Learn to Read Music

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All musicians, excepting blind ones, need to learn to read music if they are to make the most of their ability. The entire history of Western music is available to those who have mastered this skill. Yet for so many, reading music remains the single biggest obstacle to learning it.

It certainly was for me. I even had an incompetent piano teacher fire me because I couldn't read piano notes. (I'm at long last more competent at sight reading than she was at recognizing musical talent, to say the least.) She literally told my mother, "Take your money every week and throw it in the garbage! Albert will never be able to play the piano!" Much as I'd like to, I won't name names, although I presume she is no longer with us (or at least, one hopes, has no internet access).

What Mrs. [expletive deleted -- her name really is an expletive!] failed, astonishingly, to notice is that music is sound. Nowadays, far too much emphasis is in fact placed on simply learning to read music, while neglecting this simple fact, and training the ear ought therefore to be favored above training the eye. I don't have statistics on the percentage of exasperated piano students whose flashbacks to stereotypical "mean old bat" piano teachers smacking their wrists with a ruler have cost them years of psychotherapy, though I can assure my readers that learning to read music need not be this painful.

Reading piano music (or music for any instrument, for that matter) should be thought of much like training a muscle. No one enters a gym with an Olympian physique for the first time. The rest of us may feel intimidated by the pros, but two things are important. First, they had to work very, very hard to attain that level of fitness. Secondly, and most importantly, they're still working out. To a certain extent, learning to read music is like learning to ride a bicycle. However, the human mind and body function according to a strict use-it-or-lose-it principle, and that ought to compel us to practice...

Learning to read music involves the synthesis of several musical faculties. First, the eyes must be trained to recognize the symbols of music notation. Secondly, the brain interprets these symbols, dividing them into pitch, rhythmic, dynamic and expressive content. Next, the brain sends the muscles the appropriate signals and the arms, wrist, hands and fingers must respond accordingly, at the right times. Finally, the ear properly gives feedback: With a properly trained ear, you'll effectively hear the notes in advance of playing them, which will greatly accelerate your efforts to learn to read music.

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