Reading music
Reading a score from nothing, in two halves. Pitch on the staff, starting from middle C; and time, from note values to the bar, from ties and rests to tempo and syncopation, counting out loud at every step.
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1. Pitch
- Five lines and a starting point
The staff as a graph of pitch, the clef that fixes one line, and middle C as the note everything is counted from.
2. Time
- Counting time
Each note value is half the one before, the time signature is two numbers with different jobs, and counting out loud comes before reading.
- What the series of note values does not write
The tie adds values into a single sound, the rest writes silence with an exact value, and together they write what begins off the beat.
- The speed of the pulse
Tempo in beats per minute or in Italian words, and the difference between playing fast and playing with the right groove.
- The accent off the pulse
Syncopation needs a pulse to exist, and it is written with a note starting off the beat, a tie across the bar line, or a rest on the strong beat.
- Where the accent lands
Samba, baião and xote told apart by accent and subdivision, each with a clapping pattern that fits in two bars.
3. The rest of the page
- How, and how loudly
The score's third layer — slurs, staccato, accents and the letters of dynamics — and why the chart does not write it.
- The order of the page
Repeat barlines, first- and second-time bars, da capo, dal segno and coda, read in pencil before playing.