French Horn Tips - Reading Sheet Music

Music is a language, and like any language, it has a written form. Notation gives musicians around the world a tool to communicate. A composer writes their piece with specific symbols, and if you can read music, you can understand it, decipher it, and ultimately play it. Understanding how to read music will take effort and time. But do you have to learn how to read? Well, in truth, no. Some incredible musicians never learned how to read music, preferring to play by ear. But they are mostly pop artists, and anybody who wants to learn an orchestral instrument should learn. Just like riding a bike, reading music is a skill you will always remember, and the benefits massively overshadow the drawbacks. Did you know? Examples of early notation have been found on stone tablets like this one, dating back as far as 2000 BC. So, how do you learn how to read music? When learning to read music, it's important to separate reading from performing. Playing the French horn is a radically different skill from reading the sheet music in front of you. Many inexperienced teachers will try and teach these two elements together, but you know better. Learn them as separate skills that overlap, and that way you'll be more successful quicker. Set the clock. In just under two minutes, I'll teach you how to read sheet music. Ready, set, go. Basics of reading musical notation. For French horn, staff notation is structured around something called the stave. This consists of five lines and is marked with a treble clef at the start of the stave. Middle C lies at the very bottom of the stave on its own little imaginary line. Notes can either sit on a line or in a space. The vertical position of the note defines the pitch. The higher up the stave, the higher the pitch. The lower it goes, the lower the pitch. The notes on the treble clef. To avoid counting up from middle C every time, we can use memory aids to recognise the notes. The four spaces on the treble staff spell out F-A-C-E, or face. The five lines of the treble staff are E-G-B-D-F. The acronyms for these are usually pretty rubbish, and we think it's much more fun to make up your own. Note lengths. How can you tell the length of a note? Well, that's easy. The shape of the note tells you how long to play it. A whole note, or if you're in the UK, called a semibreve, is an empty circle and lasts four counts. A half note, or a minim, adds a stem and lasts two counts. And lastly, a quarter note, or a crotchet, fills in the circle and lasts one count. There are other note lengths, but let's not worry about those for now. If you study long enough identifying the staff type, note position and shape, you'll be fluent in reading music in no time. Congratulations! You have just completed your first step in learning to read music. And thanks for watching! For more on reading and performing music, just check out our website link in the description.