Understanding Sheet Music

[Fred Feild]

Beyond the notes and rests, what are those other marks, symbols and Italian terms?

Some simple ragtime songs don’t have any special instructions. It’s just notes and lyrics. Those get played and sung at a steady pace.

But most songs have dynamics and tempo changes. In fact, the art songs and classical or sacred pieces probably have the most. The average song just uses a few. You probably only need to learn about fifty of them. You can use Google search or a musical dictionary to look them up one by one as needed.

Read through this topic to find out what you need to know about sheet music markings. I’ll give examples from songs in our collection so you can look them up.

• This topic was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Fred Feild.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Fred Feild.

[Fred Feild]

Long Curves In the Music

How about those curves over or under the notes? What do they mean? What are they for? What do you do about them?
Normally notes may have a little bit of silence between them.
A lot of silence is called “staccato” indicated by a small dot over or under the note.
But those long curves connect notes. There are two possibilities.

Slurs

If the notes that are being connected have different pitches, it is called a slur.
The slur connects the sound of the notes.
Kind of like slurring your speech.
Slurred notes are sounded with no space in between.
Therefore you smoothly transition between the different pitches without pausing.
They should sound as close together as possible.
But it’s important not to overlap the notes. In MIDI if notes overlap they can clip. You’ll hear an abrupt cut-off and neither note will sound right.

Ties

If the two notes or chords being connected by the curve are the same pitch, it might be a tie
Ties look identical to slurs, but their function is different.
When notes or chords are tied, they become just one note/chord.
The second is an extension of the first.
The sound lasts to the end of the second, but the second does not get sounded separately.
That’s because the two are tied together.

Is it really a tie?

When the connected notes are the same, it might not be a tie.
If the second note has a word or syllable of lyric, it’s a slur.
In that case, the second note is sounded.
Otherwise, it’s a tie and the second note/chord is not sounded.
The tie makes them one.

[Fred Feild]

Dynamics

This refers to volume changes. A good example is the song “Swanee” composed by George Gershwin. Listen to my MIDI and examine the sheet music here:

Swanee

You will hear the effect of variation in the intensity of attack. This was achieved by making the accented notes louder.

A greater than sign over a note indicates a normal accent.
A hat, cap, or carrot is a strong accent named marcato.

What Is an Accent in Music? Definition, Types & Examples

In MIDI you have normal notes at the same level of amplitude, let’s say MP. An accented note will be 10 higher. A strong accent will be 20 higher.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Fred Feild.

[Fred Feild]

Alice Blue Gown

Let’s examine the sheet music for the song “Alice Blue Gown”
and the historic recording by Edith Day.

Alice Blue Gown

We’ll go symbol-by-symbol and term-by-term through it.
Please follow along.

“Tenderly” – what does that mean? It’s a tender story sung in 6/8 time.
It feels like a waltz. This song was written for Edith to sing in the play “Irene”.
So, listen to it on YouTube. I hear it being performed slowly with pauses.

We see “mf” under the first note.
That stands for “mezzo forte” which means medium loud in Italian.
The louds go mf, f, ff, fff, sfz.
This one is the first and lowest of the louds.

In front of the first chord there is a long, vertical wavy line.
Notice that it goes from the bottom note to the top.
This is a rolled chord.
This means these notes should be “rolled”.
The lowest note is played first, then each above is added.

Next, at the end of the introduction we have a fermata or hold symbol.
Sometimes nicknamed a birds-eye.
The note or chord with the fermata over it is to be held.
It’s time is extended. How long? Is the time broken?
I have used a little counting trick.
You can keep the count going in your mind silently during the hold.
This helps you come in on the next note at the correct time.

In the bass chords we see long curved lines.
They arc to the right. These are slurs.
This mean those chords are played together without any pause in between.

After the words “And it wore . . .” we have two slash marks.
It’s called a “Caesura”.
Notice it’s in all three staffs.
It indicates a short pause.
The recording demonstrates it marvelously.

Under the third “wore” there are two horizontal wedges.
The first is an enlongated “less than” sign.
It means to get louder.
The second is an enlongated “greater than” sign.
It means to get softer.
When instructions are only in the accompaniment, they help remind the instruments to do as the voice will naturally do.

Now we have the term “molto rall.”
“Molto” means much or a lot.
“Rall.” is an abreviation for rallentando.
This means to get progressively slower and slower.

The last chord on page 1 have the symbol “sfz”
This stands for sforzando.
It’s the loudest of the louds.
This chord also has an accent symbol (greater than).
Accent means to play with an emphasis.

“Tempo de Valse moderato”
Waltz moderato tempo is 120 beats per minute.
Moderato means medium.
A full speed waltz is much faster, 180 bpm, which feels like it’s in one.
The waltz moderato is a medium fast waltz and is felt in three.

Ped. is a piano instruction to apply the sustain foot pedal.
The pedal is held down until the “*” or star looking symbol.

Over the words “felt ev’ry eye” there are dashes.
These tell you to hold those notes full value.

Those are all the special instructions I see in “Alice Blue Gown”.
I hope this is a helpful format for learning.

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