Lesson 6 - Introduction to Music Notation

The very simplest form of music notation is a chord chart (sometimes just called "a chart"). It is a set of instructions that should, as a bare minimum, convey a number of things crucial to creating a performance - especially if the piano is used to accompany a person singing or playing another instrument.

The following illustration is a chart for one of the exercises learned in the previous lesson - i.e., to count a beat in groups of 2 and alternate between playing a C major chord and a C minor chord.


A chart such as this doesn't specifically tell you what notes you should play for C major and C minor and any music note symbols written on the staff (the 5 lines and spaces) would be meaningless because there is as yet no clef. What is important is simply that you know that C major contains a C, an E, and a G and that Cm contains C, Eb and G. When reading and playing chords from a chart like this, where all you have are chord symbols, you're free to interpret and play whatever voicings of chords you want. The only requirement is they're played in time - in this case, to counting in groups of 2 beats. The following illustration labels all the important elements of this simple chord chart:


Title: Strictly speaking, a chart doesn't need a title but using them is a good habit to get into.

Tempo, Time Signature and Bar Lines: These three elements go hand-in-hand. The time signature informs you of what number you're counting to (represented by the top number of the fraction - in this case, 2) and the tempo is an indication of how fast your counting is. Bar Lines visually demarcate the beats indicated by the time signature.

Slashes: These symbols are customarily used in chord charts to mark the beats in each bar. Later, when specific musical notes are written in bars, the slashes aren't necessary. However; for the beginner first learning to read music, they are a handy visual aid.

Final Bar Line: This is one of several symbols that can be described as music "navigational" signs. The final bar line (thin line together with a thicker one) is, as the name suggests, a symbol that defines where the chart ends and the performer stops playing.

Activities:

Create your own chord charts using -

• a different time signature (3 beats per bar; 4 beats per bar)
• a different sequence of chords based on chords you should know by now (C, D, Cm, Dm)

When playing the chord charts you create, experiment with variations of rhythm. For example:

• play the chord on every beat instead of playing and holding it for the duration of the count in each bar
• if the time signature is 2/4, play the chord on every even numbered beat (i.e., one TWO one TWO one TWO)
• if the time signature is 3/4, play the chord twice in each bar - firstly as 2 + 1 beats and then as 1 + 2 beats
• if the time signature is 4/4, subdivide the beats in each bar as above - i.e., as 2 + 2, 3 + 1, 1 + 3, and 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 (playing the chord on every beat)