*Composer - the person who writes the music.

The Key Signature is found at the start of the music and this tells us what sharps or flats are in the piece.
- The flat sign makes the note lower by half a step.
- The sharp sign makes the note higher by half a step.
- The natural sign cancels out a sharp or a flat.

Sometimes you will see a sharp or flat next to a note in a piece, this is called an accidental.  When you see an accidental in a bar - watch out!  Once a note has been changed by an accidental it stays changed for the rest of that bar i.e. if you see a sharp next to an F, the rest of the F's in that bar will be sharp even though they are not written in.

We already know what a  time signature is and that the top number tells us how many beats are in the bar but what about the bottom number?

The bottom number tells us what type of note the beats are.
I.E.
       If 4 is on the bottom the main beats are crotchets.
       If 2 is on the bottom the main beats are minims.

So if you see 4  - this means that there are 4 minims in the bar.
                    2

If you see 4 - this means there are 4 crotchets in the bar.
               4

The expression mark tells us how the composer wants the piece to be played.

Some expression marks are in English but watch out for the Italian ones - we will look at these later.

The dynamic mark tells us how loud to play the music, watch out for this sign as they can appear anywhere in the music!

Sometimes you may see a small note and a number at the start of the music -p
This is called a metronome mark and it tells us the correct speed of the music.