MyColorMusic

NOTATIONQUICK START GUIDE

MyColorMusic

Notation Quick Start

2

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Notation Quick Start

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NOTATION QUICK STARTSo … you want to read music notation, huh ? Well, I don’t blame you. Because when you can “read music,” a whole new world opens up.

Notation helps you quickly learn any song—and write your own music with ease. It’s wonderful.

So to get you started, this eBook explains exactly how notation works. And when you’re done, you’ll be able to play any song in the ColorMusic Library. Just flip through the next few pages and you’re all set. Enjoy.

MUSIC NOTATION

Despite what you may have heard, music notation is surprisingly simple because it’s designed to show you two basic things:

1. Pitch (how high or low a note sounds), and

2. Rhythm (how long or short a note lasts)

That’s all.

Together, pitch and rhythm are the two ingredients that make music possible. You simply combine high and low pitches to make a melody ( and chords ) … and then throw in some long and short notes to form a rhythm. And voila! … music is created.

So let’s look at how pitch and rhythm are illustrated in music notation—starting with pitch.

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PITCH

In music notation, each pitch is placed on a stack of lines called the “grand staff.” You’ve seen it before. Low pitches are written near the bottom, while high pitches are near the top. So the higher a note sounds, the higher it appears on the staff.

The top half of the grand staff is marked by the “treble clef” ( ). It’s just a fancy, medieval symbol that means “high in pitch.”

The bottom half of the grand staff is marked by the “bass clef” ( ). And it means “low in pitch.”

By showing pitches moving up and down the staff lines like this, music notation gives you a clear idea of which notes to play. And like a roller coaster, each note pattern forms a nice, musical “melody.”

Treble

Bass

Low

High

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RHYTHM

At the same time, rhythm is shown moving from left to right. So together, pitch and rhythm form a simple grid—like this:

It’s easy. While pitch is illustrated on the vertical axis, rhythm is illustrated along the horizontal axis.

And to help guide your eyes along the horizontal axis, musicians use things called “measures,” “duration symbols,” and “time signatures.”

MEASURES

Measures are used to divide a song into small, bite-sized units. Using little bar lines, musicians can chop a melody up … so you always know where you are in a song (whether it’s measure 1, measure 2, etc.).

Twin - kle, twin - kle, lit - tle star,

Pitch

Rhythm

Pitch(melody)

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To keep things simple, every measure includes the same number of “beats” (usually three or four). So, like the steady tick of a clock, you can move from beginning to end at a regular pace.

DURATION SYMBOLS

In some songs, the notes in each measure follow the predictable pattern of the beat. But if every sound sounded that way, all music would be way too rigid and boring.

So to make things more exciting, most melodies include a variety of “duration symbols” … where each note lasts for a different length of time. That way, the pitches sound more playful—as they hop, bounce, and dance around the beat.

The most common types of duration symbols include whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, and eighth notes.

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4and and

Exciting!

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4Beats:

Measure 3Measure 2Measure 1

Bar lineBar lineBar line

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To create exciting rhythms, musicians simply combine these duration symbols in different ways. It’s like a game … and the only rule is to make sure the time values in each measure add up to the same number of beats.

Finally, the lastmeasure has onewhole note, whichlasts for four beatsand is equal to theother measures.

The second measurehas a quarter note,two eighth notes, anda half note. Together,these notes add up tofour beats. So it’s equalto the �rst measure.

In this example, the�rst measure hasfour quarter notes— which count a totalof four beats.

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4and

21 43and and and and

EighthNote

A note that gets onlyhalf a beat

21 43

QuarterNote

A note that gets onebeat of time

1 32 4

HalfNote

A note that gets twobeats of time … or half a measure

1 2 3 4

WholeNote

A note that gets allthe beats in a measure

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Of course, combining pitch and rhythm like this takes practice and coordination—like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. But once you learn how, it’s fun.

TIME SIGNATURES

In addition to measures and duration symbols, musicians also use “time signatures” to organize the beats in a song.

The time signature is always written next to the clef at the start of a song. And it looks like a pair of numbers stacked on top of each other.

The top number tells you how many beats are in each measure … while the bottom number tells you how long each beat lasts.

So in the example above, each measure has four beats (top number), and each beat lasts for a quarter note of time (bottom number).

You just take the ¼ of the quarter note and combine it with the 4 beats of the measure to create a time signature … get it ?

and1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Time signature

41 4 =

quarternote

fourbeats

timesignature

×

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By far, the most popular time signature in music is time. But a song can include any number of beats.

For example, the following time signatures show up in a lot of songs. Each one has a different feel or rhythm—and they all sound great.

But no matter what notes you play, or how many beats are in each measure, just remember this: music is simply a mix of pitch and rhythm. That’s all.

Six

Eighth

Two

Quarter

Three

Quarter

Four

Quarter

Pitch

Rhythm

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So that’s basically how music notation works. But before you jump into playing songs, here are three more tips—which will help you play each tune with ease. The first two tips deal with time (rhythm) and the third is about pitch.

RESTS (TIME)

So far, you’ve seen how duration symbols are used to make sound. Common duration symbols include eighth notes, quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes. And they can be used with any pitch.

But musicians also use duration symbols called “rests” to insert silence into songs. In fact, every note symbol has a matching rest:

There’s nothing tricky about rests. They work just like notes, following the beat of a time signature. Only you “play” each rest by playing nothing at all. ( ! )

Each rest in a song is always silent, but you still continue to count the beat as it moves forward at a steady pace … like this:

Rests

Notes

Quarter Half Whole1 beat 2 beats 4 beats

Eighth½ beat

and1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

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PICKUPS (TIME)

Sometimes, at the start of a song, you’ll also find an incomplete measure called a “pickup.” These notes simply “pick up” (or lead into) a melody and can make a song sound more interesting.

A pickup measure always contains fewer beats than the other measures. For example, a pickup measure in time may have only one, two, or three beats.

In the melody above, the pickup has just one beat. You play it by first counting the “missing” beats at the start … and then play the pickup note before continuing through the other measures.

And when you get to the end of the song, you’ll find the beats that were “missing” from the pickup. So, in total, all the measures add up to the correct number of beats.

The pie diagrams above show how to count the beats. Each pie represents a measure of 4 beats, with each beat shown as a single slice.

If you combine the beats in the first pickup measure with the beats in the last measure, you get a full pie—that is, four full beats of time … get it ? Once you learn how pickups work, they’re really fun.

1 2 3 41 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3

LAST MEASUREWHOLE MEASUREWHOLE MEASUREWHOLE MEASUREPICKUP

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KEY SIGNATURES (PITCH)

Finally, in some songs, you’ll also see little sharp ( ) or flat ( ) symbols next to the clef. These are called the “key signature,” and they help to keep the staff nice and tidy.

For example, if a songwriter wanted every F note in a melody to be F , she would simply put one sharp sign ( ) at the beginning of the staff and call it good.

This saves her the trouble of writing a lot of sharps throughout the song and makes the notation look much less cluttered.

Of course, these sharp and flat symbols aren’t necessary in ColorMusic … because you can already see exactly which notes to play.

But key signatures do give you a heads up on which notes to expect in a given song. So they still have some use. :)

MAKE MUSIC

Anyway, now that you know how to read music, what songs do you want to play ? Your options are wide open. And in the ColorMusic Song Library, you’ll find lots of good tunes waiting for you.

So feel free to cruise through each song solo. Or grab some friends and play together as a group. Just pick your instrument(s) of choice … and go.

Clean!

Key Signature

RECORDER

AG A B

A B CC C

D DDE E F

FG G

1st finger

3rd finger

4th finger

RIGHT HAND

2nd finger

Thumb

LEFT HAND

1st finger

2nd finger

3rd finger

Half-closed hole

Closed hole

DE E FC C

D D FG G A

G A BA B

Middle C

FBBAAA

GGFGFED

EDCDC ED

EDCDCBB

AAAGGF

GFEDEDC

DCBBAA

Middle C

PIANO

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4 G AG A B

A B C CD D D

E E F FG G

C CD D D

E E F FG G A

G A BA B C

E F FG G A

G A BA B C C

D D DE E

A BA B C C

D D DE E F F

G G AG A

open 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

UKULELE

Chord Charts

1234

Cm

11 1

o

Fret

String

Numbersshow the

�ngers used

A “barre” line meansone �nger presses

multiple strings

A top note is playedas an “open” string

C D D E

C7 D 7 D7 E 7

Cm D m Dm E m

11 1

11 132 4

321

4

11 12 11 1

2 11 12

11

4

1

o o

3 4

1oo

3

o

o o o

o o o

432

1

G G A A B B

G 7 G7 A 7 A7 B 7 B7

G m Gm A m Am B m Bm

E F

E7 F7

Em Fm

21

3

32 4

1 21

o o ooo

32

11

321

1

432

1

4

233

12

o

32

4

1

32

4

1

o o o o

4

1 2

432

1

o

2 231

21 1 1

3

11 1

3

2

1 112

1 1

3

11 1

3

2

1 112

12 3

1 1

3 42

o oo o o

Chord Names

Am

A

AA7

“A major”

“A minor”

“A seventh”

“A-�at major”

Name Pronounced

1

2

5

6

3

4

1

open 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

2

3

5

6

4

G AG A B

A B C CD D D

E E F FG G

D DE E F F

G G AG A B

A B C CD D

E F FG G A

G A BA B C C

D D DE E

B C CD D D

E E F FG G A

G A BA B

E F FG G A

G A BA B C C

D D DE E

A BA B C C

D D DE E F F

G G AG A

GUITAR

Chord Diagram Hand Position

o o

32

1

x

Fret

StringNumbersshow the

�ngers used

An “x” above astring is notplayed at all

A note with an “o” isplayed as an open string

1234

Left hand: press the strings using your �ngertips—arching your �ngers to avoid touching any “open” strings.

Right hand: gently strum down across the strings in one �uid motion.

11 1

3

12

11 1

3 4

1

11 1

3 42

21 1 1

xx

31 2

o xx

34

1 1 1x

1o o o

23

1o o xxx

12 3

o o o

1

x

1

3

1

4

1 1

3 42

x

1

x

1

2 3 4

1x

1

3

1

4

1 1

3 42

x

1x

1

2 3 4

oo o

1

o

2

o o

2 31

x

ox o

2 3 4

G G A A B B

G 7 G7 A 7 A7 B 7 B7

G m G m A m A m B m Bm

C7 D 7 D7 E 7

Cm D m Dm E m

E7 F7

Em Fm

FEEDDC

432

1

x x

4

2 31

x x

43

21 1

x

432

1x x

4

1 2ox x

32

1o ox

12

3 4

x x

1

43

2

x x

1

42 3

x x

o1

2 3

x x

o

43

2x x

o

31 2

x x

11 1

3

12

11 1

3 4

1

11 1

3 42

oo o

2

o1

oo o

2 3

o

oo o

2 31