Reading music

Introduction

Rather than learning musical notation in isolation, we’ll take a familiar piece of music and build up its score step by step, introducing each new element as we need it.

The piece of music we'll use will be familiar to many: the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah. Have a listen to the beginning of this recording, and particularly to the choir singing its very first 'Hallelujah':

Pitch

For now, listen just to the highest voices - the sopranos. Their first “Hallelujah” is made up of four notes. Each note is a single musical sound with its own pitch. Pitch is simply how high or low a note is. Here are those four notes on a piano:

You should be able to hear that after the first note ("Ha") the second note ("le") goes down in pitch, the third note ("lu") goes back up and the fourth note ("jah") goes down again.

If you listen carefully, you’ll also hear that the second note drops quite a long way from the first, while the next two changes in pitch are much smaller. You may also notice that the fourth note (“jah”) returns to the same pitch as the second note (“le”).

We can represent these four notes and their pitches with simple black dots, like this:

Note names

These dots show us the shape of the tune — which notes are higher or lower, and roughly how far apart they are. But they don’t tell us exactly which pitches to sing. For that, we need a way of identifying individual pitches. To do this we assign them names using the letters A to G. We can also think of these as note names: a note takes the name of its pitch.

The letters progress from A to G as the pitch gets higher, before starting again at A. You can see this in the diagram below, with the increasing pitches on the left, and the names of our Hallelujah notes on the right.

Staves

We could simply write the name next to every note like this, but that would quickly become cumbersome. Instead, music uses a set of five horizontal lines, called a stave (or staff), to help show the pitch of each note.

Each line and each space on the stave represents a different pitch. A note is placed either on a line or in a space, and its position tells us its pitch - and therefore the note name. As we move upwards through the lines and spaces, the pitches get higher; as we move downwards, they get lower.

Here's our tune on a stave, with the pitches of the lines and spaces on the left.

Clefs

Having to label all the lines and spaces with their note names would still be rather cumbersome. Instead, we use a symbol called a clef at the beginning of the stave. The clef tells us which pitches the lines and spaces represent, so we no longer need to write their names alongside them.

For our soprano line, we use the treble clef. This is the clef generally used for higher-pitched music — treble simply means the higher part or range.

The treble clef symbol is actually a highly stylised letter G. Notice in the diagram below how it curls around the second line up on the stave: this tells us that this line represents the pitch G. Once we know where G is, we can work out all the other pitches by following the sequence of note names up or down through the lines and spaces.

Compare the diagram below with the one above. As we know it's the treble clef, we can still identify the pitch of every line and space, without having to label them individually.

Note lengths and rhythm

Our simple black dots tell us the pitch of each note, but they don't tell us how long to sing it. In written music, a note's appearance also tells us its length (duration) - how long it lasts.

Let's start by adding a vertical line, called a stem, to each black dot (now called a notehead). A black notehead with a simple stem like this is called a crotchet (or quarter note in American terminology). The crotchet is a good place to start: it’s one of the basic note values, and we can use it as a reference for understanding longer and shorter notes. For now, we don't need to worry about exactly how long a crotchet lasts — it's the relative lengths of the notes that matter.

You may notice that stems can point either up or down. For now, you can ignore this - in most cases it is purely cosmetic and doesn't affect the pitch or duration of the notes, although we'll see one exception to this later on.

Our Hallelujah melody now looks like this:

If you play or sing this music, it sounds like this:

This doesn't sound quite right. The pitches are recognisably the Hallelujah tune — but the rhythm is all wrong. The first note, “Ha”, should last much longer than the others: in fact, three times as long.

We can change the appearance of a note to make it longer or shorter. For example:

• Adding a dot after a note makes it half as long again. So adding a dot after a crotchet gives us a dotted crotchet, which lasts one and a half times as long as an ordinary crotchet.

• Adding a flag to a stem has the opposite effect: it makes the note half as long. So adding a flag to a crotchet gives us a note that lasts half as long as a crotchet, which is called a quaver (or eighth note).
  

So a dotted crotchet lasts three times as long as a quaver — exactly what we need for our “Ha-lle-lu-jah”:

This sounds much more like the Hallelujah tune. It has the correct pitches and rhythm.

When quavers appear together, their flags are sometimes joined together into a single line, called a beam. So you'll usually see our “Hallelujah” written like this, with the last two quavers beamed together:

Beaming doesn't change the length or pitch of the notes — you read them exactly as you would if they had separate flags. The reasons and rules for grouping notes into beams are explained in the Glossary (coming soon!) but you don't need to understand this to read the music. Just know that the two different ways of writing our Hallelujah above sound exactly the same when sung.

Also see 'Note values' in the Glossary (coming soon!) for the other note lengths and their symbols.

Rests

If we play the first "Hallelujah" (the music above), followed by the second one (which is exactly the same) it sounds like this:

Something still doesn't sound quite right: there should be a short gap after the first "Hallelujah" before the next one begins.

In music, a period of silence is called a rest. Just as notes can have different lengths, rests can too, and different symbols are used to show how long each rest should last.

In this case, we need a rest the same length as a crotchet (quarter note). A crotchet rest looks like this:

Now listen again with the rest included. The gap is in the right place, and our “Hallelujahs” sound as they should.

For other rest lengths and their symbols, see 'Rests' in the Glossary (coming soon!)

Beats

So far, we've compared the lengths of our notes with one another. But music also has a regular underlying pulse, called the beat. You can think of it rather like a steady heartbeat running through the music.

Try counting steadily "1, 2, 3, 4", clapping each time you say a number. Each number - and each clap - marks one beat.

Since notes can often fall between the beat, it can help to divide each beat into two equal halves. We count this by saying “and” halfway between the numbers: "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" (simplified to "1 & 2 & 3 & 4" & in the diagram below). Keep your claps on the numbers only — the “ands” simply help us hear where the halfway points fall. Try it:

Now instead of counting, keep clapping but say "Hallelujah" instead:

Notice where the syllables of “Hallelujah” fit against the count. You can see that “Ha” begins on "1" and continues through "&" and "2". “le” falls on the next "&", “lu” on "3", and “jah” on "&". Beat 4 (including its &) is our rest.

So although the notes aren't all the same length, the beat continues steadily underneath them.

Music scores don't generally show the beats - you're expected to figure them out by looking at the lengths of the notes and the time signature (see below). However many singers will (rightly!) mark in the beats (in pencil) for the more tricky sections. See "Marking your score" for examples of this - there are lots of different variations. For our Hallelujah score, these markings might look like this:

Bars

To make music easier to read and navigate, beats are divided into regular groups. These groups are called bars (or measures in American terminology). Vertical lines called barlines mark where one bar ends and the next begins.

In our example, there are four beats in each bar. Our first "Hallelujah" takes up a whole bar. So we can add a barline after it:

Time signature

But how do we know from the written music that there should be four beats in each bar?

That's what the time signature tells us. It appears near the beginning of the music, just after the clef.

In our example, the time signature is 4/4, usually said as “four-four”.

The top number tells us how many beats there are in each bar - so here, there are four. The bottom number tells us what type of note represents one beat. A bottom number of 4 means that a crotchet (quarter note) is the beat, so 4/4 gives us four crotchet beats in each bar.

The time signature also helps give music its rhythmic "feel", because it tells us how the beats are grouped.

• 4/4 is extremely common and has a regular four-beat pattern: 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4.

• 3/4 groups the beats in threes - 1 2 3, 1 2 3 - giving the pattern familiar from a waltz.

• 2/4 groups them in twos - 1 2, 1 2 - a pattern often associated with marches.

You may sometimes see 4/4 written as "C", particularly in older music. This is stands for common time and means the same thing as 4/4. Don't confuse it with a C with a vertical line through it: ¢. This is called cut time (or alla breve) and has a different meaning (see the glossary) - although you may recognise the symbol, as it features in the Choir Tonight logo!

Dynamics

Dynamics tell us how loudly or quietly music should be sung or played. They are usually shown by letters or symbols placed above the stave. The Hallelujah Chorus makes a bold entrance, so our opening “Hallelujah” is marked f, short for the Italian word forte, meaning loud.

Most dynamic markings use Italian terms. The ones you are most likely to encounter, from quietest to loudest, are:

Dynamics also change as the music progresses. A crescendo means gradually getting louder, while a diminuendo (or decrescendo) means gradually getting quieter. These may be written as words or abbreviations, or shown using hairpins (< or > symbols) - widening out for a crescendo and narrowing for a diminuendo.

Dynamic markings are not exact measurements of volume. They are relative instructions, helping singers shape the music and create contrast. Your conductor will adjust the dynamics to suit the music, the choir, the acoustic, and their own musical interpretation.

Tempo

Tempo means the speed of the music — how quickly or slowly it should be sung or played. Like dynamics, tempo is often indicated using an Italian word, usually written above the stave near the beginning of the music.

In the Hallelujah Chorus, Handel gives the tempo marking Allegro, meaning fast or lively.

Some common tempo markings, roughly from slowest to fastest, are:

These words are guides rather than exact speeds. A more precise tempo can be given using a metronome marking, such as ♩ = 120. The note symbol tells us which note value is being counted, and the number tells us how many of those occur in one minute. So ♩ = 120 means 120 crotchets per minute.

Tempo can also change during a piece. For example, ritardando (rit.) means gradually slowing down, while accelerando (accel.) means gradually speeding up. "A tempo" tells us to return to the previous tempo.

Lyrics

For singers, of course, another essential piece of information is what to sing. The lyrics (words) are usually written beneath the notes, with each syllable lined up with the note on which it is sung.

The hyphens show that these are separate syllables of the same word.

Note that the way a word is divided on the page may not match exactly how it is sung. Your conductor will likely ask you to sustain a vowel for the full length of the note, and move onto the following consonant afterwards. So in this example you might sing “Ha-lle” - rather than the “Hal-le" written in the score - to keep the nice open “ah” sound for longer.

Key signature

There's one other feature you'll almost always find at the beginning of a piece of music, but we've deliberately left it until now to avoid complicating things too soon.

Our first “Hallelujah” sounds fine with the pitches we've written so far. But if we continued through the music, we'd find that some notes need to be slightly higher or lower than their usual pitches to sound right. We can sharpen a note to make it higher, or flatten it to make it lower.

This is shown using a sharp (♯) or flat (♭) symbol. A sharp raises a pitch by a semitone, while a flat lowers it by a semitone. A semitone is the smallest step between neighbouring pitches in standard Western music. If you're familiar with a piano keyboard, it's the difference in pitch between two neighbouring keys, whether they are white or black.

One way of showing this is to put a sharp or flat directly beside the note that needs to be changed. A symbol used in this way is called an accidental.

But if the same pitches need to be sharpened or flattened repeatedly throughout a piece, writing the symbol beside every occurrence would soon become cumbersome. Instead, sharps or flats can be placed at the beginning of each stave, just after the clef. Together, these form the key signature and tell us which pitches should normally be sharpened or flattened throughout the music.

In the Hallelujah Chorus, the key signature contains two sharps: F♯ and C♯.

This tells us that Fs and Cs should normally be sung or played a semitone higher than F and C natural. (Our first four soprano notes don't happen to include either F or C, which is why adding the key signature doesn't change the “Hallelujah” we've been building.)

Note that you will also encounter a third symbol, the natural (♮), which cancels a sharp or flat - including one indicated by the key signature - and returns the note to its unaltered pitch.

Keys

The particular combination of sharps or flats in a key signature also tells us which key the music is in. Our Hallelujah example has two sharps, F♯ and C♯, which in this case indicate that the music is in the key of D major. This means that D is the main or ‘home’ pitch, and that the music is built mainly from a particular set of notes associated with D major:

D – E – F♯ – G – A – B – C♯ – D

The pattern continues in the same way at higher and lower pitches. Other notes can still occur, with sharps, flats or naturals added as accidentals when needed, but the key and its key signature tells us the notes we would normally expect to use.

Keys are a larger topic in their own right, and you don't need to understand them to begin reading and following a choral score. Over time, understanding keys can give you a much deeper insight into how music works and how the notes relate to one another. For now, it's enough to:

• recognise a key signature and understand what its sharps or flats are telling you to do to those notes

• be aware of the terminology, as you may hear a conductor say that a passage is “in D major” or has “moved into G major”. They are identifying the key the music is using, which tells us the set of notes the music will mainly be based around. This can be particularly useful for the accompanist, who may need to find or play from that point.

SATB scores

So far, we've followed just the soprano line. But a typical choral score shows all four voice parts — soprano, alto, tenor and bass (SATB) — on separate staves. These are all grouped together to form a system, showing what all four parts are singing at the same point in the music. Often there will also be additional staves underneath for an accompaniment, such as a piano or organ.

Here is our first “Hallelujah” with all four voice parts added:

If we play each of these lines, you can hear (and see in the score above) how Handel gives each of the four voice parts different notes:

Play these together and you can hear how they combine to create harmony and the rich, full sound of SATB choral music:

Let's now look at the above notation in more detail.

Soprano and alto

Our soprano line from earlier is shown at the top. Below this comes the alto line, which is also written using the treble clef. The alto part is generally lower in pitch, so its notes will tend to appear lower down the stave than the soprano notes.

Tenor

The tenor part is also commonly written using the treble clef, but you may notice the small 8 beneath the clef. This tells the tenor to sing the notes one octave lower than they are written.

An octave is the distance from one note to the next note with the same letter name - for example, from one F♯ to the next F♯ above or below it.

In our example, the first tenor note on “Ha” is written as F♯5 but is actually sung an octave lower as F♯4 (see below for an explanation of octave numbers such as 4 and 5).

Bass

The bass part uses a different clef: the bass clef. Just as the treble clef developed from a stylised letter G, the bass clef developed from a stylised F. Its two dots sit either side of the fourth line of the stave, identifying that line as F.

Because the bass clef uses a different reference point, the lines and spaces of the bass stave represent different note names from those of the treble stave. So for example the top line of the treble stave is an F, but the top line of the bass stave is an A (and obviously much lower too.)

This diagram shows how the pitches of the bass and treble staves fit together (see the next section for what the numbers mean):

Octave numbers

As several notes share the same name (e.g. C) but at different pitches, a number - known as the octave number - can be added when we need to identify one particular pitch precisely, as shown on the diagram above. So for example, although we have several notes called C, we can differentiate them as:

• C2 (extremely low, even for basses!)

• C3 (a low C, mainly sung by basses)

• C4 (the C in the middle; can be sung by any voice part)

• C5 (a higher C, mainly sung by altos and sopranos)

• C6 (extremely high, even for sopranos!)

You may not hear these numbers mentioned in rehearsals, but it's useful to know what they mean in case you come across them elsewhere.

Middle C

C4 is also known as Middle C - because it sits in the middle of the two staves and is near the middle of a piano keyboard. It is a useful reference point when finding your way around different pitches. For example, you're probably more likely to hear someone refer to "the C above middle C" than "C5".

For basses, Middle C is positioned above the bass stave, and for the other parts, below the treble stave. These both represent exactly the same pitch, simply continuing the sequence of notes on each stave.

Ledger lines

You can see that Middle C doesn't fall on one of the five lines of either stave, so it is placed on its own short line, called a ledger line.

Ledger lines are used for notes that extend beyond the normal five lines of a stave. They act like short extensions of the stave, appearing only where they are needed, rather than having to add extra lines across the whole stave. The notehead may appear on, above or below the ledger line as necessary.

Sharing a stave

Sometimes two voice parts are written on the same stave, often soprano and alto, or tenor and bass. This saves space and makes the score more compact. When the two parts sing different notes, the direction of the stems usually shows which part is which: the upper part has stems pointing upwards, and the lower part has stems pointing downwards.

You may also see this when a single voice part divides (known as divisi), for example when the sopranos split into Soprano 1 and Soprano 2. The same principle applies: stems up for the upper part and stems down for the lower part.

Beyond SATB

Not every choral score is written for four-part SATB. Composers can divide the voices into additional parts - for example, SSATB has two soprano parts, followed by alto, tenor and bass. You may also encounter combinations such as SSA, TTBB or SATB divisi. The letters simply tell you which voice parts the music is written for. These additional parts may each have their own stave, or two parts may share a stave, depending on how the score is laid out.

Putting it all together: Reading a Score

We've now looked at the main elements of musical notation. But how do you put them together to start reading a piece of music?

One of the easiest ways to learn is to follow the score while listening to a recording or practice aid. Watch how the notes on the page correspond to what you hear, paying attention to their pitches, lengths and timing. With practice, you'll begin to recognise these patterns and make sense of the written music more quickly.

But what if you're looking at a piece for the first time, without a recording to help you? Here's a practical way to approach it.

1. Find your part

Start by locating your voice part on the score. In a typical SATB score, such as the example above, the parts appear from top to bottom in the order Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. So, if you're an alto, you'll usually be reading the second stave down, using the treble clef.

2. Establish the beat

Look at the time signature to see how the beats are organised. If it's 4/4, start by counting steadily 1, 2, 3, 4, either aloud or in your head. You could also clap or tap the beats to establish a regular pulse.

3. Work out the rhythm

Before worrying about pitch, look at the note values and rests to work out when each note should be sung and how long it should last.

For our opening "Hallelujah", try counting:

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

The bold numbers and 'ands' show where each of the four notes begins - emphasise these as you count. Notice that the first note lasts much longer than the others, and that there's a rest on beat 4.

Try speaking or singing the rhythm on a single note first. Getting the timing right is important: even the correct pitches won't sound like the intended melody if the notes are sung in the wrong places.

4. Work out the pitches

Now look at how the notes move up and down the stave. You don't necessarily need to know the exact pitch of the first note — in rehearsal or performance, the conductor or accompanist will usually help establish your starting pitch.

Instead, concentrate on the intervals between the notes. Does the next note move up or down? Is it a small step or a larger leap? Try to hear and reproduce these changes as you sing.

For now, ignore the words and sing on 'la', 'doo' or any comfortable syllable. This allows you to concentrate on getting the rhythm and pitches right without worrying about the lyrics.

Keep the key signature in mind, particularly any sharps or flats it indicates, but don't worry if you don't yet understand the theory behind it.

5. Add the words and expression

Once you're reasonably comfortable with the notes and rhythm, add the lyrics, making sure each syllable falls in the right place.

Finally, look at the dynamics, tempo and other expression markings. These tell you how the music should be sung, rather than simply which notes to sing.

Keep practising!

You won't necessarily be able to work everything out straight away, and that's perfectly normal. Even experienced choir singers often use recordings, practice aids or a keyboard to help them learn unfamiliar music.

The more you practise following and reading a score, the more familiar its patterns will become. Over time, you'll find yourself recognising rhythms, intervals and musical phrases without having to work out every note individually.