Posts Tagged learn to read music
7 Reasons Why You Should Learn to Read Music
1. Essential to communicating with other musicians.
Music is a language unto itself. Given that, how can you communicate if you cannot speak it? Ensembles, bands, choirs, opera, jazz all operate on the written notes first. Way before improvisation was the written note. Simply put, if you cannot read you will never be in any ensemble that requires it. WE could really stop right there.
2. Essential to understanding theory.
The theory of music is by necessity based on the written note. All of the structure of chords, melody, harmony and so forth can only be understood completely through the written note. I know you say well this is boring, but someday you will be so glad you started now.
3. Learn a song without any other reference.
You will not have to replay the tape or cd a million times or learn from someone else. How many times can you try to learn from a cd or from someone else and not know if you got it right? If you can read you can go straight to the book and get all of the basic information on your own. This greatly speeds up the learning curve. You cannot learn from a book the particular way a band performs the song, but you can get the basis of the song and go from there.
4. Know the way the author of those songs meant for them to sound.
This is very interesting I think. I have many times been very surprised to find out a song was written very differently than I have always heard it performed. Perhaps the performer left of the “intro” for example. “Georgia On my Mind” by Hoagy Carmichael for example. Nobody plays the intro. Also there are other examples. I know this example is an old song that many of you may not know, but the fact remains that just because you have heard it on the radio a million times does not mean it was written that way. It may be even better the way the author originally intended it! If you are a song writer I am sure you would want people to know the way you wrote it. Think about that for a moment.
5.Discover new music.
It is a wonderful thing to “find” music just because you are leafing through a songbook and you find something that really speaks top you. I have found many this way. These are songs that I absolutely love. I would never have known they existed without being able to read.
6.It is Fun!
It may seem a little hard at first, but so was riding a bicycle as I recall. In fact the first time my father let go from holding me on a bicycle I ran into a post and knocked it over! I rarely do that these days now that I have learned how. In fact there are days when I don’t knock anything over.
7. It will make you a better musician.
This may go without saying, but it really bears repeating. After all, don’t we all want to be a better musician? Of course we do. Are you prepared to discover new music, perform with people you might never have met otherwise, speak with authority about the origins and intent of a particular piece of music or composer? I think I know the answer. Learn to read music, you will not be sorry.
Tags: learn to read music, learning, music, read musicRelated posts
Learn to Read Music – Defining a Framework to Understand How to Read Music
You see all those notes on lines and spaces and don’t have a clue about how to read music. Maybe you know enough to get by but start to get overwhelmed when trying to read notes. These are common feelings when first starting to learn music.
Learning to read music starts with a basic understanding of notes. The note itself conveys two simple aspects and is the place you begin to learn to read music.
To prepare you with a good start on reading music you need to begin with concepts of what are notes and what do they mean. This along with other characteristics are what will enable you to internalize notes and the music that follows.
The Essentials of Reading Music
The elements below are part of the fundamental framework that the beginning student will undertake.
1. Learn what notes symbolize, are shown and used.
2. Learn rhythm and how that rhythm is revealed using notes.
3. Learn how notes and tones make up a scale and how that scale defines a harmonic system.
4. Learn how combinations of scale notes in a harmonic system work to form intervals and chords.
5. Learn how the flow of notes as melody, intervals, chords, and scale tones are arranged to create songs.
Purpose of Notes
Start with notes, as symbols, that convey information. Two very important aspects are symbolized by notes. There are time tone and a time value.
An example is a quarter note it can be shown on a staff and convey a tone that will be played on your instrument. A second aspect is the quarter note will represent a beat or partial beat or multiple beats based on a time signature.
If we say that we get 4 beats to our measure of time and that we count quarter notes as a beat then we get four counts to our measure. That beat gets a time associated with it so that it may be fast or slow and is known as our tempo.
Note Tones
Notes are defined in half steps. When we look at a piano keyboard you can note that each key such as moving form white and black represents a half step in tone. Each of the steps produces a new tone and pitch until we reach the 16th step and the tone repeats and sound like the first note, but at a higher pitch. They are know to be in unison.
A to G alpha letters define the notes names. Lowering or raising note pitch by half step is accomplished with a flat or a sharp to lower or raise the note respectively. Therefore, using the note of ‘A’ you get a note names like A sharp (A#) or A flat (Ab) when using these modifiers.
Notes are shown on a staff where each position and notation represents a tone to be played. This is the process of translating any given note from composer to paper to musician to instrument.
Take it one step at a time
Learning notes as tones and various time values is where you start to read music. Additional effort then follows and before long you begin to understand and read music that once looked complicated and impossible to understand.
Don’t be fooled by thinking this can be done quickly. It takes some time, in a couple of months you can become fluent at reading music and within a year you can become good at understanding and potentially even creating complex music on your own.
Do more than study how to mimic and play notes; this might be like reading a book by spelling the words. Your aim is to learn the fundamental principles of music theory and leverage that not as a way to read music, but as a way to tell a story with music.
At the Music Learning Workshop.com you can learn the basic principles of music in mini lessons throughout the site.
Tags: beats, how to read music, learn music, learn to read music, learning, learning to read music, lessons, music, music learning, music theory, piano, piano keyboard, read music, reading musicRelated posts