How To Write Sheet Music 15 Steps With Pictures

If you want to write sheet music free-hand, the old fashioned way of Mozart and Beethoven, don’t worry about drawing your staves on a blank piece of paper with a ruler. Instead, find some free blank staff paper online that you can print out quickly to start filling in with your compositions. If you are really serious though, it would be a better idea to go to a music store and get staff paper there. Its not free like online but your work will look more professional. On many sites, you can even pre-set the key and add the clef markers without having to fill them in yourself. Configure the staves like you want them, download the files, and print them out from your computer. Print out plenty of sheets to practice on and start your compositions in pencil. It can be a messy business trying to get your complicated ideas out on paper, so it helps to be able to erase and make little changes without having to recopy the whole thing.

MuseScore is a popular software, easy-to-use and compatible with either freestyle composition or MIDI inputs. You can record directly onto the staves or work by building your piece up note-by-note. Most composition software also features MIDI playback, so you can hear what you’ve just written in digital version. GarageBand also comes standard on most new Macs, and can be used to write sheet music by selecting a “Songwriting” project. You can record live sounds or input an instrument directly to transcribe into musical notation, then click on the Scissor icon in the bottom left corner to check out the notes. Noteflight is a good online site to use if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on software as your first ten scores are free when you make an account. Download the software and start a new project to start saving your work. If you input a MIDI keyboard into the computer with a USB cable, you’ll be able to play your melody directly onto the keyboard and the software will chart your music on the staff. It’s as easy as it gets. You can even layer parts, assigning them to different instruments, to get started on that symphony.

Noteflight is one such free community, and an excellent resource both for learning to read music, writing music, exploring other peoples’ compositions, and posting your compositions.

Horn section parts for trumpet (in Bb), saxophone (in Eb), and trombone (in Bb). String quartet for two violins, viola, and cello Piano charts for accompaniment vocal sheets

In the treble clef, also known as “G clef,” you’ll notice a sign a bit like the ampersand (&), printed on the left side of each staff. This is the most common clef for sheet music. Guitar, trumpet, saxophone and most higher-register instruments will be printed on treble clef. The notes, starting on the bottom line and going to the top line, are E, G, B, D, and F. The notes in the spaces between the lines, starting with the space between the first and second, are F, A, C, and E. In the bass clef you’ll notice a sign that looks a bit like a curved number “7” to the left of each line of the staff. The bass clef is used for instruments in the lower register, like trombone, bass guitar, and tuba. Starting with the bottom, or first line, the notes ascend G, B, D, F, and A. In the spaces are A, C, E, and G, from the bottom to the top. The tenor clef is used for choral works. It looks like the treble clef but with a little number 8 under it. It reads just like the treble clef but sounds an octave lower.

In western music, the most common time signature is 4/4 time, which means there are four beats in each measure, and one quarter-note is worth one beat. You may also see a capital C in place of 4/4. They are the same thing, the “C” is for “common time. " 6/8 time, another often used time signature, means that there are 6 beats in each measure and the 8th note gets the beat.

If, for instance, you see a sharp in the first space in the treble clef, you’ll know that each note that appears in that space will need to be played one half-step higher. Likewise, with flats.

Whole notes look like ovals, and are held out for 4 quarter notes. Half notes look like whole notes, but with a straight stem. They’re held for half the length of a whole note. In 4/4 time, there would be 2 half-notes per measure. Quarter notes have solid black heads and straight stems. In 4/4 time, there are 4 quarter notes in a measure. Eighth notes look like quarter notes with little flags on the end of the stem. In most cases, eighth notes will be grouped together for each beat, with bars connecting the notes to signify the beat and make the music easier to read. Rests follow similar rules. Each whole rest looks like a black bar on the middle line of the staff, while quarter-note rests look a bit like a letter “K” in italics, building stems and flags as they break down into further divisions per beat. A dotted note or rest means that you add half of the value of the note. For example, a dotted half note would be 3 beats and a dotted quarter would be 1 1/2.

different notes and rests the lines and spaces on the sheet rhythm markers dynamic markers key signatures

Plunking out some notes on the piano is especially useful for composers to know, since the piano is the most visual instrument–all the notes are right there, laid out before you.

As you start composing, embrace happy accidents when they occur. No pieces arrive fully formed and perfect. If you’re looking for a new place to go with a melody, jam around on the piano or whatever composing instrument you favor and follow the muse where she leads you. If you’re feeling especially experimental, explore the world of aleatoric composition. Pioneered by composition luminaries like John Cage, aleatoric compositions introduce an element of chance into the writing process, rolling dice to determine the next note on a 12-tone scale, or consulting the iChing to generate notes. These compositions will sound dissonant, in most cases, and is not always the best way to start or end a melody. It can however give your piece a unique feel that makes it stand out.

Try grouping phrases together in terms of the emotions they evoke. Guitar composer John Fahey, a self-taught instrumentalist and composer, wrote by combining small fragments by “emotion. " Even if they didn’t necessarily come from the same key or sound like they belonged together, if different phrases felt whimsical, or forlorn, or wistful, he would combine them together to form a song.

You can signify dynamic changes in the sheet music with Italian words that signify basic descriptions of loud and soft. “Piano” means that you should play softly, and is usually written below the staff when the music should be played quietly. “Forte” means loud, and is written in the same way. Note the original name of the Piano, the Piano forté; this may help you in remembering that one of the exceptional features of the instrument is it’s ability to be a percussion instrument (That also utilizes strings) that can both increase and diminish in sound. If you’re not intending a great amount of dynamic contrast in your piece, or don’t want to worry about this yet, or you prefer to focus on tonality and rhythm while learning to write, you may consider it’s older relatives, the pipe organ and the harpsichord, which have different strengths and will help your fluency on piano. Gradations can be suggested by drawing an elongated “<” or “>” sign under the staff, where the music should either crescendo (get louder) or diminish your sound, depending.

If you want a reference point from the past century, Erik Satie’s “Gymnopedies” provide a classic example of “less-is-more” music writing, and he was considered by many musicologists to be one of the first to write minimalist music. [3] X Research source Minimalism in music is a relatively recent trend, as it wasn’t popular till after Satie’s death, though it has gained considerably popularity today, and is often characterized by techniques such as: Use of a single rhythm or tone structure throughout a piece, primitive melody structure, use of only one or two scales or modes in the context of an entire piece, and exploration of a single theme using a minimal frame: notable examples of minimalism in the last fifty years include works by George Crumb, Phillip Glass, Steve Reich, John Cage & Terry Riley, with an incredible volume of music including such works as minimalist opera and other vocal music (Einstein on the Beach, and Tehillim, for example) Satie’s first Gymnopédia was used countless times in ads and film, but there remains something beautiful and moving in it’s melancholy melody, though it only uses whole notes and a tonal note structure, not straying from diatonicism for most of the piece. Study Mozart’s variations on “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” for an example of turning maybe the most universal of children’s melodies into a complex exercise in variation and adornment. [4] X Research source It exemplifies the Theme & Variation form, which is one of the most popular and straightforward forms one can write in. Other accessible examples of this form include: Beethoven’s “Diabelli Variations”, which were a response to a composition his publisher submitted, Michel Rondeau’s variations on “Pop Goes the Weasel” and the Enigma variations by Edward Elgar.