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Understanding Music Notation Basics

There are 5 basic musical notes that form the foundation of music notation, ordered from longest to shortest duration: semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver, and semiquaver. The time signature at the start of a piece contains two numbers that indicate the timing, such as "3/4" meaning there will be 3 quarter-note beats per bar. Musical terms like crescendo and diminuendo indicate that the volume should gradually increase or decrease.

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Dimos Vlahos
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125 views1 page

Understanding Music Notation Basics

There are 5 basic musical notes that form the foundation of music notation, ordered from longest to shortest duration: semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver, and semiquaver. The time signature at the start of a piece contains two numbers that indicate the timing, such as "3/4" meaning there will be 3 quarter-note beats per bar. Musical terms like crescendo and diminuendo indicate that the volume should gradually increase or decrease.

Uploaded by

Dimos Vlahos
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

There are 5 basic notes that create the foundation At the start of every piece there are two

two numbers
of music notation and each have a different time on top of each other. This is the Time Signature
value. Here are the notes in order of time value which tells us the timing of the piece.
(longest to shortest):
Semibreve [whole note]
How many
beats will be 3 What kind of
Minim [half note] in each bar? beats they
will be?
Crotchet [quarter note]
Quaver [eighth note]
1 = semibreves (whole notes) means
So this
Semiquaver [sixteenth note] 2 = minims (half notes) het
‘3 crotc
4 = crotchets (quarter notes) er bar’
beats p
8 = quavers (eighth notes)
16 = semiquaver (sixteenth notes)
Fortissimo ff Very Loud

Forte f Loud
U Fermata (Pause - hold as long as you want )
Mezzo Forte mf Moderately Loud - Tenuto (Sustain - hold slightly longer)
. Staccato (short, detached)
Mezzo Piano mp Moderately Quiet
> Accent (performed louder, harder)
Piano p Quiet ) Tie (joins 2 of the same notes; played as 1)

Pianissimo pp Very Quiet

Sforzando sf Sudden Emphasis

Crescendo
Get Louder
(cresc.) & Treble Clef
Diminuendo ? Bass Clef
(dim.)
Get Quieter a
Repeat

A Tempo Original tempo Piu Vivo More lively


Allegretto Quite quickly Rall. (Rallentando) Gradually slow down
Allegro Quickly Rit./Ritard. (Ritardando) Gradually slow down
Allegro Con Brio Quickly, with life Stacatto Detached
Allegro Non Troppo Fast, but not too fast Stringendo Gradually get faster
Allegro Vivave Very fast Tempo I Original tempo
Andante Walking pace Tempo moderato Moderate tempo
Colla Voce “Free voice” Un Poco Animato A little animated
Legato Smooth Un Poco Piu Lento A little slower
Moderato Moderate speed Vivace Lively

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