When it comes to mastering the flute, reading flute sheet music and playing the flute are two completely different skill sets. While sheet music for the flute may look like piano sheet music at a quick glance, there are added notations that reflect the distinctive way each instrument is played.
The Dynamics of Flute Playing
While playing the piano is mostly dictated by the musician’s fingers, playing the flute affects the musician’s fingers, breath control, and tongue. Fingers control the pitch, or music notes, while breath and tongue separations control the note length and rhythm. Breath mechanics can affect the shades and feelings of a particular musical phrase.
The Basics of Flute Sheet Music
Sheet music for this whimsical instrument exhibits its higher pitch range and displays added notation to express the different ways to handle the flute while playing.
The Treble Clef
Staff notation for the flute is built on the treble clef staff. This staff is made up of five lines and four spaces that act as place markers for musical notes. The treble clef is positioned at the start of each row of lines and represents notes above the middle C, which is the C-note located in the middle of a standard piano keyboard. The clef looks like a fancy cursive symbol that has a curlicue that circles the G-note above the middle C.
The Musical Notes
When learning how to read sheet music, memorizing the notes that lie on the lines and spaces of the treble clef staff is recommended. The five lines represent the notes, E, G, B, D, and F. A popular phrase to remember these notes is, “Every Good Boy Does Fine.” The spaces represent the notes, F, A, C, and E.
The Ornaments
An ornament modifies how notes are played. Here are some common ornaments that can be seen on flute sheet music.
- Trill: A trill is a rapid repeated rotation between the indicated note and the note above it. Written as a cursive, “tr,” this symbol is noted on top of the indicated note. In Baroque-style music, a plus sign atop the note represents the trill.
- Mordent: A mordent is a quick alternation between the marked note, the note above or below, and the marked note again. The mordent looks like a short thick squiggly line above the specific note.
- Turn: A turn is a musical phrase that includes the note above the marked note, the marked note, the note below, and the marked note again. A side-ways S-shape symbolizes a turn and is placed either stop or immediately before the indicated note.
Repetition and Breath
Flute sheet music will have breath marks throughout the score to tell the musician when to take a breath. This mark looks like a comma and should not affect the overall tempo. A tremolo is a rapidly repeated note or set of notes and is represented by slashes either on a single note staff or between two notes. The number of slashes indicates the number of times a note is repeated. In flute music, a tremolo can be used to express “flutter-tonguing,” which is a technique where flutists flutter their tongues to make a “frrr” sound to repeat a note.
