Are the top notes of sheet music the actual melody?

I've always thought the top notes were the melody.





I am looking at the sheet of a song I have never heard sung and the notes tapped out on the piano don't sound anything like the notes a friend hummed for me. Can I trust the top notes to be the correct melody?Are the top notes of sheet music the actual melody?
It depends on the type of sheet music that you have. Often, the top notes in piano music will be the melody. Easy piano books will almost aways have the melody as the the top note of the chord on the treble staff. Some fake books just have the melody and a chord progression. A lead sheet will have just the melody.





Choral music, on the other hand can have the melody line on either the bass or the treble staff or even trade off between them. I'm sure there are other types of sheet music where this is also true.





What you may want to do is do a search for a midi file of the song. You can do this with any search engine or use Music Robot (link below). Once you can listen to the midi file, try to sight read to see where the melody is on your sheet music. Alternately, try to pick out the melody on your piano while the midi file plays. It may be recorded in a different key than the sheet music, but at least you'll know the general melody line after hearing the song.





I'm also posting some links to a few sites that have lead sheets, etc. for free. Good luck with the song.Are the top notes of sheet music the actual melody?
You are using the word ';song' so usualy the first two compases anounces the rhytm after that it will start the melody that it shall be stressed in some manner as ';cantabile'; or linking arches denoting a flow in the sequence of notes = a (1st)theme of the melody. Also analize in what scale is written and pay attention for the last compasses; they shall make a reprise of the beggining of the tune or a resolution for it, and it commonly shall be in the same ';tone';(for example:G Gm G or A Am A)


The structure is another item to consider, for a song you start with the first theme and the a repetition of it and then a ritornello follomed by the reprise af the first theme or a variation of it to form the ';coda';. If you fallow the line of the bass and you add a third you can construct a hidden melody that may leed you to the enigmatic song.
if its piano, its the left hand part. usually, its the ';beat'; or a constantly played part looping while u play the song (2nd linee on)
It could be the harmony.
Not always...sometimes the melody is contained within both the upper staff and lower staff.
The top is the left hand and the bottom is the right hand. Either one can be the melody. In most cases they work together to make a melody.
Not always. The top notes are just the ones with the highest pitch. Some songs (like the Seinfeld theme song) have the melody down low.

chap balm