To read music there are things we need to recognise instantly.

First glance will give us information that will save us time and help us greatly.

The 5 lines on which ‘notes’ are written we call this the ‘STAVE‘

Take a look at the  STAVE above…

The squirly shape - the TREBLE CLEF this tells what range our music is in.

Guitar resides in this clef

- bass guitar resides in the BASS CLEF..

The Bass Clef

As this is a guitar site we’ll concentrate on the treble clef to begin with.

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The time signature: The 4 above the 4 gives us information this way.

the bottom number = the type of beat.

the above number = the amount of below per bar.

the 4 at the bottom = a quarter beat = a crotchet beat.

4 at the top = 4 crotchet beats to the bar.

Confused?

Take a look at the picture again…

The stave we have here indicates two bars - see the arrow pointing at the CROTCHET.

There are 8 crotchets altogether - these are seperated into two bars by the BAR LINE.

This gives us two bars of 4 crotchets.

Which gives us

4/4 time.

4 crotchet beats to the bar.

3/4 time

3 crotchet beats to the bar.

2/4 time

2 crotchet beats to the bar.

Make sense?

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Finally at the end of the STAVE we have the REPEAT SIGN…

Everthing within these 2 Signs is repeated,

The 1st Sign is the start of the repeated section.

The 2nd Sign is the end of the repeated section.

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Note Values: