'Spend less time learning, more time playing.'

The Complete Guide to Reading Music is a practical companion for learning how to read standard music notation with confidence.

Structured and developed as a 'Classroom in a Book' by professional educator, composer, and veteran Royal Marines musician, James Strange, this book is divided into two sections which organise how we read and play music through: (1) Tonality (i.e. pitch) and; (2) Time (i.e. rhythm).

Section One: Tonality (scales and notes)

You will learn to identify pitch from the clef, name notes accurately and build scales. We then bring these elements together to understand key signatures and the tonal centre. By the end of this section, you will be able to read notes on the stave, pitch notes through clef recognition, confidently identify key signatures, and construct scales.

Section Two: Time (tempo, note values, and rhythm)

We examine how music is organised into beats and bars using time signatures, and how rhythmic subdivision shapes the feel within a melodic construct. You will confidently read and perform common and compound time signatures, syncopation, ties, and rests.

This guide aims to keep learning as practical and measurable as possible.

Across the book you’ll find:

• hundreds of musical extracts
• regular checkpoints
• hands-on tasks
• short-answer questions
• multiple-choice quizzes
• numerous ‘tips and tricks’ to aid understanding
• Each chapter is summarised to solidify learning, with answers and feedback for all assessments at the back of the book to track progress.