In Western music notation, the staff (plural is staves) is a set of five lines and four spaces, each of which represents a different pitch. Appropriate music symbols, depending upon the intended effect, are placed on the staff according to their corresponding pitch or function. Musical notes are placed by pitch, percussion notes are placed by instrument, and rests and other symbols are placed by convention.

A main feature of western music is its meter, a repeating pattern of pulses with a regular accent pattern.

Music has three different meters: duple time, triple time, and quadruple time.  The names of these meters reflect the number of pulses or beats in each measure of music:  duple time tells us that the meter has two pulses per measure, triple time has three, and quadruple time has four pulses per measure.

 For each of these meters there is also a basic accent pattern.  Duple time has a strong-weak pattern, a triple meter usually has a strong-weak-weak pattern, and quadruple meter has a strong-weak-medium weak pattern for each measure.  There are variations to these accent patterns for specific genres or styles, or occasionally  composers will play with our expectations of these meters, but for our purposes here, we shall stick with these basic patterns.

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Melodies and complementing phrases mark larger sections of a composition.  Composers build pieces from these sections by repeating them, varying them, or contrasting them with new material.  Some patterns of repetition and contrast are so frequent that we think of them as specific musical forms. Some of the simpler forms themselves can become building blocks for larger compositions.

 Binary form is probably the most basic compositional form.  It is in two sections, typically with repeats for each section.  We often use letters to identify its sections as an A section, and a B section.  Each section has repeat markings.  The A section is usually two phases of four measures each, not unlike the Mozart above.  The B section may be two or more phrases and the opening material may appear here in some variation.

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Learning to Read Music

Musical form refers to the organization and shape of a composition’s elements, giving it a sense of structure and coherence.  Both popular and classical composers employ several standard forms, but their basic principle is the same:  repetition and contrast.

The smallest musical unit that a composer works with is the the motif, typically just a few notes having a characteristic rhythm and interval structure.  A composer will build a motif and expand it to a larger musical gesture or phrase of a few measures.  A second phrase may complement the first one creating a larger unit in what we typically think of as a melody.  The second phrase may start off with a repetition of the original motif, but it usually finishes somewhat differently than the first phrase.  The following melody from Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik exemplifies this two phrase structure:

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By this time you may have some ideas for phrasing, dynamics, and articulations. Its time to start writing these ideas into your score.  You may still be polishing some technical problems, but that’s fine if you have a reasonable mastery of the piece.  Develop at least two different interpretations of the piece.  Try a few unusual ideas, they can help get the creative juices flowing even if you reject them in the end.

 If you are preparing for a performance, a new piece needs to be played out to really know if its ready.  Play it for anyone or thing who will listen.  A great acid test for how well you are prepared is to record yourself.  Set simple guidelines for this exercise: you are not going for recording quality, but for performance quality, that is,  to be able to play the piece from beginning to end, one take, with the mic on.  You should then try out the piece out on  a friend or two.  In this way, by the time you hit the stage, you will be fully prepared.

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The speaker essentially said, “yes there are faster ways to learn to read music, but it’s important to still study classical music” (which I agree with by the way), but she didn’t even answer the question!! If there’s a faster way to teach people how to read music it needs to be taught. I’ve been saying this for years and FINALLY it sounds like people are starting to listen. Music theory, learning to read music, and fundamental music education don’t have to be antiquated, but they are in the normal ways music are taught. If you want a way to learn how to read music fast and easy, in a manor that keeps up with the latest advancements in how people learn the quickest, check out Speedy Music Reading

You can read the whole article at http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/nov/05/state-music-education-schools/

The next step is to set and understand your goals in learning your new piece of sheet music.  There are several possible reasons for studying a new work:  for personal enjoyment, to develop a particular technique (etudes for example), to explore a particular style, or perhaps to perform at an upcoming recital.  You also may  want to decide right from the beginning whether or not you want to be able to play the piece from memory.

Develop an understanding of the basic form of the piece.  Identify its main musical themes and look for literal repeat sections of music.  When we then first sit down to do some note learning, we can use our understanding of the piece to break it down into smaller sections.  Some sections will be easier to learn than others, and they may be of different lengths, so try not to make any artificial time-goals like learning a set number of measures per day.  Instead focus on learning each natural section of the piece thoroughly and in order.  Identify any particularly challenging phrases and work on them individually.  Then start to connect the various phrases and larger sections together.

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You and your teacher have chosen a new piece to learn, and you are expecting this to be a mid to long term project, say at least a few months.  It is useful to have a clear approach to learning this piece that will maximize your practice time.

To begin with, listen to several different recordings of the piece.  This will teach you many things about the piece, but in some ways more importantly, you will hear more than one particular interpretation of the music; we don’t want to be tied to any one performance as being the correct one.

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Learning to identify musical intervals takes patience and practice over time, but the payoff is worth the effort.  Your understanding of music in general expands, as does your reading skills.  There are two parts to this component of ear training:  learning to sing intervals, and learning to recognize intervals when heard.  We will focus on learning an approach to singing intervals.

The first step really is to add ear training into your practice routine.  Schedule in five minutes a day.  Add it in somewhere as a break to your regular practice, in between technical exercises and pieces, for example.

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