So you're back for more cerebral pain?

"What can I say? I'm a masochist like that, and I really want to learn! D="

Well, it's a good thing you're such a glutton for punishment and have such a grand desire to learn, because this is the second part of the series, and this time I'll actually be teaching you about those pesky ants!

"Yay! =D"

Alright, let's get started!

This is going to be spectacularly difficult without pictures, so I'll do my very utmost to be as descriptive as is absolutely necessary for your comprehensive pleasure.

Piano sheet music is a blur of lines, squiggly little ants, that beautiful little money sign looking thing, and then a fraction at the beginning.

"WTF Fraction!? D<"

I know. I felt the same way. I hate math. D= But even though I hate math, there is a surprising amount of math involved in music.

"Ho crud, are you serious!? DX"

Dead serious.D= On the bright side, this explains 'math metal' doesn't it?

"... Oh yeaaah! =D"

Hee. X3 Well, here it goes!

Let's first take notice of those lines. Once again, daunting isn't it? Not if you read the first part in the series!

"Huh?"

Remember your old friends, the notes "C D E F G A B C"?

"... Yeeaaah..."

Well... they're here! =D

"Whaat? O.o"

The very bottom line is the E line. The second from the bottom is a G line.

Each line corresponds to a specific note, but it changes depending on the clef at the beginning.

"WTF is a Clef? D= You didn't tell me about any Clefs!"

Chill! There are two Clef notes: a Treble Clef, and a Bass Clef. Now, you're in luck: the Clef that people are most generally familiar with is the Treble clef.

"What's it look like?"

A really pretty money symbol.

"Oh, that thing! ... THAT'S what it's called!? OoO"

Yes. That pretty money symbol is called a Treble Clef.

"So then... what's a Bass clef look like? >_>"

Like a backwards C with a colon in front of it. >_>

"Heheh, you said 'colon.' "

I mean the punctuation mark. But I digress, since we are going to focus on the Treble clef at the moment.

"Yay, money symbol-I mean, Treble Clef!"

As long as you're learning. O_O;

The notes in a treble clef are E G B D F starting from the bottom up. The easiest way to remember the lines in a treble clef bar is by remembering this phrase: "Every Good Boy Does Fine."  Now then, remember C D E F G A B C on a piano?

"What? o_o .. OH, RIGHT! D="

Well, did you notice that the letters E G B D and F are in that sequence of CDEFGABC?

"... Oh! You're right! But what does that mean?"

That boy needs therapy... (Sorry, that was a small wild tangent.) It means that these are the same notes as on the piano. The exact same notes.

"Oh...? But then, where are the rest?"

I'm getting there! ^_^

So, in between those five lines are four spaces, right?

"Right..."

THOSE notes are, once again from the bottom up, F A C E.

"Heheh, it says 'FACE'!"

And that's the easiest way to remember it, too: There's a FACE in the spaces! So, recite them back to me: what have I told you in order? The bottom most line is an E, the space above it is an F, the line on top of that F space is a G...

Basically, if you include the lines and the spaces in between, it's gonna read like this: "E F G A B C D E F"

Once again, this is part of that "C D E F G A B C" sequence I was telling you about.

"But with all the lines and the spaces, it doesn't even begin with a C like you said it was supposed to! WTF?"

I know, but this is the tricky part: you have to 'imagine' there there is an invisible space below the bottom most E line. That 'space' is where the D note corresponds. Below that invisible D space is an invisible line. This is the C note you were missing.

"So, wait: you're trying to tell me that there are notes below and above those lines??"

Yup yup!

"WTF!?"

I know, right? D= but in music it will quickly rise and fall in succession. In the treble scale, the 'invisible lines' beneath that bottom most E are actually notes, keep in mind. On sheet music, when they want you to play a note beneath the E, then depending on what note it is, there will be either just one line or a few lines to tell you how low you have to go.

".... I repeat: WTF!?"

Okay: Below the bottom most E note is a D, right? In music, if that note is there, it will be just below the E line, clear and free. The C note below the D, however, will have a strike through the note-it'll have a little dash going through it.

"!!!"

And if you wanted to play the B note below the bottom most E, it would be right underneath C. In that instance, you would see a little dash underneath the bottom most E line with a note underneath it. The note underneath that dash would denote a B note.

"O... kaay... I think I'm starting to get it."

I know it's confusing, but please have heart! D= The same goes for up top: At the highest E, the note after would be an F. When the composer intends for you to play the F after the highest E, he writes the note in the space on top of that high E note.

"Okay, this is getting confusing: You're talking about lines and notes and spaces... None of it makes sense!"

I apologize, I really should have been more clear... T_T

Meet the ants. They're little black circles with little flags coming out... but let's be honest, they don't all look that way. For the purpose of your learning, we are examining a treble clef bar in 4/4 time with all quarter notes.

"... Uh... quarter notes?"

Meet the math in music.

"AWW! D<"

Heheh. I know, right?

Ants are broken up into these sections: A whole note, a half note, a quarter note, and an eighth note.

"STFU! WTF idoes all that mean!?"

XD A whole note is actually four beats. If you remember that 'fraction' I told you about earlier, you'd see a pattern. Four four time? A whole note equals four beats? Why, yes, there IS a connection! In the instance of four four time, you would clap your hands in patterns of four to count out the beat. Just clap your hands four times in a moderately slow rhythm.

"Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap...."

That fraction denotes both the rhythm of the song, and how many beats are in a measure, with the top being the rhythm, and the bottom being the amount of notes in a measure.

"Measure?"

Well, have you noticed that a line would separate some notes by going down across those bars?

"Uhh... "

Well, you've noticed them now! XD

"Yeah. >_>"

Every time it does that, it's another measure... but let's examine the notes in between. Four four time, 'tap tap tap tap' and quarter notes.

In actuality, a whole note equals four consecutive notes all squished together:

 "Ta a a a!" Long note, isn't it?

As for a double note, this one equals TWO consecutive notes squished together: 

"Ta a, ta a!"

Now the quarter note. Are you seeing a pattern here?

"It cuts in half.." Which is what these fractions are doing, bro. ^_^

"I think I'm getting it now!"

I hope so! The quarter note is a note that taps out a single note. In a measure of 4/4 time, it reads:

"Ta, ta, ta, ta"

Now, there are eighth and sixteenth notes...

"NOOO! OoO"

XD Well... I won't go into the sixteenth notes, but the eighth notes will sound like this:

"Tili, tili, tili, tili, tili, tili, tili, tili."

"Okay, so whats with the singing?"

Tap a moderate, steady rhythm with your finger or hand. If you were singing, then from the first tap to the last tap the whole note would be one big 'taaaa' dragged out unbroken until the fourth tap. If you keep that rhythm steady and practiced the half note, the sung 'ta' would be in two halves as demonstrated by the previous writing. It goes on from there. "Tili, tili, tili, tili, tili, tili, tili, tili" would have a beat every two 'tili's, from the first beat to the fourth beat.. XD (Pronounced 'tee lee' )

I don't even want to get into sixteenth notes...

"Phew!"

You can figure that one out on your own. ^_^

"RATS!"

But I digress, we'll be using quarter notes in measures of 4/4 time in a treble clef. I should have taught you enough to understand what every word in that previous sentence meant.

I think I'll save the Bass clef for a different post...

"This crud again? -_-;"

Yes, this crud again. -_- I'm sleepy, darn it. D<

Anyway, from here on out, notes will refer to the quarter note, which happens to be one of those ants. In the case of the quarter note, it will be a little black circle with a line coming out of it-no flag. The flag is for the eighth note. The half note looks the same, but instead of a little black circle with a staff coming out of it, the circl will have a white filling. A whole note is a fat little circle, and in four four time will take up the entire measure, so it will always be alone in that particular measure.

"Saku, you're losing me! D="

Sorry! XD In a measure with four four time, there will only be one whole note, or two half notes, or four quarter notes or eight eighth notes. The reason is because four four time means that in four beats there will only be a worth of four notes. It's four beats to every measure, and depending on the notes in each measure, a note will be lengthened, shortened, or remain consistent: lengthened if it's a whole note or half note, remain consistent it's a quarter note, and shortened if it's an eighth note or... below. >_>

"*scratches head* Am I really supposed to understand this?"

The sooner you get it, the sooner you'll be able to understand sheet music.

"But I still don't get it."

That's because I've only just given all of the information: now we need to put it to good use. Let's use just all quarter notes for now: "Tap, tap, tap, tap." Each tap is another note, in this case.

For four notes on the lowest E line in a measure, you sing or play that key four times at a moderate, steady pace. (Think of the beat as one on a metronome or the heart beat of a drum: Steady, not erratic!)

Tap the E on a piano four times to pay that particular measure. "E, E, E, E!"

Let's say the next measure asks you to play the lower D note four times. First of all, the little black circle with the staff coming out of it will appear directly underneath the bottom most E line and it will NOT have a strike running through it. This is the D space and any note here is asking you to play a D on a piano, or sing that note. Since we're using quarter notes at the moment, you'd tap out "D, D, D, D."

"... I... just might be understanding..."

Good! 'Cause now we're gonna switch it up by using half notes!
"....&*$%"

Now, now, let's not be hasty! XD Let's say the two half notes is on the D line. Where's the D line? It's underneath the top most E line. Every Good Boy Does Fine, remember? And when a note is there, it wants you to play that particular D.

You would only tap the D key twice, but you would hold it for two beats to make up two halves of four beats. "Dee, dee".

The next imaginary measure is played on the A key. On the Treble clef, this is represented by the second space from the bottom up. FACE, remember? We are going to use a whole note! That fat little circle will appear all alone in that measure because it takes up the entire space! You just hold down the A key on the piano for four beats. "Aaaa...."

 

"Okay, stop stop stop stop stop! Doesn't this mean I can just play any F or D or whatever that I want to and they don't have to be remotely close to each other?"

Not in a single clef. All of those notes are consecutive: they are right next to each other. The F and the A in FACE have one white key separating them: G.
C D E F G A B C

So when you see, let's say, a quarter note on the bottom most E line, second quarter note on the F space, a third quarter note on the G space, and the fourth quarter note on the A space, you're not going to hit the A from the furtherst left of the keyboard and the E from the highest end of the keyboard, and hit the G note in the middle. These are consecutive: they're by each other's sides.

"Ohhhh! O.O"

Aye.

"So, I think I'm getting it... but if the spaces are more whole notes, where are the half notes? The sharps and flats?"

Well...  depending on the composition you're examining, sometimes an entire line will be considered 'sharp' or 'flat' and this will be denoted at the beginning of the song where the treble clef and the fraction are going to be. A pound sign (#) will denote a sharp note, and the flat-well, that'll look like a B.

When the composition calls for a random sharp note, a pound sign-the sharp sign- will be right next to the note it wants you to play the sharp of.

"And the sharp is to the right of the note...'

So if there's a pound symbol next to a note that's on the D line, you play the black half note to the right of it instead of the D key itself. If the flat symbol-it looks like a lower case b- is next do a note that's on the D line, you'll play the half note next to the D instead of the D key instead.

When the composition has a sharp sign on a specific line, it wants you to play that key sharp every time you encounter it.

I mean, EVERY...SINGLE... TIME. Even if the sharp sign is on the highest E bar, it expects you to hit E sharp for the low E bar as well.... and any other E you should encounter above and below the clef. O_O

"... That sounds... rather difficult."

You get the hang of it as one will do with anything... with a LOT of practice! =3 The same goes for the flat sign being at the beginning, and blah blah blah... but this means I have to teach you about naturals.

"Naturals? I'M A NATURAL! >D"

No, not that kind. Naturals are the notes themselves. If a composition has, say, a sharp sign on the highest E string, meaning it wants you to hit every E string in E sharp instead, then if there is a note that has the Natural symbol next to it, the composer means to say that you should play that note normally: an actual E, instead of the sharp denoted for any other E string.

"Oh geeze."

Mmhmm.

"So what does THIS one look like?"

Well... it looks like a slanted box with a staff on top coming out slanted to the right, and a staff coming out the bottom that slants to the left...

"Oh..."

Yeah, it's weird.

So, hey! I've basically taught you how to read four four time!

As for things like three four time or anything else, I'm afraid I can only explain three four time as the common beat for 'Pirate Songs."

The theme song to the "Pirates of the Carribean" series as directed by Tim Burton is a fine example of three four time and the average 'Pirate Song."

In truth, I've always had trouble correctly identifying the timing for most of those fractions: I'm as in the dark as you would be, unless you choose to learn beyond what I can teach you at this moment. I hope you will.

Anyway, I neglected to mention that just as there are whole notes and what not, there are rests.

"... Rests!?"

An absence of sound in a measure. Unfortunately, describing what they look like is rather difficult to do in writing and it's thirty five minutes to five in the morning in California...

"Oh... wow..."

Yeah, I'm dead tired, and I'm supposed to teach you about how this all relates to guitar in the next series. I'll try to throw something in there about the rests and how to identify them and count them, but that is truly going to have to wait.

Til next we meet!