Every sheet music score, no matter how simple or complex, begins with the same building blocks: music notes. They are the symbols that tell us what pitch to play and how long to play it, forming the foundation of every melody and harmony you've ever heard. Learning how to write music notes is the first step in reading and composing your own sheet music.
In this guide, we'll break down everything you need to know about music notes: their names, how to read them on the staff, the different types of notes by duration, and how accidentals shape pitch.
What is a musical note?
A musical note is a written symbol that represents a single sound with a specific pitch and a specific duration. The position of the note on the staff tells you the pitch (how high or low the sound is), and the shape of the note tells you how long to hold it. Together, these two pieces of information are everything you need to play any note in a score.
Sheet music examples showing notes with different pitches and durations.
Music note names by pitch and the staff
Western music uses seven note names that repeat across the keyboard: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. In solfège, these same notes are called Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si. After G (or Si), the pattern starts over with A again, but one octave higher.
These 7 natural notes plus 5 sharps and flats give us the 12 pitches that make up all Western music. You can see all 12 pitches laid out on the piano keyboard below: 7 white keys for the natural notes, and 5 black keys for the sharps and flats between them.
Notes that go above or below the standard 5-line staff are written on ledger lines: short horizontal lines added above or below the staff to extend its range. This is how we write high or low notes that wouldn't otherwise fit.
The clef at the start of the staff tells you which notes the lines and spaces represent. For the treble clef, the lines from bottom to top are E, G, B, D, F (Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge) and the spaces spell F, A, C, E. For the bass clef, the lines are G, B, D, F, A (Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always) and the spaces are A, C, E, G.
Types of music notes by duration
The shape of a note tells you its duration: how long the sound lasts. The basic note values double or halve each other. A whole note lasts twice as long as a half note, which lasts twice as long as a quarter note, which lasts twice as long as an eighth note, and so on down to sixteenth and thirty-second notes. Each note value also has a matching rest symbol for the same length of silence.
A dot after a note adds half of that note's value. A dotted half note, for example, is worth three beats (2 + 1) instead of two. Dots can stack: a double-dotted note adds half plus a quarter of the original duration.
Accidentals: sharps, flats, and naturals
Accidentals are symbols placed before a note that raise or lower its pitch by one or two half-steps. There are five accidentals you need to know: sharp (♯) raises a note by one half-step, flat (♭) lowers it by one half-step, natural (♮) cancels a previous sharp or flat, double sharp raises by two half-steps, and double flat lowers by two half-steps.
Two notes can sound the same pitch but be written differently: F♯ and G♭ are the same sound on the piano. These are called enharmonic equivalents. Which one you use depends on the key signature and the musical context of the passage you're writing.
Start writing your own sheet music
Notes are the heart of every score. Once you know the note names on the staff, the different note durations, and how accidentals work, you have everything you need to start writing your own sheet music. The best way to learn is to practice: open a notation tool, place a few notes on the staff, and hear them back. Start composing in Flat and put what you've learned into practice today.