Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum how to read music

Hi,

Am putting together a music theory site teaching people how to read music. Would love some feedback on it.
Am doing a mixture of videos and written lessons. Am not sure which works best - would love to hear some thoughts.

www.musictheoryacademy.com

Thanks in advance.

A lesson on circle of fifths? Other than that great job!

Hi Artur,

Thank you - that's really encouraging.
I'll have a go at a circle of fifths one.
Thanks again

You might include a topic on reading the 'roadmap' of a composition: signum, coda, repeats, other??

Ben I have bookmarked your site. It looks very good and I will have a read of it this week- at a glance I can see some topics my teacher has introduced to me so these will be further study for me. Many thanks!

p.s - are you British? You have used European music terms like crotchet!

He also says "...have a go at..." which normal Americans hardly ever use.

Hi,

Thanks so much for the feedback.
A post on the roadmap sounds great - I'll put one together.
I confess I am British! Hence the "crotchets, minims", etc.. I've tried to use quarter notes and half notes terminology as well.
Thanks.

P.S. out of interest, what do Americans say instead of "have a go at"?

"Give it a shot"

Ha thought you were a fellow Brit Ben! Didn't know Americans don't say have a go!

Thank you, that's a great website. You must have put a lot of work into it!

Lol... Americans DO say that! However, we don't say "crotchets" "minims" etc.

PianoBen, wow, this is a really cool site. Just curious, are you planning on turning this into a business, or do you intend to offer it up free? Even if you intend not to charge people for it, might I suggest you consider putting ads up on there. Because this is a great resource that I think a lot of people are going to want to use, and from a business stand point I see a real opportunity for you.
Way to go.

Here's something that you may find helpful, assuming that you want to teach how to read lead sheets and alphanumeric chord symbols.

Instead of doing all that dreary counting of half steps, I've borrowed the old idea of the slide rule to make a handy way of finding which keys to press. What you do is print out all these PDF's, then cut or fold the keyboard picture as indicated. Put it on top of any of the others with the tick mark for the root you want lined up with the "R", and the other tick marks are the tones of the chord you want. Since it's just a stack of paper, it's fairly easy to use at the piano, along with the paper sheet music.

Note that it's the *fallboard* edge of the keyboard picture that has the tick marks, because that's where all 12 tones are close enough to being equally spaced. Feel free to download these for your web site if you want.


http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/Chords-1.pdf

http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/Chords-2.pdf

http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/Chords-3.pdf

http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/Chords-4.pdf

http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/Chords-5.pdf

http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/Keyboard.pdf

Edit: Here's an explanation on how to use it:

http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/KeyChord.pdf

Hi Ben,

Everybody wants to get into the act of teaching theory via sight-reading ... but all hit the wall ... due to a system of notation which does not present an accurate graphic image of the pitch and duration of notes.
(The space between some of the five lines can variously indicate a pitch of anything from one to five semitones.)

You make an interesting study showing the measured linear relationship of major and minor triads (amongst others).

The pity is that this approach was not used from way back ... instead of adopting the distorted Middle Ages stave ... later complicated in use of the double stave for keyboard music.

Sorry about the broadside ... but there is no easy sight-reading solution with the present bum notation.

I think your site is great for beginners who don't know the basics of reading music, but I am curious if you have any material on your site for improving sight reading speed. I know many musicians like myself, know how to read music, but we struggle with the speed of being able to play a brand new piece that is put in front of us. Any lessons/tips you have on that would be really useful. Thank you.

PianoBen, I have read your post, here:

Am putting together a music theory site teaching people how to read music. Would love some feedback on it.
Am doing a mixture of videos and written lessons. Am not sure which works best - would love to hear some thoughts.

______________________________________________

The most fascinating thing about reading music is how easy it is.

First one has to learn the names of the notes on, below and above the staff.

The next thing is to know the note values for each note, regular and doted notes, rests and doted rests.

The next thing is to know the time signatures.

The next thing is learning to count the values of the notes in a measure.

Then you put beginner music that you are learning/reading/playing and proceed to play the music and read the music everyday for the rest of your life always reviewing day after day as you add new pieces and reviewing all the old pieces.

That is all there is to reading music.

The reason some people can't read music is because they don't know the names of the notes, they don't know the values of the notes, they don't know how to count the values of the notes within a measure and some people learn a piece and then once they learn the piece they think that is the end of playing the piece and the look for a new piece. But reading music is all about reading music constantly and reviewing music for the rest of your life.

RonR, I have raad your post, here:


I think your site is great for beginners who don't know the basics of reading music, but I am curious if you have any material on your site for improving sight reading speed. I know many musicians like myself, know how to read music, but we struggle with the speed of being able to play a brand new piece that is put in front of us. Any lessons/tips you have on that would be really useful. Thank you.

____________________________________________

The simple answer is when you sit down and play a scale, you can play a scale at a greater speed than you can play music because you are playing only one note at a time of the same value. Very simple.

Now change the note to:


different notes
same notes
by 10 fingers
played at the same time
played at different times
note of different values
note of same values

That is what music is and that is what you have to teach your brain to do. And that is why you have to teach the brain to do it correctly because it is no good if you teach your brain do it wrong because your brain will read or play the note wrong at any speed if that is how you taught your brain to do it.

The reason you can play simple music for the first time is because you have lots of experience doing it for as long as you have been playing the piano.

As a kid we learn to drive around the block. If you take a kid onto a freeway of 8 lanes at rush hour he can't do it - no previous experience. Music is the same thing.

The problem I have is when I see chord voicings that require reading 3 or 4 notes simultaneously in each staff, so a total of 7 notes at once. I look at it and freeze and have to name the notes 1 at a time. I have no problem reading from lead sheets, but it's playing full arrangements that I really struggle with.

Thanks.

Are we not realizing this thread is two months old, or what?

yes, but learning to sight reading efficiently is eternal!

I'm a huge advocate of teaching students to sight-read, so I relent.