How to Re-Learn Reading Music?
June 8, 2024 11:46 AM Subscribe
So I took the plunge and started piano lessons which I'm really enjoying! But now I want to amp up my music reading / music theory skills. I was able to read music 25 years ago so surely I can do it again. I'm looking for resources to help me do this while my piano teacher is on summer break. I'm a visual learner so books are ideal but I'm open to online tutorials. Looking for free resources or things I can get at the library.
One way to do it is to find sheet music for something simple that you're already very familiar with and that you like. For example, a bunch of Beatles songs. Then you just spend time noodling around figuring out a song (a bit by ear, a bit from the sheet music) and practice playing that song from the music.
Depending on your skill level, you can start by just playing the top line, or play the top line with your right hand and use your left to add the main note from the chord (the chords will probably be written in the sheet music for the benefit of guitar players). Once you are happy with the top line, you can try learning the left hand on its own while singing the tune, and then putting both hands together (and sing along if you like!)
This may not be as efficient as doing graded exercises, but it has the advantage of feeling more like fun than a chore, so it's easy to find yourself doing it every day just because you enjoy it.
posted by quacks like a duck at 12:42 PM on June 8
Depending on your skill level, you can start by just playing the top line, or play the top line with your right hand and use your left to add the main note from the chord (the chords will probably be written in the sheet music for the benefit of guitar players). Once you are happy with the top line, you can try learning the left hand on its own while singing the tune, and then putting both hands together (and sing along if you like!)
This may not be as efficient as doing graded exercises, but it has the advantage of feeling more like fun than a chore, so it's easy to find yourself doing it every day just because you enjoy it.
posted by quacks like a duck at 12:42 PM on June 8
If you use iOS, I found the free UCLA music theory app helped me learn to read music (also after many years away). I’d do it at night before bed. It took me months to be able to sight-read simple piano pieces but the app helped me feel I was progressing.
posted by ftrain at 1:46 PM on June 8 [2 favorites]
posted by ftrain at 1:46 PM on June 8 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Great to hear you're taking piano lessons! Love to see it.
For sight reading, I recommend these sight reading exercises. They're progressive and start off SUPER easy. https://imslp.org/wiki/Sight_Reading_Exercises,_Op.45_(Sartorio,_Arnoldo)
Gurlitt's school of velocity is good for sight-reading practice too. https://imslp.org/wiki/Schule_der_Gel%C3%A4ufigkeit_f%C3%BCr_Anf%C3%A4nger%2C_Op.141_(Gurlitt%2C_Cornelius)
There are sooo.many YouTube videos on how to read music and improving sight-reading. Here's a few:
Nahre Sol: https://youtu.be/WcsuofdtOy4?si=rnUK96VWabHze-mc
Matthew Cawood: https://youtu.be/qcFrqFAt2nY?si=j029w91qhVqYP9pz
Ashlee Young had a sight reading challenge two years ago that might be fun to do? https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxLnoTtKCX7hlwGyo634D-yWGkH89OiJm&si=b59SY619OyXS_uec
posted by foxjacket at 3:56 PM on June 8 [3 favorites]
For sight reading, I recommend these sight reading exercises. They're progressive and start off SUPER easy. https://imslp.org/wiki/Sight_Reading_Exercises,_Op.45_(Sartorio,_Arnoldo)
Gurlitt's school of velocity is good for sight-reading practice too. https://imslp.org/wiki/Schule_der_Gel%C3%A4ufigkeit_f%C3%BCr_Anf%C3%A4nger%2C_Op.141_(Gurlitt%2C_Cornelius)
There are sooo.many YouTube videos on how to read music and improving sight-reading. Here's a few:
Nahre Sol: https://youtu.be/WcsuofdtOy4?si=rnUK96VWabHze-mc
Matthew Cawood: https://youtu.be/qcFrqFAt2nY?si=j029w91qhVqYP9pz
Ashlee Young had a sight reading challenge two years ago that might be fun to do? https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxLnoTtKCX7hlwGyo634D-yWGkH89OiJm&si=b59SY619OyXS_uec
posted by foxjacket at 3:56 PM on June 8 [3 favorites]
The thing that helped me most to re-learn reading music was buying a couple of children's activity books off amazon that largely consisted of coloring and labeling notes. I also made a set of flashcards.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 4:46 PM on June 8
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 4:46 PM on June 8
Best answer: Keep in mind that the primary thing you need to be able to do, to play music on (e.g.) the piano, is look at the notes on the page and transfer that directly into the motions needed to play those notes.
A pianist does not look at the notes and say, "Aha, there is C, F, D, and B on the sheet music. Now which notes down on this piano are C, F, D, and B? I'll find those and play them now."
No: They just look at the notes and play them. The intermediate steps of naming the notes on the page and then figuring out where on the keyboard those note names might be located, are completely superfluous and are skipped. The thinking goes directly from visual note(s) on the page to the hand and the sound.
Second: Good readers read by interval and shape, in groups of notes - NOT note-name by note-name, one by one.
So don't let that discourage from reading or learning about the theory, learning the note names well (which often helped a lot by drill in either workbooks or software - or flashcards), and other such things.
Just don't forget that those are helpful ancillary activities but not the main goal. And don't forget to do an equal or greater amount of things that are designed to help with the primary goal of translating the notes and shapes on the page directly into keys on the keyboard and to music.
Examples of that type of practice:
- Sight reading different, very easy, material for a while every day
- Flashcards, but in ways like this: Take all the notes of (for examle) C 5-finger position, right hand, and shuffle them, then put them on the music stand. Study them and try to see them as a single shape, and what the exact relationship is between each pair of notes.
For example, maybe the first note is C, then it goes one step up, then it skips a note up, then another step up, then skip a note down (so: C-D-F-G-E). Once you have that shape fixed in your head, play it at a slow, steady tempo, trying to get it exactly right the first time.
You can do this in different positions as you learn them in your music - so maybe G 5 finger position, both RH and LH alone, then try doing a series with RH and LH notes mixed together. Then do the same in D 5-finger position.
Then expand the positions, so maybe B-C-D-E-F-G. Once you're comfortable with that, then do B-C-D-E-F-G-A. Do this in all your different positions (so G 5-finger position plus one note lower, then add one note higher - similarly for D 5-finger position and all the others).
I've just described a course of study that might easily take you 6 months or more. Start slow and simple (notes C 5-finger position RH, then LH, then combine RH & LH), and gradually expand to the others.
Another similar one:
Get or make interval flashcards, something like these or these.
First, learn the intervals by name. So the regular way you use flashcards - just flash the card and be able to identify 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.
Once you can do that, here is the exercise:
- Just cover up or ignore the treble & bass clef on the card. We don't care about specific notes on the staff here - we're looking for note shape and distance
- Pick a starting note - say middle C. Put your hand/fingers on the key, with some finger (let's say RH thumb) on middle C.
- Now you put an interval card on the music stand.
- Don't worry about which exact notes on the staff the two notes are. Instead, pretend the first note is your middle C. Now play the shape of that interval starting with your note (middle C).
So for example:
- You flash interval of a second. You play C-D. (Your RH is in C position so play that with fingers 1-2).
- You flash interval of a third. You play C-E (C position, fingers 1-3)
- You flash interval of a 5th. You play C-G (C position, fingers 1-5)
Now tomorrow you pick a different starting note. Say the starting note is G and you'll play with LH today. You put your LH in G 5-finger position (G-A-B-C-D with fingers 5-4-3-2-1). So if you saw those same cards:
- You flash interval of a second. You play G-A. (with fingers 5-4).
- You flash interval of a third. You play G-B (fingers 5-3)
- You flash interval of a 5th. You play G-D (fingers 5-1)
All written out, this looks complicated. But I promise, it's simple. I've had literally 5 year olds doing it. The basic idea is, you are not playing the specific notes of the staff. Rather you are learning to identify the interval between the notes and then play that interval anywhere on the keyboard starting with any note you like.
You're learning to read music by shape and interval - which is an important skill but also one that is very often overlooked.
posted by flug at 7:41 PM on June 8 [4 favorites]
A pianist does not look at the notes and say, "Aha, there is C, F, D, and B on the sheet music. Now which notes down on this piano are C, F, D, and B? I'll find those and play them now."
No: They just look at the notes and play them. The intermediate steps of naming the notes on the page and then figuring out where on the keyboard those note names might be located, are completely superfluous and are skipped. The thinking goes directly from visual note(s) on the page to the hand and the sound.
Second: Good readers read by interval and shape, in groups of notes - NOT note-name by note-name, one by one.
So don't let that discourage from reading or learning about the theory, learning the note names well (which often helped a lot by drill in either workbooks or software - or flashcards), and other such things.
Just don't forget that those are helpful ancillary activities but not the main goal. And don't forget to do an equal or greater amount of things that are designed to help with the primary goal of translating the notes and shapes on the page directly into keys on the keyboard and to music.
Examples of that type of practice:
- Sight reading different, very easy, material for a while every day
- Flashcards, but in ways like this: Take all the notes of (for examle) C 5-finger position, right hand, and shuffle them, then put them on the music stand. Study them and try to see them as a single shape, and what the exact relationship is between each pair of notes.
For example, maybe the first note is C, then it goes one step up, then it skips a note up, then another step up, then skip a note down (so: C-D-F-G-E). Once you have that shape fixed in your head, play it at a slow, steady tempo, trying to get it exactly right the first time.
You can do this in different positions as you learn them in your music - so maybe G 5 finger position, both RH and LH alone, then try doing a series with RH and LH notes mixed together. Then do the same in D 5-finger position.
Then expand the positions, so maybe B-C-D-E-F-G. Once you're comfortable with that, then do B-C-D-E-F-G-A. Do this in all your different positions (so G 5-finger position plus one note lower, then add one note higher - similarly for D 5-finger position and all the others).
I've just described a course of study that might easily take you 6 months or more. Start slow and simple (notes C 5-finger position RH, then LH, then combine RH & LH), and gradually expand to the others.
Another similar one:
Get or make interval flashcards, something like these or these.
First, learn the intervals by name. So the regular way you use flashcards - just flash the card and be able to identify 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.
Once you can do that, here is the exercise:
- Just cover up or ignore the treble & bass clef on the card. We don't care about specific notes on the staff here - we're looking for note shape and distance
- Pick a starting note - say middle C. Put your hand/fingers on the key, with some finger (let's say RH thumb) on middle C.
- Now you put an interval card on the music stand.
- Don't worry about which exact notes on the staff the two notes are. Instead, pretend the first note is your middle C. Now play the shape of that interval starting with your note (middle C).
So for example:
- You flash interval of a second. You play C-D. (Your RH is in C position so play that with fingers 1-2).
- You flash interval of a third. You play C-E (C position, fingers 1-3)
- You flash interval of a 5th. You play C-G (C position, fingers 1-5)
Now tomorrow you pick a different starting note. Say the starting note is G and you'll play with LH today. You put your LH in G 5-finger position (G-A-B-C-D with fingers 5-4-3-2-1). So if you saw those same cards:
- You flash interval of a second. You play G-A. (with fingers 5-4).
- You flash interval of a third. You play G-B (fingers 5-3)
- You flash interval of a 5th. You play G-D (fingers 5-1)
All written out, this looks complicated. But I promise, it's simple. I've had literally 5 year olds doing it. The basic idea is, you are not playing the specific notes of the staff. Rather you are learning to identify the interval between the notes and then play that interval anywhere on the keyboard starting with any note you like.
You're learning to read music by shape and interval - which is an important skill but also one that is very often overlooked.
posted by flug at 7:41 PM on June 8 [4 favorites]
Best answer: I think previous answers (especially foxjacket's and flug's) have covered the most important things in terms of reading material and method, so I'm going to make some suggestions about theory and "amping up" by way of extracurriculars.
1. Watch score videos for familiar and unfamiliar music on Youtube. Listen to piano music recordings while reading the score from a physical book or IMSLP file. Watch Synthesia videos while reading the corresponding score.
2. Search the library/IMSLP for music scores you love and listen to frequently, but suspect you wouldn't be able to play.
* Skim over them by eye and try to find where your favourite moments are written down.
* At the piano, try to play each of the melodies that you recognise up to speed, no matter how much you have to mentally cut out - one-handed, just the top line, etc.
* (Can be done away from the piano) Try to find every appearance of those melodies - some may be hidden in the lower or inner voices, turned upside-down or back-to-front, sped up or slowed down, and some may have escaped your notice despite hearing them hundreds of times.
* Try to play each of the appearances that you found, and take note of how the music around them changes. Are they exact repeats? Are they adapted to accommodate a transition to/from something else? Do they have more/less harmonic support?
3. Find a score for some contrapuntal piano music, preferably something you like (pretty much anything with "fugue" or "canon" in the title will do, though arrangements of Pachelbel's Canon will tend to have a lot cut out). Play each voice separately - highest voice, then lowest voice, then any middle voices. If it looks like a voice disappeared, check if it just crossed over to the other hand.
4. Search the library for writing about music that makes copious use of score fragments/bar references for illustration and comparison. That could mean:
* Bar-by-bar analysis of compositions you like (for example Tovey's Companion to Beethoven's pianoforte sonatas in my case)
* Sheet music editions prefaced by in-depth performance advice and discussion of editorial decisions (comparing source texts, examining manuscript corrections, etc.) A lot of ABRSM editions have these.
* Scholarly articles and master's/doctoral theses making an argument about the style of a composer, the development of a genre, etc.
* Guides to composing or performing in a certain style.
At the piano, read these, or the parts you find interesting, and play each fragment, slowly if need be. Try to understand the point the writer wanted to make by including it. If you think the writer is not only a pompous ass but also wrong about the music, try to articulate your disagreement in writing/playing.
5. Look up a well-known piece on IMSLP, and download 5 or more different publishers' editions (of the same arrangement), plus the manuscript if you're feeling adventurous.
* Put them in a row and play spot-the-difference, looking beyond the different fonts to how different editors arrange the bars across lines, divide the notes between staves, add or remove markings, change/add/remove notes, copy previous editions, etc.
* Think about which edition you would prefer to learn, study, or perform from.
* If you've developed an internal stereotype of Donald Francis Tovey or any of the other long-winded editors of ABRSM-style editions, try to imagine how they would summarise your findings, or what terrible and mistaken idea about this piece they would try to commit to print.
6. Pick up a thick tome from the library or a comprehensive collection on IMSLP by a composer whose music you don't know. Flip through the entire thing and bookmark/make a note of the pieces you think:
* Would be easiest to play
* Would be most difficult to play
* You'd most like to listen to
* You'd like to try to learn (if any)
* Look most uncharacteristic of this composer.
7. Any time you see sheet music as background in a picture or video, or decoration on a physical item, try to figure out what the music is - mentally or at the piano. Even (especially) if it's too blurry to read the individual notes.
The idea here is twofold: to aim above your immediate goal of improving your music reading/theory towards the things you might incidentally apply that skill to (forcing you to take shortcuts that can be applied in your current practice), and to make different approaches to reading/playing from sheet music (following, skimming, microscopy, reduction, landmarking, comparison, imagination, etc.) feel natural and engaging (hence the emphasis in most of these exercises on music you enjoy).
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 9:44 AM on June 9
1. Watch score videos for familiar and unfamiliar music on Youtube. Listen to piano music recordings while reading the score from a physical book or IMSLP file. Watch Synthesia videos while reading the corresponding score.
2. Search the library/IMSLP for music scores you love and listen to frequently, but suspect you wouldn't be able to play.
* Skim over them by eye and try to find where your favourite moments are written down.
* At the piano, try to play each of the melodies that you recognise up to speed, no matter how much you have to mentally cut out - one-handed, just the top line, etc.
* (Can be done away from the piano) Try to find every appearance of those melodies - some may be hidden in the lower or inner voices, turned upside-down or back-to-front, sped up or slowed down, and some may have escaped your notice despite hearing them hundreds of times.
* Try to play each of the appearances that you found, and take note of how the music around them changes. Are they exact repeats? Are they adapted to accommodate a transition to/from something else? Do they have more/less harmonic support?
3. Find a score for some contrapuntal piano music, preferably something you like (pretty much anything with "fugue" or "canon" in the title will do, though arrangements of Pachelbel's Canon will tend to have a lot cut out). Play each voice separately - highest voice, then lowest voice, then any middle voices. If it looks like a voice disappeared, check if it just crossed over to the other hand.
4. Search the library for writing about music that makes copious use of score fragments/bar references for illustration and comparison. That could mean:
* Bar-by-bar analysis of compositions you like (for example Tovey's Companion to Beethoven's pianoforte sonatas in my case)
* Sheet music editions prefaced by in-depth performance advice and discussion of editorial decisions (comparing source texts, examining manuscript corrections, etc.) A lot of ABRSM editions have these.
* Scholarly articles and master's/doctoral theses making an argument about the style of a composer, the development of a genre, etc.
* Guides to composing or performing in a certain style.
At the piano, read these, or the parts you find interesting, and play each fragment, slowly if need be. Try to understand the point the writer wanted to make by including it. If you think the writer is not only a pompous ass but also wrong about the music, try to articulate your disagreement in writing/playing.
5. Look up a well-known piece on IMSLP, and download 5 or more different publishers' editions (of the same arrangement), plus the manuscript if you're feeling adventurous.
* Put them in a row and play spot-the-difference, looking beyond the different fonts to how different editors arrange the bars across lines, divide the notes between staves, add or remove markings, change/add/remove notes, copy previous editions, etc.
* Think about which edition you would prefer to learn, study, or perform from.
* If you've developed an internal stereotype of Donald Francis Tovey or any of the other long-winded editors of ABRSM-style editions, try to imagine how they would summarise your findings, or what terrible and mistaken idea about this piece they would try to commit to print.
6. Pick up a thick tome from the library or a comprehensive collection on IMSLP by a composer whose music you don't know. Flip through the entire thing and bookmark/make a note of the pieces you think:
* Would be easiest to play
* Would be most difficult to play
* You'd most like to listen to
* You'd like to try to learn (if any)
* Look most uncharacteristic of this composer.
7. Any time you see sheet music as background in a picture or video, or decoration on a physical item, try to figure out what the music is - mentally or at the piano. Even (especially) if it's too blurry to read the individual notes.
The idea here is twofold: to aim above your immediate goal of improving your music reading/theory towards the things you might incidentally apply that skill to (forcing you to take shortcuts that can be applied in your current practice), and to make different approaches to reading/playing from sheet music (following, skimming, microscopy, reduction, landmarking, comparison, imagination, etc.) feel natural and engaging (hence the emphasis in most of these exercises on music you enjoy).
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 9:44 AM on June 9
I used to play a lot of music but never piano. I've been teaching myself with the Simply Piano app (iPad plugged into piano) and it's been great! They have lessons and sheet music that gives you immediate feedback. You can start at a higher level.
posted by beyond_pink at 2:24 PM on June 9
posted by beyond_pink at 2:24 PM on June 9
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posted by johngoren at 12:37 PM on June 8 [7 favorites]