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You don't have to be able to read music to sing with Tottenham Community Choir, and many of our longest serving members still can't. However we often do work with 'scores', and they can be very helpful, so here are a few pointers.

Most pieces have four main parts - soprano, alto, tenor and bass.
Don't worry if you don't know which one you are - generally speaking if you are female and can sing very high notes you'll be a soprano, not so high an alto. Similarly, men with higher voices are normally tenors and if you have a very deep voice then you'll probably be a bass.

Knowing which of these you are tells you which line of music to follow:

Sopranos = top line (normally on the treble clef with tails sticking up)

Altos = next one down (normally on the treble clef with tails hanging down)

Tenors = next one down (normally on the bass clef with tails sticking up)

Basses = bottom line (normally on the bass clef with tails sticking down)

(there is often a piano line at the bottom as well but this won't have any words)

Speed of notes

Notes all look very similar if you don't know music too well. If a note has a tail on it then it will be faster than one that doesn't, and if the line has little lines at the top or bottom it'll be even faster still (the more little lines, the faster). A solid note will be faster than one with a hole in it.

Further details

There are lots of websites that go into more detail if you are interested, but these are a good place to start:

http://library.thinkquest.org/13734/lesson/lesson1.html

http://www.notationmachine.com/how_to_read_sheetmusic/readingmusic.htm