From Zero to Mozart
Stage 3Score symbolsLesson 42 of 46 · Reading

The score-language check

You've been through the whole language of the page — tempo and its bends, dynamics, articulation, the bow-and-string words, the road map, ornaments, the string-part notation, and how editions work. This is a check, and an honest word about what "done" means here.

Name these

The score-language check

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14

One more, cold

80 bpm
Before revealing: name every mark. Soft; a two-note slur; an accent on the A; a bar of staccato; a fermata on the last note; and it's in 3/4. Then check the notes.

Where you should be

You can now open an unfamiliar first-position piece and name every mark on it — what it is, what it asks for, and, where it matters, which era's reading applies. That's the reading half of the objective, at this level of music. It's a real milestone, and worth feeling.

What's still ahead

"Read it" and "play it" are different, and you've read a lot that you can't yet do:

You can read…You'll do it in…
spiccato, martelé, détachéStage 5 — the bow
a p as bow speed + contact pointStage 5 — an even messa di voce is a real skill
tr, a turn, an appoggiaturaStage 6 — the left hand
"Baroque trills start above"Stage 7 and the repertoire modules — choosing how to shape one