Fiddle
How to Read Music - A Very Quick Guide

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Here are the notes corresponding to the open strings of the fiddle: 

 
 

The lines of the staff (from bottom to top) are E G B D F (Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge).  The spaces of the staff are F A C E (or face). 

The above notes are whole notes.  That means they last 4 beats (count 1, 2, 3, 4).  A half note lasts for 2 beats.  A quarter note lasts one beat.  Don't be confused with the names and the number of beats the note gets.  It is a quarter of a whole note, not a quarter of a beat! 

A quarter note can be split into smaller counts: 

To make many notes easy to read, they are linked together: 

Rests have counts too.  Rests are times when you don't play any notes: 

Adding a dot to a notes adds one-half to its original duration.  Remember a duration is how many beats the note is played. 

Counting each beat can help you figure out when to play the notes written on the music.  Each beat is a number - beat 1, beat 2, beat 3, beat 4.  When you tap your foot, each time your foot hits the floor is a beat 1, 2, 3, 4. 

Each time your foot is in the air, say "and".  1 and 2 and 3 and 4.  Each "and" is a half beat. 

But there's even more!  In between the beat and the half beat, there is a half of a half beat (or sixteenth note).  Say "1 e and a" then "2 e and a".  See example below.  The underlined words are when you play the note. 

One more thing.  A sharp raises a note a half step.  A flat lowers a note a half step. 

 

There are lots of books on this.  I got basis of this quick guide from "Mel Bay's Old Time Fiddling Across America". 

Here's a quick guide (thanks to Natalie MacMaster's Video) on bowing.  The square bracket above a note means a down bow (move your bow from the frog - where your hand is - to the tip of th bow).  The v means an up bow (move your bow from the tip towards the frog). 

For much more detailed information, you can check out the "Learn 2" site.  It's not fiddle specific, but basic music reading. 

For your reference, here is a finger chart of some of the notes in "first position" on the fiddle.

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