Timing
Although it isn't absolutely necessary to read music, there are some fundamentals which can't be avoided. It is essential that you learn a bit about timing. The musical staff is divided (by horizontal lines) into sections called measures. Each measure is equal in time value. At the beginning of the staff is the time signature, represented by a fraction. The lower number tells what kind of note gets one beat, the upper number tells how many beats to a measure. The staff below shows three measures. From the time signature we can tell that each measure will be equal to 4 quarter notes. The first measure has a whole note, the second has two 1/2 notes, and the third has four 1/4 notes.
Notes and their time value |
With Anvil Studio, we have the option of entering notes on a musical staff, but there is also another option called Piano Roll. Using this feature, you don't need to read music. If you can find the note on a piano keyboard, you can enter it. It is, however still necessary to understand timing. In the graphic below, we can see one measure in Piano Roll, and the exact same one on a musical staff.
In Piano Roll, the measure is divided into a grid, like graph paper. The size of the grid can be adjusted, in this case, it is in 1/16th note divisions. So we have entered an eighth note " G", eighth note "F", half note "G", and a quarter note "F".