Welcome to How to Read Music in 30 Days. I’m really glad you’re here!
Would you like to know what those mystery lines and dots on the front cover mean? I’ll tell you... they’re the iconic dun dun dun dunnnn
notes from Beethoven’s 5th
symphony. By the end of this book, you’ll not only know the name of every symbol, but you’ll understand exactly what each one does. By the end, you’ll know how music symbols come together to create all kinds of different music.
Whether you want to compose music, write songs, play for your fans, record in a studio or anything else in music, you need to have a strong foundation in the basics – a strong understanding of how music works. This book is your practical, step-by-step guide to building that solid understanding. You’ll find that some lessons are easy and quite intuitive while others might require a second reading. This is perfectly normal. As the popular saying goes:
“Every expert was once a beginner.”
So, take your time with the lessons and progress at your own pace. We’ll begin from absolute zero, which means that you might encounter some familiar concepts (and that’s great!) but I encourage you to refrain from skipping ahead. Read through every lesson and go through the exercises so that you don’t miss any important points. Later lessons build on earlier ones.
The book consists of 4 main parts:
1.
From day 1 to day 15 we find out exactly how rhythm works: from basic note durations to beats, simple vs. compound time signatures, upbeats, and more.
2.
From day 16 to day 24 we explore the musical alphabet: we learn all about the different musical pitches and how to notate them correctly. In these lessons we also learn about the keyboard, as it’s very helpful to visualize the ideas in here.
3.
From day 25 to day 29 we learn all about expression marks. These are symbols and terms that tell musicians how a note should sound. They are important for performers to understand the composer’s intentions, and they’re important for composers so they make their intentions as clear as possible.
4.
Finally we get to day 30, the final test, which covers every lesson we’ve been through. This is your chance to test yourself and to see what might need some revision.
