Help reading music

[nosaxyet]

Well, it's day four of my sax 'career' though I've not managed to play yet today (damn stepson came home at 9am this morning and went straight to bed! If was up to me I'd have woken him with a blast after mid-day!!!

Anyway, all seems to be going OK so far and I'm playing scales, holding long notes, practicing my tongueing and even tried a tune or two. My biggest issue though is struggling with reading music. I cannot sight-read at all, nor could I before (even as a teenage) and I know this hampered me.

I know its very early days but anyone have any suggestions on how to 'fast-track' learning to read music?

cheers

Ian

 

[Rogerb]

No, sorry.... if there was a way, I'd have found it by now! 🙁

Just press on rewardless!

 

[mfox]

hardest part of reading music is rhythm..work it out by just tapping the tune on your knee and once you think you have it play it on sax.. that way your son can sleep and you can practice reading.

 

[Pjonah]

nosaxyet wrote:

I know its very early days but anyone have any suggestions on how to 'fast-track' learning to read music?

cheers

Ian

Let me know if you find anything!

Simon

 

[bobk]

mfox wrote:
hardest part of reading music is rhythm..work it out by just tapping the tune on your knee and once you think you have it play it on sax.. that way your son can sleep and you can practice reading.

Here is a link to a rhythm trainer. Great idea - you are presented with a couple of bars of music whose rhythm you then tap out with your mouse and it tells you where you've gone wrong. Shame you can't adjust the tempo and that the timing of your attempt isn't displayed visually. Worth a try though (it is free).

cheers,

Bob

 

[sharon]

Hi Ian,

I've been playing about six months and couldn't read any music before. I started by playing very simple tunes that I knew very slowly and practicing a lot. Mind you I'm still rubbish at timing which is what I'm working on now. I've also started to learn some music theory (as opposed to just saxophone theory) and this has helped tremendously.

Like always keep at it 🙂

Sharon

 

[Rogerb]

I'm afraid the rhytm trainer has defeated me for now, Bob 🙁 perhaps it's just too early for me...!

I am usually ok on timing , anyway, it's converting the dots to the fingering which still give me trouble!

 

[Simon]

Try stuff from these guys - PracticeSpot
There's an article called 'Sightreading Lifeline' worth a look... from my experience sightreading has gotta be worked at often, else it rusts. Start with knowing the names of all the notes on your horn, get some scales down from books and get into exercise / etude playing. There's no short cut, just good results from effort.

Another approach is from a trumpet guy who has written his own (free) ear trainer prog. It'll show you letter names and dots on the stave.



Simon

 

[Col9]

Hi there, I was in a very similar situation I couldn't read a note.

I spent 2 1/2 hours on my own with my books naming the notes as I went through. Go through a book writing in pencil, every note on every page, you can rub it out afterwards. You will remember 80% more writing it than just reading it out.

That got me the basics, now I'm just getting familiar with the weird notes for example E# and F being the same notes but written differently. It just takes practice.

Worked for me anyway. Our band broke up for summer so I still have 2 weeks without a teacher to confirm what I think I have learnt about key signatures. 8| This theory bit is really really hard, and doesn't seem to make much sense yet.

Good luck
col.

 

[funkymonk]

I'm the same. I've been playin guitar for 9 years now, without learning music so (modesty aside) I have an ear for intervals. However I'm struggling to read music becuase it's techically inferior to what I already know and play on the sax. I'm tryin to learn to read because i want to play jazz and I've ordered The Jazz Theory Book by Levine, Mark. I know jazz is an aural tradition but I think this book will help me and I know in the long run reading music will benefit me greatly.

ps Has anyone got this book, if so could you tel wether it is good or not and what in particular to read?...

 

[nosaxyet]

Thanks everyone yet again!

I like the idea of running through my book writing the notes in pencil. I reckon that will help.

As for 'intervals' 8|

First lesson is coming up next week 8)

I'll be trying all your suggestions. I do love my new sax

 

[colin_]

Has anyone got this book, if so could you tel wether it is good or not and what in particular to read?...

I have the Jazz Piano book by the same author (Mark Levine). It is THE BIBLE for many jazz pianists and I am always making new discoveries (as well as things that I had learned previously but had forgotten) in there.

I can't vouch for the Jazz Theory book, as I haven't seen it but I would imagine it takes much the same format but is less instrument specific. You may find that you will need to be able to read the dots fairly comfortably first though, to get the most out of it. That will just take practice, you don't really need a specialised book for that - just keep doing it.

There is a book (mostly aimed at drummers) called "Modern Reading Text in 4/4" by Louie Bellson. This sort of thing is great for honing your reading of rhythms, as every possible combination of note values is mixed up, with increasing difficulty, throughout the book. Set a metronome going and just tap them out. You don't need an instrument or have to think about the pitches and yet it's an extremely valuable and challenging exercise which will later allow you to concentrate on the notes while being able to instantly 'see' the rhythm and learn to read ahead.

And that was always the biggest hurdle for me in learning to read - learning to read ahead. Especially on piano, where you have up to seven notes at a time on two staves. It's very easy to get stuck on a bar and lose the flow. Try and get to a stage where you are looking at and memorising the next bar or few bars, while performing the current one.

Practising your scales and arpeggios with a book will also help greatly, as you will begin to instantly recognise those note patterns in virtually every piece you play.

As with anything it's a simple case of starting at a pace you are comfortable with and doggedly working through it. You will make huge improvements if you put the time in.

Good luck everybody!

C

 

[Greywolf]

One way of helping is find the music for tunes you know. Then as you hum or play the tune you can relate it to what you see on the page. This will go part way to helping you make sense of the written music, especially the rhythm.

I have the same problem. I've been seeing my current teacher for about 2 1/2 years.

What he said to me was. you can't count the rhythm and play when you're sight reading anymore than an accomplished reader reads the notes in a word.

When you're reading a book you take in a minimum of a word, usually a phrase at a time.

Think of reading music the same way.

It take children a long time to become proficient readers, you are not going to find it any easier, probably harder because you're older. Just keep plugging away and try to play with other musicians, especially ones who are better than you. Join a street band or an informal practise group, something like that.

You will get better!!

 

[daveq]

I have been playing just over a year and now my teacher is making me read the music instead of writing the notes down on the music sheets.I find that if I enlarge the sheets from A4 to A3 the lines and notes/dots are clearer and easy to read when playing.

 

[nosaxyet]

Again thanks for all the suggestions. I am beginning to get the hang of reading and I'm doing better more quickly than I expected.

I am now recognising 'phrases' rather than just notes and I'm spotting 'repeats' of phrases which is helping me read ahead a little - well sometimes 8|

Teach made me play some more difficult pieces that I don't know and also helped me spot the phrases and repeated phrases in several pieces of music. Dunno why I hadn't seen it myself - reading letters rather than words I guess - good analogy greywolf tahnks.

Interestingly, my 'tone' is improving when I play on my own but when I play with Terry my teacher - it seems to almost match his tone. Then I try on my own and it's not so good!