monkeyboy asked:
I’m pretty good at reading the notes on the scales, but for the notes on the high treble or low bass, I have to take some time counting how many lines there are in order to figure out which notes they are. Also, for notes with more than one note ( I don’t know what they are called).. like when you play F, B, and D together.. I always have to look at each individual one.
I want to be able to read notes right off the bat like how you read a book. I know practice is necessary, but are there any other helpful tips from piano experts/teachers? Thanks
i play the piano..
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how to read music noteshttp://www.SpeedyMusicReading.com
I know exactly what your going though. When I was younger I could read the music on the staff, really well. But when I came to the music on the upper part of the staff, Called ledger lines. I had to use the alphabet to figure the notes out.
But to answer your first question. multiple notes are called chords.
Now I am in college, on a piano performance scholarship. I am the best freshman sight reader and maybe the up to the junior class. What I did when I was younger, I would play music that I liked, such as from movie scores and Contemporary songs. I would then play the Cd. to just read for fun and get use to reading fast. I didn’t know what I was doing, by means of reading music really fast-like a book. I read music like: titanic, harry potter, star wars, pearl harbor. and a lot of popluar songs like from the radio, that I really liked. I would play really pretty pianoish songs, like Titanic. When I was in fifth grade I playe dthe “Rose” from titanic at my very first talent show at school. I was so scared for I never performend in front of an audience and on a grand piano. I had only taught myself from the third fourth grade. Just music I heard in movies I really like and I would the music and CD and play along.
So when we read words. We see shapes and letter formations and we make them into sounds to get words. I can also be called sight recongnition. so when we are young and reading, we would have to read slowly and and sound the words out. But now afteryears of practice, our eyes can just glance over words and we know exactly how they are suppossed to sound like the same goes for reading music. To speed read, people read a lot.
so what I will reconmend is to practice this every day. make a chart of the notes on the staff. So draw the treble cleff and the bass cleff, then add the note names going up to high high C and low low C. When you start to just see that the high ledger line is A and the next in C and the one after that is E just by a glance, you are slowly on your way to improve your upper note reading. Read really slow lyrical music, so that you can make it pretty and yet have enough time to read the music and start seeing patterns in the music that you can recongnize.
Also make sure to practice your scales everyday, they use the classical and common fingerings that all songs tend to use making fingering the notes not an issue.
I would reconmend the minor and major scales called Daily warmups from Alfred by Gayle Kowalchyk and E.L Lancaster. they are two different books for minor and major scales. They use the tradtional fingerings from the baroque and classical period, that all piano teachers teach.
When I was high I took on a wind instrument. I play the flute. mostly all the music I now play in the high ledger lines above the staff, so this helped me to just read the upper notes.
instead of reading music on the staff slowly read music in the the ledger lines.
Get music that you like and its fun. play one song a day, make sure its your level, and when you progress make the music selection a little harder.
If you look at chords, depending what order the notes are, the formation the fingers will always the same in the music, so all you have to do is know what notes they are. After reading alot of music you will start to see small clues and music notations that are very simliar to each other, like seeing notes on the page and knowing what the music sounds like just by looking at it. so now all you have to do is practice and read new music everyday to slowly improve your reading. Try to read the music like you have played it before. meaning, read the music like its the performance, add dynamics and tempo, if you can, and just make really pretty.
Let me tell you, this will not happen over night. or even the next five months. I know that sounds like a long time. I am just being honest.
It took me about a good three to five years, I have been playing about 8 years. But I didn’t have a teacher until my last two years of high school. Now in college, I also accompany a lot of vocal students, and some times they give me music late and I have to read on the spot. I read it almost perfectly, but then they ask if I have read that music before and then I tell them no, they are stunned. I also really helps when I have a lot of music to learn
So, who knows, you might improve quicker than me. pracitce new music everyday. its like working on a sport start simple and slow and the results will show up in the long run later on. This is only work depending on how you work efficiently. Then you can read anything after that.
I hoped this helped, and I wish you the best of luck!