Reading Music: Introduction 

With a little success under your belt, you can begin to tackle the job of learning to read
music. Of course, many musicians do not know how to read music. They just hear a
song and play it, as they say, by ear. These drum musicians can improvise on any simple
themes and come up with elaborate renditions of popular songs. These players know
their instruments as well as singers know their own voices.

You may be someone who can do that. There will be some information later on about
chords and drum improvisation. However, if you are a beginner just finding out about the
piano, it is more likely that you need the help that written music can provide you.
Furthermore, learning to read written music can open up a whole new world to you.
You can learn songs that you have never even heard before. If you want to repeat the
performance, you will have the sheet music to guide you note for note.

There is much to learn. You must find out about the way the notes are depicted. You
need to know what the staffs that they are shown on look like. You will learn how
rhythm is represented and how sharps and flats are shown. These are the basics, and
you can build on this knowledge over time.

You can learn quite a lot just by looking at one piece of music. If you have some drum sheet
music, a hymnal, or a songbook, take it out and look at the music. If you do not already
have some written music, buy some or borrow a songbook from the library.

You will notice that there are groups of five horizontal lines. If the music is for both
hands, it will have two of these groups of lines connected together by a longer line
along the side. The horizontal lines are called the staff. You can get staff paper that is
already marked with these lines.

At the far left side of the staffs you will see the clef marking. It will be a treble clef
marking for the upper staff. The treble clef resembles a fancy backwards S with a line
going down through it and curling underneath. In the beginning of learning to play the
piano, you will play the treble clef notes with your right hand.

On the lower staff of the two is the bass clef sign. It is something like a backwards C
with two dots on the right side of it. This staff shows the lower notes, and you will begin
by playing the notes shown on this staff with your left hand. The upper and lower staffs
will repeat several times down the page. Look at your sheet music and identify the
staffs. Now you are ready to learn the notes.

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