Guidelines for notation in music transcript

• Music is written on a five-line staff; stems of single notes within a staff should be about one octave in length

• For single line melody in a staff: notes above the middle line's stems go up and attach to the right of the note head, notes below the middle line's stems go down and attach to the left of the note head

• For note heads on the middle line, stems usually go down, except when they're surrounded by other notes whose stems are up

• When stemmed notes are placed on ledger lines, stems should extent to the middle of the staff

• Stemmed notes when connected by beams should be modified so that the beams are most often slanted and do not pass more than about one staff line per two notes; must be a very gradual slant

• When there's two melodies on the same staff: Stems point upward for the higher melody, and point downward for the lower melody

• When beaming groups of eighth notes and smaller values, beam accurately to the beats in the measure, for example: In the image below, the notes on the staff are all beamed incorrectly, but the notes below the staff are examples of notes that are

• Use flags for eighth notes or notes of a shorter length (sixteenth notes, thirty-second notes, etc.) that are not grouped within a beat

• Irregular divisions of a beat or measure are indicated by showing the number of notes in the resulting group by means of an Arabic numeral (triplets. Sextuplets, duplets, etc.)

• For compound meter, so the basic pulse structure of the measure as clearly as possible

This is a correct example of how to divide these eighth notes; if they aren't grouped into threes, it's wrong A whole rest indicates a full measure of rest in ANY meter

• In ¾ meter, use two quarter rests rather than a half rest to indicate two beats of no sound

• When two notes in a chord are on an adjacent line/space, the higher of the two notes is always to the right, regardless of stem direction

• When a dotted note is on a line, the dot is usually placed slightly above the line; but when two separate voices are placed on a single staff, the dots are below the line on the notes with the stems down

• Accidentals should always be written on the left side of the note head

Lines and spaces on the grand staff:

The top clef is the Treble clef (G clef) and the bottom clef is the Bass clef (F clef) Each of the lines shown on those clefs are Middle C, and every other note is in relation to that

• A way to remember Alto clef is that it's directly between Treble and Bass clef, and C is on the middle line; Bass clef is C3 (second space), Alto Clef C4 (third line), Treble Clef C5 (third space)

• These scale degree symbols are diatonic, which means they're in the key

• Whole note = 4 beats (in simple meter)

  Half note = 2 beats (in simple meter)

  Quarter note = 1 beat (in simple meter)

  Eighth note = ½ beat (in simple meter)

  Sixteenth note = ¼ beat (in simple meter)

• Equivalent to whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, etc., respectively, but an absence of sound is counted instead

• Dots increase a note by half of its value

• Examples:

  • A quarter note is one beat, half of its value is an eighth note. Quarter note + Eighth note = Dotted quarter note / One and a half beats

  • A half note is two beats, half of its value is a quarter note. Half note + Quarter note = Dotted half note / Three beats

  A double dotted note increases a note by half AND a quarter of its value

  Example:

  • Quarter note is one beat, half of its value is an eighth note, a quarter of its value is a sixteenth note. Quarter note + Eighth note + Sixteenth note = Double dotted quarter note / 1 ¾ beats

  Ties tie two notes together, combining their lengths

• The line connecting two notes of the same pitch, combines their rhythmic value, so the two quarter notes in the first measure would be two beats, since they're tied

  • These frequently happen across bar lines

  • Different types of tuplets work in different time signatures

    • For example, Triplets work in a meter like 4/4, while duplets and quadruplets work in meter like 6/8

    1.3 - Half steps and whole steps

    Half steps on a piano keyboard:

    • White note to black note

    • Black note to white note

    • White note to white note (B to C and E to F)

    • C to C# would be called a Chromatic Half step since they share a letter name

    • C to Db would be called a Diatonic Half step since they have different letter names

      • The relationship between these two sets of notes are the exact same, besides the fact they're said differently

      • Notes that are the exact same, but can be pronounced in different ways are enharmonic notes

        • For example, G# and Ab are the exact same note, despite being called different names

        A whole step is equal to two half-steps (or two piano keys)

        • White note to white note

        • Black note to black note

        • There are exceptions: Eb–F, E–F#, Bb-C, and B-C#

        Octave designations are how notes are identified in given octaves

        • The piano ranges from A0 to C8, and middle C is C4

        • Octave designations are very important for finding specific notes on a staff/piano Scales are an organization of notes

          Major scales are a sequence of whole steps, specifically organized like:

        • The Whole-Step, Whole-Step, Half-step, Whole-step, Whole-step, Whole-step, Half-step pattern is how every major scale is constructed, starting on the first note of the scale

          • It's the layout of all white keys starting on C

          3 step method for writing a major scale

          • Find your starting note

          • Fill in all of the letter names

            • Do not repeat or skip a letter

          • Apply the WWHWWWH pattern using accidentals (sharps, flats)

          Each note in a major scale is called a scale degree, and they can be labelled in one of three ways:

          • Scale degree numbers

            • Scale degree numbers have a carrot above them

          • Solfege symbols

          • Scale degree names

          • The tonic is the starting note of every scale

          • The dominant is a fifth above the first note

          • The mediant is directly between the tonic and the dominant

          • The subdominant is a fifth below the tonic

          • The submediant is halfway between the subtonic and the tonic

          • The leading tone  leads to the tonic

          • The supertonic is one note above the tonic

          • Major keys can be identified using tetrachords

            • Tetrachords are the first four notes in a major scale, and the last four notes in a major scale

            • The middle W of the WWHWWWH separates the two tetrachords into their halves

          • 

          The whole C major scale is split into halves, with G (dominant) being the starting note of the second tetrachord

          If the G tetrachord is moved to be the first tetrachord in the series, it will create the G major scale

          • When the fifth of the G major scale, D, is moved to the first tetrachord in the series, this creates the D major scale, this process continues