Learn to Read Music Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pitch

Your tune is made up of different notes. As you sing or play higher or lower notes, one after another, you are changing the pitch of your music. Pitch describes how high or low it is. For example, "high-pitched" can be used to describe how high a flute, a violin, or a recorder is playing, and "low-pitched" can be used to describe how low a trombone or a double bass is playing.

Answer: A to G

If you look at a piano, you can see where your notes are, and what they look like. There are seven letters used for the white notes: A, B, C, D, E, F and G. There are five black notes in between some of these white notes.

On the piano you will see that the next white note up after G is A. Any one "A" note on a keyboard looks the same as every other "A" note. Any one "B" note on a keyboard looks the same as every other "B" note, and so on up to G.

If you are playing an instrument like a trumpet, violin, or guitar, you will use different fingering for different notes.

Answer: Sharps and flats

"Sharp" means to play the next highest note, so after playing C, the next highest note is C sharp. "Flat" means to play the next lowest note, so after playing E, the next lowest note is E flat. If you start by playing D on any musical instrument, you can play every note (all twelve of them), climbing upwards to the next D.

The sharp sign looks like the "hash" sign on a computer keyboard. The flat sign looks like a small letter "b".

To play all of these twelve notes, you would play the notes in this order: A, A sharp, B, C, C sharp, D, D sharp, E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp, and then the next A.

Answer: Stave

The five lines which are printed near to each other are called the stave. Each stave runs from the left to the right of the page. If you are singing a song, the notes for the song will be printed on a stave.

You read the notes from left to right across the page, then you will go to the next stave down, and then the next stave down below that, and so on. Where the notes are printed on the stave tells you which notes you should play or sing, and how fast to play them. The higher notes are printed at the top of each stave, and the lower notes are printed near the bottom.

Answer: Clef

There are three main clef signs. There are some others, but we don't need to be concerned about them here. The treble clef is the sign which tells you that you will be playing higher pitched notes. The bass clef is the sign which tells you that you will be playing lower pitched notes.

The C-clef is the sign which tells you that you will be playing more middle pitched notes. Music for the viola is printed with a C-clef.

Answer: Key

You might be singing "Happy Birthday" in the key of G (called G major). As you sing your song, it will feel as though it wants to end on G, which it does. Your friend might be singing in the key of C (called C major), so he/she will finish on a C.

On the far left of the stave, you will see the clef (the squiggly sign). There may be some sharps or flats printed on different lines next to the clef. The number of sharps or flats tells you what your key is. The proper name for this is "key signature".

If there is just one sharp, you will be singing "Happy Birthday" in G major. Your friend will have no sharps or flats on his music sheet because he/she is singing it in the key of C major.

Answer: Minor

If you listen to the folk song "Greensleeves", you should be able to hear that it has a sadder mood than the song "Happy Birthday". "Greensleeves" is written in a minor key, not a major key.

If you look at the music, you might look for the key signature at the start of each stave (this is shown by how many sharps or flats there are). Supposing there are no sharps or flats at the beginning of each stave, this looks like the song should be in the key of C major, but it isn't really. The song sounds as though it wants to finish with the note A. The music has some sharps printed in front of most of the G notes which gives it a darker mood. This means that "Greensleeves" is in A minor. It is in a minor key, not a major key.

On the keyboard try playing the notes A, C, and E. This gives you a minor sound. Now try playing the notes A, C sharp and E. This gives you a major sound.

Answer: Chord

When you play any combination of different notes together it is called a chord. When there are a number of different chords played in a piece of music, it brings about a type of musical sound called harmony. Just playing three notes together is a simple type of chord called a triad.

Try playing C, E and G together on a piano. This is a simple chord called a triad. It is in the key of C major. Try playing C, E flat and G together. This chord is a triad too, but it is in the key of C minor.

Try playing F, A flat and D flat together. This is a different type of chord with a warmer sound. It has a name which you don't need to remember if you are a beginner: it is a Neapolitan sixth.

The main thing is to remember what a chord is, what a triad is, and what harmony is.

Answer: Scale

Playing notes one after another, going up or going down, is called a scale. The word "scale" used to mean "ladder". Playing up or down a scale in music is like climbing up or down a ladder, but you are playing one note at a time instead of climbing one rung at a time, up or down a ladder. The two most important scales in music are the major scale and the minor scale.

To play the C major scale going up, play C, D, E, F, G, A, B, then finish with C (the next one up). That last C you just played is eight notes higher than the first one.

To go back down the C major scale, play the higher C, followed by B, A, G, F, E, D, then finish on the lower C.

If you start on C and play every note, one after another,(with all the sharps or flats in between), up to the next C, you will have played a 12 note scale.

Answer: By ear

You might be asking, "What has this to do with reading music?" I have put this question here because it might be helpful to know what other ways there are of playing music, or singing. Playing by ear means that people don't write the music down. They hear the tunes (melodies), harmonies and rhythms in their heads, and they play it from memory, or by making it up as they think they remember it. This happens in folk music, and sometimes in rock, jazz, or pop music.

If you want your music to sound almost the same each time, like it usually does in classical music, it is better to write it down. That's what composers like Beethoven and Stravinsky did.