How can I learn music notation?

Hello, glad to be here.

I love listening to music. However, since I couldn't attend a music university or take lessons and didn't try to learn by myself, I couldn't learn music notation.

Now, I feel how important it is to learn notation. 

Therefore, I want to ask how I can learn music notation. I want to learn it on my own while occasionally asking for help on this forum.

First, I want to start with free resources, but my search returned too many websites and YouTube channels, leaving me totally confused about which one to choose.

If you have some time, I would be so happy to receive your advice about how I can start to learn it and how to go to the next step.

By the way, I would like to say that you all compose such good music. My hat is always off to you.

Thank you.

Best,

Lithl.

HI there,

are you writing by hand or using a program?

Thank you for your reply, and I am sorry for the delayed response!

On 6/15/2026 at 1:12 PM, Kvothe said:

are you writing by hand or using a program?

Currently, I have a computer automatically generate sheet music for me. What I have in mind is to first use a computer program (such as MuseScore, though I would welcome any recommendations) to automatically convert MIDI into notation, and then study music notation in order to correct and refine the output.

As for writing by hand, that is certainly something I would like to be able to do eventually, though I imagine that is still a ways down the road.

In addition, my primary motivation for wanting to learn notation is analysis. Just as many of you do, I would love to be able to analyze pieces of music from a notational and theoretical perspective.

In short, my two main goals are: correcting and refining the output from software such as MuseScore, and performing musical analysis. Those are what I am primarily hoping to work toward.

Best,

Lithl.