How To Read Sheet Music

The music in most albums and sheet music is written for singing or for playing on many different musical instruments, so you need to know which parts are for the piano. The first bars of a typical piece of sheet music normally look something like this below,, with the melody line shown over the piano part. It's important that you understand this part of my piano lessons before proceeding to the next.

As you can see here in this part of the piano lesson, the 'top line' gives the melody for singing, or playing on other instruments. The part you would normally play on the piano is shown separately underneath.

The piano part also gives the melody in most sheet music, so you can play it as a 'piano solo'. However, occasionally the piano part is an accompaniment or 'backing' which is meant only for playing with another instrument or with a singer

The backing on its own is not suitable for playing as a piano solo, so check that the melody is included in the piano part before you buy music, if you intend to play the whole tune on the piano. (You can do this by comparing the upper line of the piano part with the 'top line'. If these two lines appear similar, the piano music includes the melody, even though there may be more notes in the piano part.)

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