When you first see a page of music, it means nothing at all.  It doesn't seem to bear any relationship to the sounds you hear when listening to music or playing by ear.  It is worth learning how to read the music, however, because you can then expand your repertoire.  You will be able to play tunes that neither you nor your friends have ever heard before.  That would be quite something, wouldn't it?

The music is written on an arrangement of five lines and four spaces which is called the STAFF.  There are two staffs used in writing music, just as an accordion has two keyboards.  The piano keyboard played with the right hand is the TREBLE keyboard and the button keyboard on an accordion is the BASS keyboard.

At the beginning of one of the staffs, you see a long curved symbol which goes below and above the staff.  This is the TREBLE CLEF and lets you know that these notes are to be played on the treble keyboard.  The other staff has a back to front C with two dots.  This is the BASS CLEF and lets you know that these notes are to be played on the button keyboard.

To start our lesson on how to read music for beginners, we are only going to play and read 8 notes for the treble keyboard.  These are C D E F G A B C, which are the first eight white keys on the keyboard below your chin. When you can read and play these, you can play the scale of C Major.

The first C that you read is not on the staff at all, but is written on a line below the treble staff.  D is in the space between C and the first line, E is on the first line, F in the space above, G on the second line, A in the space above G, B on the third line, and C in the space above B.  You can then continue up the staff in the same way, repeating the notes until you reach G on the space above the top line.

Write these notes on the staff and then play them. 

You also need to know how long to hold each note for.  A musical beat is about one second long and the note that lasts for one beat is called a crotchet.  It is a black note with a stem.  If you are to hold the note for two beats, it is called a minim - this is a white note with a stem.  If you see a minim with a dot after it, this is a dotted minim and is worth 3 beats.  Finally, a white note with no stem is called a SEMIBREVE and is worth four beats.

Now you are beginning to get the idea of how to read music for beginners.  Look at some simple tunes and try to play them by reading the notes.  Good luck!