Subject: Reading music..

Ok, so I've never been able to read music.. I can look at it and figure it out eventually, but not very well. I'm 23 years old, and I want to learn how to read music.

How do I go about it in a way that will make sense to me? I am self taught on everything I do.. so I have been using my ear to get by all this time. It is really hard for me to convert the "visual" part of reading music to an instrument.

Has anyone out there learned to read music after being self taught by ear for many years? If so.. I need some advice--and some pointers. I have friends who strictly read music..and it's like there is a bridge between us. They do things that amaze me, and I do things that amaze them, but when it comes to teaching each other what it is we do-- there is just a fundamental difference in the way we apply our skills to an instrument.

I think the best way I found is a method on teaching
reading music called BONA ..there s a nice book and
an excercise hand book for it ..help you to read music !
and no I m too slow in reading and playing but I can
in away to only read and figure out the harmonies on
my head ..good luck !!

My piano teacher used to give me the assignment of playing through a hymn book in order to improve reading. If you can't do both hands just start with one hand or even one voice. Do one or two a day and eventually you will improve.

There is really no short cut that I know of to getting faster. You just have to do it a lot. If you don't play piano you can still use the same principle with other instruments. Start slow and try to keep in tempo as you read. Learning to sight sing is also a good skill to learn. I think it's great that you are learning to read. Some people don't think it's necessary and maybe it's not for them, but it's worth it in my opinion. It opens up a whole world of music and makes you a more well-rounded musician. Good luck.

I'm certainly not the authority on this, but I've been in your situation a million times. I used to be able to read music but lost it after I stopped playing trumpet.

However, when I do get the itch to read and play from sheet music the thing that works for me is getting some staff paper (or just drawing lines). Then, write one of your own songs on the paper. Do this over and over again. You'll get better over time. Also, use the internet. Everything you need to know is already available. Just hunt it down.

Finally, don't do like me and do it in spurts or the practicing it over and over again will be pointless :).

One piece of advice I wish I'd had earlier is to start with drum music, learning rhythm notation before bothering with the actual notes.

Music 200 at your local university/college is a damn good way to 'get it' too.

Also. remember, reading music is to music itself rather what language is to philosophy; you need it to more easily grasp the concepts, but it is only description.

Cheers, Shaky

I did the same thing you are doing-played by ear for years then learned how to read and went to music school.You're much better off playing by ear first and then learning how to read-I think the other way around is much harder! The way that I did it and I think the only way that will work is to find a good teacher.Actually paying for lessons will probably motivate you to practice.Learning with a teacher is much faster than doing it on your own.I think you play guitar- the books that I use are "Solo Guitar Playing" by Noad(Classical fingerstyle-starts out boring but has some really good music later on in the book),"Modern Method for Guitar" by Leavitt(Pick style-starts out boring and stays fairly boring thru 3 books but if you can make it thru the 1st 2 books you will have mastered the whole fingerboard.)and "The Christopher Parkening Guitar Method"(Another classical book-good music all the way thru)Learning to read is a hard thing to do especially on guitar but it's well worth it-you get access
to hundreds of years of information!Good luck.

Although you can teach yourself, I definitely am in Mark's (Ibstrat) camp. Get a teacher. It'll help motivate you (paying money is a great motivator...as is not wanting to be scolded ;)), provide much more structure, and (very important) will keep you from getting into bad habits when it comes to shifts (both with chords and solo lines) on the fingerboard.

I, too, started out playing guitar (not the other instruments) by ear and then took lessons which included a lot of reading. For awhile I was very good at sight reading...like reading a book and very cool. But you really have to keep that up in order to be fluent, and, with the addition of new, very important people and things in my life, I made the choice to put that skill on the shelf. Concentrate much more on composing and playing my own stuff, nowadays. It's like writing books instead of reading them. But I'm very glad I learned how to read on the guitar. It's there when I need it.

I encourage you to learn to read. It improves technique, gives you the ability to play other people's music, and also gives you new ideas for writing your own music, and the technical ability to translate those ideas into art.

That will be $75.00, thank you...

I'm with Mark too on getting a good instructor for motivation, but I'd like to add that nothing brings you up to speed quicker than putting yourself in the hotspot.

Getting into an ensemble situation puts the pressure on you very quickly to get it right. Whether joining a rehearsal big band at a community college, where you learn to comp in time and get the occasional lines to play or a guitar ensemble where everyone must play their part together, will give you chops very quickly.

Total immersion really gets you there fast. When I went to music school, aside from the required music ensembles, I volunteered to play on many a person's project just to get the reading experience and a means to keep the blade sharp so to speak.

Even now, I keep my reading in shape by joining different types of situation, though some may feel uncomfortable, just to push myself. Sometimes you screw up, but it helps you get better.

One other method a teacher recommended for me, was to sit with a metronome and the real book, and just go through it, tune after tune, measure after measure, constantly going forward without stopping and going back to correct mistakes. ( Figures tend to repeat, so you have a chance to get it right along the way.) This type of practicing, gets you ready for real world situations where someone can throw a piece of music in front of you and you don't get freaked.

Plow ahead dude and you'll get better. More, More, faster, faster......

Flash cards can be quite helpful and something you might want to consider.

Here's a link to a free interactive site-

http://www.musicards.net/

I agree with the ideas above .
I would insist on the rythm aspect of reading .
It's also good to work with drummers books to focus
on the time divisions.
When you're more familiar with this, transcribe
the rythm of musics you like .

From my perspective I think reading is an essential skill. I think the Berkley Method is very good. In response to Ibstrat`s comments I would agree. I actually started off as an ardent reader and had a great deal of difficulty playing without the music right in front of me ( use to chart out songs and attempt to read them while playing live in cover bands....that didn`t last very long ). Playing by ear is where I think my playing opened up and using the knowledge and skills from my formal training helped bring me it all together.....such as it is now.
Although I am going to guess that Stevie Wonder probably doesn`t read music ( at least in any conventional form )....neither did Jeff Healey or Ray Charles.
A strong understanding of music theory is ultimately the key to progressing musically, it can open the door to greater creative expression.

Hey...that's cool...

There is Braille music. Quite a clever system.

Anyway, practice practice practice.....

I can read music fluently in G and F clef, and I'm now having to learn alto clef. It's like learning all over again: I see a note, immediately recognize it as an A, and then have to think "ok, for alto clef you transpose up a note, so that's a B". The more I play in alto clef, the easier this figuring out becomes.

Victor.

I read that Shawn Phillips said he could not read music. Look at what he produced!
.

Reading music is part of a larger picture. Maybe this will help:

Back when I used to teach guitar, I made up a model of teaching targets:

there are inputs:
1. read a printed note on the G clef staff, or a chord either the bunch of notes, or the chord symbol. I never got into tablature, yet another thing to read. And there is jazz notation, etc.
2. hear someone say the note or chord's name - in various nomenclatures
3. think the note or chord in your mind (perhaps say it to yourself, but it might not be verbalized)
4. see someone else playing the note or chord on a guitar
5. hear the tone, live or recorded
6. recall notes and chords from memory

there are outputs:
a. play the note or chords on the guitar, at various positions on the neck, if using a capo or alternate tunings, there are lots of variants on this.
b. say the note out loud (or think it to yourself)
c. write the note or chord down on the staff, or by name or other nomenclature
d. sing the note
e. remember melodies and chords

Pair them up to form different kinds of skills. A true master would know all combinations.

for example:

1a sight reading
1c or 5c transcribing and transposing
1d sight singing
1e with 6a is memorizing and performing a song
2a, 4a, 5a are useful during jam sessions
3a improvising
6a improving "finger memory" to play scales or riffs
3a and 3d is fun: sing and play simultaneous improvisation

Different people have different strengths. Categorizing music tasks in this manner makes it much easier to identify what needs more study. For example, sight singing is usually not stressed enough by teachers in my opinion.

And of course, do this on other instruments than only guitar. I advocated to my guitar students to also learn piano - it clarifies lots of mysteries about chords and scales that are made rather obscure by the special constraints of the guitar itself.

Hope some of this helps...

And, then, Jeff Beck, often acknowledged as the world's best guitaris, can't read a note....

Also Wes Montgomery and Django Rheinhardt
probably the 2 best jazz guitarists ever, couldn't read at all.If I had been born with as much talent as Jeff, Wes or Django,I probably wouldn't have learned to read either!

I was reading this thread and Django came to mind straight away. Unfortunately not many of us possess his innate skill. I remember reading that he toured the States with Duke Ellington. As they were trying to work out what to play Duke asked him "what key?". Django said "You start, I follow" and he did :-)

I have a music degree but still can't read music very well (enough to follow a score but not to play from) but I do have a fairly good grounding in music theory and I'd put that higher than simply reading music.

Some very good classical musicians I know who play professionally have no idea about harmony or form. They play what is put in front of them (very well I might add!)

It depends on what you want to do. Being able to read music is a useful skill but won't necessarily make you more creative or even a better player (unless it's combined with lots of practice). Learning about music theory will give you an insight into music that could very well stir your creative instincts.

I'd recommend a music theory course where you have to read music in order to fully understand the concepts being taught.

Good luck.

Cheers

Dick

I've never mastered sheet music! all I can do is find out were the SOB'en song is going, the rest is 100% ear! you don't have to R-E-A-D music to M-A-K-E music!!!

Best @ U,

Ax

One of the things I like about G tuning (and lots of tunings, actually) is that I often have no idea what chord I'm playing. Make them up to create what's going on in my head/heart. Reading/theory are out the window in a situation like that.

I do the same thing in standard tuning when I'm writing, sometimes: just make an interesting geometric shape (or an odd one) with my left hand and make something out of it.

There are lots of ways to play music...they can all have their particular strengths and limitations.

I don't think Charlie Christian could read either, could he, Mark?