lesson 6: Music Reading overview

okay…

Music Reading, 1st off, i highly recommend….Mel Bay, a trusted name for a long long long time, just look at the illustrations in the book (hilarious) and you’ll see that it’s been around a while.  but in this day and age, if it ain’t been broke and it ain’t been fixed, and it’s still on the shelves, well then, there’s gotta be something great about it.

here’s the basics…

NOTE VaLUES: think about how many quarter are in a dollar—>

Whole Note, Whole Rest = 4 beats

Half Note, Half Rest = 2 beats

Quarter Note, Quarter Rest = 1 beat

Eighth Note, Eighth Rest = 1/2 of a beat

—— —- —— —— —– —— —— —— —— —— ——

↑

there is a MUSICAL STAFF consisting of some important notes to remember,

the LINES going from bottom to top are…

Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge (or Every Good Boy Does Fine)

and the SPACES from bottom to top spell F.A.C.E.

this photo has the notes outside the staff added, but

pay attention to the 3rd note (E) up to the F at the top line to see that pattern of Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge and FACE.

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0110350/theory.html

great site – saying the same thing as this lesson here, but probably better in many ways

the Mel Bay book approaches music reading on guitar one string at a time, however, i would recommend, learning the open position C major scale 1st so that you’ll be a little familiar with the notes you are going to play.  also knowing the C major scale in 5th position (where your index finger is on the 5th fret) is a good thing too, that’s how the folks at Musician’s Institute are taught.  but for Mel Bay the open position major scale is where it starts…so how about i show you both?

C major scale…open position…

(if you don’t know how to read TAB, go here)

e——————————————————-

b————————0–1——————————————

g—————–0–2———————————————–

d——0–2–3——————————————————-

a—3————————————————————-

e———————————————————————

wanna see someone teaching you this scale on video?  click here, she’ll also show you C major pattern 2, there are 5 patterns for every major scale, if you know the 5 patterns for 1 key, you can apply that for every key

now with more notes added (so that it’s more MelBay friendly)…(making it technically an E phrygian scale, but for now, think of it as the C major scale, starting on E)

e————————————————-0–1–3—————–

b—————————————-0–1–3————————

g———————————-0–2———————————

d————————0–2–3—————————————

a————–0–2–3————————————————-

e—-0-1-3———————————————————

starting with the high (small, skinny)

E string…the open string, 1st fret and the 3rd fret, which would be E,F, and G

think about the notes on the E string…starting on the 3rd fret we have GAB (3rd fret, 5th fret, 7th fret). or if you start on the 1st fret, you’ve got (Field Goal Alright!)-(1st fret, 3rd fret, 5th fret).  recalling this from lesson 3.

so, with the MelBay book (only like 7 or 8 $), you’ll get fun little exercises and tons of diagrams to develop that all-important neuro-muscle memory with which you will execute musical greatness.  a note about that…playing any instrument, is all about muscle memory, you will eventually get to the point, where you can play songs without thinking about what you are doing.  this happens by way of repetition.  it’s like, if you ever walk down the same path in the grass to school, day after day, the grass will eventually die there and a dirt path will be formed.  or if you work out your muscles, day after day, they will get used to the exertion and grow to accommodate as a result.  this is a pretty cool thing about life that we often take for granted.  okay, enough, philosophizing.

keep in mind, there is also a Bass Clef in music, but guitar reads Treble Clef, but if you wanted to read piano music to use on guitar, you should be familiar with the bass clef, really it’s just the same notes, same order, but lower pitches, and off by one space/line.

The lines of the bass clef are G, B, D, F, E and the spaces are A, C, E ,F.

QUICK REVIEW:

get Mel Bay Grade 1!

note values,

Every Good Boy…DF and FACE

learn the C major scale

then dig in to Mel Bay!

MOVE ON TO LESSON 6.5 : KEY SIGNATURES

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