A Guide To Notation. Higher. Lower

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1 Pitch he staff is where music notation is written from left to right. It contains five parallel lines which are aligned in a horizontal arrangement with the four spaces located between them. he lines and spaces of a staff are referred to by number and are always counted from the bottom up. Line 5 Line 4 Line 3 Line 2 Line 1 4th Space 3rd Space 2nd Space 1st Space Notes are placed on the lines and in the spaces of the staff according to their pitch. Pitch refers to how high or low a note sounds. Notes placed higher on the staff sound higher in pitch while notes lower on the staff sound lower in pitch. For example, a pitch written on the first line from the bottom sounds lower than a pitch notated on line 4. Higher Lower If the pitch is very high or very low and exceeds the range of five lines, the staff can be extended above or below using ledger lines, or short lines equidistant from each other, to provide a place to notate those pitches. Ledger Lines Ledger Lines he seven basic pitches of Western music are named using the first seven letters of the alphabet: --C-E-D-F-G. Each of these letters corresponds to specific frequencies in the sound spectrum, and every time this alphabet repeats, either forward or backward, the notes are heard in a different octave. C D E F G C D E F G

2 With regard to the relationship between the pitches which are sounded on bass and how they are notated on a staff, bass is a transposing instrument so the notes written on the staff are not the exact pitches we hear when they are played. he pitches produced by a bass sound one octave lower than written in bass clef. he pitches are notated one octave higher than they sound because it makes the music much easier to read. Notating the pitches as they sound on bass would require the use of many ledger lines below the staff, and this would result in notation that is very difficult to decipher. Since bass is a transposing instrument, the note written on the top line of the staff and played at the second fret of the G-string actually sounds as the written in the bottom space. Pulse & Meter regular pulse establishes the tempo or relative speed of music. he pulse is usually divided into groups of beats. beat is the most basic rhythmic unit of music. On a staff, thin vertical bar lines split these groups of beats into smaller units called measures or bars. Sections within a composition are generally separated with double bar lines, and the last measure of a song ends with a final bar line which features both a thin and a thick line. ar Line Double ar Line Final ar Line When beats are grouped into measures, the pulse is said to be in meter. Meter is a specific number of pulses that fit into a measure, and the music's meter is indicated by a time signature. he time signature specifies the beat, how it is grouped, and the number of beats per measure. he time signature appears at the beginning of the first line of music. It is positioned to the right of the clef sign and key signature, and it contains two numbers which are stacked like a fraction one above the other. he top number of the time signature reveals how many beats are present in each measure while the bottom number specifies the duration of each beat. If a 4 is on the bottom, the beat is a quarter note long. If a 2 is on the bottom, the beat is a half note long. If an 8 is on the bottom, the beat is an eighth note long. In the time signature of 4/4, there are four beats or four quarter notes per measure. In a time signature of 3/2 there would be three half notes per bar, and a time signature of 6/8 would signify that there are six eighth notes per measure. Key Signature ime Signature # # # # 4 4 4/4 time is also known as common time because it is one of the most frequently used time signatures in music. On the staff, common time is signified with a "C." # # # #c

3 he first beat of a measure is called the downbeat. It receives more stress than the other beats. Each beat within a bar can be labeled as strong or weak. In a time signature of 4/4, the strong beats are found on beats one and three while the weak beats are on two and four. ypically, notes which fall on the beat are considered stronger than notes placed off the beat. However, when a weak part of the beat receives more stress, it is called a syncopated beat S W S W S S W W W Like key signatures, time signatures may change at any point during a composition. If a new time signature begins on the next line or system below, a courtesy time signature is notated at the end of the last measure of the line. his signals to the musician that the change is coming in the next measure. If the meter and time signature change within a piece of music, the note value that receives the beat (the bottom number in the time signature) usually remains the same, but the number of beats per measure may vary such as going from a time signature of 4/4 to 7/4 or 9/8 to 6/ Courtesy ime Signature For centuries, a collection of descriptive terms such as adagio, andante, moderato, allegro, and presto were used to indicate various ranges of tempo. oday, the tempo of a composition is indicated using metronome markings which specify a precise tempo such as 12 beats per minute. q =

4 he ass Clef s you move either left or right on the staff, you are passing through time. When you move up or down, you are passing through ranges of pitch. clef sign is placed at the beginning of each line of music to indicate the pitch of a specific line or space and the range of notes on the staff. he clef is always placed to the left of the key signature and time signature. he most commonly used clefs are the F clef (bass clef) and the G clef (treble clef). While there are many different clefs available for notating music on a staff, each with a particular range, music notated specifically for bass is written in the F clef or bass clef. he bass clef designates the note F on a staff by placing its two dots on either side of the fourth line from the bottom. ass Clef F Line 4 4 he letter name of a note is determined through its placement on the staff. From low to high, the five lines of the bass clef are G--D-F-, and the four spaces are -C-E-G. You can easily identify the notes on the lines by remembering that (G)ood ()assists (D)o (F)ine ()lways, and the spaces can be distinguished by recalling that ()ll (C)ows (E)at (G)rass. G D F C E G In bass clef, the notes from F upward are F, G,, and. he notes from F downward are F, E, D, C,,, G, and F. he range can be extended through the use of ledger lines. F G F E D C G F he direction of stems on noteheads written in bass clef depends on where the notes are positioned on the staff. Notes located below the middle line (note D) are notated with the stems on the right side of the notehead pointing upward. Notes placed above the middle line are notated with the stems to the left of the notehead pointing downward. If a notehead is written on the center line, the stem can go either up or down depending on the direction of the stems on the majority of the other notes in the bar. he length of a stem should be approximately one octave above or below the notehead. If you are notating a chord that contains an interval of a second, the lower note is placed to the left of the stem. Notes that have different metrical values such as a half note and a quarter note are never connected with a single stem.

5 he reble Clef he G clef is more commonly referred to as the treble clef. It is the most universally utilized clef in music notation. he bottom loop of the G clef sign encircles the second line on the staff or the note G. reble Clef &4 4 G Line In treble clef, the notes from G upward are G,,, C, D, E, F, and G. he notes from G downward are G, F, E, and D. his range may be expanded by using ledger lines. & G C D E F G G F E D Stem direction for the treble clef is determined in the same manner as bass clef. Notes positioned below the middle line (note ) are notated with the stems up. Notes written above the middle line are notated with stems down. he stems are attached to the right side of the notehead if they are pointing up and the left side if down. & he Grand Staff & ablature he treble and bass clefs are frequently combined to form what is known as the grand staff. he grand staff is used primarily for piano music and the study of theory. he note at the 5th fret of the G-string on bass is located on the first ledger line above the 5-line staff in bass clef and the first ledger line below the 5-line staff in treble clef. his note is commonly referred to as "middle C." When you sit at the center of a piano keyboard, middle C is directly in front of you. elow, the grand staff is utilized with tablature or tab to illustrate the range of a 5-string bass guitar in standard tuning from the open -string to the 24th fret of the G-string. In tablature, each horizontal line represents a string, and every number indicates a fret. & Middle C st String (G) 2nd String (D) 3rd String () 4th String (E) 5th String ()

6 ccidentals ccidentals are symbols that alter the pitch of a note, and they are always placed to the left of the notehead. 4 # # # he sharp sign ( ) raises a note's pitch by a half step or one fret on a bass guitar. # # # # # # b he flat sign ( ) lowers a note's pitch by a half step. b b b b b b b b b nbnbnbn n he natural sign ( ) indicates that a note is neither sharp nor flat. On a staff, the appearance of a natural sign cancels the accidental that has been previously applied to a note. b nbnbnbn # n# n# n# n # n# n# n# n lthough they are rarely used in music notation, a double sharp ( ) raises the pitch one whole step or by two frets on a bass, and a double flat ( ) lowers the pitch one whole step

7 Unless noted otherwise, once an accidental is introduced into a measure, it remains in effect for all subsequent occurrences of that note for the rest of the measure. lso, accidentals only apply to the note in that particular octave. For example, if there is a b indicated on the second line from the bottom of the bass clef (1st fret -string), that accidental only applies to that note. If another b is present in that measure but appears above the top line of the staff, the flat sign would need to be placed in front of that note as well. Even though both of the notes are b's, they are found in different octaves so each b requires a flat sign. ccidentals are cancelled by the bar line, but sometimes musicians will include a courtesy accidental in parenthesis in the next measure to remind the bassist that the pitch has reverted back. b b n n # # n n hrough the utilization of accidentals, an octave can be divided into twelve equal half steps. he use of sharps and flats typically depends on the overall direction of the music. If the music is moving in an ascending fashion, use sharps. If the music moves in a descending manner, use flats. If you are having a difficult time deciding whether to use sharps or flats, it is best to choose the option which provides the easiest way to read the music. lternating back and forth between sharps and flats in successive pitches is discouraged because it makes the music difficult to read. # # # # # b b b b b Enharmonic Equivalents When pitches have different letter names but sound the same, they are referred to as enharmonic equivalents or enharmonics. For example, if the note F is raised by a half step, it becomes F#. If the pitch G is lowered by a half step, it becomes Gb. F# and Gb are enharmonic equivalents. On a 4-string bass, the lowest F# and Gb are both located at the second fret of the E-string. hey are the same tone spelled using two different letter names so they are enharmonics. # b # b # b # b # b # b # b # b

8 Notation Guidelines lthough the same rhythm can be written in various ways, it is best to use the simplest way so the notation is easy to read. It is generally better to use one note or rest of longer duration rather than to tie together two or more smaller values. Œ Œ Œ Œ. Œ Œ. ry to view each measure in 4/4 time as being evenly divided into two halves between beats two and three so that the third beat always remains visible. Œ Œ. Œ......

9 Only notes with an open notehead including whole notes and half notes can be written over the imaginary line between beats two and three of a measure and only if they begin on the beat... Œ. Œ. Œ Œ Œ Œ his rule does not apply to rests. Œ Œ When a beat is subdivided into an eighth note and an eighth rest, the subdivided beat should be completed with an eighth note or rest before the next beat begins. Quarter rests and half rests should always begin on the beat and never on the "and" of a beat. Œ Œ. Œ. Œ.