Range

Range refers to the notes an instrument is able to play, from lowest to highest. Each example below shows the range of an instrument from its lowest note to its highest note.

There are many symbols below which I don’t know yet, but I’ll learn them soon.

Since voice is an instrument, I’ll show vocal ranges first. I’m doing this mostly to show that all instruments use leger lines.

While look at these examples, compare the ranges of the instruments. Notice that the highest note for a soprano is higher than the highest note for an alto; or notice the guitar is able to play lower than the violin.

Pitch

Musically, pitch means the highness or lowness of a sound or note.

If the pitch of one note is higher than another, it will be written higher up on the staff. And if one note’s pitch is lower than another’s, it will be written lower down on the staff.

Space Notes + Line Notes = Togetherness

Space Notes
A space note fits within a space on the staff (or between leger lines). At first, it might be tough to draw a note exactly in the space, but keep at it. If you go over the line, your space note may look more like a line note.

Line Notes
Line notes have a line going through their middle. When you draw a line note be sure the line goes through the middle of the note, otherwise it might look more like a space note, and that can be confusing.

Togetherness
Line and space notes alternate, one after the other. After a line note comes a space note, and after a space note comes a line note. I know that’s redundant, and I said it twice, but it’s important. Here’s what it looks like:

Lines & Spaces

Music is written on a staff (plural staves) which is five horizontal parallel lines. The five lines create four spaces between them. When things are counted in music—staff lines, degrees of a scale, intervals, even the strings of a guitar — they’re always counted from the bottom up. Do not count it from the top down.

Bureaucracy exists in music too..

To End: The Double Bar

The double bar on the staff above signifies that this is the end of the music piece.

To Start: The Treble Clef

The symbol on staff above is called treble clef. This is the most popular symbol in music. It appears at the beginning of every line of music. As far as I am concern, this symbol will not appear at the middle or at the end of staff.

I found an article on treble clef. Here are the excerpts.

The treble clef is probably the most widely-used clef, followed by the bass clef. It uses the G clef symbol to assign the note G above middle C to the second line from the bottom of the staff. Most woodwind instruments read treble clef, as well as high brass, violins, and tuned percussion. On the piano, the right hand usually is written in treble clef, while the left hand is written in bass clef.

Ermm...

Measures

Hey its been a while though! I was so busy that i thought of giving up my guitar exploration blog. Anyway, the vertical lines that intercepting the staff are called bar lines. These lines are used to organise music. The spaces between bar lines are called measures. I dont think I have to explain in detail because it is not going to make sense for now.

The Staff

Just sit back and relax, and take a long look at the diagram above. From now onwards, the 5 lines above will be the important element in learning and understanding musical notation. It is called the staff.

Small circles or dots drawn on the staff form musical notation. In other words, music is notated on the staff. This is not guitar strings for guitar tablature so do not get confused.

Throw Away My Guitar!

To start all over again. As if I had never touched a guitar in my life. As if I could not even point a simple chord. As if I were just a little boy. This is extremely important so that every stage of learning can be absorbed as a new discovery. A rebirth. A reform.

I will start with an introduction to musical notation. Hopefully somewhere in time, I will be able to progress to sight reading techniques. That will do for now.

Learning to Learn

Ever since I was a child, guitar has been a very interesting object that amazes me; be it whether it is played (in any style of music), thrashed (in rock concerts), posed (in posters or mags), carried in case or even left untouched. Every guitar; classical, acoustic and electric has its own strength and limitation in expressing what is kept statically and mundanely in mind, soul, tabs or notes.

I will not move further on the types, tones, which brand is good and which is not, who is the best player and who is the worst, who is my favourite guitar player and who is yours, bla bla bla etc. as this is NOT the objective of this blog. This blog is created to record my exploration in understanding guitar; not just how to play it correctly, but also how to read the musical sheet.

Guitar-wise, I have identified a number of sources that can be used as a guidance in providing the best way of learning to learn, learning to understand and learning to make it a habit. There is no time frame set for this exploration as it will only put unnecessary stress to it. All the best to me.