STRUMMERS READING MUSIC PAGE

Welcome to my Strummers Reading Music Page.
Once you have read and understand this page you should make your way to the Flashcards page, download the cards and practice your notes a few minutes daily until you have mastered them. With daily practice it won't take you long to Master.

Please keep in mind that this is not a music theory page. Music theory is an extremely deep and thoughtful subject. While working on my music degree I took theory classes about an hour and a half, three times a week for about five years. There are many, many books on the subject of music theory, I am concerning this page on the notes you need to move into instrumental Ukulele music. If you want theory, don't buy anyones book, either go to the two theory links I have on my Links Pages, (they have Awesome tutorials), or just go to your local free library, they'll have a lot of books on Theory.

READING MUSIC

The first thing we will discuss is the Piano Keyboard.

A partial piano keyboard should be shown above. We will be using the white notes only, do not concern yourself with the black keys at this point.
Think about the Alphabet.
Music is written from A to G, then repeats.
ABCDEFG ABCDEFG or more correctly written ABCDEFGABCDEFGABCDEFGABCD...
It is because the keyboard is always visualized from its key of "C" that you always see the notes written as
CDEFGAB CDEFGAB or more correctly written CDEFGABCDEFGABCDEFGABC...
It is not important where the order begins, but it is important to understand that there is an order. If I start on G
GABCDEFGABCDEFGABC...
If I start on E
EFGABCDEFGABCDEFGABC...
Just remember that what is still there, is ABCDEFG ABCDEFG.

Once you understand that music notes are comprised of merely an A to G alphabet, then you need to know how we read them. Here you go.

The Staff (or Stave) is a set of lines which, on, above and below the lines music notes are written. Each line and space (spaces are created between two lines) has a letter name (or corresponding musical Note name). It is because the staff has five lines, it has then naturally created four spaces. It is on these lines and spaces we place our music notes.

The note names you will see most often are shown below. They have been separated into the lines and the spaces for purposes of explaining.

On the lines, (Ascending), are the note names E G B D and F. I tell most of my students to think of a sentence which will aid them in remembering the order. Here are two. (Elephants Got Big Dusty Feet) and (Empty Garbage Before Dad Flips).
In the spaces fall the four note names (in order, Ascending) that spell the word FACE.
I tell my students to remember the rhyme, (In the space, I'll see my FACE).
Yeah, I know not to pursue my poetry calling, but it works.

Whenever, in music, anytype of note falls on the bottom line, it is an "E". Whenever, in music, anytype of note falls on the bottom space, it is an "F". Etc.

That's really all there is to it. Use the Flashcards Page to get some cut outs of the staff and notes, and practice learning the note names.

After you have learned the note names go to my Note Values Page. This page shows you how long to hold each note.

There you go.