2013年ESL之餐饮娱乐 09 Learning to Read Music

（单词翻译）

Learning to Read Music 

Mike: You have a great voice. You should join our choir¹. 

Grace: I don’t know anything about music. I can’t even read music. 

Mike: It’s not that hard. I could teach you. Look, this is a piece we’re working on right now. 

Grace: What’s that weird² thing at the beginning? 

Mike: That’s the clef. It tells you which note each line and space on the staff represents. 

Grace: Okay. What about these numbers? 

Mike: That’s the time signature. It tells you how many beats are in each measure, and what kind of note gets one beat. This little number above there gives you the tempo³. 

Grace: Hmm, that’s kind of complicated. Why are all of these notes stacked on top of each other? 

Mike: That’s to indicate a chord, with two or more notes played together at the same time. See? Musical notation⁴ is really very simple. 

Grace: I don’t think I got all that. 

Mike: I’m happy to help you until you get the hang of it. We could even work on some duets. We could sing harmony or I can accompany you on the piano. 

Grace: I think you’re overestimating⁵ my singing ability, but I’m willing to give it a try. At least, I think I can stay on pitch. I just don’t want to embarrass myself too much. 

Mike: I think you’re overestimating the quality of our community choir! 

Script by Dr. Lucy Tse