which essentially tells them what to say and when to say it.

因為劇本會告訴演員劇中的台詞還有講台詞的時機。

A piece of written music operates on exactly the same principle.

一首曲子的樂譜類似劇本。

In a very basic sense, it tells a performer what to play and when to play it.

簡單來說，樂譜告訴音樂家要彈奏什麼還有彈奏的時間點。

Aesthetically speaking, there's a world of difference between, say, Beethoven and Justin Bieber,

雖然每個音樂家的風格不同，比如說，貝多芬和小賈斯汀，

but both artists have used the same building blocks to create their music: Notes.

但兩位音樂家都用了同樣的基本單位來創造音樂：音符。

And, although the end result can sound quite complicated, the logic behind musical notes is actually pretty straightforward.

雖然最後的曲子聽起來很複雜，但音符背後的基礎邏輯其實是相當簡單易懂的。

Let's take a look at the foundational elements to music notation and how they interact to create a work of art.

讓我們一起了解樂譜最基本的要素，還有如何做曲。

Music is written on five parallel lines that go across the page.

曲子是寫在五條平行線上的，這五條線橫跨整個頁面。

These five lines are called a staff, and a staff operates on two axes⏤up and down and left to right.

也就是五線譜，五線譜分兩個軸向──上跟下、左跟右。

The up-and-down axis tells the performer the pitch of the note or what note to play,

上下軸告訴音樂家樂譜的音調或是要演奏的音符，

and the left-to-right axis tells the performer the rhythm of the note or when to play it.

左右軸告訴音樂家音樂的節奏韻律還有彈奏的時間點。

Let's start with pitch.

首先來看音調。

To help us out, we're going to use a piano, but this system works for pretty much any instrument you can think of.

用鋼琴來做解釋吧，不過鋼琴的原理也可以類推到別的樂器上。

In the Western music tradition, pitches are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet:

傳統西方音樂裡的，音調是用七個英文字母命名：

A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.

A、B、C、D、E、F，和 G。

After that, the cycle repeats itself.

之後，同樣模式不斷重複。

A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

A、B、C、D、E、F、 G。

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and so on.

A、B、C、D、E、F、 G 以此類推。

But how do these pitches get their names?

但音調的名字是怎麼來的？

Well, for example, if you played an F and then played another F higher or lower on the piano,

舉例來說，如果你彈 F，再彈另一個 F，只是在鋼琴上高低音不同，

you'd notice that they sound pretty similar compared to, say, a B.

你會發現其實聽起來差不多，但跟 B 相比就不同了。

Going back to the staff, every line and every space between two lines represents a separate pitch.

再回到五線譜，每條線，還有線與線間的空格，都代表一個音調。

If we put a note on one of these lines or in one of these spaces, we're telling a performer to play that pitch.

如果在線上畫上一個音符，或在線與線之間譜上音符，演奏者就知道要彈什麼音調。

The higher up on the staff a note is placed, the higher the pitch.

五線譜上音符的位置越高，表示音調越高。

But there are obviously many, many more pitches than the nine that these lines and spaces gives us.

但音樂有數之不盡的音調，不只限於九條線與九條線間的音調。

A grand piano, for example, can play 88 separate notes.

以演奏式鋼琴為例，可以彈奏 88 個音調。

So, how do we condense 88 notes onto a single staff?

怎麼把 88 個音調塞進五線譜呢？

We use something called a "clef".

這就要用「譜號」來表示。

A clef is a weird-looking figure placed at the beginning of the staff, and it acts like a reference point, telling you that a particular line or space corresponds to a specific note on your instrument.

譜號是個怪異的圖形，寫在五線譜的前端，譜號標示某特定音調，告訴你線與間的音符代表的是樂器鍵盤上哪個音。

If we want to play notes that aren't on the staff, we kind of cheat and draw extra little lines called "ledger lines" and place the notes on them.

要彈奏五線譜上沒有的音符，可以偷偷在譜上多加短線，也就是加線 ，然後再譜上音符。

If we have to draw so many ledger lines that it gets confusing, then we need to change to a different clef.

但如果要畫很多加線，那麼樂譜會讓人眼花撩亂，這時就要變換譜號。

As for telling a performer when to play the notes, two main elements control this⏤the beat and the rhythm.

演奏者要知道彈奏的時間點，會看兩個地方──拍子還有節奏。

The beat of a piece of music is, by itself, kind of boring.

只單聽一首曲子的拍子會有點單調無聊。

It sounds like this.

聽起來像這樣：

Notice that it doesn't change; it just plugs along quite happily.

沒有什麼變化，就這麼周而復始的下去。

It can go slow or fast or whatever you like, really.

可以放慢，也可以加快，隨便你怎麼變化。

The point is that just like the second hand on a clock divides one minute into sixty seconds with each second just as long as every other second,

拍子就像時鐘的秒針，將一分鐘分為60秒 ，而每一秒長度都一樣，

the beat divides a piece of music into little fragments of time that are all the same length.

拍子將一首曲子分成很多個小段落，每一段長度都相同。

Beats.

拍子。

With a steady beat as a foundation, we can start adding rhythm to our pitches, and that's when music really starts to happen.

拍子抓準後，我們把節奏加入到音調中，音樂是從節奏開始的。

This is a quarter note.

這是四分音符？

It's the most basic unit of rhythm, and it's worth 1 beat.

是節奏中最基本單位，等於一拍。

This is a half note, and it's worth 2 beats.

二分音符是兩拍。

This whole note here is worth 4 beats.

全音符是四拍。

And these little guys are eighth notes, worth half a beat each.

這幾個小蝌蚪是八分音符，每個音符是半拍。

"Great," you say, "what does that mean?"

你會說：「太棒了！」「但他們代表什麼啊？」

You might have noticed that across the length of a staff, there are little lines dividing it into small sections.

你應該有注意到，五線譜上有幾條小線將樂譜分成幾個小段落。

These are bar lines, and we refer to each section as a "bar".

這是小節線，而我們把每個段落稱為一個「小節」。

At the beginning of a piece of music just after the clef is something called the "time signature", which tells a performer how many beats are in each bar.

樂譜一開始在譜號會有個「拍號」，告訴演奏者一小節有幾拍。

This says there are 3, this one 4, and so on.

這是三拍，這是四拍，以此類推。

The bottom number tells us what kind of note is to be used as the basic unit for the beat.

下面的數字告訴我們，要用什麼音符當作那個拍子的基本單位。

1 corresponds to a whole note, 2 to a half note, 4 to a quarter note, and 8 to an eighth note, and so on.

一拍是全音符，二是二分音符，四是四分音符，八是八分音符，以此類推。

So, this time signature here tells us that there are 4 quarter notes in each bar.

樂譜上的拍號告訴我們每一小節有四拍。

One, two, three, four.

一、二、三、四。

One, two, three, four, and so on.

一、二、三、四，以此類推。

But like I said before, if we just stick to the beat, it gets kind of boring.

但就像之前說的，如果只注意拍子會很無趣。

So, we'll replace some quarter notes with different rhythms.

可以把幾個四分音符換成別的節奏。

Notice that even though the number of notes in each bar has changed, the total number of beats in each bar hasn't.

注意，雖然每個小節的音符的數目變了，但總拍數維持不變。

So, what does our musical creation sound like?

這首曲子聽起來如何？

Sounds okay, but maybe a bit thin, right?

還可以，但有些單調，對嗎？

Let's add another instrument with its own pitch and rhythm.

加入另一個樂器呢，配上不同音調與節奏。

Now it's sounding like music.

聽起來更像音樂了。

Sure, it takes some practice to get used to reading it quickly and playing what we see on our instrument.

讀譜是須要練習的才能一邊讀譜一邊彈奏音樂。

But, with a bit of time and patience, you could be the next Beethoven or Justin Bieber.

但只要花點時間跟耐心，你有可能是下一個貝多芬或者小賈斯汀。