Five lines. Four spaces.
Treble lines, bottom to top: E G B D F.
Spaces, bottom to top: F A C E.
Each next line or space is the next letter name.
Notes stacked vertically sound together—a chord. Notes placed one after another are played in sequence.
A first guide · about 10 minutesYour first sheet
Your first sheet
of music.
Never read a score? Start with a key, a sound and a steady pulse. You can try every example here.
01
Meet the keyboard.
White keys repeat A, B, C, D, E, F, G, then A again. Moving right makes the pitch higher.
Touch a key. Find it on the page.
C4 is middle C. The letters repeat; the number tells you which octave.
Lower sounds ← → Higher sounds
Find C without counting.
Look for a group of two black keys. C is the white key immediately to their left.
Same letter. Different height.
C3 and C4 are an octave apart. They share a note name, but they are different pitches. A standard piano has 88 keys; this example shows just two octaves.
02
A map for pitch.
Read from left to right. A note’s vertical position tells you its pitch.
The grand staff.
𝄞 Treble clef is commonly used for higher notes.
𝄢 Bass clef is commonly used for lower notes.
Bass lines, bottom to top: G B D F A. Bass spaces: A C E G.
Small extra lines are ledger lines. Middle C needs one. In piano music, the two staves often suggest RH and LH, but the clef itself does not choose the hand.
03
A note is not a beat.
A beat is the steady pulse you count. Notes and rests fit into that pulse.
ONE BAR OF 4/4
Hold. Play. Rest.
Hold C for 2 beats
Play E for 1 beat
𝄽Rest for 1 beat
1234
Count 1–2–3–4. Two notes and one rest fill all four beats.
Pitch: which sound?
“Play C4” tells you the pitch. The note’s position on the staff shows it.
Duration: how long?
“Hold for two beats” tells you its length. A longer note does not need more key presses. BPM means beats per minute; at 60 quarter-note beats per minute, each beat lasts one second.
04
Sound has a shape. So does silence.
In 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4, a quarter note gets one beat. Use this table with that counting unit.
| Note | Beats | Matching rest |
|---|---|---|
| Whole notesemibreve | 4 | 𝄻4 beats of silence |
| Half noteminim | 2 | 𝄼2 beats of silence |
| Quarter notecrotchet | 1 | 𝄽1 beat of silence |
| Eighth notequaver | ½ | 𝄾½ beat of silence |
| Sixteenth notesemiquaver | ¼ | 𝄿¼ beat of silence |
A rest is written silence. Stop playing that voice, but keep counting. The other hand may still be playing. A centred whole-rest symbol can mean a whole bar of silence, even in 3/4.
A dot after a note adds half its value.
A dotted half note lasts 2 + 1 = 3 quarter-note beats. A dotted quarter lasts 1 + ½ = 1½.
Flags and beams show shorter values.
Two eighth notes fit into one quarter-note beat. Beams join their stems for easier reading; they do not change the duration. Three triplet eighth notes, marked “3”, share one quarter-note beat.
05
Bars organise the pulse.
Vertical barlines divide the music into bars, also called measures. The time signature tells you how to group the written values.
4
4/4
Four quarter-note beats per full bar.
1 · 2 · 3 · 4
4
3/4
Three quarter-note beats per full bar.
1 · 2 · 3
8
6/8
Six eighth-note units, usually felt as two groups of three.
1–2–3 · 4–5–6
In simple meters such as 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4, the top number is the number of beats in a full bar; the bottom number names the note value for a beat. A 4 means quarter notes. In compound meters such as 6/8, the top number counts subdivisions: the two main pulses are dotted quarter notes.
The time signature is not the speed, and it does not count how many notes you must play. Four quarter notes, two half notes, or a mixture of notes and rests can all fill a 4/4 bar. A short first bar is often a pickup.
06
A small sign changes the pitch.
A semitone, or half step, is the distance to the very next piano key—white or black.
Sharp
Raise the named note by one semitone.
C♯ is the black key just above C.
Flat
Lower the named note by one semitone.
D♭ is the black key just below D.
Natural
Use the unaltered letter-name pitch. It cancels a sharp or flat that would otherwise apply.
C♯ and D♭ share a piano key. Their spelling depends on the musical context. Sharps and flats do not always mean black keys: E♯ is the F key, and C♭ is the B key.
Why are there sharps or flats at the start?
A key signature sets the default sharps or flats for those letter names in every octave, until it changes. Three flats—B♭, E♭ and A♭—can indicate E♭ major or C minor; the key signature alone does not tell you which.
An accidental beside a note usually applies from that point to the end of the bar, for that pitch in the same octave. A tied note keeps its alteration into the next bar. The app can show a key signature or write the needed accidentals beside notes; both can represent the same pitches.
07
A few more signs you’ll meet.
Learn these as they appear. You don’t need to memorise every symbol before you begin.
Tie
A curve joining the same pitch: hold one continuous sound for the combined length. Don’t press it twice.
Slur
A curve over different notes: play the phrase smoothly. Play each new pitch.
Fermata
Hold the note or rest longer than its written value. The exact length is a musical choice.
Repeat
Go back to the matching repeat sign, or to the beginning if there isn’t one.
Final barline
A thin line followed by a thick line marks the end. At the beginning, look for the clef, key signature and time signature.
Dynamics
p means soft; f means loud. A crescendo < grows louder; a diminuendo > gets softer. These do not change the pitch.
A dot above or below a note means staccato: play it short and detached. A dot after a note changes its duration instead. “rit.” means gradually slow down.
08
Put one bar together.
Start slowly. Count first, then add the keys.
Try the same ideas in Piano Translator
Open The End, turn on the letter guide, and choose a single hand. Use 0.5× speed and the metronome. Click a written note to hear its pitch and see its key. The hand colours are a learning aid: blue RH, red LH. Aligned notes in different hands can sound together.
Scores produced from audio are estimates. An unexpected octave, busy rhythm or strange hand split can be a transcription mistake—not a rule you need to learn.
Ready to read a little music?
Keep this guide open beside the score. One bar at a time is enough.
Open web app ↗Further reading & sources
Original diagrams and examples for this guide. Fundamentals cross-checked with Texas A&M’s Steps to Music Theory: Notes and Rests ↗ and Accidentals and Beats ↗. For more lessons, see musictheory.net ↗.