Saxophone beginners Reading Music

[Droptical]

That would be a Tuna?

It's gotta have Sole or it's meaningless 😉

 

[Targa]

That would be a Tuna?

Now you've attracted my attention.
(If not Jeanette's).

 

[Veggie Dave]

As someone who started playing sax with no reading ability who now does read, I have to say that there's reading music and there's reading music - both of which really do help in your playing.

I don't think you need to be able to read to play an instrument to a high standard, but you need to know your theory, whether you use the same words as 'trained' musicians or not. However, I think too many people are put off reading because they think you have to be able to see a series of notes and be able to play the exact rhythm perfectly purely from the dots.

You don't.

If you're playing for pleasure then you're going to be playing songs written by other people. And those songs will have already been recorded. And that means the only thing you need to know from the sheet music is what notes to play - the recording will tell you how they're supposed to be played.

Eventually you'll also start to recognise written rhythms but at the moment stop putting so much pressure on yourself because it's a waste of time - someone else has already done the hard work when they recorded the song originally, you just need to know which notes to use and then copy everything else.

 

[richardr]

I see @Veggie Dave 's point. I've always taken "reading music" as the skill of sight reading - playing a piece of music straight off from a sheet of dots without prior knowledge of how it goes. I can't do that and never will but I do refer to sheet music quite frequently, most often to find out what my start note is before I play the rest of the tune by ear. Even if the sheet of music isn't in the same key as I need, by reference to the key signature I can work out whether the start note's a 3rd, a 5th or whatever and thus find the note I need in the right key. Is this sort of reading what @Veggie Dave means?
I've read that some of my jazz heroes such as Louis Armstrong and Lester Young started playing by "ear" but learned later to read. I wonder what was the level of their reading skills?

 

[MikeMorrell]

I wasn't going to add to this thread because I thought that everything that was relevant had already been said. But I'd like to add just one point.

IHMO it's not a question of either reading music or playing by ear but the extent to which you do both. As other posts have already pointed out, being able to read music (at whatever level) has many advantages. The main one for me is that you don't have to remember how to play music (exactly). Some people can't read music and have to remember what to play and when. Other people can play music perfectly from a first sight-reading of the sheet music.
Between these two 'extremes', there are IMHO many amateur players who rely partly on 'playing by ear' (based on what they remember) and partly on the sheet music that's in front of them. The most common combination in my exeperience is that musicians look at the 'notes' and simultaneously recall how to play them. For these musicians, the sheet music eventually becomes a 'memory aid'.

It works the other way round too. Listening (by ear) to recordings can often help make sense of correseponding sheet music.

 

[Jez Watson]

i would only add that while its fine and good that we can read music and can be an essential tool for some, the most important thing you can do is develop playing by ear.

 

[Targa]

i would only add that while its fine and good that we can read music and can be an essential tool for some, the most important thing you can do is develop playing by ear.

The most important thing you can do is keep yourself amused however you choose to do it.

 

[richardr]

i would only add that while its fine and good that we can read music and can be an essential tool for some, the most important thing you can do is develop playing by ear.

Not necessarily. It depends on what, how and with whom you want to play. I have many friends who are excellent musicians but "couldn't play 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' without sheet music" (to quote one of them). Their musical pleasure and, in some cases, some of their income, depends on playing pre-arranged parts from sheet music in bands, orchestras etc.

 

[Jez Watson]

Not necessarily. It depends on what, how and with whom you want to play. I have many friends who are excellent musicians but "couldn't play 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' without sheet music" (to quote one of them). Their musical pleasure and, in some cases, some of their income, depends on playing pre-arranged parts from sheet music in bands, orchestras etc.

I addressed in my post how reading music is good and of value, as music is something we listen to then isn’t it obvious that essentially we should be able to use our ears to develope our playing to some degree, I would see that the best balance is to have both skills

 

[Jez Watson]

We know music is a language and it has differing dialects for various genres/styles which just like learning to talk as a child we learn through emulation, the quickest way to develope the language is by ear, having the dots is a great help but it doesn’t give the inflections and emotional content, it has to absorbed by listening and copying with the ears!

 

[Colin the Bear]

It's a given that when playing music, you have to listen. Reading, you have to listen. Busking, you have to listen. You have to listen. Before recorded music was available, the only way of transmitting unheard music was on paper. Before records, sheet music was a big seller. The published hits of the day were sheet music.

It never ceases to amaze me that, when looking at the lead sheet, of the song I learned by ear, I find it doesn't go like that.

 

[richardr]

It never ceases to amaze me that, when looking at the lead sheet, of the song I learned by ear, I find it doesn't go like that

The same applies to me, but I usually find that what I have learned by ear fits nicely. Also, I often find that what musicians play on recordings isn't the same as what's written. Wasn't that the reason for the Real books, so that musicians could have the original tunes as a starting point instead of relying on innumerable jazz improvisations?

 

[Sunray]

Thank you everyone for the amazing advice
Really appreciated
I will print out the music sheet and write the notes. I know it maybe bad to do that but I can't read it quick enough.

---------- 8< ---------- Polite Snip ---------- 8<----------
Antony

There's no need for you to write them down mate ... MuseScore will do it for you 😎

In MuseScore - Menubar select Plugins then Plugin Manager [A new window opens] tick the 5th one down notenames [and you may want to tick 2nd one down colournotes] then click OK ...

Now Under the Plugin dropdown menu you should be able to see Notes if you hover over that option you should see Colour Notes and Note Names ...

Use these two choices to help you get the hang of it initially , But I would agree with our members who have commented above ...

After all a job worth doing and all that ... Have Fun ...

 

[Vetinari]

I could not manage to play anything at all with the Cafe Septet if I had no idea about reading score. It (in theory) means that I play the same notes every time, which is absolutely necessary to the over all character and sound of the piece.