STUDY GUIDE

MUSIC THEORY
THE STAFF
The Staff is the basis of written music. Notes are written on the staff.
A Staff consists of 5 lines with 4 spaces between them as shown
below. Always count from the bottom to the top of the staff.

BARS and MEASURES

The vertical lines on the staff are called Bar Lines. Bar Lines are used
to divide the staff into Measures. Thick double bars are used to mark
the end of a piece of music. Measures are frequently referred to as
Bars. In the example below you can see three single bar lines.

LEGER or LEDGER LINES

When you need to put pitches above or below the staff, a short line is
added above or below the staff. In the example below, there are two
leger lines above the Staff and two below.

CLEFS
A Clef is a symbol used in musical notation that assigns the pitch of
notes to lines and spaces on the Staff. A clef can be thought of as
assigning a certain pitch to a specific line or space on the staff.
The figure below is a TREBLE CLEF. Notice that the big curve of the
Treble Clef curls around the second line from the bottom of the staff.
That second line is the pitch G. That gives us the other name for the
Treble Clef which is the G CLEF

The figure below is a BASS CLEF. Notice that the two dots to the
right of the Clef are on either side of the fourth line from the bottom of
the staff. That fourth line is the pitch F. That gives us the other
name for the Bass Clef which is the F CLEF.

GRAND STAFF or SYSTEM

When staffs with bass and treble clefs are connected by a bar line and
a brace, they become the Grand Staff. This greatly increases the
range of pitches that can be noted. It is possible to combine more
than two staffs into one System. Sometimes a musician will see as
many as fifteen or more staffs in one System.

PITCH
Pitches are musical sounds that have letter names. There are only
seven letters used in naming pitches. Those seven letters are:
A B C D E F G.
The letter named pitches are shown below on a short keyboard you
can see there are white and black keys. The black keys are either in
groups of 2 or 3. If you look at the group of any two black keys, you
will see that the pitch C is always the white key just to the left of the
two black keys.

HOW NOTES SHOW PITCH

The pitch a note indicates is shown by where the note is located on a
staff.
Look at the whole notes on the lines of the staff below. You will see
a Treble Clef on the staff. The pitches on each line are in blue letters.
The whole notes in the spaces show pitches also. They are in red
letters.

Below you will see whole notes on the lines and spaces of the Staff
with the Bass Clef. The line names in the Bass Clef staff are in blue
and the space names are in red.

As you can see below, there are pitch letter names for every line or
space on the staff. The two different CLEF signs change the names of
the five lines and spaces. Not only that, there are pitch letter names
for notes that are placed above and below the staff.

Since there are only 7 Letter Names for Pitches, those letters are
repeated over and over. Depending on the Clef and whether a note is
on a line or a space will determine the Letter Name for the Pitch.
Remember the Treble Clef is the G Clef. That way you can always
know that the second line of the Staff with the Treble Clef is for the
Pitch G.
Also remember the Bass Clef is the F Clef. That way you can always
know that the fourth line of the Staff between the two dots of the Bass
Clef is for the Pitch F.

NOTES AND RESTS

Notes represent the length of time a pitch will be heard. Each note
will be equal to a certain number of regular beats.
Rests represent the length of time of silence in music. Each rest is
equal to a certain number of regular beats.

Sometimes, when there is more than one eighth note or sixteenth

note, they can be written without their flags. They can be connected
with one crossbar for eighth notes, and two crossbars for sixteenth
notes.

Two Eighth notes

Two Sixteenth notes

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HALF AND WHOLE RESTS

A Whole Rest Looks like this
a dark rectangle attached to a bar line, hanging down from the 4th line
of the staff.
The half rest looks like this
a dark rectangle sits on the third line of the staff.

TIME SIGNATURES
The way we find out what the value of a note is for any piece of music
is from the time signature which appears at the beginning of the
music.

Time Signatures
A time signature shows two things:

1. How many evenly spaced beats per measure there are in

a measure

2. What kind of note gets one beat.

The top number of the time signature shows how many beats there
are per measure. The bottom number of the time signature shows
what kind of note gets one beat.

In the example shown above, the top number shows that there are
four evenly spaced beats per measure and the bottom number shows
that the quarter note is equal to one beat.

If the Bottom Number is:

1
2
4
8
16

The Note
that gets
one beat
is a:
Whole
note
Half note
Quarter
note
Eighth
note
Sixteenth
note

TIE and SLUR MARKS

Ties and slurs have different effects on two or more notes. TIES
connect notes of the same pitch, essentially forming one longer note.
SLURS indicate that notes under the slur should be sung without any
breaks. The first set of notes above shows a TIE, the second shows a
SLUR.
The example below of a TIE shows that two dotted half notes should
be sung for a total of six beats without a break in the sound.

DOT
A dot after a note increases the value of a note by half the notes
original value. If a note is worth four beats, then the dot would be
worth two beats. The total value of the dotted note would then be six
beats.
In the example below, you can see a dotted half note. This would be
sung for the same length of time as if you were to tie a half note to a
quarter note.

FLAT KEYS
Flat Key Signatures Major Key

F major

symbol (

1 flat

B major
2 flats

E major
3 flats

A major
4 flats

D major
5 flats

G major
6 flats

C major
7 flats

Please note that F Major

is the only flat key that
does NOT have the flat

) in its name.

SHARP KEYS
Sharp Key Signatures Major Key

G major
1 sharp

D major
2 sharps

A major
3 sharps

E major
4 sharps

B major
5 sharps

F major

() in their names.

6 sharps

C major
7 sharps

Please note that only

F major and C major
have the sharp symbol

ACCIDENTALS
Accidentals change the pitch of a note by raising or lowering it by one
half step, but only in the measure where the accidental appears.
Accidentals stay in effect for all notes of the same pitch for the rest of
that particular measure. The effect is to temporarily change what the
key signature tells you. Remember that only one measure is affected
by accidentals. Here are the three accidentals you need to know.
FLATS lower the pitch of the note by one half step.

#
SHARPS raise the pitch of the note by one half step.

b
A NATURAL SIGN cancels out any previous sharps or flats and
returns the note to the original pitch of the key signature.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HALF AND

WHOLE RESTS
A Whole Rest Looks like this a dark rectangle attached to a bar line; it hangs down from 4th line of
the staff
The half rest looks like this a dark rectangle sits on the 3rd line of the staff.

DYNAMICS The range of volume

- This symbol is pianissimo, it means very quiet.
- This symbol is piano, it means quiet.
- This symbol is mezzo piano, it means moderately quiet.
- This symbol is mezzo forte, it means moderately loud.
- This symbol is forte, it means loud.
- This symbol is fortissimo, it means very loud.
- This sign is an indication for a crescendo meaning to
gradually become louder. Crescere is the Italian verb meaning to
grow.
- This sign is an indication for a decrescendo meaning to
gradually become quieter.

HALF STEPS and WHOLE STEPS

When you look at the keyboard below, you can see that the pitch letter
names are repeated across the keyboard. This is because there are
only 7 Letters used for all of the pitches used in music.

Any key that is right next to another key is a HALF STEP apart. It
doesnt matter if it is black or white. Look at the keyboard below and
you can see that from E to F, there is nothing in between. They are a
half step apart. The same is true from the B key to the C key. But if
you want to play a half step up from C, you must play the black key
just to the right of it. That key is called C Sharp (which is written like
this - C#). So, C and C# are a half step apart.
Look at the key marked D on the keyboard below. If you want to play
a half step below D, you would play the black key to the left of D.
That key is called D Flat (which is written like this - D ).

So, now you have learned two other names for musical symbols and
what they do Flats and Sharps.

FLATS

SHARPS

lower the pitch of the note by one half step.

# raise the pitch of the note by one half step.

So, what is a WHOLE STEP? It is the distance between two pitches or

keys that are two half steps apart. Look at the keyboard below and
you will see that the whole step from C to D has a black key in
between them. So, C to D is two half steps apart or a total of a
WHOLE STEP. Remember that a WHOLE STEP always has one other
key in between.

MAJOR SCALE
If you play the keys from one C to the C above or below it, you will
have played a scale a C Major Scale. This is true if you play from
any letter name to its repeated letter above or below (D to D, E to E, F
to F). There are eight tones in the major scale.
However, there is something you must know before you try that, and
that is the SCALE PATTERN of whole steps and half steps. To play a
Major Scale, you start on any key and then proceed as follows:
Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step

Lets say you start on the C Key. The next key you would play is D
which is a whole step higher than C. Next you would play E which is a
whole step higher than D. After that you play the F Key which is only
a half step higher. Following the pattern of W,W,H,W,W,W,H would
take you all the way to the top C and you would have played a major
scale. Here is the outline of the whole scale.
CD
DE
EF
FG
GA
AB
BC

Whole Step
Whole Step
Half Step
Whole Step
Whole Step
Whole Step
Half Step