The basics of reading music are really quite simple to grasp. Music notation is like a code begging to give up its wealth of knowledge to you. There are two things the notes will tell you: how long they last, and how high or low they will sound. When it comes to how long the note will last, there are 4 basic types of notes you will need to know to help your child through his or her first 6-12 months.

To start we need to learn a few words (Please keep in mind these are not exact dictionary definitions but are intended for quick success for parents.)

Staff: The musical staff has 5 lines and 4 spaces, The musical staff is the canvas on which we write our music.

Beat: A beat is a measurement of time in music. It can measure sound or silence. Whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes/rests are measured in beats. You'll see examples of this in the next few pages.

Rest: A rest is a physical representation of silence on the page

Time Signature: This is printed at the start of the music and will be represented like a fraction, either 4/4 or 3/4. For our purposes you must know that the top number tells you how many beats are in one measure of music. 4/4 is the most common time signature and because it is sometimes it is represented with a C, which is simply short for Common time.

Measure: For our purposes, a measure of music will be a musical staff with lines on either end. Depending on the time signature, these will have either 3 or 4 beats.

Measure Line: Also called a bar line, these are lines at the beginning and end of a measure.

Tempo: The tempo is the speed of the music. Tempo is measured in beats.

Pitch: Pitch is how high or low a sound sounds.

Note: A note is a physical representation of sound on the page. It has two values. One is its duration, which is measured in beats. The other is how high or low it is on the musical staff, which tells us its pitch.
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Below is a picture of the musical staff. At the beginning we have the treble clef, but for our purposes we don't need to know what this is now. After that we have a C that stands for common time which is 4/4. This means that there are 4 beats in a measure. If it was 3/4 there would be three beats in a measure. Please note that there are 5 lines and 4 spaces on the musical staff.

Lets start the journey, Next Please!