Learn To Play Music

Okay. Now that you have more than a slight idea of musical rests, it is time to learn to play music. We can practically hear you saying “Finally!” so let’s move on to the good stuff.

There are people who can learn to play music by ear. However, this lesson is not for them but for the not-so-musically gifted individuals. We are going to learn to play music by knowing how to read a musical score or a sheet music.

A musical score acts as the musician’s guide in playing a piece. It is composed of many staffs with a variety of notes. A staff is made up of four spaces and five horizontal lines. There are two clefs used in a staff namely the treble clef and the bass clef. In a grand staff, the treble clef is on the top while the bass clef is at the bottom.

If you are familiar with the notes (do, re, mi…), it will not be that hard on your part to read them when they are in a staff. On a treble clef staff, the first note, do, is placed on the third space, the second note, re, is on fourth line, so on and so forth. On the other hand, the first note is on the second space of a bass clef staff. The notes are usually replaced with the first seven letters of the alphabet. Do is represented by C, re by D, mi by E, fa by F, sol by G, la by A, and si by B.

When you already know the position of the notes in a staff, try playing them in the instrument of your choice. For beginners, it is best to use a piano. Try a simple song first. Nursery rhymes and the ever-popular song Happy Birthday are the best pieces to start learning to play music. When you are used to playing these simple songs, take into consideration other music factors besides the notes such as music rests and tempo. It does not take much in order to learn to play music. Just be patient and most importantly, enjoy.