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The Basics Of Sheet Music

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:14:13 +0000

Many of today’s young music lovers may not even know what sheet music is, and that’s a shame because band music is still one of the most beautiful forms of art available to us. And many of the ones that do know what concert band music or band music is, think that it is some magical pieces of writing that can only be read by accomplished musicians. Nothing further from the truth, sheet music is just a form of transcribing music using musical notes.

First, it was transcribed on parchments, later on paper, and recently by employing the use of computers and computer programs, it is finding its way to those interested in the form of .pdf files. The meaning of the term sheet in sheet music, is so that we can differentiate between this type of writings and standard writings which are considered to be presentations.

Sheet music is also referred to as score. Band music scores or sheet music scores have a wide variety of uses. The most basic definition of sheet music pieces are simply a form of helping musicians to reproduce a specific tune with the greatest accuracy possible, or just a way of recording in writing a tune using musical notes. It is not, as many may think, a way of replacing the performance of a tune.

Some consider these sheet music scores to be a genuine hand from God, as music lovers are able to study various sketches of great works of art, thus having the possibility to follow the creative process that some of the greatest music composers have gone through. And by making such sketches public, musicians can also get feedback from their audience, before putting their final touch on a tune.

Reading these sheet music pieces, requires people to become acquainted with a technique called musical notation. Some of us just can’t do it, while others are gifted with an innate ability to virtually read and record music as they hear it, thus creating sheet music pieces in their mind. This is the initial definition for the expression “to play by ear”. Like any special abilities, they are rare, only few people being able to do this.

Concert band music normally employs the use of music sheets for playing vast tunes. Because a difficult tune has a lot of information, normal people can’t possibly remember all the notes to a tee. They are not only used by classical concert bands, but also by piano players, and even jazz orchestras. However, jazz orchestras only use sheet music pieces that are general, thus leaving space for improvisation.

Guitar lesson: Learn To Read Sheet Music

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:23:06 +0000

A guitar is a fantastic instrument to play. It is easy to play and very difficult depending on what you play. Let’s take a look at learning to play guitar sheet music!

I have found in my teaching experiences that many pupils find reading sheet music on guitar to be very difficult.

Admittedly there are a lot of factors that make reading guitar sheet music notation more of a challenge than on other instruments in certain aspects.

However, the most important factor is in my opinion that many guitarists never decide to learn to find the notes on the guitar. Instead they cultivate the habit of listening, playing and calculating where the specific note probably is to be played on the guitar.

Such a strategy is too slow to make it possible to sight read sheet music on guitar. A wish and then a decision to really start learning the notes on the guitar is much better than to use the before mentioned method to find the notes.

You have to start from where you are if you want to progress and become a good sight reader on guitar.

In my teaching experiences I have found that many people that play guitar wants to be somewhere else than where they ought to be.

The problem with playing too difficult guitar pieces is that it’s difficult to develop note reading skills, learning to sight read and of course to learn the guitar pieces properly.

We will start this little tutorial on reading guitar sheet music by finding a few notes on the guitar fretboard.

You will find the note E on the first open string if your guitar is tuned with the most conventional tuning. This note can also be found on the second string and the fifth fret.

E on the third string is on the ninth fret. I would suggest that you practice playing the note E in these positions back and forth until you can find the note E without effort.

You will also find the note E in a lower octave on the fourth string and the second fret. On the fifth string you will find the same note on the seventh fret.

The sixth string is an E one octave lower. Let’s invent an exercise to help you find the E notes on the guitar fretboard:

The task is to play the strings on the guitar in this order:

6 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 6

As you play the strings the notes you play shall be the note E. This means that the sixth string and the first string are open strings and on the other strings you have to find the right fret.

Try to play slowly in an even tempo until you don’t have to think about where to place you fingers. When you find this easy to do you can proceed by choosing another note, for example G and use the same method.

Knowing the notes on the guitar fingerboard is important in many ways.

To find your way around on your guitar will be a great help for you, not only when you play guitar sheet music but also when you are playing by ear or try to figure out the name of a chord or are playing by ear!

Piano Lesson: It Is Easy To Compose Piano Sheet Music

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:30:06 +0000

Why is it easy to compose piano music?

Because you have to start from where you are. This should be fairly easy; Otherwise you have not started from where you are.

A suggestion is to start writing piano pieces for beginners in a progressive order. The idea is that as the pieces get more complicated for the player they will also become more complicated for you to notate and compose and you will subsequently learn as you write.

How is composing beneficial for your piano playing?

1. Your compositional endeavours will make you more and more aware of intrinsic musical subtleties in the music of other composers. When you start to think and feel like a composer you will also become a better performer as well. Performing is also a creative process similar to composing.

2. When you compose you will become a better sight reader.

I remember an assignment I had many years ago when I wrote the music to a musical. It made me aware of many notational problems I had not taken the time to solve for myself before.

When I started to play my piano music again I was astonished when realizing it was much easier for me to sight read complicated piano sheet music. The reason for this I concluded was my concentrated effort to notate my own piano music.

The process to play something with my fingers and and then try to notate the music on manuscript paper was so to speak a reversed sight reading exercise.

What about manuscript paper?

You can use a notation program or you can write on paper or use both approaches. I suggest that you start writing on paper the way that composers have done for centuries.

Composing piano sheet music by hand on manuscript paper is a cheap and effective exercise to learn the various sheet music symbols.

Very often I jot down musical ideas on ordinary white paper after drawing five lines by hand. It works fine if you can’t find your manuscript paper. You can buy manuscript paper for sheet music or print out your favorite format for free on the site http://www.blanksheetmusic.net

In conclusion, composing piano sheet music can become a natural part of your daily practice routine.

Spend half an hour a day composing your own piano sheet music and you will increase your musical knowledge and become an even better musician!

And remember; Composing piano sheet music is fun!