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recommend Sing Like A Pro to any aspiring singer Dave Moffat, MULTI-PLATINUM
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Reading Music and the Virtual Keyboard
Hello Singers! On this page you will find the download link for the virtual keyboard. The keyboard allows you to view and listen to the different notes on a piano. These notes are important to know and understand, because they are what make up the scales you will need to improve your range, pitch, flexibility and overall vocal ability! You will also find just below the images of different signs found on a piece of music; accompanied by explanations as to what they are. In order to be able to read music, you have to know what these signs are! System requirements: Windows 95 or higher.
*You will need macromedia flash player to view the keyboard.*
Click here to download Macromedia Flash Player! Click here now to download the Virtual Keyboard!
Downloading instructions: Click on the link, click 'run' to download the file, click 'run' again to install it, and then click 'unzip' to unzip the files to your C: drive. The Virtual Keyboard will be in your start menu in a folder called "Sing". Click on that folder and you will find the Virtual Keyboard file. Click on it to open.
Learn to read music!
Here we have a section of musical signs commonly found on a piece of music, and their explanations. This is also called "Musical Theory". This page coincides with the reading music chapter of the Sing Like A Pro ebook, but you can view it for free here too!
The Basics The first image is a staff. This is what musical notes are written on in a piece of music. A staff is made up of five horizontal lines and four spaces.
The next image is to show you where the different keys are on the piano, and to show you the name of the pitches they play. For this example, you will only see the white keys labeled. The pitches are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet (A B C D E F G).
Now lets put the first two examples together. This image is what the letter names of the pitches look like on a staff, along with a picture of the two clefs. A clef is a musical symbol placed at the beginning of the staff that determines if the pitches played on it are above or below middle C. The two clefs are the treble and the bass: The treble clef
indicates notes above middle C, the bass clef indicates notes below
middle C.
You have probably noticed little lines through the middle of certain notes. They are called Ledger Lines. Ledger Lines are an extension of the staff. They are additional lines both above, below and through middle C which are parallel to the staff. The distance between a ledger line and another line, whether it's from the staff or another ledger line, is one full note.
Note ValuesEach musical note and it's corresponding rest have a specific duration This diagram shows you the notes and their equivalent rests. All notes are written in comparison to a whole note. For example, a half note is half of a whole note. There are two half notes that make up one whole note, four quarter notes, eight eighth notes, so on and so on.
Meter
The lower number of the fraction tells what kind of note equals one beat, or in simpler terms, one tap of the foot. The upper number tells how many beats are in a measure. The measures are divided by bar lines, which separate the notes into groups based on the time signature. In Western music there are two types
of meter, and they are simple and compound. Otherwise
known as simple time and compound time. In simple
meter the upper number is either 2, 3, or 4. Each beat is subdivided
by two. Keep in mind the note values when studying this section. In compound meter the upper number is either 6,9, or 12. Each beat is a dotted note, and subdivided into groups of three beats. When a note is dotted, it means to have the time value of the note increased by half of itself. For example, a dotted quarter note is equal to a quarter note and an eighth note, played together without stopping.
That's it folks! Enjoy!
© Copyright 2006 by Sing Like A Pro, a division of EDJE Inc.- All rights Reserved. The Virtual Keyboard and all associated files are © Copyright 2006 by Sing Like A Pro, a division of EDJE Inc.- All Rights Reserved.
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