Rachel _Not_Idiot asked:

What are some mistakes or errors of thinking that you made when learning music?
One that I can recall: I’d been learning the recorder at school, and they hadn’t taught us to read music. I had some keyboard sheet music that I wanted to play on the recorder, so I decided that I’d figure out how to read the music. The music had chord symbols on it, and I thought they were a guide to the notes in the melody. I soon figured out that this was wrong, though, as I could see that the notes in the top line of the music were changing position far more often than the chord letter symbols were changing.
A couple of months later, I took up the clarinet, and I was taught to read music.

What errors have others made?

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Learning to Read Music

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8 Comments on Mistakes/errors of thinking that you made when learning music?

  1. MissLimLam says:

    learn to read musichttp://www.SpeedyMusicReading.com

    I confused the alto and bass clef.
    I couldnt tell the difference between cello and viola (when listening) until I was about eleven.
    I used to color in flats…
    I confused dorian and hypo-dorian modes.

  2. i. jones says:

    Sight Reading Music

    I guess one that creeps up on me fairly regularly is music with capo chords for guitar written. and starting off in the wrong key.

    Example something in F (Capo 3) … First guitar chord is “D”, the first note, is the tonic (F), but I play F# (thinking “third degree of the scale”)

    … I can make my way through as a piano solo (If I know the changes, and DON’T look at the music) but I’ve got to start over if we’re playing as a group.

    (Obviously this happens with popular vocal, keyboard, guitar transcriptions, not with proper sheet music.)

  3. Deep blue sea... says:

    How to Sight Read Music

    The fact they don’t teach you sight reading is definitely wrong. They should do that.

    Well I am doing a lot of mistakes, every body does that. I am a music teacher and as you can understand you cannot escape from the mistakes as you always have something more to learn.

  4. Doctor John says:

    Learning to Read Music

    I had a terrible habit of ‘improving’ the composer’s harmony, “surely he meant B-natural”, I have managed to stop (mostly).

  5. Schumiszt says:

    Sight Reading Music

    When I learned organ, I thought principle stops were flutes… How embarrassing… hahaha

    I also had a serious problem learning glissando’s on the piano. I thought you pushed down on the key hard(ouch!) and slid all the way, which once led to bleeding on the piano. Then I figured out that you don’t actually have to press down hard, but just graze(ahhh… so much better) the tops of the keys… That was one painful flop I had…

    A silly mistake was when for some reason, I thought (okay, I was like 8) that dynamic hair pins were just big accents that meant you accent all of the notes they cover.

    oops…

  6. Rainy says:

    How to Read Music Notes

    Confusing the two clefts. I think its bass and alto?. I used to play cello and was absolutely horrible at it, then I took a piano class and was pretty good at that! But I would mess up the two clefts. Or I would assign the wrong note to what it said on the sheet music, I play c when it was an a, or whatever. I’m one of those people who has to practice a lot if I want to get good at something, I’m not naturally good.

  7. Edik says:

    Learn How to Read Music Notes

    All through high school, I thought that “subdominant” meant “below the dominant.” And it took me figuring out the RIGHT answer before I could keep mediant and submediant straight…

  8. Jack Herring says:

    Learning to Read Music

    Many years ago I decided to play Ravel’s “Concerto pour la main gauche en re mejuer.” (Concerto for left hand in D major). Not knowing what gauche meant, proceeded to learn it using both hands.

    When I played a very small portion of it for my piano teacher, she pointed out my error. Embarassed I dropped the piece and have never picked it up again.

    Ever since then I keep a music dictionary within arms reach of the piano.

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