When people speak of reading sheet music, they are referring to reading standard Western musical notation on a staff.
When it comes to learning sheet music, it's important to start with an easy song like Fur Elise by Ludwig van Beethoven or Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. However, below you can find thousands of song titles you will surely enjoy.
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Show Off Your Maestro Skills with the Best Music Notes for Piano Online
Learning the piano can be a skill that can stay with you for years, helping you into university and well beyond with your mastery of the classics.
It can also be a way to show off your stuff as a Jazz Man (or Woman) and impress friends with your improvisational power. Whether you play professionally, for fun, or the ones you love, learning the piano can be a great skill that will last a lifetime.
But first you need to learn and practice, and for that you’ll want to purchase high-quality easy sheet music for piano.
Unfortunately, it can be surprisingly hard to find some composers’ works, and finding licensed scores on the Internet can be tough. That’s why you’ll want to look for outlets such as Fresh Sheet Music for the best downloadable piano PDF digital sheet music online.
Classical and Jazz Music Notes
Whether you’re shopping for Chopin, enjoying Tchaikovsky with chai tea, or looking to get the most out of Mozart, there’s “no Haydn” how wonderful it is to play classical scores with proper sheet music for piano.
With proper online outlets such as this, you can find countless compositions by the world’s greatest composers, from their famous masterpieces to more obscure works. Jazz pieces by legends such as John Coltrane or Charlie Parker can also awaken a whole new appreciation of the music notes for piano in you or a young learner.
Either way, easy-to-download PDF files and sheet music purchases can get you playing that piano rag in no time.
Movie Scores
Maybe you’re more interested in playing the score of a classic movie score that features easy piano sheet music such as The Godfather, La La Land, Harry Potter, or, of course, The Pianist.
Trying to find “free” copies online may be difficult and not always legal, which is why you’ll want to look to a trusted outlet such as Fresh Sheet Music for officially-licensed versions.
You can browse a bevy of legal, high-quality music scores from all manner of movies, bringing the cinematic piano-playing experience into your home. Become the “Piano Man” (or Woman) of your dreams with the best music notes for piano online.
Learning to read sheet music takes both time and effort, but it’s incredibly rewarding in the long-run. Not only will it give you the ability to play practically anything almost immediately, but it will remove any doubt and make you a more confident musician. Below, we’ve outlined how to read piano sheet music in three easy steps.
How to read piano sheet music
1. Understand what notation is
The set of five horizontal lines and four spaces you see on sheet music is called a stave (or staff), and each line or space of sheet music represents a different musical pitch.
On every stave, there is a symbol known as a clef, and piano music is traditionally written in both treble and bass clefs. Treble clef, which is typically played with the right hand, is used for the higher notes. Bass clef, however, is used for the lower sounding notes and played with the left hand.
Some modern piano music has only one stave for the right hand (usually treble clef) with chord symbols above or below the stave. In this case, you would play the chords with your left hand. When both clefs are connected by a brace, this is called a great stave. The lines and spaces on all staves are numbered from one to five (bottom-top).
2. Learn the note sequences
The next thing you will need to learn in order to read sheet music is the sequence of notes and the position of these on the stave.
Most musicians use a standard called the chromatic scale, which is formed of seven notes: C-D-E-F-G-A-B. Each one represents a different frequency or pitch. However, the position of these notes varies based on the clef.
Treble clef
We’ll start by looking at treble clef. The four spaces are notes F-A-C-E (bottom-top), which is easy to remember. The five lines, on the other hand, are E-G-B-D-F (bottom-top).
A good way of remembering these five notes is to create a mnemonic, for example ‘Every Girl Boss Does Fine’. If we put all of these notes into the order they appear on the stave from bottom-top, we get E-F-G-A-B-C-D-E-F.
More notes can be added above or below the stave to reach higher or lower octaves using ledger lines, which are slightly longer than the note head and drawn parallel to the stave. Read more in our blog »
