Identify clefs and notes on the staff. There are two different types of clefs used in music, the treble clef, which looks like a cursive "g" and the bass clef, which looks like a reversed "c." The clef is placed to the far left of the staff (the five-line board used for musical notation) and identifies the staff as being the bass or treble staff. The notes on the staff count upwards sequentially, including lines and spaces between them. The bottom line on the treble clef represents an E note, and the bottom line on the bass clef represents G. A good way to remember the notes on the staff lines for the treble staff (from bottom to top) is "Every Good Boy Does Fine," and the bass staff is "Good Boys Do Fine Always." See Resources for more detailed information.
Learn time signatures and note duration. There are many different types of notes that can appear on the staff, and the type of note dictates the amount of time it takes up. Notes with a black dot and a stem are quarter notes -- meaning they take up a quarter of a bar of four beats. If the dot is hollowed out, the notes become half notes, and if there is a flag on the stem, it means it's an eighth note. How many notes can fit into a bar is determined by the time signature, which can be seen to the right of the clef at the start of the staff. The most common time signature is 4/4 which means that each bar can have four quarter notes, eight eighth notes and two half notes. See Resources for more information.
Determine scales. Scales are collections of notes that sound nice together. The simplest scale is the C major scale, which consists of the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B. These are all "natural," which means that there are no sharps or flats (the black notes on a piano) in the scale. There are many scales, and they have differing numbers of flats or sharps in them. For example, the D scale is made up of D, E, F sharp, G, A, B and C sharp. These are based on "intervals," which are the gaps between notes. This can be easily understood by looking at a piano. A whole step is two keys to the right on a piano, for example, from G to A (G sharp occupying the half step). The major (happy sounding) scale goes up from the first note in intervals of whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole stop, whole step, half step. See Resources for more information.
Find out about triads and chords. Notes can be numbered from first to seventh based on their position in the scale (the first is sometimes called the "root"). In a C major scale, the C note is the first, D is the second, and so on. The first, third and fifth make up a "triad," which is a combination of notes that sound nice together (C, E and G for example). Adding the root note an octave higher (an octave is one complete set of notes) makes the combination into a "chord." See Resources for more information on chords.