Beginner
Music in our Beginner series includes the following:
- Melody in large format notes containing letters for note names
- Easy keys like C major, G major, and A minor
- Lyrics if the original music includes them
- Chord symbols above the music
This series includes books for treble clef, bass clef, and alto clef
Required Skills
- How to read music notation - While note names are included, you will benefit from understanding how to read rhythms and knowing where the notes are on your instrument
- How to read chord symbols - This is only necessary if you want to accompany yourself with the chords.
Compatibility
Books in this series are designed to work together. Each book is available for treble, bass, and alto clefs. Books with the same title (e.g., Children's Songs) and cover design contain the same music, but for different clefs. Using the books together allows different instruments to play the same music together.
Instruments
The music will work on many different instruments as long as the music is within the range of the instrument. The treble clef version will work on piano, guitar, flute, violin, and other C instruments. The bass clef version can be used with bass guitar, trombone, cello, and other bass clef instruments. The alto clef ebooks will work for instruments like viola, mandola, and other instruments that use alto clef.
Formatting and Layout
The music is larger format than standard sheet music. The size is nearly three times the size of most of our music. This makes it easy to read and allows note names to be included in the noteheads. However, this may increase the number of pages required for the music. This is unavoidable due to the larger size.
Clefs are only shown once at the beginning of the music. Most music includes the clef at the beginning of each line. Unfortunately, this creates problems with spacing in large format music. We omit the clef after the first line to allow the music to fit on fewer pages.
Key signatures are included if the music is in a key other than C major or A minor. Like clefs, key signatures are also only shown at the beginning of the music to help with spacing.
Range
While the music is within a reasonable range for most instruments and voice, it isn't guaranteed to work on all instruments.
You may be able to play the music an octave higher or lower on your instrument if the melody includes notes out of your instrument's range.
Difficulty Level and Simplifications
The sheet music is generally easy, but some music (e.g., classical themes) may be more challenging. For example, this music may include faster tempos and rhythms like triplets and 16th notes.
Some music may be simplified to allow it to be played by less experienced players. Simplifications might include making the rhythm easier (e.g., doubling rhythms to get rid of 16th notes) or reducing the number of chord changes. Occasionally, music may be reduced to an excerpt to include only the simpler part of a longer song or piece. Note that these changes aren't made in all cases. If the change would make the music more difficult in other ways, we generally leave the rhythms unchanged.
Chords
Chord symbols are included above the music. The chords may be simplified somewhat to allow them to be played by beginners. We try to preserve the character of the music as much as possible when altering the chords.
Lyrics
We generally include up to six verses within the music. However, we may show fewer verses within the music for some titles to prevent layout problems. Verses not shown in the music are included as text at the end of the music.
Lyrics may vary from the version you know. Some songs have many variations in lyrics, which may not be standardized. It isn't always possible to create a version of the lyrics that is familiar to everyone.
Tempo
Most titles include a text tempo and metronome marking. The metronome tempos are editorial suggestions in most cases. Feel free to choose your own tempo.