Reading Music

[pmelissakis]

This subject may have been on old SlideMeister a while ago, I just don't remember.

It went something like this ....
Reading written music is similar to reading written words, for example when one
reads the sentence "Pete is great" one doesn't read it as "P-e-t-e <space> i-s
<space> g-r-e-a-t" but just recognizes the entire sentence.

So a good sight reader will recognize phrases in written music and play a song as
well as I, for example, would read a written paragraph.

A very interesting concept.

So one learns to read music by first learning the individual notes (ABCDEFG) like
learning the alphabet, then forming the notes into musical phrases, like forming
a word, and so on.

Not like I have been doing, which is playing a song I learned by ear and looking
at the written music as I play the song. This may not be the best way to learn
but us old fogies can't go back in time to start properly, but I keep trying.

Pete

[pmelissakis]

A good learning tool for me would be software that has the score of a song on the screen with the notes as they would be on the sheet music. Then the software would play the song and at the same time highlight the notes as the music was played.

This along with the ability to slow the tempo or even change the key would be a super learning tool.

Pete

[toddo]

I read music almost exclusively and for me it is like you say. Many times you are reading the notes but you begin to notice patterns as a whole from your practice. For instance, I practice scales and arpeggios a lot. I now recognize major and minor triads or with 7th extensions and read them as such. It's the same with certain runs. I'll recognize a D7 scale pattern and think scale instead of individual notes. For me it helps in sight reading to read groups of notes as a whole. I'm not good enough to recognize bebop scales patterns so I don't read Charlie Parker stuff very easily, but the old jazz standards I can sight read fairly well.

Todd

[pmelissakis]

Hi Todd

I need to start practicing scales again. Like every other day.

But what are arpeggios?

Pete

[Grizzly]

arpeggio: the notes of a chord played in succession, either ascending or descending.

[pmelissakis]

Thanks Tom

Pete

[jonkip]

I think that if I had to re-learn to read music, at my somewhat advanced age, I'd take a look at the Rubank series for flute (or piccolo)....When I started harmonica....fifty years too late, I found that the Rubank books left over from my early days really helped....
They are probably still available, although probably not for the price I (my parents)paid (one dollar)....
The complete title is Rubank Method for Flute or Piccolo...comes in three flavors..elementary, intermediate and advanced...

I just checked http://www.sheetmusicplus.com and they have it for $5.50/vol......it's worth it....unless you're down to your last gallon and a half of gas and need to get somewhere quickly...

The first volume is probably boring, but necessary to the process, the intermediate covers arpeggios, scales and avoids making you play "mary had a little lamb"-esque tunes

Buying the first two vols of this might be the ticket ....

People have mentioned how to actually read the names of the notes and so on, but the other half (or one of the other 'halves') of the process is to know WHEN the notes should happen....

Learning to see the bar as being divided into parts, halves, thirds, whatever, depending on the time signature, really helps ...if you have a good copyist ....Rubank does a fine job with that part.

In any event, that's one way to skin the reading cat.
Of course, there's always this Q & A:

Q."Does he read music?"
A. "Not enough to hurt his playing"

Once one learns to read music, stuff like tabs becomes pretty silly....and somewhat annoying...NO, make that  "extremely" annoying.....for instance, I bought Tom Ball's sonny terry licks book...it's all tabs...NO actual written music....which helps keep the reading bar low for the diatonic crowd....and hurts my brain....
He probably should have included written music in the book.....

Anyway, biting the bullet and learning to read music will open lots of doors for you and close none. Can't lose....
It'll also probably elevate the harmonica in the eyes of some folks....
the end.

[pmelissakis]

Thanks jonkip,

The price is right, I will look into it.

Pete

[Gnarly He Man]

I have to disagree on the "tabs are superfluous once you can read music" statement--
I have Winslow's harp fonts and they make sense for me--staff is good, but the tab makes it easier for me to know which enharmonic to access--
Of course, I am mainly an ear player anyway, my main task is entertainment--folks like it when you look at them, ya know . . .
G

[pmelissakis]

I don't mind the tabs, as long as they are used in conjunction
with notation.  I do like to know when to blow or draw.

It would be nice if all the lines were blow and all the spaces were draw
or vice versa,  but we already had that discussion.

Pete

[llumagsara]

A good learning tool for me would be software that has the score of a song on the screen with the notes as they would be on the sheet music. Then the software would play the song and at the same time highlight the notes as the music was played.

This along with the ability to slow the tempo or even change the key would be a super learning tool.

Pete

hello Pete


you have that here http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/harmony.htm  also you can add chromatic tabs in the score, and the price is very good...

good health

Agustín

[pmelissakis]

Thanks Agustín,

I'll check it out.

Pete

[Deacon Jim 1]

I don't site read at all well, mostly using notes to tab from or to confirm or correct my ear. Now that is out of the way, let me really show my ignorance. I do want to read, and, liking to keep things as simple as possible, would it not be reasonable to learn to correlate the number of the hole on the harp with the note position on the bar, by sight, so that hole 1B would be C as would 4B, etc. on a C harp. Since any tune can be played correctly on any harp despite the changing of the note coming from a specific hole, the actual note being played wouldn't affect the tune (other than the change of Key). Trying to make this a little less confusing, written note position would correlate to hole position. This seems to me to be the reason tabs work, but this "correlation system" might allow the advantage of using written music notation for timing purposes and all eliminate other shortcomings of tabbing.

Comments are most welcome. As I said, I want to learn to read but as painlessly and as quickly as possible and it would be great to be able to avoid spending time on something that won't work.

[Grizzly]

I just purchased a book for chromatic harmonica that has both the standard notation and a tablature system. While the standard notation can stand alone; i. e., supply all the information a player needs to play the correct otes in rhythm, the tab lacks that precision.

While the tab shows hole, breath direction and button position, it is imprecise on depicting exact note duration. It depends on its interconnection with the standard notation for that information. I've found this to be true of tabs for guitar and for dulcimer. They exist in synergy.

Perhaps there are individuals who can sightread tab and still play musically. And there are ways to make the tab in my recently purchased book more accurate. But I imagine the time it takes to react to all that printed information—rhythm, hole breath, button—would be daunting.

One of the reasons I've stayed on C harmonicas is that the positions of the notes across the mouthplate are immutable. 5 blow is always C, and so on. This is where knowing scales is so essential. Likewise, the notes on a treble clef are always in the same place. Reaction to the printed music in regards to sightreading depends on memorizing the positions of all the notes on the instrument and all the notes on the page. This of course includes the sharps and flats.

One of my college professors said, "If you can't sing it, you can't play it." The implication here is to be able to sound out in your head, or vocalize, what you see on the page, without an external sound source.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Get familiar with note lengths. Get a beginning flute book and read what it has to say about whole notes, half notes, etc.
2. Learn your scales, slowly and accurately.
3. Learn the names of the notes on the lines and spaces of the music staff.
4. Find music for some very familiar tunes, and sing through them while observing the positions of the notes on the page.
4a. Sing the tunes with note names substituting for the words. You can do this with scales also.
5. It's okay to write in an occasional clue—button position, breath direction—but it won't help the process to write in note names or holes. That has to become ingrained, hardwired, to be able to sightread.
6. Don't expect instant success. You didn't speak in full sentences much before age 2, and didn't learn to read words much before age 6. Give it time.
7. Take lessons from a qualified music teacher. Another harmonica player would be helpful, but not essential. Seek someone out from the public school or local music center, or music store.

Good luck,

Tom

[pmelissakis]

"6. Don't expect instant success. You didn't speak in full sentences much before age 2, and didn't learn to read words much before age 6. Give it time."

Amen to that. 
I wasted and still waste a lot of time looking for the silver bullet.
The faster I go the longer it takes.

Pete

[Grizzly]

Yeah, Pete, there's a difference between efficient practice and short-circuiting the process. Despite what Harold Hill tried to tell us in "The Music Man," there is no "Think Method." Learning music is experiential. And incremental and experimental.

Tom