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Having the ability to read and recognize music note symbols is an important part of a musician’s musical education. Being able to quickly recognize a note, rest, or any other music symbol helps the musician to successfully navigate a piece of music and understand exactly what’s happing in a piece of music.

The types of music symbols that a musician may come across in a piece of music are notes, note values, rests, dotted notes, dotted rests, repeat signs, sharps, flats, naturals, and all types of chords. All of these symbols are the roadmap in which musicians must recognize in order to read a piece of music.

Let’s take a look at each of these symbols and start applying them to our music.

Types of Music Note Symbols

Standard Note Values

Note values tell a musician how long to hold out a note in a piece of music. Here are some of the notes you will encounter:

A whole note is an oval shaped note with a hole in the center..

A half note is similar to a whole note in that it is has the same oval shape, but this note has a staff that connects to the note and can goes either up or down.

A quarter note is similar to a half note. Instead of the center of the note being cut out it’s filled in.

An eighth note looks like a quarter note with one flag connected to the stem.

The sixteenth note is similar to an eighth note, but rather than having only one stem, the sixteenth note has two stems.

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Rests

A rest is similar to the music note symbols that we discussed above, however the difference with a rest is that it represents silence. A standard note shows how long to hold out a tone, but a rest shows how long to hold out silence.

A whole rest is a small rectangular box that that sits on a staff line and points down.

A half rest is identical to the whole rest except this rest points up.

A quarter rests is a music note symbol that looks like a squiggle mark and represents one beat of silence.

An eighth rest is a small dash with one flag pointing to the left.

A sixteenth rest is similar to an eighth rest but the has two flags.

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Dotted Notes and Rests

Dotted notes are important when reading music in that it directs the musician on how long to hold out a note or rest. Dots can be added to both standard music note symbols and rests.

The Dot is used to add time to the original note that is being played.

For example, if you were playing a dotted half note you would play the original two beats of the half note, and then add half of the amount of time of the half note. The dotted half note would then last three beats. You play the two beats of the half note, and then add one more beats for half of that note giving you three beats.

This can also be applied to rests. If you have a dotted half rest, you will rest for three beats. Use the two beats of the half rest, and then add half of that two beats which would give you another beat, for a total of three beats of silence.

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Repeat Signs

Repeat signs are important in music because they give the musician a roadmap of where they are supposed go in the piece of music.

It guides the musicians when to stop, when to repeat back to the beginning, and general directions on where to go in the piece of music. You wouldn’t drive to an unknown destination without a map, and you wouldn’t play a piece of music without repeat signs and other important directional information.

The three main type of repeat signs are the basic Repeat Sign, the Coda Sign, and the Segno. These three signs are touched on in more detail here.

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Sharps, Flats, and Naturals

A sharp is a music note symbol that looks like a number sign. It represents changing the tone of the note up on half-step. If a note is sharp, it tells us that we have to move to the note directly to the right.

For example: If you are on a D note, and want to make it sharp, move to the note directly to the right which will be D sharp.

A flat, is the looks like a lowercase b and is the exact opposite of a sharp. Instead of moving to the note to the right, we move to the note directly to the left. So if we want to flat a D note, we will be playing D flat, which is the black note to the left of D.

A Natural tells the musician that rather than playing a sharp or a flat, they are to play the natural note. If the music normally calls for a Db, adding the natural sign means to play a D instead.

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Chords

When you see three or more notes stacked one on top of another, you have a chord. Almost all chords are represented by three notes. These three notes also called a triad. This tells you to play these three or more notes simultaneously.

Here is some more great information on chords.

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Understanding music notes symbols is vital when reading music. They give the musician direction, guide them on how long to hold out notes, and guides them on how long to add silence. They also give the musician important information on what notes are to be played such as sharps or flats.

Knowing these key elements is essential to learning and understanding how to play piano.

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A key component of learning musical theory is learning each music key signature. Have you ever heard a band playing and one of the members screams out “What key are we in?” That is the most important question when playing a song.

Every song is played in a particular key which contains a certain number of sharps and flats. A sharp is indicated with a # sing and a flat is a written as a lower case b.

When determining the key of a song the musician needs to look toward the beginning of the sheet music where near the treble and bass clef sign. Near these signs you will see the notes in which will be sharp in a song and which ones will be flat.

Sharp Key Signature

In sharp key signatures there are a certain number of sharps that make up the scale in that key. You always start on the root note of the scale. The rest of the key signature is built off of one root note.

Look at the image below and you will see the notes that make up each sharp key signature.

Flat Key Signature

Using a flat music key signature is similar to sharps. Start on the root note of key and then build the key on that note with the correct number of flats. The image below shows the notes that are to be lowered in those flat keys.

Key Signatures In Sheet Music

If you remember the image from above with the sharp signs on the sheet music, you will notice that key signatures are located on the very left side of a piece of sheet music. you can count the number of sharps or flats and compare them to the charts above.

Here is a diagram that will show you all of key signatures and how they look on a piece of sheet music. It is a good idea to remember these so you can quickly recognize these with ease.

Sharp Key Signatures

Flat Key Signatures

Minor Key Signatures

For each major key signature there is also a Minor key signature or scale that correlates with that key.

The Major key that has no sharps or flats is the key of C Major, and the Minor key that has no sharps or flats is the key of A Minor.

Look at the image and you can see the Minor Key Signature and the notes for those keys.

Sharp Minor Key Signatures

Flat Minor Key Signatures

How to build a Music Key Signature

If you study each of these keys signatures you can begin to see a pattern in each of them. Each key is composed of seven notes that correlate to that key. Each key is built by using the following whole step and half step patterns.

W – W – H – W – W – W – H

Start on the root note of the key and then follow this whole step, half step pattern. This works with any music key signature and is an easy way to find a what notes are in each key.

Take time to memorize each key and the key signature. Memorizing the notes in a key, and what the key looks like on a piece of sheet music helps tremendously to quickly pick out the notes in a key.

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Music intervals are the distance between two notes and their relationship to each other.

This basically means how far one note is to the other when being played.

For example, the distance between a C and a D would be a major second. We will go over what this means in a minute.

Why in the world would you want to know this? Because knowing music intervals and being able to recognize them when you hear and see them will help you tremendously when playing an instrument.

Say for instance you are playing a song by ear and you are trying to quickly play the melody. If you know your intervals you’ll be able to play it back easily.

Types of Intervals

Threre are two types of intervals in the music world. Harmonic and Melodic.

Harmonic

A Harmonic interval is when the notes are played at the same time. Like when a choir sings they are singing harmony. So when these notes are played together they are harmonic intervals.

Melodic

Melodic intervals are when the notes are played separately or one after the other.

Think of the tune of your favorite song. How does the singer change from one note to the next. This is a melodic interval.

These types of intervals are going to be te beginning part of your ear training experience. Once you get better you will be able to recognize harmonic intervals.

Naming the Distance

Naming each one of these intervals is important so you can associate a name with each of them in order to communicate them with others you are playing with and also so you can have anther method of recognition.

Major and Minor Second

Each interval will have a starting note and an ending note. the first note is going to be known as the root note.

So lets start with C and assume we are in the key of C. C will be our reference note for naming all of the intervals.

So start with C and go up to the next note in the key of C which is D. (If you need help with keys go to my lessons on key signatures.)

You have gone up to the second note which is called a major second. Which is two half steps away from C. Pretty easy right.

But what about the black note in between the the C and the D? Take a look at the keyboard and you will see what I mean.

That black note in between the C and the D is called a Minor Second or one half step away from C. Minor Seconds are 1 half step away from the root note and Major Seconds are 2 half steps away.

An easy way to remember the difference between a major and a minor is if the note belongs in the key then it is a major, if it doesn’t then its a minor.

D belongs in the key of C so it s a Major Second. This black note (Db/C#) does not so its a Minor Second.

Major and Minor Third

The same concept goes for the the next note intervals. The distance from the C to the E is four half steps which is called a Major Third. But there is another black note directly to the left of the E. You guessed it! The Eb/D# note is a Minor Third or three half steps.

Perfect Fourth

The next note in the scale of C is the F. So if you count up the scale of C the F would be the fourth note in the scale. This interval is called a Perfect Fourth.

Perfect music intervals cannot be major or minor but it can be augmented or diminished.

When a note is augmented it means that a perfect note has been raised one half step. A note that is diminished it means that a perfect note has been lowered one half step.

Perfect Fifth

A perfect fifth is the fifth note in the scale or seven half steps.

Augmented Fourth/ Diminished Fifth

So we have named all of the music intervals so far except for the F#/Gb.

Based on what you’ve learned so far you would think to call this a minor fifth right?

If you remember, we learned that perfect music intervals cannot be minored it can only be augmented or diminished.

With the definition of augmented and diminished music intervals this tells us that this interval is going to be called either a diminished fifth or an augmented fourth. You can call it either one. It is called an augmented fourth because it is raised one half step from the fourth. The same goes for the diminished fifth. It is lowered one half step from the fifth so it is called a diminished fifth.

Minor and Major Sixth

The distance between the C and A is going to be called a Major Sixth. This is because if you count up the notes in the key of C you will notice that the A is the sixth note in the scale.

What about the note to the left of the A? You guessed it. Its the Minor Sixth.

Minor and Major Seventh

The same thing goes for the Seventh note in the key of C. The B is called the Major Seventh and the note to the left of the B is called the Minor Seventh.

Unison

We have gone all the way up the B and now get to another C. When you play two notes that are the same this is called Unison.

This means the distance from two identical notes is called Unison.

Naming the Half Steps

I have explained all of this in a way that you might understand it better. But to really understand the theory behind music intervals you have to understand the number of half steps it takes to get to that note.

So here is a list of the number of half steps it takes to form that interval.

• 1 half step = minor second
• 2 half steps = major second
• 3 half steps = minor third
• 4 half steps = major third
• 5 half steps = perfect fourth
• 6 half steps = augmented fourth/ diminished fifth
• 7 half steps = perfect fifth
• 8 half steps = minor sixth
• 9 half steps = major sixth
• 10 half steps = minor seventh
• 11 half steps = major seventh

Conclusion

The thing you must know about intervals is that there is a set of intervals for each key signature.

We worked in the key of C in this example. But if you are playing in another key like Ab then you must know the intervals for that key.

You just do the same thing we did before with that key. Count up the notes in the scale to find the interval.

Now that you know the theory behind Music Intervals you can now start to practice using them. Once you have mastered these intervals it will help you to play music better by ear and know how a song goes just by hearing it. To help you with your ear training you can go to my section on Interval Recognition (coming soon!) to help you to have a better ear for music.

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Diminished Chords have a unique sound all their own. They are very dissonant and have a mysterious unique sound. When I first learned to play this chord I thought it sounded a little unnatural, like it wouldn’t fit right in a song.

They do have a place in a lot of songs though. They can be a great transition chord, and also give a song a unique sound.

We are going to talk about how to build, play, and recognize this piano chord in music.

So let’s get started!

What is a Diminished Chord?

These piano chords are diversions of a major chord, and can easily be made by first building a major chord. The major chord is made up of the firsts, third, and fifth notes in the major scale.

In the key of C the notes would be: C, E, F

To make a chord diminished, you need to turn the major chord into a minor chord.

If you remember from our lesson on minor chords, you can easily make one by moving the third note in the scale down one half-step.

With the third note moved down, you have a minor chord with the notesC, Eb, and G.

Now that you have a minor chord, to finish the chord, just lower the fifth note in the scale down one half step to get a diminished chord.

The notes in this chord are now C, Eb, and Gb.

The easiest way to make diminished chords is to take the fifth and third notes in the scale and move them both down one half-step.

Take a look at the image above, and you can see how we found the third and fifth note in the key of C, and the lowered them a half-step. We moved from a major chord, to the a diminished in two easy steps!

Diminished Formula

You can make a simple formula to remember the notes in this chord. Simply number the notes in the scale like in the chart below. We put a Roman Numeral for each note in the key of C.

To create diminished, keep the root note, or Roman Numeral I the same. Then use a flat III (bIII), and lastly a flat V (bV).

You can see in the image that we are moving from the III and V to the note directly to the left.

This tells us the formula is: I – bIII – bV

Using this formula can make building a diminished chord a lot easier. If you want to make the chord in keys other than the key of C, you can use the formula to make it a lot easier.

Even if you don’t know the notes in the scale, just remember to flat the third and the fifth note of the major chord and you will have a diminished chord.

How It’s Played

The fingering for this piano chord is identical to a major chord.

You will use the first finger on the root note. In this case it is on C.

The third finger will be on the E flat, and the fifth finger will be on the G flat.

It makes it a whole lot easier to play this chord because the fingering is identical to a major chord. Slide your fingers one note directly to the left and you are note right notes

Sheet Music

Take a look at the image, and see how this chord looks on a piece of sheet music.

As you can see, there are two flats in this chord. This is where we get lowering the third and fifth note in the major chord.

If you compare the major and diminished, you will see that they are made up of the same notes C, E, G.

The only difference here, is that the diminished has the two flats on the top two notes. This is where the comparison to the major chord comes into practice.

Almost all chords can be built off of the major chord. If you can build a major chord you can build just about any piano chord. If you learn the formula for each chord, you can make just about any chord you want.

Let’s listen to this chord in action. The chord sounds a little strange. It is very mysterious sounding.

Listen to the dissonance in Diminished Sounding Chords.

Where To Use It?

I love using this chord as a transition chord. It can easily be used as a walk up chord from a V chord to a minor VI chord.

If you don’t understand the numbers, let’s talk about what it means.

Let’s say we are in the key of C. The fifth chord in the key of C is a G major.

If the chord chart asks you to play an A minor directly after a G major, you can use Diminished Chords to transition between the two.

Between the G major and A minor, add an A flat Diminished to give it a walk up feel.

This is a great way to add a little flare into a song. And it is really easy too!

If you noticed, all you had to do was move your thumb up one half-step to transition between the G major and the A flat diminished.

Take a look at the image to see what it looks like on sheet music.

You can use this walk-up in any key. Start on the V chord in the scale, move you thumb up one half step, and then end on the minor VI chord. This works every time!

Diminished Chords Symbols

There are two main ways to express diminished chords, with the standard dim, and also with the less common o.

The dim is used more commonly then the o, but both can be used interchangeably.

An Edim chord and and Eo chord are both identical piano chords. They both represent a diminished chord.

Make sure that you are able to recognize both of these symbols and that you now that both of these mean the same chord.

Diminished Chords have a different sound, and aren’t used as often as other chords. They are very useful to know and can create neat sounding chord progressions.

Make sure to get familiar with these chords in all the different keys.

Need more help learning chords? Learn almost every chord you’ll ever need with our Piano Chord Encyclopedia.

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The Dorian Scale is the second of seven musical modes. The Dorian Mode is commonly used by Rock musicians. Jazz musicians also use it to get those great Blues sounds.

This mode is the second inversion of themajor scale. Rather than playing this scale like a regular major scale, it is inverted to the second note in the scale rather than the root.

Let’s look at how to build a this mode, and how to easily add it into a piece of music.

What Is The Dorian Mode?

This scale can also be refereed to as the dorian mode. A mode is is a derivative, or alteration, of a major scale.

Instead of playing the major scale in its root position, this scale is played starting on another note.

For example, the D Dorian Mode is the is the second derivative of the C Major Scale.

Rather then playing the C Major Scale starting on C, you will play a the same notes starting and ending on D.

This is the whole premises behind a dorian scale.

We know that the C major scale is made up of the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.

In order to make D dorian, we need to play those same notes, starting and ending on D.

This would make the notes in the Dorian D scale D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D

Notice that the notes are exactly the same as in the c major scale, they are just start on D instead.

Dorian Mode Patterns

All scales have a set pattern of whole steps and half steps that can be easily followed to make any scale.

The pattern for the dorian scale is a little different from the major scale. This is why this scale sounds so different. The intervals, or distance between notes are different, making the sound of the scale unique.

The pattern for the major scale looks like this:Whole Step – Whole Step – Half Step – Whole Step – Whole Step – Whole Step – Half Step

The pattern for the dorian mode is:Whole Step – Half Step – Whole Step – Whole Step – Whole Step – Half Step – Whole Step

Listen to the difference between the dorian mode and the major scale. You will notice a big difference between the sound of the two scales because of the different intervals they each have..

Major Scale
<<Here In Flash Audio Player>>

Dorian Scale
<<Here In Flash Audio Player>>

Making A Dorian Scale

There are a couple of different ways to build a dorian mode rather then memorizing the pattern of half-steps and whole-steps.

The first one starts with altering the notes in the major scale.

Take a look at the two scales below. You can see where the difference lies between the two scales. The D Major scale has a sharp third and sharp seven. The notes would be D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#

In the D dorian scale, there is a flat third and flat seven. This gives us the notes D, E, F, G, A, B, C. If you notice, these are the same notes that are in the C Major Scale.

This is an easy way of finding a dorian scale in any key.

First build the major scale in that key, then flat the third and seventh note.

Quick Tip!

To make a Dorian Scale, build a major scale, and flat the 3rd and 7th!

Another Approach

Another way to find the notes in this scale is to go a whole step down from the dorian mode you are in.

Use D Dorian again as an example. If you want to know the notes in D dorian, just move a whole step, or major second down from D. A whole step down from D is C, this means that the notes in the key of C are the notes in the D dorian mode.

Let’s use G dorian as another example. A whole step down from G is F. This means that the notes in the F Major Scale are the same notes that make up G dorian.

Notes In Each Dorian Scale

Here is a quick chart you can use to find all the notes in each dorian mode quickly and easily.

You can also see the notes on the staff for each of the scales. You can download and print a PDF copy like they are below if you click here.

Isn’t It Just A C Major Scale?

I know your thinking….. “Why does all of this make any difference if I’m still just playing in the key of C Major?

The difference is in where the song resolves, or where the tonal center of the song is. The tonal center for a C major scale is C. In D dorian, the tonal center is going to be D. This means that the entire song is going to revolve around D, rather than C.

This is where people get confused with modes. Instead of thinking of the dorian scale as an alternate C scale, you need to think of it as its own scale in itself. The tonal center of the song is now D, you are just playing the same notes that are in the C major scale.

Make sure that you use D as your new point of influence, and use the notes of the C scale to add flavor to the song.

Let’s Play ‘Em

Now let’s talk about how to incorporate these modes into a song.

The root chord in the dorian mode is a minor7 chord. If you remember from the image above, the dorian mode has a b3 and b7. When we build the root chord for this scale we will use the first, third, fifth, and seventh notes in the scale.

That means, that in d dorian, we will use D, F, A, C to create a Dmin7chord.

With this chord being our new center for the song, we can now use any note in the C scale to improvise or solo.

Using Modes With Chords

Dorian is great because it can be used in a lot of different genres of music.

Pretty much anytime you see a min7 chord, you can use the dorian mode to play over that chord. Use dorian over the chord you are playing to make a great blues sounding solo.

Let’s say that you are playing a song that has a vamp that switches between a Dmin7 chord and an Amin7 chord. You can easily use D dorian and A dorian to create a seamless solo.

Another important thing to remember about dorian is the dominant seven note. The dominant seven note is the cornerstone of the dorian scale.

Its that b7 we were talking about earlier.

This is what gives the scale its flavor. Use it frequently in solos to give the song it’s dorian sound.

Adding The Blues

The best part about the dorian scale is creating a bluesy sound. There is a lot of natural blues in the scale already. The b3 and b7 give it that sound naturally.

But, to really give it a boost of blues, you can add the b5 into the mix.

Quick Tip!
Add the b5 note for an awesome Blues sound!

The flat 5 is the fourth note in the blues scale. It add a a lot of soul into the dorian scale.

Use this note as a grace note by quickly sliding from the b5 to it neighboring note to give a great blues sound.

Moving Forward

Make sure when you are playing in the dorian mode that are careful to use dorian as the root. You may be playing the notes in another key, but dorian becomes the new tonal center for the song.

Keeping the center of the song in its original key and playing dorian won’t do a lot of good. Make sure that you keep the root of dorian the center for the best results.

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