Nowadays, to show someone the music you want them to play, you write it down. Written music is called “notation”. Look at these examples of music notation.

Guido of Arezzo’s hand

In about AD1050, Guido invented a way of using his hand to signal to his choir members which note to sing. From the picture you can see that it was a difficult system to learn, but it worked very well once you knew it. In fact Guido’s idea has been adapted and used by choirmasters for a thousand years.

Single line notation

By using a line, with notes above and below it, composers could give a good idea of how their tunes were supposed to go. The next step was to use more lines, and the spaces between, so that the notes were placed more exactly.

Church music written around AD1480

This beautiful score was written, by hand, over 500 years ago. It uses four lines and three spaces. The notes and words are written with a thick nib in “italic” style. You can easily see how the melody goes up and down.

THINGS TO DO

Ask pupils to notate the song or chant they have made up using just one line.

* Draw a straight line across the page. Write the words of their song underneath, not too close to each other, not too close to the line.

* Put a blob at the start of the line to represent the first note of the song. Go to the next note - if it’s higher, put it above the line. If it’s lower, put it below. The higher or lower the note, the further away from the line. This is how notation started.

* Look at their notated song. Is it exact enough to remind them of their song if they forget it? Is it exact enough for someone else to sing?

* Consider this: when composers write music, they are aiming to tell the performer which notes to play or sing, and how long each note should be. What else may they want to tell the performer?