Gerry
65 posts
Aug 20, 2016
4:43 AM
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Inspired by the other thread here is the briefest guide to reading traditional sheet music.
The notes(tadpoles) sit on a grid of lines and spaces.
Starting from the bottom line...
For the Treble Clef:
Notes on a line = "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour"
Notes in a space spell "FACE"
For the Bass Clef
Notes on a line = "Good Bassists Deserve Funk Always"
Notes in a space = "All Cows Eat Grass"
The little collection of sharps or flats next to the clef symbol is the key signature. These sit on the lines or spaces of notes that should always be sharpened (or flattened) for that key. (Unless there is a "play the natural" note symbol.
Key of C = No sharps or flats
Circle of Fifths:(I got this out of some book, it's not elegant but it helped me)
No. of sharps
________0___1___2___3____4______5_______6
"Funky Cows Get Down And Eat Breakfast Fish" (Fish = F#)
Notes to be sharpened
ie D has 2 sharps to be sharpened F+C "Funky Cows"
That's all you need to get your head around the basics.
Last Edited by Gerry on Aug 20, 2016 4:45 AM
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nacoran
9200 posts
Aug 20, 2016
7:59 PM
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The mnemonic I learned for the order of sharps was 'Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle' It's nice because it works flawlessly backwards, which gives you the order of flats 'Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles's Father'. (Okay, nearly flawlessly, Charles changes too Charles's.)
For the Circle of Fifths I made up my own mnemonic. It's a little song I sing in my head...
Baby Elephants And Donkeys Go (flats keys)
Baby Elephants And Donkeys Go (natural keys)
Circle of Fifths!
It's not quite perfect... you have to start at 10 O'Clock if you think of the normal circle of fifths as a clock face, and then go counter clockwise, but it does work. Once you have the circle of fifths down you can count down the right side of it adding to the number of sharps each step, or go counter clockwise down the left to add flats.
The big problem with sheet music for harmonicas is that different holes are on different lines and spaces for each key you grab, but there is a solution. There is a system called moveable Do (that's Do as in Do Re Mi). Basically traditionally there was a little symbol, like there is for bass and treble clef. Instead of assigning an A-G note for each line and space you assign a Do Re Mi note. For a harmonica player that means the different hole draws/blows/bends etc. get assigned to a specific line or space. A 1 blow would always be in the same spot in this system. You'd see the moveable Do symbol (in the system I learned it in, which was a singing system, I think they used the alto clef symbol, but you could use any symbol you understood, even just the name of the key). It's almost tailor made for someone playing a diatonic instrument.
If you needed to get sheet music written for it, someone correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a long day, but I think you could just ask people to send you a transcription of whatever song you are playing in C, regardless of what key the song is actually in, and you could learn it and treat it like moveable do? Wait, is that right? Or at least close? No one quote me on that until I double check with someone who was better than a C student in music theory 20 years ago. The Moveable Do stuff is right, just not sure if the transcription trick would work.
If that works it would work well since a lot of music is on computers these days and software can make short work of what used to be some pretty tedious transcription.
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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009
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