Reading Music For Mandolin Players by Peggy Anderson One of the frustrations of playing an instrument for a lot of us is simply reading music. I don't know how many times I've heard the old saw "If I can hear it, I can play it." That is really true for a lot of us but ... stepping into a library or a music store can be a point of embarrassment. "What do all those dots and stems mean?"  For almost thirty years I never really understood how that mystery worked. And specifically, how those dots referred to something as marvelous as a Mandolin Fretboard? Then I met a remarkable professional Violist and Violin teacher who helped me understand how and why they all fit together. And with that happy thought, I'd like to introduce you to Peggy Anderson - Violist extraordinaire, terrific music teacher and all around great person -   Dion Morris - Editor - Guides Publishing

From: Notes on Reading Music for Mandolin Players - Peggy Anderson Although I started playing the viola at age 8 and was adept at reading the alto clef, I never learned how to read the treble clef until about 10 years ago. Then, I was offered a gig in which I had to play the violin.  All of a sudden, I had to figure out how to read the treble clef - a foreign language to me - in less than a week and - be able to do it proficiently enough to play Mozart in a professional setting.  I puzzled and crammed and then, a light bulb went off in my head!  I discovered a couple of  neat things that easily enabled me to commit the treble clef to memory in a short time.  I successfully played the Mozart gig and since then, I  have used this method to teach treble clef note reading to violin students of all ages.  When I recently started playing the mandolin, I found that these tricks work even better for mando and I'd like to share them with you. First of all, here are some basics about note reading.   Music is written on a staff, which consists of 5 lines and 4 spaces.   Most of the notes you will be reading fall within the staff, but there are a few notes that sit above or below the staff.   The short little lines you will see along with these notes are called leger lines.    Leger lines and the spaces between them function just like the lines and spaces of the staff itself. The treble clef is the curly cue on the left of the diagram - for this purpose, this explanation will be in the key of G which has ONE sharp. When we refer to the lines and spaces in the staff, they are labeled from the bottom up.  For example, the bottom line is the first line and the top space  is the fourth space .   All musical notes are either line notes or space notes.  (The head of the note either has a line going through the middle of it or it falls in the space  between two lines.) The thing that overwhelms most people who want to learn how to read music is that there are so many notes to learn.  In this approach, we will focus on teaching you how to read the notes on one string at a time.