Music Fundamentals For Beginners

How to read, write and understand music notes

What you’ll learn
Read and write pitch (melody and chords) using standard musical notation
Read and write notes in treble and bass clef
Name and write all musical notes on staves and ledger lines
Use sharps and flats to change the pitch of a note
Work out scale patterns including chromatic, whole tone and major scales
Nothing about rhythm: see my other courses where I do a deep dive on rhythm
Requirements
No experience at reading music whatsoever. You don’t even need to play an instrument. This course is designed to take you from the absolute beginning.
Description
If you are interested in reading music and learning music theory but don’t know where to start, this is the perfect course for you!By the end of this course, you’ll know how to write melody and chords in standard musical notation.You’ll know how to use:StavesClefsLedger LinesNotes NamesSharps, flats, naturals, double-sharps and double-flatsTones and semitonesEnharmonic note namesStandard scale patterns such as the Chromatic, Whole Tone and Major scales.If you don’t know what any of these are, don’t worry! I’ll lead you step-by-step through each of the subjects.Clear, step-by-step explanationsPractice sessions where you write musicLittle quizzes to reinforce your learningThis course focuses exclusively on the components of melody, harmony and chords. Check out my other courses which focus exclusively on rhythm!This course is great for:Piano and Guitar players who want to learn to read musicPeople wanting to learn an instrument but haven’t started yetSongwriters who want to get their ideas down on paper.If you want to learn an instrument, this will jump-start your learning and let you get a head start. Or if you’re a seasoned player of piano or guitar, this course will answer some of the questions you may have about written music and music theory.This course will open the door to your learning music theory, sight-reading and composing. Most importantly, it will help you play more of the music you love.To help you internalize all this information, I set you easy exercises to complete. If you hate homework or are unable to do the exercises, however, don’t worry! I have filmed myself doing the homework for you so you can still experience the learning and revision.

Overview

Section 1: Welcome to the course!

Lecture 1 Welcome!

Section 2: The Course

Lecture 2 Staves and Manuscript: the basis of written music

Lecture 3 Writing notes correctly to signify pitch

Lecture 4 Writing Practise Session: Note heads

Lecture 5 Clefs

Lecture 6 Writing Practise Session: Clefs

Lecture 7 Naming notes using the alphabet

Lecture 8 Middle C: first letter of the ‘musical alphabet’

Lecture 9 Memorising session: Notes on the stave

Lecture 10 Octaves

Lecture 11 Ledger lines for high and low notes

Lecture 12 Case Study: Ledger lines for flute and piccolo

Lecture 13 Case Study: Guitar ledger lines

Lecture 14 Writing practise: ledger lines

Lecture 15 Sharps, and flats to name all 12 notes

Lecture 16 Practise session: Ledger line sharps and flats

Lecture 17 Use 8va and 8va Basso to cut down on ledger lines

Lecture 18 Memorising session: Notes on ledger lines

Lecture 19 The Chromatic Scale – every note is there

Lecture 20 What the chromatic scale sounds like

Lecture 21 Scales that move by whole tones

Lecture 22 Key Signatures vs. Accidentals

Lecture 23 More writing accidentals

Lecture 24 Writing practise: accidentals on the stave

Lecture 25 Enharmonic note names

Lecture 26 Major Scale pattern

Section 3: Conclusion and what’s next?

Lecture 27 Congratulations on finishing the course!

Beginners interested in the basics of reading music,Experienced musicians interested in learning to read music,Musicians interested in learning music theory