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Hi Guys,

This is my first post here, so first of all congratulations for the nice site.

My question is really basic, and for that my apologies.

I learnt the accordeon (no I'm not in the wrong forum! :)) for 6 years, till I was 13. Back then, I learnt as well to read the music. But because I was too lazy, I used to memorize the musics, rather than learning how to read and play. So I can read the notes, and I can play them on the instrument, but I have to do it note by note and take my time to do that. After some time I memorize it and play it. Of course that my memory is not what it was before, and now I can memorize the beginning of the music, but can't play an entire piece. I forgot to say that I always wanted to learn the piano, and since 2 months ago I started a self learning process. But my biggest problem is to read and play at the same time. I would like to pick up a new piece of music, and start playing it on the instrument immediately. Is there are tricks? I heard about interval reading? Is there any easy way of learning it? I know training is the key, but how should I train it? Can you guys please guide me in the easiest/quickest way?

Also, the way I read music is to say the exact note name (do, re, mi...) rather than the letter (C, D, E...). I think this makes things even more difficult.

Thanks for your help.

JS

Welcome to the forum, Joaquim! I am a reformed accordionist myself, so I'm always happy to find another one here.

The main trick to learning how to sightread is to simply jump in and do it... over and over again. If you are like me, learning the bass clef will be tricky, because in accordion there usually wasn't much going on in the bass and you could sort of cheat. It took me probably 6 months before I could read bass clef in piano as fluently as the treble clef.

Knowing the notes individually is a first step. Somewhere on this forum are links to websites that will drill you in note recognition. I'd start with that. Then I'd recommend picking up some sheet music that is several notches easier than what you're capable of playing now, and using that for sight-reading practice. Devote 10-15 minutes a day to playing through those pieces, start to finish, as best as you can. Don't stop and play lines over; try to play it nonstop at a regular tempo. Your goal is not to learn or polish those pieces; it's just to gain experience playing the music as written without laboriously memorizing it.

Good luck!

Hi Joaquim,

Part of learning how to read effectively involves finding unfamiliar pieces below your technical level and just reading and working through them; try to bring each piece up to a playable level as quickly as possible and move on to the next. I'm sure if you do this consistently, your reading will improve before you know it!

Good luck!

-Matt

Learning to sightread is a life-long endevor. Yes there are different approaches to the goal - but there are no shortcuts. To make matters worse, a lot of teachers don't really know how to teach students to read - they don't break it down into the basic components and develop what are, at first blush, the seemingly unrelated skills necessary to be a good sight reader. Catagorically you will need to develop a sense of touch whereby you can feel your hand position on the keyboard - no looking allowed; additionally, you need ear training skills, so that you hear in your head the correct note(s) before you actually play them and recognize they are actually the correct note(s) when you do play them - this is done by sound - not by looking back and forth at the sheet music and your hands. On top of all this, you will need to be able to look at a piece of music and hear in your head what it sounds like without the aid of a piano. Oh - and one last thing: music unfolds in time so you will need to do all of these mental gymnastics at a rate fast enough to make it sound like music. In essence, music is another language - it will take years to learn to read and perform well. Different people may have different approaches as to how best to learn something but ultimately, to develop the skill itself - you will need to spend a lot of time - it is a journey to be enjoyed. We're all at different levels of confusion!

Thanks guys. Well... it seems I have a long path to go. But I will not give up!

JS

Very well said PianoJazz....

I am at the very beginning of the journey, perhaps a month's worth, and so far working hard just to quickly identify the treble notes plus a few ledgers above and below.

The site I recommend for drill work is:

http://www.emusictheory.com/practice/pianoKeys.html

Use the settings to focus on specific areas to drill on for this drill, and explore the site to do other useful drills.

As to sight reading.....

For me at this early stage of rediscovering the piano, I am looking at two paths: Classical which requires the most effort, including knowing the bass clef well, or, Fake book focused on popular songs and left hand chording (almost like an accordian maybe?). If I take the Fake book path, being able to sight read the melody line and of course the chording that goes with it would make playing much more fun, so I would focus my sight reading efforts on the treble clef only.

However, if I (gulp) follow the classical path, I would most likely be working on a piece for weeks so it's not about sight reading it (playing it correctly without having seen it before) but about mastering the piece over time. I don't see myself spending time trying to sight read cleassical pieces several levels below as I don't think that would develop my technical skills, other than the skill of sight reading itself.

Good Luck, welcome to the forums, and keep us posted on your progress....

/Scruffies

At the Moment... Self Taught.

I am just now starting on Moonlight Sonata, 1st M.

Just to be clear - before you begin studying sight reading as I have defined it, you need to be at the advanced beginner or intermediate level - i.e., you have worked some of the JSB two-part inventions and some Chopin waltzes. Additionally, as Coolkid70 has stated, the kind of material you sight read has to be below your current level of piece work. So e.g., if you're working on two-part inventions, you might try sight reading something like the material from JSB's Anna Magdelana Handbook. Personally, I find it very interesting how we actually learn to play piano with this multi-level approach and ping-ponging back and forth and how one type of study actually helps the others also.

Hi, Joaquim.

I just posted something in the "neighbouring thread" called "Note reading".

I think I have found a way to help people just like you. But it is quite controversial amongst teachers of the traditional music reading.

I would be very happy if you can try it and let people know how you find it.

http://haostaff.com/lib/furelise_freetrial.PDF

http://haostaff.com/lib/userguide.pdf


If you want to see all the negative comments I have received so far, come to this thread:

thread "reading music"

Jeff

Jeff -

I appreciate your attitude - you make me laugh. Thanks. I'm glad you're here.

Cathy