Simply put,

The pitch of a note is how high or low it sounds.

Pitch is the frequency at which the sound wave of the note occurs.

Therefore:

the higher the frequency of a sound wave,

and the shorter its wavelength,

= the higher its pitch sounds.

For our use we don’t need to know this,

Instead we just give each different pitch a ‘letter’,

eg: A B C D E F G

These notes occur in different ranges called Octaves

A B C D E F G A is one 1 octave - it’s range(octave) would be based on how high or low the notes sound.

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In Western music there are twelve notes in each octave that are in common use.

These extra notes are -

Standard notation:

the symbol raises the pitch of the natural note by a half-step.

the symbol lowers it by a half-step.

the following octave could be seen in two ways,

A,  A, B,  C,  C, D,  D, E,  F,  F, G,  G, A,  A,

or

A,  A, B,  C,  C, D,  D, E,  F,  F, G,  G, A,  A,

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: