Write your first few bars
Start with one melody. Choose the clef, decide how the beats group together, and place each note by pitch and duration. Enter the practice example below yourself in the sheet music maker. It is a separate exercise from the melody loaded on the home page.
Pitch lives on five lines
Read a staff from left to right. Moving upward by one line or space moves to the next letter: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, then A again. Short ledger lines extend the staff when a pitch sits above or below it.
In treble clef, the lines from bottom to top are E4, G4, B4, D5 and F5; the spaces are F4, A4, C5 and E5. In bass clef the lines are G2, B2, D3, F3 and A3; the spaces are A2, C3, E3 and G3. Middle C is C4. Choosing a different clef changes where a pitch is drawn, not its sound.
Choose how long each note lasts
| Note | Plain | Dotted |
|---|---|---|
| Whole | 4 | 6 |
| Half | 2 | 3 |
| Quarter | 1 | 1.5 |
| Eighth | 0.5 | 0.75 |
| Sixteenth | 0.25 | 0.375 |
A dot adds half the original value: a dotted half is 2 + 1 = 3 quarter-note units. A rest lasts just as long as the corresponding note, with silence instead of a pitch. The appearance changes with duration: whole and half notes have open heads; shorter notes have filled heads, and eighths and sixteenths have flags or beams.
Group the rhythm into measures
The bottom number of a time signature names the unit: 4 means quarter notes and 8 means eighth notes. The top number says how many of those units fit in a measure. Thus 2/4 holds two quarters, 3/4 three quarters and 4/4 four quarters.
6/8 holds six eighths, usually felt as two dotted-quarter pulses. Each pulse contains three eighths. It has the same total duration as three quarter notes, but its usual grouping differs from 3/4.
Measure capacity in quarter-note units = top number × 4 ÷ bottom number. For 6/8: 6 × 4 ÷ 8 = 3. The editor fills measures automatically. A final incomplete measure stays incomplete; it does not add unheard notes.
A worked rhythm example
In 4/4, enter a dotted half C4 followed by a half D4. Their lengths are 3 + 2 = 5 quarter-note units. The first measure has room for only one quarter of D4, so D4 becomes a quarter at the end of that measure, tied to a quarter at the start of the next. A tie joins the same pitch into one sustained sound; play D only once for its total two-quarter length.
This tool creates ties automatically at barlines. A slur, which connects phrasing across different pitches, is a different symbol and is outside this version.
Keys and accidentals
A key signature sets recurring sharps or flats. In G major, F becomes F sharp; in F major, B becomes B flat. An explicit sharp raises the named natural pitch by one semitone, a flat lowers it by one and a natural removes the sharp or flat.
In this editor, From key means that note takes its pitch from the key signature. Choose Natural to cancel it for one entered note; the next From key note restores the key-signature pitch and shows a new accidental when needed. This avoids carrying an accidental into later entries by surprise.
Hear it, print it, keep a copy
The playback tempo always counts quarter notes per minute. At 120, a quarter lasts 60 ÷ 120 = 0.5 seconds; a dotted quarter lasts 0.75 seconds. The sound is a simple synthesized guide in equal temperament, with A4 = 440 Hz.
Use Print / PDF to open your browser’s print dialog, then Save as PDF. Choose MusicXML to move the melody into another notation app. Use Save on this device to keep multiple works in this browser; it is not a cloud backup.
These examples are for practice and reference. Check spelling, rhythm and page breaks before sharing a final part.
Further reading: the staff and clefs, note duration, and the MusicXML 4.0 reference.