Learning Music Notation

Want to communicate your musical ideas in the most clear and compelling way? You need to learn music notation. Notation is the written language of music: the letters and words of sound. In this course, author Rick Schmunk explains the most fundamental topics in music notation, with the intention of showing musicians and songwriters what they need to know to read and write the language and notate their musical ideas correctly.

It starts with notating pitch (clefs) and duration, including note lengths and rests. He moves into discussing flats, sharps, naturals, and key signatures, and the unique symbols for musical expression, including dynamics and articulations. He goes over notating chords and chord progressions, and the addition of vocals and lyrics. The course wraps with some score formatting tips and notation examples for piano, guitar, and drums, which pull together all the information into complete, publication-worthy pieces of sheet music.

Learning objectives
Notating pitch with clefs
Notating duration
Adding time signature and bars
Using dots and ties
Modifying pitch
Notating scales
Communicating expressions such as tempo and performance
Notating chord progressions
Notating vocals and lyrics
Formatting a score