The thought of learning music can be intimidating if you've never done anything music-related prior. Moreover, the whole process of understanding the rules and structure of music can be tricky and confusing. But, if you get the best instructor, you'd be surprised at how fast you can learn music. In this guide, you’ll learn the basic rules of music. If you don't know where to start, check these bass lessons from the best music school. You will be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses, learn from your mistakes, take risks and ask questions to improve.

Start With The Clefs

To understand music theory, you need to differentiate between different types of clefs. The main clefs are bass and treble clef. When reading music, you'll find treble and bass clefs stacked on top of one another. While a bass clef is played using the right hand, the treble clef is played using the left hand. You, therefore, want to incorporate treble clef to read tones that have higher pitches and bass clef to play lower tones.

Understand the Names of the Notes

If you are keen, you'll notice 7 alphabets in the document from A to G. This means you want to start again once you reach G. You can practice this by beginning at the lowest and moving the white keys up while saying the later names aloud. If you want to confirm your accuracy, check the image of the names of letters on the keyboard.

While memorizing all the letters is tricky, by using devices, you'll find the process smooth. You also need to find a guide note and start at the lowest C. By practising how to recognize C, you’ll make the process smooth since you'll have a reference point.

Consider the Notes Written Above

Apart from reading the letters, you should learn about lower and higher notes. Thankfully, you can use ledger lines to make it easy for you to read various notes. Provided you can identify the middle C, you’ll easily know the position of the ledger notes.

Learn How To Play the Cord

One of the most important steps is to learn how to play cords. The fastest way to learn music is to understand the cords. This is to help you realize you can find them in many places. Like the major cords, basic cords have three tones: augmented, suspended, and diminished.

Know Where The Time Signature Is

Located near the beginning of a piece of music, the time signature will tell you how many bits are there and what type of notes goes inside. Since music has strong and weak beats when playing rhythm, know about the beats.

Know the Difference Between Half and Whole Steps

To understand different types of music and theory concepts, know the difference between half and whole steps. Half step means moving from one note to the next with nothing in between, while whole note means moving from one note to the next with only one key within.

Time Signatures

The time signature refers to the stack numbers directly to the right of the clefs. Time signature will tell you the number of beats and the notes that get the beats. The most common time signatures are 4/4, 2/4, and 3/4. Some time signatures also have bottom numbers other than 4

Enjoy the Rhythm

Now that you know the basics of reading music, you can sit down and enjoy the rhythm. So the next step is to locate and name the pitches so you can apply the rhythm. To rotate the duration, divide your notes into half, quarter, whole, and eighth notes. While quarter notes are meant for 1 beat, half notes are for 2 bits.

One thing you need to learn is how the four categories of notes subdivide into each other. Once you have a firm grasp, you'll be confident enough to count aloud. Although we can subdivide the eigths, you should stick with the four unless you are comfortable enough.

Use Ties

If you want to hold a note longer, use ties. Described as a notated or curved line, it easily connects the two notes in the same space or line. While you'll not play the second note, you can hold it for the entirety of its value.

Now that you've learned how to learn music, be ready to practice often while growing your musical skills.