18May/1011
i played the piano for ten long years i learned a lot but there is a problem i cant read music what can i do?
STEVEFMASTER asked:
for instace, i actually know how to play the first 45 seconds of Moonlight sonata 3rd. movement, but its very hard for me to find a place or something that can help me to play better without using written music... you know what i am saying... thanks..
how to read music
for instace, i actually know how to play the first 45 seconds of Moonlight sonata 3rd. movement, but its very hard for me to find a place or something that can help me to play better without using written music... you know what i am saying... thanks..
how to read music
May 18th, 2010 - 21:15
How to Read Music Hub
im taking a A level in music and getting all A grades and i carnt read music. As you can perform it is going to meant that when you do start to learn from a piano teacher it will be easier. But if you want to read music you are going to have to start from the begining. There is nothing woring with not being able to read music as people like us can play songs from ear and not have to read music,
May 20th, 2010 - 20:52
Learning to Read Music
Many successful and talented musicians do not read music. It shouldn’t be a huge issue if you have good ears. It is kind of like being illiterate though. If you want to advance and find reading is necessary, then you should learn to read. If you can play everything you want by ear then don’t worry about it. There are many many many brilliant musicians who cannot read a note.Look at a Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder, both exceptional pianists and songwriters. I personally have post-secondary music and read exceptionally well….but my ears are not so great. I would sooner have great ears and play more soulfully than read as well as I do.
If you are not prepared to make the effort to learn to read, then you will have to make the effort to improve your ears. The music will not magically enter your brain and pour out your fingers. Maybe try an ear-training program. I downloaded a couple from the Pirate Bay. These programs work on recognition of intervals, chord progressions, etc. and make it much easier to figure out music by ear.
Ultimately the more you know the better.
Why such a passionate dislike of musicians who don’t read? I understand that if you are planning a career teaching or performing classical it is a necessity, but jazz and the blues….two of the greatest artistic innovations in US history…..were founded largely by musicians who did not read. Are you so narrow-minded as to ignore these two unique and influential forms? Is the only true music one that died hundreds of years ago? And kept alive by mere technicians who often lack any spark of creativity? What a sad sorry world that would be.
May 24th, 2010 - 05:33
How to Read Music Hub
I am of the classical school. I say, start simple. And since you already know how to play, it should be pretty easy to learn to read music. I’d just buy a few grade one grade books, and have the patience to learn to read the music. Get just one book that will show you how to write a certain note that is played. I think, with your piano experience, you’d pick it up really easy, my sight reading sucks, but i’ve improved a lot, through practice! best of luck!
May 25th, 2010 - 10:38
How to Read Music Hub
Knowing how to play music and how to read music are two different things. You may play Mozart wonderfully, but that doesn’t mean you understand the advance of the melody, the developing of the motif, or the spaces. What I;m saying is that, learning the theory of music, (getting the diploma of Harmony, namely) would be good, if you want to understand the pieces you play better, and if you want to have a musical career, but not doing that, cannot stop you from playing whatever you want (up to a certain degree of perfection, of course.)
May 26th, 2010 - 13:06
How to Read Piano Music
How did you learn the instrument for 10 years without knowing how to read music? Quite frankly speaking, it isn’t enough to ‘just play by ear’. What are you going to do when you get to more advanced pieces like Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies and such? I don’t think you can play those by ear, no matter how good you are at it. I’ve got absolute pitch so I’m pretty good at playing by ear, but even I can’t do it with Liszt or advanced Beethoven sonatas. I’m not Mozart…
It’s actually not that hard to learn, and especially since you already know how to play. Get a beginner’s music theory book and start from there. You should be having minimal problems after a short while. Think of it as another tool to help your playing. If you can read music, you won’t have to worry about finding pieces to play.
*No, I don’t believe that anyone can do an ‘A’ level in music and get all A’s without knowing how to read music. For one, you’d need to play pretty advanced pieces for the ‘performing’ component – pieces too advanced to learn to play by ear without butchering them. And, you’d need to have had at least ‘O’ level music to continue to ‘A’ level – unless you go for an audition where you would have to show that you can play very well at a fairly advanced level – again, a performance that can’t happen unless you actually understand fully what you’re playing and understand the intricate workings in your pieces. Which also doesn’t happen if you can’t read music. And ‘O’ level music requires you to at least write out short melodies played in recording excerpts during your exam. If you took ‘O’ level Higher Music as well, you would have had to compose as well. How did you do those without knowing how to read notes?
May 29th, 2010 - 21:30
Learn How to Read Music Notes
So what you’re saying is that you’ve “played at” an instrument for ten years. The question smacks of someone who never had a lesson but noodled his way though familiar tunes. That’s good for ear-training, but not so good if you want to get beyond what is in the standard rep. If you did have a teacher, he/she certainly didn’t work enough on reading with you.
So the answer is: “Lessons”
… isn’t it always?
May 30th, 2010 - 15:33
Music Reading
This may sound strange, but the ability to SIGHT READ is usually less-developed than the ability to HEAR and PLAY. I have experienced this difficulty with a number of adult students.
The problem is that to learn/improve your sight-reading you must start with books that are VERY basic and work up from there. For a lot of people who can already play complicated pieces, this feels like “going backwards”, but I assure you (like I assure them) is ISN’T. In fact, it is the only way to build a solid foundation for later sight-reading.
The good news is that if you are playing the piano, you will pick up the “reading” part quicker than someone who is just coming to the instrument. So, get yourself a few piano books for KIDS and dig right in…you’ll be glad you did after a few weeks.
Tips that I give my students when they practice sight-reading:
1. Once you start playing, don’t stop until the end. If this means dropping a hand, that’s okay. The main thing is to “keep in motion” and follow through to the end of the piece, NO MATTER WHAT.
2. Always be willing to sacrifice accuracy for continuity. “Don’t let mistakes become brakes!”
3. Constantly change little things when playing. Try it once a little slower than written, the other time a litte faster. See if you can add your own idea of dynamics to the music. Always be experimenting with what you can do.
4. ALWAYS COUNT ALOUD!!
Hope that helps you figure out a place to start.
Good Luck,
Noah
June 2nd, 2010 - 10:02
Learning How to Read Music Notes
The first 2 responders totally gave you idiotic answers.First of all,what is your intention in learning to read music?Is it just to play Moonlight Sonata?Or is it to play bigger scale works?
I agree that hearing is important but sight reading is more so.Check out Alkan’s Symphony for Solo Piano or his Concerto for Solo Piano.Is it worth hearing this for nuts or would you learn how to sight read?
I found a website that helps beginning people like you.The website is and its extremely helpful since it teaches theory and a bit of sight reading is mixed in it as well.
June 5th, 2010 - 12:15
How to Read Music Hub
I’m afraid that what everyone else said is right.. You’re going to have to learn how to read music sooner than later.. You probably got to the point that I did, that you’ve reached your limit as a musician until you get past the hurdle of having to read music.
The great news is that you don’t have to learn in traditional old methods that take months and years… Checkout the sight below, the guy is saying you can learn to read music in as little as 1 week!
June 8th, 2010 - 07:09
How to Read Music Hub
It seems obvious to me that you do not want to learn how to read music and over the past 10 years have looked for other ways to learn thus avoiding learning to read music.
My response to this is “what an incredible waste of time.” Again it is obvious that you are not happy with your level of playing. If you had learned to read music I am sure your level would be much higher than it is now.
Those 10 years are gone, you cannot get them back however you can get a qualified teacher and start to learn today. Reading music is not that difficult. Time is precious, do not waste it.
June 8th, 2010 - 17:01
Learn How to Read Music
I have found over many years of teaching piano that students who have challenges in reading tend to be auditory and not visual learners. An idea to improve reading is to strengthen your visual powers. This can be done by imagining you have “super eyes”, and can see incredibly well. This mental game seems to make an immediate improvement in the sight-reading accuracy of my students. They report that the notes appear larger and clearer than before. It also helps to have a good system for processing the notes – reading by patterns instead of trying to match letters. Letter matching is not sustainable as the music advances, because our brain cannot compute two different letters simultaneously. I suggest you could experiment a little to see if these ideas work for you. Find a simpler piece (a few grades lower), sight read a few lines slowly in your usual way, then see if you can direct more power from your eyes to your brain, either by pretending you have “super eyes”, or imagining you are looking at them through a magnifying glass (that idea has also worked well for some of my students). Take the time to notice how you calculate what notes you have to play – are you thinking letters, or are you noticing whether the notes move up or down and exactly how far up or down they go. If you are patient and persistent, your reading skills will improve a lot. Don’t forget the other “P” word – Practice! If these suggestions are useful to you, you will notice right away that reading music is easier, and in time, your eyes will just work better for you – at the piano and elsewhere. I suspect that the eye to brain link just gets wired better. My students report greater ability for visual focus in schoolwork as well, so life is easier for them on or off the piano bench. I hope you have similar success.