Musicianship Monthly #16: The Basics of Music Notation

Can you believe that May is almost here? The start of a new month means it is time for a new Musicianship Monthly post!

What is "Musicianship Monthly?" Each month, I share links to free resources you can use to focus on a specific musicianship skill with your students. (Want to see past skills we have covered? Click HERE!)

This month, we will be practicing the basics of music notation! I am sharing several free worksheets that will help students become pros at drawing clefs, time signatures, and notes on the staff.

Keep reading for your free notation worksheets!

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Learning to notate music is like learning to write in a foreign language. It takes lots of practice to help students learn to draw clefs and to learn the rules for notating notes and stems correctly.

These "Notation Station" worksheets will help give your students practice with those skills, and more! Click on the images below to download your free notation worksheets.

Worksheet #1: Drawing clefs, line notes, and space notes

Worksheet #2: Stem direction

Worksheet #3: Drawing complete measures

Looking for more worksheets that practice notation skills? Check out these freebies too:

• Musical Jumbles: students unscramble and re-write measures from familiar songs.
• Landmark Note Worksheets: students practice identifying and drawing landmark notes on the staff. 3 sets of worksheets: Set 1, Set 2, Set 3.
• Roll the Dice Intervals: students practice drawing intervals up to a sixth on the staff.
  
• There are also 10 free composition worksheets on the "Free Stuff" section of my website that give students practice notating melody and/or harmony on the staff.  (Scroll down to "Improv, Composition, and Theory Worksheets.")

What do you think? How do you teach the basics of music notation to your students? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments!