One example of what I would consider complex music is this [https://imgur.com/Ss2W3z4](https://imgur.com/Ss2W3z4) .
So far I understand that when it is 4 / 4 half the bow lasts 2 beats. But what is 2/4?
What is the p
I know that crocodile mouth means open string
What is the n and v type shapes on top of the notes mean?
I think the dot next to the note means that note is played slower. But how is it physically possible? any help will be appreciated
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4/4 is the time signature of the song. It tells you how many beats are in each measure. In 4/4 music, there are 4 beats or quarter notes per measure. In 2/4 music, there are only 2 beats or quarter notes per measure.
*p* stands for piano (quiet).
The “crocodile mouth” does not mean open string, it means get louder since it’s opening to the right.
The “n” mark above the note means downbow for that note. The “v” mark above the note means upbow.
The dot next to the note does not mean it is played slower, it means 1.5 times the indicated note’s duration. The first note for example is a quarter note, but it has a dot, meaning you add half its length to it, so you should hold it for an additional eighth note. It’s 1/4 + 1/8 = 3/8 long.
Because the music is in 2/4 time, you would count measures as “one and two and” “one and two and” over and over again, so that first note you would play for “one and two”, then move on to the eighth note after it.
That’s far from complex. There’s nothing there that I, having never touched a bowed instrument in my life, don’t understand. If you really need it [Wikipedia’s music notation article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols) gives an explanation of every mark. And here’s a lesson in time signatures – [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtgo_SFuCJw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtgo_SFuCJw)
Start off with a simpler piece of music if you want to learn how to read music, there’s a lot to unpack here.
The 4/4 means four beats per measure and a quarter note gets the beat. 2/4 means two notes per measure. It does not correlate to bow length, it has to do with strong and weak beats.
P means piano, or soft dynamic (volume).
The crocodile mouth doesn’t mean open string, it means crescendo, or gradually get louder. The n and v symbols are for up and down bows.
The dot adds half of the value of the note to the note. It’s on a quarter note which in 4/4 gets one beat, so half of one is 1/2, and 1 + 1/2 = 1.5 so that note lasts for one and a half beats.
Start off way simpler 🙂
Your understanding is far from correct. I’d encourage you to abandon everything you think you know about notation and start over.
4/4 is a time signature. A time signature indicates how many beats are in a bar and which note value is considered the beat.
The top number indicates number of beats and the bottom number indicates note value. So, in 4/4, there are 4 beats of quarter notes per bar. In 2/4, there are two beats of quarter notes per bar. As you can see in the 2/4 example you shared, each bar has two quarter notes worth of rhythmic value in it. We’ll talk about the dots in a second, but if you look at the second bar you’ll see one quarter note followed by one quarter note rest. Of course this is two quarter notes worth of rhythm.
Edit: the time signature has nothing to do with the bow speed or amount used per note. In fact, it is often the case that a violinist will change bow directions several time within a bar and/or not make it to either extreme end of the bow.
The p stands for “piano”, which in this case is a dynamic marking which indicates to play softly.
By “crocodile mouth”, I assume you mean the crescendo marking- this means to increase dynamic over the duration of the crescendo.
The n and v shapes are downbows and upbows, respectively; the downbow (n), tells the player to start that note with a downbow and the upbow (v) tells the player to start that note with an upbow.
The dot next to a notehead is a rhythmic value modifier. It tells you to multiply the note’s value by 1.5. In other words, you’d add half the value of the note to the note. In this case, we have dotted quarter notes. A dotted quarter note is worth 1.5 quarter notes. The final eighth note (.5 the value of a quarter note) fills out the bar.
Try r/musictheory , that is a pretty simple piece of music, and only the bow markings are specific to violins (and string instruments), everything else is extremely basic sheet music knowledge.
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