Here is an example of a music score – you can play the audio file below to hear what it sounds like:

This is an extract from the music score for Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes, arranged for piano. The song has become popular as a sports stadium chant. For example at our local Newcastle United football club the fans sing (at the time of writing anyway) “Oh Anthony Gordon”.
But what do all those lines and symbols on the music score mean? How do you get from that to playing the music? Let’s break it down and look at each element in turn.
Read on down the page and follow the links to explore each topic, or if you are in a hurry, here are all the links in one handy place:
Music stave bars and notes; Music clefs; Middle C; Key signatures; Time signatures; Note values; Articulation; Rests; Tempo and style; Dynamics
Music notes are placed on the lines or in the spaces between lines on a music stave which is divided into bars:

Find out more on our page about:
The music clef at the start of each line tells us how to read the musical notes that follow.
Find out more on our page about:

The bass and treble clefs meet at Middle C – click to find out more.

Now, let’s go back to the music score at the top of the page. What is that # symbol that follows the clef symbol at the start of the line?
Find out more on our page about Key signatures
Following the key signature we find two numbers: 4 and 4, one above the other.
Find out more on our page about Time signatures


This is probably a good time to tell you about the different kind of notes and their note lengths or note values.
Find out more on our page about Note values
What about those dots above some of the notes?
FInd out on our page on articulation


Well, you’ve been working very hard learning all about musical notation, so it’s time for a rest…
Read our next page on this topic all about Rests.
Isn’t that a crotchet note symbol? But equals 120? What does that mean?
Find out the answer and more on our page on the topic of Tempo and style


We’ve covered just about everything in our sample music score, apart from the mf between the first treble clef and bass clef bars on the sample music score at the top of the page.
mf stands for mezzo forte which are Italian words telling us to play the music fairly loud. FInd out more on our page on Dynamics
So now you should be able to look again at the sample music score for Seven Nation Army at the top of the page and have some idea of what it all means.
You are now well on your way to being able to read a music score. LIke everything in life, the more you do it the better you will become and the more you will learn!
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