Lesson 17: Reading Sheet Music

Reading sheet music is reading a set of instructions: it tells you which notes to play, how long each lasts, how loud to play them, and how fast to go. A fluent reader takes in all of this at a glance, but the skill is built from the separate pieces this course has taught. This lesson puts them together.

Start at the left of the staff and work across. First, the clef tells you which lines mean which notes. Next, the key signature tells you which notes are sharp or flat throughout the piece. Then the time signature tells you how many beats are in each bar. Only then do the notes themselves begin — and each note gives you two facts at once: its position on the staff is its pitch, and its shape is its length. A note's stem direction is a clue too: notes above the middle line usually have stems pointing down, notes below it stems pointing up, purely to keep the music tidy.

Tempo, Dynamics and Articulation

Around the notes sit the instructions for expression. The tempo marking at the top of the piece gives the speed, often in Italian — andante (at a walking pace), allegro (quick and lively), adagio (slowly) — and sometimes with an exact metronome mark, such as ♩ = 120. Dynamic markings (pp to ff) tell you the volume, and hairpins show crescendos and decrescendos. Articulation marks tell you how to play each note: a dot above or below a note means staccato (short and detached); a curved slur over a group of notes means play them smoothly and connected (legato); a line over a note means tenuto (hold it for its full value). Accidentals — a sharp (♯), flat (♭) or natural (♮) sign placed before a note — alter that note for the rest of the bar only, unless cancelled by another accidental.

Repeats, Endings and Sight-Reading

Music is full of road signs. A repeat bar line (a heavy bar line with two dots) means go back and play the section again. First and second time bars give different endings for the first and second play-throughs. Da capo (D.C.) means "from the head" — go back to the beginning; dal segno means go back to the sign (𝄋). A fermata (a dot under a curve, 𝄐) means hold the note longer than written, at the performer's judgement. The best way to become a fluent reader is sight-reading: playing music you have never seen before, every day, without stopping to correct mistakes. Start with music well below your playing level, keep the tempo steady, and look ahead — your eyes should be a bar in front of your hands.

More Italian Terms Worth Knowing

Italian is the traditional language of musical instructions, and a handful of terms cover most of what you will meet. Tempo terms: largo (very slow and broad), adagio (slowly), andante (at a walking pace), moderato (at a moderate speed), allegro (quick and lively), presto (very fast). Changes of tempo: ritardando (gradually slowing down), accelerando (gradually speeding up), a tempo (back to the original speed). Expression terms: dolce (sweetly), espressivo (with expression), cantabile (in a singing style), con brio (with spirit). A metronome mark gives the exact speed in beats per minute, for example ♩ = 120, and it overrides any Italian word. Reading these terms is part of reading music: they are not decoration, but instructions about character. A piece marked allegro con brio should sound bright and energetic, while the same notes marked adagio dolce would sound gentle and slow — the notes are the same, but the music is completely different.