Help needed learning to read music

Hi,

I have been taking lessons now for about 6 months, and my instructor is becoming annoyed with me. Why? Because as soon as I learn a piece of music I stop looking at the notes because they are too hard for me to read well.

Some say this is a good thing, and later in my career it may help, but it is really a pain when I -need- to learn to read better! I'm at that painful stage where there is no real translation in my brain between what I see on the page and where my fingers go.

I dont expect to be able to sight read soon, but I would really like to be able to learn music faster from the notation. It takes me forever to pick out from the little black dots with tails where my fingers go.

I have tried playing only music that I don't know, and only playing it once or twice so that I am forced to look at the sheetmusic. I have tried playing very very simple tunes with both hands just looking at the music. I have tried staring at the notes until they speak to me. But I am not happy with my progress.

Are there other things I can or should do that might be more fun to help me learn to read faster? I thought maybe transcribing a couple of songs may be useful...

Any suggestions or thoughts?

Thanks,

It takes a lot of time. When you learned to read words, you started maybe in preschool learning the letters, and didn't get really fluent with whole sentences for probably 5-10 years. (Some people *never* get fluent). Reading music is exactly the same. Be patient.

It would help if your teacher were a better counselor of patience, instead of getting annoyed.

That's an interesting idea. Again, using the learning-to-read analogy, in Waldorf schools they teach writing *before* reading. Try it and let us know if it helps!

Laugh if you want, but this worked for me:

Remember in kindergarten when we used to sing the alphabet? For a long time I thought 'LamenoPee' was a letter (LMNOP just say it faster and faster) . But it worked... I learned the alphabet.

So, I just did the same thing with musical notes. Over and over, I repeated out loud:

E G B D F,

F D B G E,

F A C E,

E C A F,

Then the same with the Bass Clef:

G B D F A, etc.

Once I could go backwards and forwards by lines or spaces just saying the letters aloud, then I started reading the notes aloud from sheet music. Nothing musical, just read the sheet music aloud. I included the ledger lines, but oddly that seemed harder and came along more slowly. So I started saying the whole alphabet aloud: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C... and G, F, E, D, C, B, A, G, E, F, ... Next I started beginning on different letters and saying alond the aphabet backwards and forwards: C, D, E, F, G, A, B and C, B, A, G, F, E, D, C, B, A, G, ... It is surprising how easy it is to trip up saying the alphabet backwards when you only have to use letters A through F. Starting at different letters and going backwards and forwards really seemed to cement this in. The cool thing is you can do this almost anywhere. I did it while driving to work. Saying it aloud seems to really help. Maybe it's those old kindergarten circuits .

Then with five finger music books I did the same thing sitting at the piano, but I played the notes. No worries about rhythm or being very musical. I tried not to look at the keys too much and see if I could press the correct key. It was helpful to use extremely simple children's melodies that I already knew.

After a good bit of this, one day with a beginners music book and a song I didn't know, a simple melody spilled out of the fingers of my right hand for a couple of measures with no thought on my part. I had never seen the song before. I was so shocked, I stopped and marvelled at what happened. Then of course I tried it again. I was paying too much attention and it didn't work as well, but I could do it!

One hand at a time seems to work much better for me. Keep at it, it will happen with patience and practice.

Take care,

One of my own theories is that hymn tunes (of the old type, not the modern 'songs' are an excellent training ground.

Reading music is like reading words. Now that you can read you don't read individual letters but recognise complete words. So with music. You will learn not to read the individual black dots but rather the chord or phrase or rhythm. Your brain will recognise a pattern of dots and your fingers will play them because you've seen it before lots of times.

So it takes time. But for my money, hymn tunes are basic harmony structures and benefit from practising. But then I would say that, I'm a church organist <g>.

Bernard Hill Braeburn Software Author of Music Publisher system Music Software written by musicians for musicians http://www.braeburn.co.uk Selkirk, Scotland

Do like me, learn the chord method, and play by ear from fake books, using only a skeletal melody line and chord symbols as a guide for your impromptu arrangements. I can't read very well, and I've been playing much longer than you.

You could try this method: http://www.soundfeelings.com/products/ music_instruction/sight-reading...

I find it very good, but you need patience.

Bye, Christof

Start very slow with note notation in G and F clef, regconize them by heart in line and space notes paly them up and down over and over again. Now learn about interval: relation of upper notes from the root note, this is from play triad and its progression. After sometimes, it becomes automatic by regconize interval relations. To learn sight read, give yourself 6-12 months. The key is to do it slow and sure with a metromone.

As you said, it is pretty difficult to make music and read notes and position fingers and fingering all at the same time. Playing from memory serve a single purpose which uses your brain solely to make the best music at the expense of sight reading. It will take time to do both.

My teacher years ago told me to close my eyes, have the feel of single note music and find the other ones just by feel of intervals w/o looking at my hands.

Some pianists can sight read and play very well, it comes from years of practicing the instrument and huge acquired knowledge of the music.