Tempo refers to the speed a piece of music is played at, learn more in this free lesson.

Bar numbers are shown at the start of each line of a score. Learn about specific features of these here.

These are the 'blobs' and 'x's you see scattered about drum kit notation and different forms of note head mean different things. Learn more in this free lesson.

Bar lines are used to communicate structural information, here you will learn about the different types commonly used.

Some quick tips on how our sheet music is laid out

An explanation of the marking you sometimes see after the tempo that changes the way notation is read.

A lesson explaining how to notate two of the same note played at the same time.

Structure markings are shown in the left margin to help keep your place, learn about the abbreviations used here.

A way of repeating large sections of music that involve returning to that start of a piece. This lesson includes two example pieces.

A form of notation used to show repition of large parts of music that involve jumping back to a specific point in the song.

Some brief notes on what accents are and the '>' notation.

This form of repeat can be used to indicate repetition of single bars.

Sometimes when repeating a phrase the last bar or so may need to be different on one occurance. This notation accounts for that by placing a bracket with a number above those bars.

To save space when notating double bar lines with dots can be used to show sections that are played multiple times. Learn about the notation and theory of that here.

A detailed exaplanation on how drums are notated.

A detailed drum kit notation guide on how cymbals are transcribed.

A detailed guide on how drums are notated.

Some quick tips to help you learn a piece of music from sheet music.

A brief introduction on drum kit notation.

Dan Brigstock gives some advice on the learning process when using sheet music.