Musical notation

Okay kiddo, so you know how when we talk or write, we use letters and words to communicate with each other? Well, musicians use something called musical notation to communicate with each other too, but instead of letters and words, they use symbols and shapes to show how to play a piece of music.

Let's start with the most basic symbol: the note. A note is a little circle or oval shape with a stem on it. Depending on where the note is on the staff (that's the five lines musicians write music on), it tells the musician what pitch to play.

Now, pitch is like how high or low a sound is. You know how you can sing a low note and a high note? That's pitch! So, the higher up the note is on the staff, the higher the pitch of the sound.

But that's not all! Notes also have different shapes to tell you how long to hold the sound. A whole note is like a circle with no stem, and you hold it for four beats. A half note is also a circle, but with a stem, and you hold it for two beats. A quarter note looks like a circle with a stem and a little flag, and you hold it for one beat.

There are lots of other symbols too, like rests (which tell you when not to play any sound) and dynamics (which tell you how loud or soft to play).

So all of these little symbols and shapes are like a secret code that musicians use to read and play music together. Pretty cool, huh?