Musical Notation

Music notation simply refers to the system of reproducing musical sounds in writing. It is simply the art of writing music.

Types of Music Notation

There are several methods of writing music, but at this level, we shall study only two types: staff Notation and Solfa Notation.

Solfa notation involves the use of musical sounds such as d;r:m:f:s :l:t:d. Whenever we write musical sounds with these seven letters, it is solfa notation.

Staff notation is the method of writing musical sounds on the staff or staves using symbols called musical notes, e. g.

A Staff is also called stave. It consists of five horizontal lines and four spaces between the lines, e g

The lines and spaces of the staff are counted upwards beginning with the lowest.

Music is thus written on the lines and in the spaces of the staff as shown below.

EVALUATION

1. Define music notation
2. Write the two types of music notation studied in this lesson.
3. Describe (i) solfa notation (ii) staff notation.