There’s a debate in the guitar world as to whether or not it’s necessary to know how to read music. For example, Eddie Van Halen famously rocked our socks off without ever glancing at a musical note. However, unless you have the musical ears, finger dexterity and relentless dedication of EVH, learning basic music notation can only help to make your guitar journey a little easier and more enjoyable.
Fortunately for guitar players, there are actually two different ways to read music: 1) standard music notation and 2) guitar tablature notation. Even though this article focuses on standard music notation, you’ll soon learn why I recommend using a combination of both methods. This applies for both beginner and intermediate guitar players.
The traditional method of using standard music notation offers the guitarist everything they need to know to make music properly. That’s because standard music notation communicates all three vital pieces of information required:
3 Key Elements of Music Notation
- Pitch (what to play)
- Duration/Rhythm (when to play)
- Expression/Articulation (how to play)
These 3 key elements can help you to look at a piece of sheet music and play it exactly as the composer intended. Further, one can do this without ever having to hear the piece of music beforehand.
1) Pitch – What to Play
These elements define the notes to play. Like other instruments, this might include playing single notes one at a time, or playing multiple notes together in the form of a chord.
| Item | Name | Definition |
| 1 | Staff | A musical staff has five horizontal lines. Notes can intersect a line or be in the space between lines. Every line or space on a musical staff represents a white key on a piano. The musical distance between a note intersecting a line and the next adjacent space (or vice-versa) is one letter of the musical alphabet, for example A to B. Notes high up on the musical staff equate to a high pitch. |
| 2 | Clef | Assigning individual notes to certain lines and spaces requires a clef. Guitar players use the Treble Clef. But other instruments, such as piano, also use a Bass Clef. The clefs define and assign a note to a particular line of the staff. This defines all other notes on the staff. |
| 3 | G Note | Due to its shape, the Treble Clef also goes by the name G Clef. In addition, the staff line intersecting the center of the curly-q of the Treble Clef represents the G note. This G note is the basis for naming all other notes. So the space above the second staff line is an A note. And an F note occupies the space between the first and second staff lines. |
| 4 | Ledger Lines | Individual notes can intersect the 5 staff lines and be in the 4 spaces between the lines. So you might be wondering, what happens next? Can I only play 9 different notes on a guitar? Definitely not. So how does the musical staff communicate playing notes with a high pitch that are above the upper most staff line? Or how about notes that are lower in pitch than the lowest staff line? The answer is ledger lines. A ledger line is a short horizontal line that extends the normal 5-line music staff up or down when playing additional notes. |
| 5 | Accidentals | An accidental is a symbol in front of a note that tells the musician to raise or lower the pitch of the note by a half-step. The two most common accidentals are sharps and flats. A sharp raises the pitch of a note by a half-step. And a flat lowers the pitch of a note by a half-step. The # symbol is represents sharps and the letter b represents flats. On a piano, all of the black keys represent sharp and flat notes and they always exist between adjacent natural notes of the musical alphabet. For example, on a guitar one plays a C# note one fret higher than one plays a natural C note. |
| 6 | Key Signature | A key signature tells a musician to play certain notes as sharp or flat throughout an entire song. This method simplifies the music notation because the flat sign sitting on the B staff line does not have to be repeated each time a B note is called out in the rest of the song. The note(s) assigned to play either sharp or flat in the key signature are based on the accidentals found in musical scales. In the info-graphic above, the flat symbol on the B line of the musical staff aligns with the F Major scale. If this last bit is confusing to you, don’t be alarmed. The full explanation is a bit beyond the scope of this article. But not fully understanding scales and key signatures right now is perfectly OK. |
2) Duration/Rhythm – When to Play
These elements define how long to play each note or chord relative to the beat of the song. Commonly, a quarter note is associated with one beat. A simple is example is a song whose beats go “1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, …”.
| Item | Name | Definition |
| 1 | Whole Note | A whole note, which has a hollow oval head with no stem, is music’s longest note. |
| 2 | Half Note | A half note also has a hollow oval head, and also a stem. A half note has half of the duration of a whole note. Two half notes have the same musical duration as one whole note. |
| 3 | Quarter Note | A quarter note has a solid oval head with a stem and has half of the duration of a half note. It also has a quarter of the duration of a whole note. Four quarter notes have the same musical duration as two half notes or one whole note. |
| 4 | Eighth Note | An eighth note has a solid oval head with a stem and a flag or beam included. It is half of the duration of a quarter note, a fourth of the duration of a half note and an eighth of the duration of a whole note. Eight eighth notes have the same musical duration as four quarter notes, two half notes or one whole note. |
| 5 | Time Signature | Time signatures define the quantity and type of notes that are grouped by their beats. The number on the top tells you how many beats are in one grouping. The bottom number tells you which type of note gets one beat. In the infographic above, the time signature is 4/4. This means that a quantity of 4 notes are in each grouping (top number) and a quarter note is for one beat (bottom number). While 4/4 time is the most common, one may encounter other time signatures. In Frank Sinatra’s classic song, “The Christmas Waltz”, his lyrics, “…and this song of mine, in three-quarter time…” are describing a quantity of 3 quarter notes makes up one grouping. |
| 6 | Bar Line | A bar line is simply a vertical line in the music staff that separates notes into groups. These are known musically as a measure or bar. So in the 4/4 time signature example above, you will notice that each measure contains a total of 4 beats. Each measure is equivalent to 4 quarter notes. Of course, one can combine a mixture of notes of different durations in the same measure. The example above is nice and simple so you can understand the concept of time signatures a little more easily. A measure in 4/4 time can also be include 1 quarter note, 1 half note and 2 eighth notes because their durations all add up to 4 beats (1+2+0.5+0.5). |
These additional elements tell the musician when to play notes, or when to take a pause from playing altogether.
| Item | Name | Definition |
| 1 | Rests | Musical rests are periods of silence in a measure or bar. Just how different notes have different durations of how many beats they are played for, different rests have different durations of silence. Each note type has a corresponding rest type. Meaning there are whole rests, half rests, quarter rests, eighth rests, etc. The time signature includes rests in determining how many beats have been played out loud and those “played” in silence. In the example above, the time signature requires that each measure totals 4 beats. |
| 2 | Tempo Heading | The tempo heading communicates how fast or slow the beat of a song is. Whenever you hear a song and you tap your foot to the beat, the rate at which you tap is the tempo. One can measure tempo in the number of beats per minute, or BPM. A BPM of 60 means equates to 60 beats per minute, or one beat per second. Sheet music differs in how tempo headings are defined, with words and/or numbers being used. Naturally, words such as ‘Moderate’ are more subjective relative to numbers which will simply describe the number of beats per minute for a quarter note. This is where a metronome can be extremely handy to help you keep a consistent beat. |
| 3 | Tie | The musical notation tie is a short curve that merges multiple notes of the same pitch. This instructs the musician to let the duration of the first note continue through the duration of the second note. In other words, you aren’t supposed to actually play the second note separately. Just let the first note ring out for the length of time defined by the tied note. |
| 4 | Augmentation Dot | An augmentation dot increases the duration of the particular note by one-half. So if a half note, which represents two beats, has an augmentation dot (referred to as a dotted half note), then the note should be played for 3 beats. Just use basic arithmetic to figure these out. Always multiply the number of beats of the note times 1.5. So again, for a half note it would be 2 x 1.5 which equals three. If a dot is on a quarter note, then the note duration is 1.5 beats. This can be “balanced” by playing an eighth note to provide the other 0.5 beats needed within a measure. |
| 5 | Double Bar | A double bar line indicates the end of the song. |
| 6 | Repeat | The two small dots next to a double bar indicate that you are to repeat certain measures. Dots shown on the right side of a double bar tell you where the repeating measures start. And the dots on the left side of a double bar tell you where the repeating measures end. |
3) Expression and Articulation – How to Play
This element defines how to play the notes as well as adjusting variables including loudness, softness and smoothness. The guitar is such an expressive instrument. And these musical instructions are especially critical in giving your guitar a unique playing character and emotion.
| Item | Name | Definition |
| 1 | Dynamic Marking | A dynamic marking tells the musician how loud or soft to play. In classical music notation, the initials you will see are abbreviations for Italian words that describe different levels of loudness. Common examples include: pp (pianissimo = very soft), mf (mezzo-forte = half loud) and ff (fortissimo = very loud). |
| 2 | Crescendo / Ritardando | Both crescendo and ritardando are more Italian words that tell the musician to either increase or decrease the loudness as they’re playing through the marked notes. If the marks start open and gradually close as you move from left to right, it is telling you to gradually play more softly. If the marks start closed and gradually open, you should gradually play more loudly. |
| 3 | Slur | A slur is a curvy line connecting two notes of different pitches. It tells the musician to play the two connected notes smoothly without allowing any break in sound between the notes. On a guitar, this effect is either created by “bending” the string to raise or lower the pitch of a note without plucking the string again. Or by using a slide to gradually move from one fret to the next. In my opinion, the technique of sluring or bending notes is what makes a guitar take on pleasing vocal qualities and communicates true emotion and “feel”. |
| 4 | Stoccato Dot | This is kind of the opposite of the purpose of a slur. A staccato dot tells a musician to play the notes short and separate from any other notes. |
| 5 | Accent | The accent communicates playing notes louder than normal for additional emphasis. |
Learn Love Guitar Recommendation
Knowing every single one of these musical notations isn’t critical to being able to start learning and loving the guitar. And it is difficult to be able to quickly read the notes and chords themselves. And to know how they translate to a particular string and fret positions on the guitar.
Guitar tablature notation, or tab, can save the day! Check out my article on guitar tab to see how it drastically simplifies the task of reading the actual notes. Finally, you will learn how combining tab and standard music notation is the perfect combination to get you rocking and rolling before you know it!