How to read and write a score

Now you have a very basic idea about what the staff is and how to use it, let's learn how to read one by learning how it was written.

The beginning

Let's start by placing the clef. This will indicate which note indicates each position.

The next step is to add a key signature. This will indicate in which tonality the song is played in. Here you have a list:

+ No sharps nor flats – do major or la minor
+ One sharp – sol major or mi minor
+ Two sharps – re major or ti minor
+ Three sharps – la major or sharp fa minor
+ Four sharps – mi major or sharp do minor
+ Five sharps – ti major or sharp sol minor
+ Six sharps – sharp fa major or sharp re minor
+ Seven sharps – sharp do major or sharp la minor
+ One flat – fa major or re minor
+ Two flats – flat ti major or sol minor
+ Three flats – flat mi major or do minor
+ Four flats – flat la minor or fa minor
+ Five flats – flat re major or flat ti minor
+ Six flats – flat sol major or flat mi minor
+ Seven flats – flat do major or flat la minor

Try to identify them on the key signatures on the right.

Is there any easier way to memorize them? Yes, by counting. Count five notes, starting from do, forward or backwards as many times as there are symbols as key signature. For example, if the key signature has three sharps, then count do, re, mi, fa, sol to the first one; sol, la, ti, do, re to the second one; re, mi, fa, sol, la to the last one. The key signature will be a major la. If the key signature has two flats, then count do, ti, la, sol, fa to the first one; and fa, mi, re, do, ti to the second one. Taking into account the distance between do and ti is just a half-tone, then the key signature is a flat ti major.

Hopefully, you got the idea. It is not perfect, but it is a good reference anyway.

We need to finish this first part with the time signature. This will indicate to the musician how many symbols are there in each bar of the song. You indicate this with a fraction in which:

+ The numerator is the number of times there will be in a bar
+ The denominator is the value of the notes you will take as measure.

If you ever see a C, it means you are playing a song written in a 4/4 time signature. That is to say, a song in which every bar will have four quarter notes.

Here you have a table with most of the note values available.

Numeric value	Name	Sound symbol	Rest symbol	Duration
1	whole			4
2	half note			2
4	quarter note			1
8	eighth note			1/2
16	sixteenth note			1/4

In British English, these are named semi breve, minim, crotchet, quaver and semi quaver, respectively. Rarely, other notes can be used.

Part two: inserting the notes

Once you have stated the clef, key and time signatures, you start writing note by note until completing the song. Just remember that when you need to play the notes at the same time, you place them in the same line (levelled). If you need them to sound in sequence, you write them one next to the other.

Anyway, you need to respect the order music has. All bars must have the same measure of sounds as the time signature says. If for some reason you need to continue the sound of one bar in the next one, you use a tie. You also use a tie to indicate which notes need to be played without periods of silence or rests.

Sometimes you will see notes with a dot beside. The dot indicate you play that note plus its half. For example, a whole note with a dot will be played six times. You will find a double dot in some songs too. That will be the sound of the note plus its three quarters.

As for the key signature symbols, they affect all the notes in the line they are on. This is to say that, if you are writing a song with a sharp la, you will not need to write the sharp symbol to every la note you place on the score. You just need to add the sharp symbol in the first la of the staff. That will make the la sharp in every case.

Now, if you need the opposite, to get a normal la instead of the sharp one, you add a natural symbol. That will indicate all the la notes in that bar will be natural.

A full example to download. It's Pachelbel's Canon score in compressed XML format. Enjoy it.

Last but not least, if you ever need to play a song in another tonality, you transpose. This means, you move every note as many spaces up or down in the score as you need.

Continue with... Dynamics in music

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