to know is how to read the key signature and the time sig-
nature.

The key signature tells you what key the song is in, but all you really need to
know for now is that it tells you which notes are sharp or flat throughout the entire
song.

The sharps in this key signature tell you to play F#, C#, G#, and D#, unless these
notes have a natural sign in front of them.

The flats in this key signature tell you to play Bb, Eb and Ab, unless these notes
have a natural sign in front of them.

Finally, the time signature tells you how many beats are in each measure. 4/4
means there are four beats per measure, 3/4 means three beats, and 2/2 means two
beats.

To get the most out of this lesson, take a pencil and practice writing the letter
name of each note in the melody line on your sheet music. Then practice finding
those same notes on your fret board.

For help finding the notes on your fretboard, see Mapping Out The Fret Board at
cigarbox101.com

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