Download free lined sheets. Music reading for beginners Music sheet A4

Musical notation is a unique language that all musicians understand. Those who decide to try their hand at music need to get acquainted with this language. Everything is not as complicated as it might seem.

Every musical sound is determined by four physical properties:

1. height
2. duration
3. volume
4. timbre (color)

With the help of musical notation, a musician receives information about all these properties of the sounds that he is going to sing or play on a musical instrument.

Pitch (sound pitch)

All musical sounds are built into a single system - scale. This is a series in which all sounds follow each other in order, from the lowest to the highest sounds or vice versa, from high to low. The scale is divided into parts - octaves, which contain a set of notes: DO, RE, MI, FA, SOL, LA, SI.

If we look at a piano keyboard, then in the center of the keyboard, usually opposite the name, is the first octave. To the right of the first octave, above, is the second octave, then the third, fourth and fifth (consisting of just one note “C”). Below, to the left of the first octave, there is a small octave, a large octave, a contra-octave and a sub-contra-octave (consisting of the white keys A and B).

They are depicted as empty or filled (shaded) ovals – heads. Stems - vertical sticks and tails (tails are called flags) can be added to the heads on the right or left.

If the stem of a note is directed upward, then it is written with right side, and if down - from the left. When writing notes, the following rule applies: up to the 3rd line, the stems of the notes should be directed upward, and starting from the 3rd line, downward.

Used for writing and reading notes staff (staff). The staff represents five parallel lines(rulers) to record notes numbered from bottom to top. The notes of a scale are written on a staff: on rulers, under the rulers, or above the rulers. If the main 5 lines are not enough to record a note, then additional lines are introduced, which are added to the top or bottom of the staff. The higher the note sounds, the higher it is located on the rulers. However, if a musical key is not placed on the staff (staff), then the position of the notes on the staff indicates the pitch only approximately: higher or lower.

Musical key is a reference point that indicates the position of a note with a specific defined pitch. The key must be placed at the beginning of any staff. If there is a key, then knowing where one note is written, you can easily determine the position of another note. Music notation is more compact and easier to read when most of the notes are on the main lines of the staff, without additional lines above and below, so there are many musical clefs in music. Despite the fact that the combined sound range of various voices and musical instruments is about 8 octaves, the range of an individual voice or musical instrument usually much narrower, as reflected in the names of the musical clefs: soprano - for the soprano register, alto - for the alto register, tenor - for the tenor, bass - for the bass (abbreviated SATB).

Musical keys can be divided into 3 groups:

Key “Salt”– indicates the location of the note “G” of the first octave. This key came from Latin letter G, which stands for the note “Salt”. The “Salt” clefs include the Treble and Old French clefs, they look like this.

Key “Fa”– indicates the location of the note “F” of the small octave. The key to the Latin letter F came from (two dots are two crossbars of the letter F). These include the Bass clef, Basso profundo clef and Baritone clef. They look like this.

Key “Before”– indicates the location of the “C” note of the first octave. Derived from the Latin letter C, which stands for the note “C”. These keys include Soprano (aka Treble) key, Mezzo-soprano, Alto and Baritone keys (The Baritone key can be designated not only by the key of the “F” group, but also by the key of the “Do” group). The “Before” keys look like this:

The following picture shows various music keys

Source - https://commons.wikimedia.org, author - Strunin

There are also neutral keys for drum parts and guitar parts (the so-called tablature).

Notes intended to be played by a group of musicians are often combined into scores, in which each instrument, voice, or part is assigned a separate line, a separate staff. The entire score is first united by a solid vertical starting line, and the staves of several parts or groups of instruments are united by a special bracket - accolade.

The accolade comes in the form of a curly or square (straight) bracket. A figured accolade combines parts performed by one musician (for example, two lines of a piano, organ, etc.), and a square accolade combines lines of parts different musicians, which form a single group (for example, music for an ensemble string instruments or choir).

The end of the score or some part is indicated in the notes by a double vertical line. If, in addition to the double line, there are also two points nearby between the staff lines ( signs reprises), then this indicates that the entire work or some section needs to be repeated.

In the notes there may be dotted lines with a figure eight (octave transfer signs). They mean that everything within the range of these lines must be played an octave higher or lower. These octave marks are needed to simplify the reading of very high/low notes, which require many additional rulers to write.

The main musical levels include 7 sounds: DO, RE, MI, FA, SOL, LA, SI. On the piano, to find these musical steps, you need to focus on the black keys, which are located in groups of two, three, two, three. Under any such group, on the left, there is the note “C” and then there are other notes.

There are also derivatives steps(modified fundamental), which are obtained by raising or lowering the sound of the main step by a semitone. A semitone is the distance between any two adjacent sounds (keys) on a piano keyboard. Most often it will be a black key on the right or left. Modified steps are of two types:

• Sharp is an increase by a semitone.
• Flat – lowered by a semitone.

Changing the main steps is called alteration. There are only five accidental signs: sharp, flat, double-sharp, double-flat and becar.

A double-sharp raises the sound by two semitones (i.e., a whole tone), a double-flat lowers the sound by two semitones (i.e., a whole tone), and a bekar cancels any of the listed signs (a “clean” note is played without raising or downgrade).

There can be two types of alterations in notes:

1. Accidental signs - the accidental sign is written immediately before the note that needs to be changed and is valid only in that place or bar.
2. Key signs are sharps and flats, which are written at the beginning of each line near the key and are valid every time a given sound is encountered, in any octave and throughout the entire work.

Key signs are displayed strictly in a certain order:

The order of sharps is FA DO sol re la mi si

The order of the flats is B MI A A D SOL DO F

Duration

Note durations relate to the realm of rhythm and musical time. Music time special, it flows in even shares and is comparable, rather, to the beating of the heart. Usually one such beat is associated with a quarter note. At least two types of musical durations can be found in notes: even and odd, and not only notes have durations, but also pauses(signs of silence).

1. Even musical duration– are formed by dividing a larger duration by the number 2 or 2 n (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, etc.). The basis for division is taken to be a whole note, which is usually calculated when playing (we count mentally or out loud to 4) into 4 beats. Identical “tailed” eighth or sixteenth notes are often combined into groups under one edge.

The following figure shows the notes, the names of their durations, and on the right are pauses of the same size.

1. Odd musical duration are formed from crushing the duration not into two equal halves, but into three or any other number of segments, up to 18-19 segments. This is how, for example, triplets are formed (when divided into three beats) or quintuplets (when divided into five beats).

There are three ways to extend notes and rests:

Dotted rhythm(dotted note) is a dotted rhythm. Dots are placed to the right of the note or rest icon and lengthen the sound by exactly half the duration of the note or rest. So, for a half note with a dot, the duration will be not two, but three beats, etc. There can also be a note with two dots: the first dot extends its duration by half, and the second dot extends its duration by another 1/4, i.e. such a note is extended by 3/4 of its duration.

- that icon that asks you to delay the highlighted note or pause as much as the performer feels necessary. Most musicians are inclined to believe that fermata also lengthens the note by half (you can take this as a rule for yourself). Fermata, unlike rhythm, does not affect tact time; this is an additional bonus that slows down the usual movement.

Uniting league– connects two or more notes that are at the same pitch and follow each other. Notes under the league are not repeated, but are combined into one duration. By the way, breaks are not combined into leagues.

Musical time is very well organized; in its organization, in addition to beats, larger units - measures - are involved. Tact- this is a segment from one strong beat to the next, it contains an exactly specified number of beats. Measures are distinguished visually by separating one from the other with a vertical bar line.

The number of beats in a measure and the duration of each of them is reflected using the numerical size, which is indicated immediately after the key characters at the beginning of the work. Size is expressed using two numbers placed one above the other, as if in the form of a fraction.

The meter 4/4 (four quarters) means that there are four beats in a bar, each of the beats is equal in duration to a quarter note. One thing to remember is that these quarter notes can be broken down into eighths or sixteenths, or combined into half notes or a whole note. The meter 3/8 (three eighth notes) means that it can also accommodate three eighth notes, which can be divided into sixteenth notes or combined into larger ones. For beginners, musical notation usually operates in simple sizes 2/4, 3/4, etc.

The movement of the lobes can be fast or slow. The speed of movement of beats (performance of a piece) is called pace works. Tempo is most often indicated by an Italian word and placed under the meter in sheet music. Also, next to the tempo, a metronome indication can be placed: quarter duration = numerical value. This means that the tempo of a given piece is the “numerical value” of beats (beats) per minute. The metronome is a pendulum with a weight and a scale, it shows exact number beats per minute and looks like this.

The rates may be as follows:

• Slow
  • Grave – hard, important, very slow
  • Largo – wide, very slow
  • Adagio – slowly, calmly
  • Lento – slow, quiet
• Moderate
  • Andante – calm, walking pace
  • Moderato - moderate
• Fast
  • Allegro – soon, fun
  • Vivo – lively
  • Vivace - lively
  • Presto - fast

Volume

Volume is one of the most important properties of musical sound. Volume is indicated in notes in spaces between staves in the following words or with icons in Italian:

A gradual change in volume is indicated as follows:

• crescendo - crescendo - gradual increase in volume
• diminuendo - diminuendo - gradual decrease in volume

Sometimes, instead of the words crescendo and diminuendo, “forks” are placed in notes, meaning that you need to gradually increase or decrease the volume.

A widening fork means crescendo, and a narrowing fork means diminuendo.

Timbre

Timbre is the color of sound. Timbre distinguishes sounds of the same pitch and volume performed on different instruments. in different voices or on one instrument, but different ways. With the help of timbre, you can highlight one or another component of the musical whole, strengthen or weaken contrasts.

Sheet music usually contains various indications about the timbre of sounds: the name of the instrument or voice for which it is intended this work, turning on and off the pedals on the piano, techniques for producing sound (harmonics on the violin).

If there is a vertical wavy line before the chords in the musical notation, this means that the sounds of the chord should not be played simultaneously, but arpeggiato, as if broken up, plucked, as it would sound on a harp or harp.

Under the bass staff may occur beautiful inscription Ped. and an asterisk - they indicate the moment the pedal is turned on and off on the piano.

In addition to these technical elements, the notes may contain many composer, verbal, and indications of the nature of the performance, for example:

• Appassionato - passionately
• Cantabile - melodiously
• Dolce - tenderly
• Lacrimoso - tearful
• Mesto - sad
• Risoluto - decisively
• Secco - dry
• Semplice - simple
• Tranquillo - calm
• Sotto voce - in a low voice

Another important element in a musical text is the strokes. Hatch- this is an indication of a specific method of sound production, a method of articulation, which greatly influences the overall character of the performance of the work. There are many strokes, they differ between violinists and pianists. Three universal strokes:

• non legato – disjointed performance
• legato – smooth, coherent playing
• staccato – abrupt, short performance

Imagine the bright colors of nature! The red color of the sky at sunset. Orange color orange gardens. Yellow tulips. Greenery of coniferous forests. The height of the blue sky. Reflection of the mountains in the blue of the lake. A gentle cloud of purple lilac bushes.

Colored notes for kids

And the musical signs are monotonous black. How to teach a child notes if the sight of these icons does not arouse any interest at all? You just need to add a little magic! Why not make them colorful?! Today the musical fairy of the House of Music will tell you how musical signs and colors are connected, as well as how to quickly learn notes.

To better understand music and learn to sing, you need to understand how it works. Well, for this you should get acquainted with the basics of the language of music - with notes. This means that it would be good for both children and adults to first learn the names of the notes on the staff. But let's first touch a little on the history of musical signs.

Symbols for recording music were invented in the 11th century. At first the notes were square and there were only 4 lines. But then the image of the notes changed. Starting from the 18th century, they began to draw notes in the form of oval icons on a staff of 5 lines. You can read more about the history of the appearance of notes in our article “”.

Why is it better to use colored notes for babies? If you've paid attention to how sheet music is written, you know that they usually have a boring black and white appearance. When learning to read music, it is not easy for kids to perceive a schematic representation of sounds on rulers. And the color of the notes can make this task easier. Therefore for children younger age created a special technique.

How does this multi-colored technique work?

There are several channels of information perception, and the visual channel is one of the most powerful. Therefore, when colored notes are used, it is easier for kids to understand the principle of schematic notation of notes and learn them faster.

What color are the notes?

World musical sounds- magical! Bright colors the rainbows did their best, and the notes became colorful! Let's see what colors correspond to each note:

Before - red;
re - orange;
mi - yellow;
fa - green;
salt - blue;
la - blue;
si - violet.

Seven notes - seven colors. Does this remind you of anything? Yes, of course - these are notes according to the colors of the rainbow!

Who came up with the idea of ​​combining music and color?

To be honest, I did not find accurate information about the author who came up with the method of colored notes for teaching children. Many take credit for this wonderful invention. But it is known that since ancient times there have been musicians with so-called colored hearing. They saw, or rather felt, certain colors when different keys and chords were played.

Who combined colors and music? There is information that composer Alexander Scriabin was the first to arrange notes according to the color spectrum. Seven notes - seven colors of the rainbow. Everything ingenious is simple! Gradually, colored notes began to be used for teaching musical literacy children all over the world.

Using the right hemisphere of the brain when learning notes

Matching notes to the colors of the rainbow is used in many countries to teach children music. When using this method, the associative way of perceiving information is activated, and boring musical notation turns into an exciting color game. What does it have to do with right hemisphere brain? The fact is that it is the right hemisphere that is responsible for imagination, intuition and Creative skills. When colored notes are used when teaching a child, the right hemisphere is actively working. As a result, the baby simply remembers or even sees the color before his eyes, and not schematic image musical notation.

Learning notes with children using colors

There are several different options recording colored notes. The simplest is the usual recording of notes on a stave, but instead of black notes, colored notes are used.

But there are other options. For example, they use only color fields: vertical or horizontal, without rulers. Look at what an unusual musical staff with machines we made with the participants of the House of Music!

There is also a technique in which the recording is made in a schematic form using colored circles that are on the same line or connected into patterns.

How convenient and correct is this? It’s difficult to judge, but personally, I prefer the option of game color recording, but still on the usual 5 lines.

Colored keyboard to help a young musician

The color notes technique is used not only for learning the basics of musical notation, but also for teaching kids to play the piano. There are a lot of keys on the keyboard, and all of them are only black and white. How to find the right note? Help your child and show the location of the notes on the piano using colors. To do this, take strips of the seven colors of the rainbow and stick them on the keys, starting with the note “C” of the first octave.

This method helps you quickly learn the placement of notes on the piano. This technique also helps to use different types memory and makes the learning process as visual as possible. And the colored keys look much more fun and attractive to the baby.

Colored notes for babies: what are their advantages

And one more important point, to which I would like to draw your attention. When we study notes with kids in game form using fairy tale images, designating notes with colors, we actively develop the right hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for imagination, creativity, intuition and creativity.

Games with colored notes allow you to use the associative way of perceiving information. As a result, the baby simply remembers or even sees the color before his eyes, and not a schematic image of a musical note.

Colored notes are not only a way to master musical notation, it is an effective and interesting way development of a child's intelligence!

But what to do next? How to play with colored notes?

Based on this technique, I came up with characters - family of music. These are grandfather DO, grandmother RE, mother MI-MI, father FA, girl SOL, boy LA and dog SI-SI. Together with the heroes in fun music games child meets amazing world music.

We invite you to listen right now to a song about how brave kittens saved the music house from impudent mice! And at the same time play musical and mathematical games. Follow the link below, enter your email in the form - and in a few minutes the games and song will be sent to your email.

Sometimes there is a need to print out a pre-lined sheet for various occasions. For example, to pass the time playing tic-tac-toe, you need a sheet of paper in a box, what to do if you don’t have it at hand. You can draw it yourself using a ruler, but it’s easier to print it on a printer. All you need is a ready-made template. On this page you can download and print a checkered sheet, a lined sheet or a sheet of music.

Print and download checkered sheet

A checkered worksheet can be useful for children for solving a math example, and sometimes even for adults for various board games, for example in sea battle, tic-tac-toe or dots. Making your own checkered sheet in Word is not at all difficult; create a table measuring 37 by 56 cells. The result will be an even square, like a checkered notebook.

You can print or download the A4 squared sheet in PDF format. If you need to change a checkerboard, for example, its size or color, for example, to print a sheet not with black, but with a gray or light gray checkerboard, then below is a link to a checkered sheet in Word format.

Print and download lined sheet

You can download or print a lined sheet in A4 format. The sheet is lined in a large line with margins like a notebook. You can use a lined sheet for penmanship. On our website you can find an online copybook generator for children.

You can print or download the lined sheet on A4 paper using a PDF file. If you need to change the distance between the rulers or remove margins, then below is a link to a sheet with a ruler in Word format.

Music sheet print and download

To record notes in music schools use special music notebooks. The staff consists of five lines on which notes are written. You can print out a lined sheet of music in A4 format. Music sheet presented in two versions: empty - only lines and with already printed treble clef. In order to print a sheet of music in A4 format, you can use the PDF files below. You can download the sheet music by saving the PDF file to your computer.

At home and school music lessons With children, a variety of preparations are needed. On this page we have prepared for you materials that you simply need to have on hand if you work with kids.

Notes on a stave

The first blank is a small poster depicting the main and bass clefs (first and minor octave). Now in the picture you see a miniature - a reduced image of this poster; just below is a link to download it in its original size (A4 format).

POSTER “NAME OF NOTES ON THE STAFF” –

Pictures with note names

The second blank is needed when the child first gets acquainted with notes, precisely to work out the name of each of the sounds. It consists of cards with the actual name of the notes and with an image of an object in whose name the syllabic name of the note appears.

The artistic associations chosen here are the most traditional. For example, for the note DO a drawing of a house is selected, for RE - a turnip from famous fairy tale, for MI - a toy bear. Next to the note FA is a torch, with SALT is ordinary table salt in a bag. For the sound LA, a picture of a frog was selected, for SI - a lilac branch.

Example card

PICTURES WITH NOTE NAMES –

Above is a link where you can go to full version benefits and save it to your computer or phone. Please note that all files are provided in pdf format. To read these files, use the Adobe Reader program or phone app (free) or any other application that allows you to open and view these types of files.

Musical ABC

Music alphabet is another type of manual that is used in working with beginners (mainly with children from 3 to 7-8 years old). In musical alphabets, in addition to pictures, words, poems, and note names, there are also images of notes on the staff. We are pleased to offer you two options for such manuals, and you can read more about them and how you can make such alphabet books with your own hands or even with the hands of a child.

NOTE ABC No. 1 –

NOTE ABC No. 2 –

Music cards

Such cards are actively used during the period when the child thoroughly studies the notes of the violin and especially. They no longer have pictures, their role is to help remember the location of notes and quickly recognize them. In addition, they can be used for some creative tasks, solving puzzles, etc.

NOTE CARDS –

Dear friends! And now we offer you a little musical humor. The performance of J. Haydn's "Children's Symphony" by the Moscow Virtuosi orchestra turned out to be surprisingly funny. Let's admire together the respected musicians who have picked up children's musical and noise instruments.

If you want to learn to play any instrument, then you just need to study musical notation. Many beginning musicians neglect to study musical notation, but sooner or later they realize that without it, progress will be extremely slow. But the time spent studying it will bring you enormous benefits. You will be able to study pieces of music, you will be able to understand the composition of a piece of music much faster. Music notation opens up a lot of new interesting material for you, which is simply impossible to study without knowledge of notation.

So, musical composition consists of sounds. To designate sounds, special graphic signs are used - notes, as well as the staff. They allow you to conveniently show the order, duration, pitch and other characteristics of sounds.

The note (Latin nota - sign) consists of an oval [3 in Fig. ] (empty inside or shaded), to which a calm and a flag can be added [ 1 in Fig. ] or checkboxes.

Components of notes

Arrangement of notes on the staff. Notes can be written on lines, under lines, and on lines. If necessary, notes can be placed on additional lines at the top and bottom of the staff. For a more compact recording, the stems are drawn like this: if the note is located below the center line, then the stem is drawn at the top, and if the note is located above the center line of the staff, then the stem is directed down and drawn to the left of the note. These rules are not mandatory, they are just recommendations. Sometimes notes are grouped together in violation of this rule. Now, summarizing all of the above, let’s look at the figure below.

The lines are numbered from bottom to top: 1,2,3,4,5. If there are not enough rulers, then additional lines are drawn at the top or bottom. In the example, there are 5 main lines below, 2 additional lines on top (they are drawn only directly below the notes), and one additional line below.

Notes on a stave

To determine the pitch of notes, so-called keys are used.

Key (Italian chiave, from Latin clavis; German Schlüssel; English key) is a linear notation sign that determines the pitch value of notes. Relative to the staff line, which is pointed to by the central element of the clef, all other pitch positions of notes are calculated. The main types of clefs adopted in the classical five-line bar notation are the “g” clef, the “fa” clef and the “do” clef.

In the picture above, a treble clef (G clef) is used, which starts from the second line, where the note “G” of the first octave is written.

From the sounds salt first octave (in treble clef) and F the small octave (in the bass clef) records other sounds up and down.

The higher the notes are on the staff, the higher their sound. The piano has approximately 80 keys and the same number of sounds, and the musical staff has only 5 lines, so additional rulers, different keys, and several musical staffs are used to write notes in musical notation. Additional rulers are short rulers for each individual note that are written above or below the staff. They are counted from the staff up or down. The ruler closest to the staff is considered the first, the second is the one next to the first, etc. Spelling of stems and tails: notes that are written before the third line of stems are written from the right up, and notes that are written on the third line and above the stems are written to the left and down. In a two-voice vocal work recorded on one staff, the first voice is written with the stems up, and the second voice with the stems down. Thus, thanks to the rules of musical notation, each vocal part can be visually traced very well.

Some notes can be written in both treble and bass clefs.

Notes in different keys

Note duration

The duration of a note is not associated with any absolute durations (for example, a second, etc.), it can only be represented in relation to the durations of other notes. Let's look at note durations in more detail.

In music there are basic and arbitrary durations. Basic duration sounds: whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth and so on (obtained by dividing each subsequent duration by 2).