Reading Music (Rhythm vs. Pitch):

                Why do we have to read musical notation?  Why can’t they just write the letters that they want us to play on the page?  What is the point of having all these lines and circles on the page?  While functioning as a public school beginning band teacher, these are some of the questions I am asked every start of a new school year.  Learning to read music is essentially learning to read a new language.  However, when composers write music down on paper they have the difficult task of conveying many ideas simultaneously.  The main function of most written languages is to convey words.  Feeling and tone can be conveyed through punctuation and implied through content.  However, the main function of musical notation is to convey sound.  In this case, the rhythm, pitch, dynamic, articulation and mood must all be conveyed in the notation.  Two of these aspects, rhythm and pitch, are directly conveyed through the actual musical note (the others are conveyed through additional symbols and words found in the sheet music).  Today we will focus on these two aspects of musical notation.

                A musical note simultaneously conveys both pitch and rhythm.  Writing letters on a page would be an ineffective form of musical notation, because this would only convey pitch.  In addition, there would be no way to distinguish between the various octaves when writing a musical letter on a page.  Our musical notation system automatically conveys the exact pitch (letter and register) that is to be played and how long it is to be held for.  This dual purpose of the musical note calls for specificity when discussing musical notation.  Using the word “note” makes it difficult to determine if we are referring to the rhythmic value or the pitch.  Referring directly with the use of the word “rhythm” or “pitch” helps to avoid this confusion.

               A musical rhythm tells us how long to hold a note for.  We read rhythms by observing the shape of the note.  Each musical rhythm is portrayed by a differently shaped note.  For example, a whole note is a circle.  A half note is a circle with a line extending from one side.  This line is called a stem.  A quarter note is a circle that has been colored in and has a stem.

                Pitch tells us how high or low to play.  This does not refer to the volume of the note, it refers to the frequency.  We read pitch by discerning the specific line or space that the head (the circle) of the musical note rests on.  Each line or space of a musical staff refers to a different pitch.  The details of musical pitch are discussed further in my video entitled Learning Music With Ray: The Musical Alphabet.      

               Some people get confused when reading a musical example in which there are multiple occurrences of the same pitch with different rhythmic values.  Since the shape of the note is different, it is easy to assume that this is a different “note” (meaning pitch).  Remember, using that word “note” can cause confusion.  It is important to always distinguish between pitch and rhythm.  In this example, the rhythm (shape of the note) looks different.  This means that each note should be held for a different rhythmic value.  However, if all of these notes are all written on the same location of the musical staff (same line or space), then they are all the same pitch.  

This confusion can also occur when several varying pitches (written on different lines or spaces of the staff) with the same rhythmic value are written. 

               This Learning Music With Ray video discusses the two main characteristics of a musical note, and how to distinguish between these two characteristics.  Musical notes written on a staff help us to determine both the pitch that is to be played and the rhythmic value of that pitch.  In this lesson, I discuss the difference between reading pitch and reading rhythm.  I explain the different aspects and functions of both of these parts of notation.  Finally, I provide musical examples that often cause confusion for beginning readers, and explain the proper way to read these examples.