How to Read Music: Fundamentals of Music Notation Made Easy

Music is the heart and soul of the cosmos and it is provides the inspiration of a civilized society. As someone who has a passion for music having learned numerous musical (Ukulele, harmonica, Kazoo, Indian flute, Chinese flute, recorder, drums, clave, tambourine, maracas, wooden and metal spoons) instruments in my senior years I decided to focus my study on reading music. I purchased this 112 page soft cover book (How to read music: fundamentals of music notation made easy by Roger Evans) for a bargain price on Amazon. This interesting and informative book explains in great depth how to study and read music; however, it takes a lot of hard effort to understand all the material. There are many challenging exercises and a musical dictionary to guide you in this book, but there is nothing like a competent music teacher to clarify complex points. Some of the material covered in this book includes: how to use this book, how notes are named, how notes are written, notes with different shapes, reading a melody, notes above and below the Staves, rests, curved lines, dotted notes, time signatures, shorts, flats and naturals, keys and key signatures, how fast, how loud, musical shorthand, chords, choosing your first pieces of music, other notes and rests, triplets, minor keys, directory of musical signs, and a short musical dictionary. If you are presently studying a musical instrument this book will aid you in your lessons, and your teacher can clarify and help explain many fine points in your music study. Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Tactical Principles of the most effective Combative systems).

Starts from the very basics and leads you gradually into deeper and deeper understanding. As an "older" student who had always been terrified that music was an overwhelmingly complex foreign language, this book was perfect for me. After just a few days, I can actually read music! And I've learned that it's so very easy to do. I wish I'd jumped into the subject when I was a kid. I've got so much catching up to do now. Dont wait any longer. If you're interested in learning to read music, start your studies with this book. You'll be interpreting basic compositions after just an evening or two of reading. You wont regret it.

This book exactly -- EXACTLY -- fulfills any reasonable expectation for a general use manual of musical notation. It does not waste words but uses exactly the number needed to its purpose. It is rich in illustrations. Really, it is a "technical manual" that clearly presents everything a music student could want to know about musical notation "starting with the ABC of it, right down to the XYZ of it." (h/t Sammy Cahn) It doesn't waste "white space," but lays out its material as if no publisher were fretting over the expense of every page. (Extravagant use of white space can actually distract from the material and require needless page flipping.) In the back of the book is "a short musical dictionary" of eighteen pages, which also serves as an index referencing page numbers in the body where the subject is treated in more detail. This "dictionary" exhibits all the virtues of the book. The type is a size that is easily readable with nicely sufficient line spacing. The defined words are in bold. Indentations nicely keep the reader on track without being wasteful. Even in this dictionary section, there is lavish use of very small illustrations of symbols and features unique to music. Best of all, this compact little book (of 112 pages) can be easily gripped along the spine with one hand as the pages flip by under control of the opposite thumb. That is to say that you can easily pick it up, flip through the dictionary for what you want, and then flip over to the needed location in the body, almost in one motion. In short, the modest size, light weight, and binding make this book very convenient to handle and to use. So why if I love it so much, do I dock it a star? Well, I owned (and lost) an earlier edition of this book that is not noticeably different except in the cover and paper used. Ugh! The previous edition used a bright white paper of nice quality and finish; this new edition uses an off-white, more natural-colored paper, with a coarser finish. It is not horrible, not at all. But is detracts noticeably from the elegance of the book and the pleasure of using it. I will note that it is pretty inexpensive so I suppose economy of production was a serious factor, IMO an awful choice by the publisher to save a couple of bucks.

Excellent seller. Music theory is hard enough. Easy reading for novice music enthusiasts. Friend is learning from it wonderfully.

I just received this book from Amazon in the mail today and I am already finding to be very helpful in the learning process. I have been singing with much more experienced and knowledgeable singers and always felt at a disadvantage because I never learned to read music when I was in school. Though I took guitar lessons as a young teen, still, I did not learn to read music. I can follow along with the group ok but I wanted to be able to pick up a piece of music I had never seen and sing it by myself, among other things. I think it would do wonders for my self confidence and I might even start audit again! This book so far is easy to use and will be very helpful in helping my dreams come true!

I have'nt throughly looked through it but seems to be in good condition even though it's used love the simplicity of using it. And how it goes in depth and how you can practice with it using other instruments if u have one. So that's a great feature of the book.

I bought this book for my daughter who has taken in interest in music and who has taught her self Uke. She is now learning guitar and wanted to get into some music theory. This book seems like a quick, good starting point for her. She understands it easily. It has both piano and guitar examples on it's pages. She finds this very helpful. It seems like a good stepping stone to the meatier theory stuff if she decides to go that far.

If you learn how to read notes and identify all the notes symbols - that's a great little booklet you must buy. I am a student flute player and I find this book of great help in reading and interpreting music notes. Very user friendly written in everyday language, focusing on music playing - not theory.

It's good

I have been teaching my 11 year old Goddaughter to play the piano for the last three years. I have a copy of "How to Read Music" and found we were frequently referring to it. She asked me to get her a copy for her birthday so she can refer to it while she is doing her practise. It is certainly a very useful tool to keep by the piano.

Great book for a beginner

Content of book

Just received it looks okay easy to read and understand