❮

Thinking in Music: The Basics

Most people are used to thinking about music. They hear it every day, memorize their favorite lyrics, and find new songs, albums, and artists. But when you learn to think in music, you start asking why songs sound the way they do, how all the parts fit together, and what’s possible in music. This system of thinking in music is called music theory; it helps break down songs into their smallest parts and highlight common patterns.

This course will walk you through the basics of western music theory, which is based on European musical history. Learning these building blocks of music will help you understand what sounds are used in music, how songs are put together, and how to read music on a page. These skills make a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn how to play music or learn more about their musical tastes.

To think in music, you’ll need to understand how different sounds come together. Those sounds are described in notes. Watch the video below to see what musical notes can tell you about the sounds they represent.

A note is a single, measurable sound or period of silence. Silent notes are called rests. You combine different notes in a specific order to create music. The symbols musicians use for notes immediately tell you two key pieces of information.

• Duration: The shape of the note symbol will tell you how long a note should last. When you sing the word “La,” you can stretch the sound out, giving it a long duration, or stop very quickly after starting, giving it a short duration.
• Pitch: Where the note symbol falls on the page tells you how that note should sound. That sound is measured in pitch, which is described by repeating groups of letters. Notes can sound very low, like a deep roar or growl, or very high, like a squeaky whine or whistle. Rests, which make no sound, have no pitch.

Every song you’ve ever heard can be written out using note symbols. Knowing how to read the notes' pitch, duration, and order will help you transform simple lines and dots into beautiful music. To do that, you’ll need to learn how musicians write sheet music.

If you’re new to sheet music or it’s been a long time since you took a music class, these lines and dots may look like a mystery. But once you spend a little time with sheet music and an instrument, you’ll see how all the parts fit together. When you can read and play the notes on the sheet, you’ll be able to perform countless new songs and maybe even write your own. Look through the slides below before reading the description of each term.

What is a Music Staff?

A staff is a way to “see” music. The type of note shows the duration, and the position of the note on the lines and spaces shows the pitch. With practice, you can learn songs you’ve never heard before on sight alone.

What are Ledger Lines?

Instruments can play many different notes. To make it easier to “see” those notes without huge, cluttered music staves (more than one staff), musicians use “ledger lines” to show notes higher or lower than the ones you can see on the music staff.

What’s a Bass Clef Staff? What’s a Treble Clef Staff? What’s the Difference?

Sometimes a song will use so many different notes that a single music staff won’t cut it, even with ledger lines. For these songs, musicians may use two separate staves. The bass clef staff is used for the lower notes in a piece, while the treble clef is used for the higher notes. The “middle C” note (the note roughly halfway between the lowest and highest notes on a piano keyboard) is right between the bass clef and treble clef: It’s one ledger line above the bass clef and one below the treble clef. Both of these staves are read at the same time, which requires some practice, but makes it easier for musicians to play a mix of different notes.

What is a Measure?

Measures are stretches of time in music. Measures make it easier to understand songs by breaking them into smaller pieces, usually of the same duration. The vertical lines on a staff mark where one measure ends, and another begins.

What is a Time Signature?

The time signature is a way of organizing music staves. The time signature tells a musician the length of each measure using beats. But to read the time signature, you’ll need to understand rhythm and how long each note lasts.

Rhythm is the backbone of music: It creates the natural patterns that audiences enjoy hearing. You naturally pick up on the rhythm of a song every time you clap, snap, or tap your foot along with the music, but that’s just the beginning. Learning to count and read rhythmic notation will help you recognize the beat of the songs you hear and keep the time on sheet music.

What is Rhythm?

Rhythm is the pattern of notes with varying lengths. Every song requires rhythm: it keeps track of when and how long each sound is heard. Watch the video below from Green Scale Guitar Lessons to see and hear the different lengths of notes and what rhythm looks like on a music staff.

How Do You Measure a Note?

Rhythmic notation helps musicians learn the exact length of each note by assigning each symbol a different duration, from several seconds long to a tiny fraction of a second. Exactly how long a note lasts depends on the tempo, which is the song's speed in beats per minute. But at any tempo, a whole note will always last twice as long as a half note and four times as long as a quarter note, as you can see in the examples below.

• Whole Note - Four Beats
• Half Note - Two Beats
• Quarter Note - One Beat
• Eighth Note - Half Beat

The chart below shows the symbols for several different kinds of notes.

To see and hear what rhythm looks like in some of the most common time signatures, view the video below.

How Do You Count and Play with Time Signatures?

To count and play in the correct time, you’ll need to know how to read time signatures. Look for the two numbers at the start of a music staff. The top number shows how many beats are in a measure. The bottom number shows which type of note will equal one beat. 

When you see 4/4 at the start of a song, the top number tells you that there are four beats per measure: a steady one-two-three-four count. The bottom number means that each beat equals a quarter note’s value. So, a quarter note would count as one of the four beats in the measure. Notes longer than a quarter note will equal more than one beat, and shorter notes will equal fractions of a beat. See the chart below of how note values align with each other.

As you progress to more advanced music, the bottom number of the time signature may change. If the bottom number is an 8, then that will mean an eighth note equals one beat. If the bottom number is a 2, the half-note symbol will equal one beat.

2/4 There will be two beats in each measure, and each beat will equal one quarter note.

3/4 There will be three beats in each measure, and each beat will equal one quarter note.

4/4 There will be four beats in each measure, and each beat will equal one quarter note.

Your Turn: Interpreting Rhythm

Now that you’ve seen examples of 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 time signatures, try to count out the beats in the examples below. Click the arrows to move through examples and check your answers.

All songs need rhythm, but almost every song you know also includes a melody. To read or write melodies, you need to understand how the parts of a music staff relate to differently pitched notes. Fortunately, there are handy memory devices that can help you remember each note’s place.

What is a Melody?

A melody is a series of sounds in different pitches that combine to make a tune. Melodies tend to be memorable, catchy, and “hummable.” Think about the song “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star". You can still hum the tune even if you haven’t heard it in years.

What is the Music Alphabet?

Notes are assigned letters to show how low or high their pitches are. From low to high, these letters are A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. This pattern repeats, starting over again with A after G, to cover the many different pitches we can hear. There are special notes called “Accidentals” that represent sounds between letters, but you can put those aside for now to focus on the main notes.

What are the Notes on the Treble Clef?

As you’ve already learned, the treble clef shows higher-pitched notes in a song. The music staff has five lines and four spaces.Starting at the bottom line (E), you can move up one line or space at a time along with the alphabet until you get to G. The first space after the first line is F, and the second line is G. Once you get to G, the letters start over, bringing you back to A on the next space, and so on.

To save time, musicians use memory techniques to remember the notes on the treble clef. At the bottom line of a treble clef and moving up one line each time, the order of the notes is E, G, B, D, F. A common way to remember these notes is the phrase Every Good Boy Does Fine on the line. Starting at the bottom space and moving up one line each time, the order of the notes is F, A, C, E. A common way to remember these notes is the short phrase FACE on the space. Follow these steps to recognize the notes on a treble clef:

1. Look at the note to see whether it falls on a line or space.
2. Remember the phrase for that type of note: Every Good Boy Does Fine for lines and FACE for spaces.
3. Start on the lowest line or space (E for lines and F for spaces). Move one step at a time upward. For each step, move one letter along the order of the phrase. For example, if your note is on the third line, you would move it from E to G to B, and a note on the third space would move from F to A to C.

What are the Notes on the Bass Clef?

The notes for each line and space on the bass clef don’t match the notes on a treble clef, but the same rules apply.

Starting at the bottom line (G), you can move up one line or space at a time along with the alphabet (starting over with A). The first space after the first line is A, and the second line is B. You can follow the same pattern from there.

Because the notes change between clefs, musicians use two other memory techniques for the bass clef.  Starting at the bottom line and moving up one line each time, the order of notes is G, B, D, F, A, usually remembered with the phrase Good Boys Do Fine Always. Just like with the treble clef, “fine” sounds like “line,” which can help you remember which parts of the staff fit these notes. Starting at the bottom space and moving up one line each time, the order of the notes is A, C, E, G, often remembered with the phrase All Cows Eat Grass. There’s no rhyme to help here, but you might remember that cows like open spaces to remind yourself where to start with this phrase. Follow these steps to recognize the notes on a bass clef:

1. Look at the note to see whether it falls on a line or space.
2. Remember the phrase for that type of note: Good Boys Do Fine Always for lines and All Cows Eat Grass for spaces.
3. Start on the lowest line or space (G for lines and A for spaces). Move one step at a time upward. For each step, move one letter along the order of the phrase. For example, if your note is on the third line, you would move it from G to B to D, and a note on the third space would move from A to C to E.

You can use any of these reminders or work on your own as you learn to read melodies. The goal of all these tricks is one day to get familiar enough with your music staves to play a tune as you read it.

How Do You Read Ledger Lines?

Most of the notes you’ll see in sheet music will be on the lines or spaces of the staff. But sometimes, you’ll see extra ledger lines that show a note is higher or lower than all of the notes on the staff. Luckily, counting notes off of a staff works just like counting them on the staff. Follow the instructions below.

1. Look at the clef symbol to learn whether you’re dealing with a bass or treble clef.
2. Look at the note to see whether it falls on a ledger line or a space between lines.
3. If the note falls above the staff, identify the note of the highest line (A for bass clef and F for treble clef). If the note falls below the staff, identify the note of the lowest line (E for bass clef and G for treble clef).
4. Move up or down towards the note. For every space or line between the staff and the note, move one alphabet letter, restarting at A after a G. If the note is above the staff, move forward one alphabet letter (for example, A to B). If the note is below the staff, move backward one alphabet (for example, G to F). Remember to count lines AND spaces as one letter each. See the graphic examples below.

Follow the steps above to practice identifying notes in the link below. This activity will start with treble clef notes, but you can also try bass clef notes by clicking Change Clef, and then Bass Clef.

Whenever you start learning about a new interest, it’s a good idea to think small. For music, that means starting with notes. Take the time to practice recognizing the symbols for different notes and rests. Then, practice counting in beginner’s time signatures, one short measure at a time. In those short measures, you’ll be able to practice with rhythm and pitch. The start may feel slow, but keep at it! When you learn songs note by note and measure by measure, you’ll see how those details add together to create something wonderful.

Want some more ways to try thinking in music? Check out the games and activities below!