Music Theory For Dummies

Reading Music: Note Names on the Keyboard and in the Staff

If you get these notes into your head, you'll go a long way toward reading music and understanding music theory. In the meantime, use this figure of a keyboard and staves as a reference:

Get to Know Music Note Names

Using mnemonics (memory helpers) will help you remember the note order on the musical staff. Feel free to use your own fun ways to memorize the order of the notes, or use these tips:

The notes on the lines of the treble clef can be memorized using this mnemonic: Every Good Boy Deserves Favor.

The notes on the spaces of the treble clef spell the word FACE.

The notes on the lines of the bass clef can be memorized using this mnemonic: Go Buy Donuts For Alan.

The notes on the spaces of the bass clef can be memorized using this mnemonic: All Cows Eat Grass.

Note and Rest Values in Music

In music, every beat of every measure needs to be accounted for. Note and rest values signal the relative durations of the notes you play or sing and the time you spend not playing or singing, respectively.

The following diagram shows the relationships between the time values of notes. At the top is the whole note. Below it are two half notes. Below them are four quarter notes, then eight eighth notes, and then sixteen sixteenth notes. As you go down, each level of the diagram represents the same number of beats, chopped up more and more finely into shorter kinds of notes.

The following diagram shows the relationships of the time values of rests. Each rest in this diagram is the "silent" version of the note in the corresponding place in the previous diagram. Even the names — whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth — are the same as the notes, only they're rests instead.

Time Signatures in Music

At the beginning of a piece of music, you’ll see a figure that looks like a fraction. This is called a time signature. The top number tells you how many beats are in a measure. The bottom number tells you which note gets one beat. Common time signatures include 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 6/8.

Music's Circle of Fifths in Brief

The relationship between major keys and their relative minors is shown in the Circle of Fifths The outside of the Circle shows the major keys and inside, opposite the major keys, are their relative minor keys. A major key and its relative minor use the same key signature — the sharps or flats in their scales.

Understanding Key Signatures in Music

Key signatures tell you, well, what key you’re in. You can refer to the Circle of Fifths or use this guide to find out the key signature associated with major or minor keys. Sharps and flats always appear in the same order in key signatures. Notice how one is just the reverse of the other:

• Sharps appear in this order: F-C-G-D-A-E-B

• Flats appear in this order: B-E-A-D-G-C-F

  If the Key Signature Has…	…the Music Is in This Major Key…	…or This minor key
  1 sharp	G	e
  1 flat	F	d
  2 sharps	D	b
  2 flats	B♭	g
  3 sharps	A	f#
  3 flats	E♭	c
  4 sharps	E	c#
  4 flats	A♭	f
  5 flats, 7 sharps	C#/D♭	a#/b♭
  6 flats, 6 sharps	F#/G♭	d#/e♭
  7 flats, 5 sharps	B/C♭	g#/a♭