50 Music Symbols Explained in 15 Minutes!
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- In this video I walk through 50 common music symbols, what they mean and I give examples of each symbol used in context!
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here are the timestamps for lazy people like me:
0:15 - treble clef
0:39 - bass clef
0:56 - sharps
1:18 - flats
1:33 - natural
1:46 - dynamics
2:10 - crescendo and diminuendo
2:34 - metronome mark
2:57 - note lengths
3:07 - rest lengths
3:22 - key signatures
3:53 - time signatures
4:24 - staccato
4:33 - phrasing marks, ties, and slurs
5:11 - accent
5:20 - marcato
5:32 - double sharp
5:48 - double flat
6:05 - sforzando
6:23 - dotted notes
6:43 - more note divisions
7:06 - double whole note/breve
7:15 - speed markings
7:37 - spread/arpeggiated chords
7:57 - fermata/pause
8:14 - ledger lines
8:27 - octave symbols
8:56 - trill
9:10 - turn
9:40 - triplets
10:03 - acciaccatura
10:19 - appoggiatura
10:39 - duplets
10:57 - other tuplets
11:23 - fortepiano
11:37 - tenuto
11:53 - glissando
12:07 - mordent
12:28 - repeats
12:51 - alto/tenor clef
13:12 - cut/common time
13:39 - pedal markings
13:57 - down/up bows
14:21 - volta brackets/first and second time bars
14:44 - coda
15:17 - accelerando/accel
15:23 - rallentando and ritardando
15:32 - rubato
15:43 - pizzicato
15:55 - arco
Well Ur defo not lazy for doing that
Hey that is a really good video! Now obviously it’s only scratching the bare surface of music theory but it might be really good for beginners.
Now i already noticed that you talked about what note is notated in between the bottom lines of the clefs rather then saying what note they’re marking (G, F, C). Also you talked about crescendo and decrescendo where you didn’t mention the word diminuendo but wrote it down in the timestamps. Now for 11 (key signatures) you COULD have said that you obviously stop playing the F# if the there’s a signature change, but that really isn’t a big deal. A pretty common mistake also is translating staccato with short even though it only means clearly separated but of course it is not wrong to say short since that is what composers tend to mean with staccato, especially in contemporary music. The sweeping line for phrasing marks, ties and slurs can also go below the notes. Accents is what we call the group of symbols telling us what to do with specific notes but what was shown here is actually most commonly a sforzando-accent. Depending on what you play the trill might also go to an interval below and might vary between semitones, whole tones even thirds and doesn’t have to be played super fast… Usually this is instructed in you music and also applies to turns, etc. Important to say would probably also be to say that triplets and duplets only appear in binary/ternary time signatures. Pedal marks can also be noted with a rectangular bow.
Again; I really like this video. It’s fabulous. But i just think if you want to have the most important information in it you should have all of the most important information in it. Still is a great option to learn basic terms and symbols!
Hope you’re doing well!
Thank you 😂
God bless 🙏
Thx for that 😊
I've always wondered why I could never learn to read music. Now I know why.
The system is kinda dated if you ask me. we should try to make some changes, but people generally don't like that assertion
@@NabPunk I've seen alternative systems and they're all bad / made by people who don't understand the existing system and what it's used for.
@@skyworm8006 yeah that really sucks because yeah people like stevie wonder aka a blind legend was able to play so well without sheet music and ray Charles who was a composer and was also blind but still was able to learn without sheet and other musicians like Eric Clapton who was not a pianist but a guitarist who like the rest of them sadly 😢 “didn’t understand the existing system and what it’s used for” 😂don’t make me laugh. Music is a form of creativity and and expression there is no system that u have to follow to be a musician because sadly stevie wonder was born blind yet the fact that he could not read sheet music never stopped him from being the great musician that he was so come back to earth for two seconds and realize that people can find anyway to learn anything if they really want it and that’s something that no amount of sheet music can teach them
This guy's content shouldn't be free! We are so blessed to have free access to this stuff in our modern world.
Oh this is much much harder than I imagined.
Not really. You don't use every one of those things in every song. Just do it slowly. It will work out okay.
I played the trumpet for over 8 years, and it was VERY overwhelming in the beginning, but as James below says, you don't use many of the symbols in daily music, but slowly integrating them in different pieces you do over time will make things MUCH easier. Especially pacing yourself. It all connects eventually.
45/50!! That symbols for string instruments got me, didn't know that they even exist.
Since I play piano they also got me but somehow I've never heard of turns before
@@crazyrun2024 I encountered the mordant and turn once, and can't remember where-- not a pianist, but I dabble.
string player here, knew some by appearance but not name and entirely didn't know only three
Thank you very much! I am self-practicing piano for three months now and I saw most of the symbols presented in this video but it was helpful you explained them.
No problem! It’s good to have these things solidified in your head 😊
Matthew is best piano teacher. I had many teachers, but I didn't know teachers like he.
Yes 50 music symbols. Well done
Your thoughts and efforts to bring this video is a reflection of your musical maturity. I have never come across anything closer to your video until this day. Your effort will allow any amateur musician to easily understand the music symbols. This video will also partially help all those grappling to understand music theory as part of their exams. You were mind-blowing!!! You made me subscribe to your channel. Looking forward to many more creative productions that will help music learners (also me) around the globe. Thank you so much, Matthew!
Wonderful! Thank you ever so much for this! Keep up the good work, and God bless you!
you just made me travel back to 1st grade
What a wild ride that must have been 😉
I always struggled to tell the difference between Common Time and Cut Time. Now I understand. Thank you. One thing you did not mention was double-dotted notes.
Double dotted notes are basically a dotted note, but the note that is added to the first note (for example let's take a dotted quarter note, they get an eight as a dot, and for double dotting, dot the second note; the eight, so a sixteenth.) A double dotted quarter is 1.75 beats in 4/4
Very nice vid ! To me an easier way to remember - treble clef: the second line (where there is the spiral) it's a G, bass clef, between the two dots it's an f, alto / tenor clef, the middle of it is a C
This is actually incredibly correct as the clefs by true name are G clef F clef and C clef. And when they move around it changed the location of said note
@@m4gn5g62 I learned to read music as a vocalist, and was taught G clef and F clef shortly after the names treble and bass, and alto and C clef at about the same time. I was only told the C clef could move around, and that it's common in earlier music. I was surprised the tutor here didn't mention the F / G / C names, it makes them much clearer.
@@jimrodarmel8512 The G clef can move too. It's rare, though, but for recorder-players, it could make things so much easier. Unfortunately, it's not done...sob!
If you are a musician it’s your responsibility to understand the music you read, thanks for showing all these symbols
thank you kind gentleman! making information that is difficult to obtain and digest simple
For the few seconds at 2:16 i recognized that Rachmaninoff song. It's so fun to play! It made me so happy.
I have self-teach myself for years purely by trying to read what the symbols mean and learning how does it affect a piece by listening to a sample or transcribing a piece myself for years. This video got recommended to me and I though I can do some refreshing course with it. Though I didn't expect to reflect on myself and say that I am very grateful to somehow be able to teach myself just through the internet and with the right source.
As a pianist, I did not know: double sharp, sforzando, double whole note, octave signs (on treble/bass clefs), difference between acciaccatura and appoggiatura, alto/tenor clef, down/up bows, rubato. So 41/50. Nice vid man!
He really poorly explained alto and tenor clef. The clef shape shows which line is middle c. On the alto clef, middle c is in the middle of the staff. This means you could move the clef anywhere so that any kind of clef is possible
Perfect video i was looking for explains everything very simple with examples of how it can look.
Amazing explanation!
This video will help a lot of aspiring pianists like me, great video like always matthew :)
Thank you, I’m glad you think it is useful 😊
Extremely helpful! Thanks for sharing.
Great for beginners! Great review for experienced musicians! Very well presented! 😊
The notes we hear don’t line up with the visuals showing turns and inverted turns at 9:22 don’t line up with what we’re actually hearing. What we hear is actually G-A-G-F-G, not F-G-F-E-F. The same goes for mordents at 12:19.
I don’t have perfect pitch, but it threw me for a loop when I expected the semitone from F to E and heard a whole tone!
You are correct! That’s funny 😂 I was clearly not listening properly while editing!
same man
Nope, he definitely plays an F
Very good! I had 50/50. Appreciate the detailed nuances.
Great. High-density information.
Thanks🙏
47/50, orchestra has taught me well :)
Favourite type of Volta in a repeat is when it has a fifth-time repeat bar :D
I had *one* piece like it and it was one that my music teacher came up with himself to torture my classmates and I with
Thank you!
In Norway we call treble clef G clef and the bass F clef. Because they are curled/dotted around their respective G and F. That's how we learn to read them.
In Israel we call them Sol kclef and Fa clef, we study the solfag European way...Do Re MI Fa Sol LA Si Do
...😊
@@kobigerassi5501Us Vietnamese learn the same names!
In the Netherlands we call it g- clef (sleutel(key)) and f clef as well!!
I was taught in the USA but not by classical pianists but old time jam pianists and the would also say G clef and F clef or Treble and bass
I am self-taught at reading notes and playing the keyboard, doing it by ear and by intuition from childhood on, never really knowing if I did things accurate or not, especially when trying to play classical pieces, but I'm not one to want to take actual lessons. I do things "my way" :D
But now I am amazed at how much I turn out to have gotten right just by figuring it out for myself. Nice :)
Knew everything, but it's very very helpful, I wish I had a video like this when I was starting out. Great job!
It’s also useful to call the treble clef the G clef. And bass clef is called F clef. The reason is fairly obvious.
AAA I NEED THIS. I'm writing a ballade and I NEED to know this
I think I knew them all, mostly (I've played both piano and cello), but some were good refreshers of the names (marcato, breve, the differences in grace notes, tenuto, volta, and the coda). Thank you!
I knew 43 symbols. Thank you for the information.
D.C. - Da Capo 14:51
D.S. - Dal Segno 14:57
I'm glad to say that I knew most of these. But there were some that I didn't know, especially the ones that are used for instruments other than the piano. Most of these I learned in High School Music Theory, but a few I learned or relearned on my own, as I would practice reading music and play pieces on the piano.
Thank you Matthew….I love this video🙏🩷
Awesome work
Excellent 🙏🩷
Thankyou for showing us that, saved me a lot of time, I'm not one for giving up but if I thought for a second I could do that, I'd be lying...
Thanks 👍😊
Thank you so much for the inputs. 🌟🌟🌟🙏
You always knock out a belting video Matthew . You explain things clearly and very simply to make everyone understand too many piano youtubers just waffle on and you get lost in what they are trying to explain but not your videos .
Alto and Tenor are both C clefs, the indentation in the symbol sitting on the C line in each case; like the Treble clef curls around the G line, and the serif of the vertical bar or the dots (which were originally horizontal bars) of the bass clef sitting on or surrounding the F line.
time stamps wouldve been so sick bro ty
Why not write the actual note instead of double sharp or double flat
Reasons of the minor or major.
A composition was wrote in a minor or major with flats or sharps if he wrote a 2 sharp in a ( a flat minor)
[Example] that would not be composed correctly and couldn't fully be correct.
This sounds like a video idea.
There are a couple of reasons, but one of the easiest to understand is that a typical scale needs to contain one of each letter (A B C D E F G) and so if you have a section of the music that is using a G# harmonic minor scale (for example) the notes would be G# A# B C# D# E Fx. The 7th note in this scale is a double sharp because if it were a G we would have two forms of G (G and G#) and no forms of F.
Another reason is that particular chords that are being outlined need to retain particular intervals (note distances)…and when used in certain keys and scales, you end up with double sharps and double flats. For example a D major chord contains the notes D F# and A. A D# major chord would need to retain the same note relationships, so it would be D# Fx A#.
That’s not my best explanation, but hopefully that gives you an idea! Maybe there is a video to be made on it 😊
Im pretty sure it depends on the key signature, because you’re not really going to use flats in a signature that has sharps, unless your transitioning from a sharp to flat key signature, same for the opposite. At least I’m pretty sure.
Thank You Very Very Much!
Nice explanation!
🙏🙂💛
🎉 Thank you! I knew most for the piano.
Subscribed. Thanks.
Alla breve also makes music 2 times faster!
Jesus! This is more complicated than I thought :(. Very explicative video, thanks!
MANY, MAANNNYYY THANKS @2:07 for using the word QUIET to equate with the "pp", "p" & "mp" dynamics markings!! It's a "pet peave" of mine, but it IS more accurate to say (in music).
It also corrects the concepts that people have when they say things like: "Turn the music 'UP', I can't hear it because the volume is too 'LOW'!" - - When people say things like that, I know they'll also have a hard time with PITCH being "high/low". 🎉Thank You all the same for your video!!🎉
Whoops! Did I speak too soon? @6:04, you referred to double flats as being "two bs ("B")" - - "Flats" are just that -Flats-! When we call them "b"s, that causes confusion when you call a different note by its letter name. I had a student messed up/confused for days when we were talking about notes in the key of "A-Flat" - - they kept saying, "This is in the key of 'a-B-flat' " instead of just calling it "the key of A-Flat" 🤭. Is it a Brit-thing to call flats "B"s? I fly WAAAAAY off of the handle when my students call sharps - - - HASHTAGS!!!! 😡😡😡 - - It would be like a math teacher allowing students to call pulse signs (+) a "cross" (†) NOPE not the same thing... Or is it not? After all, Christ did go to the cross † so that all who accept His gift of salvation could be "ADDED" to the Kingdom of God, right🤭? Praise God for that! Have a blessed day!
I already understand all of this
Thanks to ABRSM AND THE Trinity College of music London ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Great explanation. I think I have retained about a tenth of it.
Yay! I knew most of them, except for the uniquely string stuff (clarinet player here). Some I didn't know the real name for, ie the grace notes.
11:37 For the Tenuto you should also remember to for percussion and only percussion the tenuto means to accent the note like a marcato but instead of more than an accent, its a little bit less than an accent.
#5... if there has been an F# *in the measure* and it's followed by an F with the natural symbol, then it's a normal F again. Don't need a natural once you get to a new measure, as it is implied by the key signature (although some will add it in parentheses as a courtesy reminder).
No way you took my favorite Beethoven Sonata as example
Thank you for the good initiative. But...have you ever considered making 2 videos with 25 signs? I would not be surprised if anyone more than me woukd be happy.
1:38
And the natural lasts the entire bar unless a sharp/flat is after it for the same note later in the bar.
Thank you so much 👍❤
It is not a greater than sign but a less than sign when you want to characterise the melody with a crescendo
Re: key signatures - they don’t actually tell you what key they’re in. So, say a key signature has F# in it. Yes, it could be G major, but it could also be E natural minor. You wouldn’t know which just from the key signature - you need to look at the notes in the song or piece of music you’re playing and whether that resolves on a G (or G major chord if it uses chords) or E (or E minor chord if it uses chords).
This is great resource ❤
😱 This is hard, so many symbols to remember..but never encountered most of it... Thanks for sharing tho 😊
43. DOWN/UP BOWS
When playing on a pipe organ especially pedalling, down bow symbols indicate that the note is played by a heel, and up bow symbols indicate that the note is played by a toe
Tell me more, what’s the difference? Does it have something to do with how much force you’re pressing on the key?
....:) No wonder why i do Not Play a Musical Instrument...!!!.....Wow, this Stuff is Deep...!!!.....:)......🤩
It’s crazy how I knew all of these and can navigate a piece a sheet music without the need to look anything up
Thank you! This was easy to learn and remember. 💕🎼🎹💕
Terrific video! Just the facts - no embroidery!
OK - you asked! I learned piano from age 14 till 16. After that, I played around a little bit, but pretty-well dropped out of music altogether. I still play the harmonica (very badly), and about 10 years ago, I was given the sheet mucic for Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D min, so I bought a cheap electronic keyboard, and learned it. It took an entire year (my sight-reading is really BAD), but I could finally play it fairly well, I thought. I'm nearly 80 now, but I remembered all the symbols that apply to the piano (you don't have to bow a piano), except two that you surprised me with. (1) A 'turn', I had remembered as being up and down a semitone, rather than a tone, and (2) the Tenuto mark, I had remembered as being half a staccato - the note played for half its length, instead of staccato, where the note is sounded and not allowed to sustain at all
While learning initially, I came across triplets of course, but I never encountered quintuplets or septuplets, thank goodness! I learned Liszt Consolation No. 3, which I was proud of because it has mixed timing, but that was about as far as I got.
Nice video. But I have to advocate for two symbols for organ players. In organ pedalboard notation on the bass clef a V or inverted V indicates to use the toe of the foot and the oval or indicates to use the heel. But there were several other symbols I didn't know.
This is cool!
Excellent Maestro 🎉🎉🎉🎉
50/50... dang i did not know i knew 50 of these
Lets go. I knew 49 out of 50
Treble clef actually tells you where the G is, not the place of the F. It's also called an G-clef, and the bass(?) clef is also called a F-clef, due to it telling the location of F. Same logic on Alto-clef or C-clef, which locates the C.
That was great, thank you!
I enjoyed it.
I knew most except the little star thing after the pedal and arco
Very informative. Thanks
Another banger content as usual 👏
Thank you! 😊
Good explanation. Upload more
As a viola player, I got 35/50. Honestly didn't know I knew that many since I've played for only 4 years.
I have no idea why I watched this(I got 46/50), but I really enjoyed it!
I would like to know why they have those particular shapes, like the history behind the first creation of those symbols before they became standard in music sheets.
Doublet dottet means that the 1e dot half the time is than the note itself the 2e. dot the helft from the 1e dot. So the note sounds 1 3/4 time.
Great video idea 🙌
Thanks! 😊
well made
music is harder than math ... 😶😧😵💫🤓
Improvisa diatonicamenre. Te recomiendo un controlador midi. Y improvisa en formato midi. Allí te darás cuenta de cual es tu "tempo y rítmica". Se te hará más fácil saber emular y escribir el tempo.
But music at school I got full mark and im 1st of music at school
Music is math, math is music
And somehow I’m better at music than math
🤓 ☝️ Well actually math is just language and music is also a language, which means every language you know is just math.
I am relearning piano after failing as a kid. We were taught in musical school that the treble clef starts with a sol (G), not fa (F). We drew it one line higher. Is it a common difference in the way they teach music theory in Europe and the US?
Nope 😊 I was just using the same note for each clef so a comparison can be made.
But treble clef is G clef and that’s why the simple spirals around the G. Bass clef is an F clef which is why the F is between the two dots. Alto and Tenor are both C clefs because the center of the symbol is where you can find a C.
I know it all
Good start for a garage band player
Question zone. You can ask questions to this UA-camr. For example;
1) I think you forgot to mention the "Legato" symbol. And a question, is Legato the same as phrasing marks, ties and slurs?
2) Is "Adagio" a speed marking?
3) If fortepiano (fp) existed, then do we have pianoforte (pf) in music?
In the US we usually say "measures" rather than "bars," although "bars" is used more slangily as in: "I might know that one...Can you hum a few bars?"
The notes in a turn respect the key signature. In a turn or a lower mordant that is based on the tonic in a minor key, does the leading note below the tonic, which is normally sharped as an accidental, get sharped when you play the grace note? It's not part of the key signature but in the body of a minor piece the leading note will often (but not always) be sharped.
49 I knew. The first string one with the bowing marks is the one I didn’t know
tyty this kinda helpful