However, the various instruction books usually have a beginning section devoted to rudimentary music so that the student can at least get the hang of reading music in short order.
If you care to, check out the German and Anglo concertina manuals on this site. Bear in mind that these are the 10 and 20 button designs, and the key layout is not the same as our Scheffler layout, so pay no attention to the button instructions - just read about musical notation. The Jones Chromatic Anglo (1946) and Sedgwick's Improved Complete Instructions for German Concertina (28 key) (1893) I found had useful information.
I will also try to hit the high points here:
Sheet music is a way for the guy who writes down some song to communicate to future players exactly how to play the song.
Because of the nature of music and rhythm, we (Western Civilization) came up with a music-writing convention that allows us to keep everybody playing together and not "playing all over the place."
This is the "measure". We group notes together according to the kind of song or rhythm we have. Typical rhythms fall into groups of 2, 3, or 4. In order to keep everybody playing together, we figured out that it makes sense to divide the measures up into notes, and to keep standard lengths of notes so that every measure has the same total amount.
So, what does this mean? It means that different kinds of notes have different names, and different time values.
In the above, a whole note has a value of 4 "beats" or "counts". A quarter note has a value of 1 "beat" or "count".
What does that mean?
It refers to the standard musical notation for measures. Each measure must contain a "full count" of notes and rests. Check out the example:
In the above example, there must be 4 "beats" or "counts" per measure. If there weren't, there is something wrong with how the music was written down, and musicians won't be able to play it without additional information about the wrong count measure (is it missing notes? or are they supposed to play in some other fashion there?)
Check out another example of real music.
All the measures have 4 beats.
Look at the beginning of the example. There is a 4 over another 4. This is what tells you why the measures (see the measures? There are 3 of them... The horizontal lines, the "staff", is divided by vertical lines, the "barlines" into measures) - I was saying, why the measures have 4 counts.
The notation 4 over 4 is called the TIME SIGNATURE of the song. The bottom four tells you that the quarter notes are what is equal to one count in the measure. The upper 4 tells you that each measure should have 4 of the lower number: so in this example, we have the time value of 4 quarter notes in each measure.
Another example:
A couple new things here: when a note has a dot after it, like several do, the dot is like multiplying the time value times 1.5. So a dotted quarter note is equal to a quarter note plus an eighth note. And, like the above, a dotted eighth note is equal to an eighth note plus a sixteenth note.
Look at the "Time Signature". It is a 2 over a 4. The four on the bottom means a quarter note is equal to 1 count. The 2 on the top means that each measure must have the total time value of 2 quarter notes (from the bottom number).
One more thing before we move on here - the % looking signs at the bottom of the example mean to repeat what just happened. Shorthand. So in the example above, the initial D chord of the left hand should be repeated in the measures with the %.
What about "rests"? If there is supposed to be silence, no notes played, the composer or person writing down the song uses rests in the correct place in the music. The time value of rests correspond to the time value of the notes.
Ok, enough about rests - I'm sure you'll figure them out when you see them.
There are a couple other Time Signatures. The 3/4, 3/8, and 6/8 group their notes in threes (as seen with the top number), either a measure consists of 3 quarter notes (the 3/4), 3 eighth notes, or 6 eighth notes, as in the following example:
One more note on "Time Signatures": The things called Common Time (C) and Cut time (like a ¢) are both shorthand for the time signature 4 over 4. Cut time is meant to go twice as fast (so technically 2 over 2) - you will see the notation on polkas and foxtrots. Some examples:
Ok, something new: On the staff (the horizontal lines), each line and space represents a particular note. Each of these notes is assigned a letter name from A to G. The clef sign (the swirly symbol at the beginning of the examples above is the "Treble Clef" or G Clef because it indicates that the second horizontal line from the bottom is a G. There are other clef symbols that indicate different starting letters....)
As you can see, the bottom line is E, followed by the space F, the line G, then A, B, C, D, and then E and F again at the top space and line.
The notes can be extended above and below the five "staff lines". These lines are called "Ledger Lines".
One more thing: At the beginning of this example, you can see "pound" or "sharp" symbols at the beginning, between the "clef" symbol and the key signature.
These symbols are called sharps and indicate that the notes that correspond to that line's or space's letter must be "sharped" or raised a half step. This doesn't mean that much to us as concertina players, because our keyboard layout is not chromatic (unlike a piano or guitar or violin) - so I will just say that when something should be played "sharp" you need to play the "sharp" button and not the regular letter's button.
- One other note - the thick vertical lines above are a "double bar line" and the dots to the right indicate that this is the beginning of a section that is repeated. Look for another "double bar line" with dots on the left of the lines - that is the end of the section to be repeated - so when you play the song, repeat that section.
Similarly, there are notes that we lower by a half step, or "flat", as below:
When the sharp or flat symbol occurs in the beginning of the piece between the clef symbol and the time signature, they are called the KEY SIGNATURE. These sharps or flats apply to the entire song. If a sharp or flat occurs within the music, it applies to that note and any other notes of itself following it IN THAT MEASURE, unless counteracted by another sharp or flat or the "natural" symbol (which means to un-sharp or un-flat the note).
In the example above, in the last (fourth) measure, the second note is an F-sharp due to KEY SIGNATURE. The third note is a regular F or F-natural. The natural symbol over-rides the F-sharp of the key signature. Then the fourth note is an F-sharp. It requires the sharp symbol, because the natural symbol of the third note is still in effect for the rest of that measure. This is a musical notation standard - shorthand for people who write the music that everyone who has learned to read the music knows about.
Now you do too :)
That should be enough to get anyone who is curious a leg up. Please email me with any questions - or ask someone local in your area - a band director or piano teacher or church organist, or a random person - as supposedly about 20% of people can read music - that means 1 in 5 can probably answer your questions.
To Recap:
- Measures and barlines, repeat barlines
- Note length: whole note, half note, quarter note, eighth note, 16th note, 32nd note
- Rest length: as above but silent
- Time Signature
- Staff line and space names (i.e. the note names)
- Key Signature
- Sharps and Flats and Naturals
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