Reading sheet music

[Khevyn]

What would be THE easiest way to read notes?
I've played/conquered all brass, percussion and strings. But never learned to read a thing emo

[MaddieLion]

Khevyn

What would be THE easiest way to read notes?
I've played/conquered all brass, percussion and strings. But never learned to read a thing emo

Then you haven't conquered them.

There is no easy shortcut to learning this stuff. Just do it.

[Khevyn]

The Final Showdown

Khevyn

What would be THE easiest way to read notes?
I've played/conquered all brass, percussion and strings. But never learned to read a thing emo

Then you haven't conquered them.

There is no easy shortcut to learning this stuff. Just do it.

Maybe I said this wrong, for 6 years I've played these instruments easily by ear.
Currently I have tried to learn a note at a time, going as to far to play tracks while following music pieces. I don't necessarily want an EASY way out. Cause it's never easy. I just wanted to hear some ideas of how you(The people) learned to read notes.
All it is, is the fact I can't read music

[Erzfeind]

What do you mean? What letters go where, how the note is played, or both?

[Khevyn]

Offizier Wolfgang

What do you mean? What letters go where, how the note is played, or both?

Uhh, Yeah what letters go where.
Like I know SOME of "FACE" and "EGBDF'
But It doesn't stick with me, or if I'm attempting to read music... It takes me longer than actually listening to it and then playing it

[Erzfeind]

Khevyn

Offizier Wolfgang

What do you mean? What letters go where, how the note is played, or both?

Uhh, Yeah what letters go where.
Like I know SOME of "FACE" and "EGBDF'
But It doesn't stick with me, or if I'm attempting to read music... It takes me longer than actually listening to it and then playing it

I've never been for the whole FACE and EGBDF myself. I would actually suggest people wanting to read sheet music not to follow that idea. You may have to stare the notes down for awhile before it actually sticks with you. Some people put letters where the notes are at so they remember. What I did was this:



In the Treble Clef, the line representing the letter G has a few more swirls from the treble sign cover it. For the Bass Clef, F is always in between the two dots. Try that if nothing else works. You should learn to go backwards in the alphabet, too. Not all of it, just letters A through G.

[Khevyn]

Offizier Wolfgang

Khevyn

Offizier Wolfgang

What do you mean? What letters go where, how the note is played, or both?

Uhh, Yeah what letters go where.
Like I know SOME of "FACE" and "EGBDF'
But It doesn't stick with me, or if I'm attempting to read music... It takes me longer than actually listening to it and then playing it

I've never been for the whole FACE and EGBDF myself. I would actually suggest people wanting to read sheet music not to follow that idea. You may have to stare the notes down for awhile before it actually sticks with you. Some people put letters where the notes are at so they remember. What I did was this:



In the Treble Clef, the line representing the letter G has a few more swirls from the treble sign cover it. For the Bass Clef, F is always in between the two dots. Try that if nothing else works. You should learn to go backwards in the alphabet, too. Not all of it, just letters A through G.

That's another thing, rather, possibly a whole other topic
With Treble Clef, All the Treble move down in notes correct?

[Erzfeind]

Khevyn

Offizier Wolfgang

Khevyn

Offizier Wolfgang

What do you mean? What letters go where, how the note is played, or both?

Uhh, Yeah what letters go where.
Like I know SOME of "FACE" and "EGBDF'
But It doesn't stick with me, or if I'm attempting to read music... It takes me longer than actually listening to it and then playing it

I've never been for the whole FACE and EGBDF myself. I would actually suggest people wanting to read sheet music not to follow that idea. You may have to stare the notes down for awhile before it actually sticks with you. Some people put letters where the notes are at so they remember. What I did was this:



In the Treble Clef, the line representing the letter G has a few more swirls from the treble sign cover it. For the Bass Clef, F is always in between the two dots. Try that if nothing else works. You should learn to go backwards in the alphabet, too. Not all of it, just letters A through G.

That's another thing, rather, possibly a whole other topic
With Treble Clef, All the Treble move down in notes correct?

I'm confused by what you're asking me. I believe anything below middle C is falling into the bass clef. Is that what you're asking?

[Khevyn]

Offizier Wolfgang

Khevyn

Offizier Wolfgang

Khevyn

Offizier Wolfgang

What do you mean? What letters go where, how the note is played, or both?

Uhh, Yeah what letters go where.
Like I know SOME of "FACE" and "EGBDF'
But It doesn't stick with me, or if I'm attempting to read music... It takes me longer than actually listening to it and then playing it

I've never been for the whole FACE and EGBDF myself. I would actually suggest people wanting to read sheet music not to follow that idea. You may have to stare the notes down for awhile before it actually sticks with you. Some people put letters where the notes are at so they remember. What I did was this:



In the Treble Clef, the line representing the letter G has a few more swirls from the treble sign cover it. For the Bass Clef, F is always in between the two dots. Try that if nothing else works. You should learn to go backwards in the alphabet, too. Not all of it, just letters A through G.

That's another thing, rather, possibly a whole other topic
With Treble Clef, All the Treble move down in notes correct?

I'm confused by what you're asking me. I believe anything below middle C is falling into the bass clef. Is that what you're asking?

On the staff, most instruments I play are in Treble. So, of course, That is the first thing I want to read music wise. WIth the "FACE" and "EGBDF"
Next is Bass clef, Which is some brass and strings. But the Note order is now like ... I don't remember right now. But I do know the Treble staff notes all move one down.

[Erzfeind]

Khevyn

Offizier Wolfgang

Khevyn

Offizier Wolfgang

Khevyn

Offizier Wolfgang

What do you mean? What letters go where, how the note is played, or both?

Uhh, Yeah what letters go where.
Like I know SOME of "FACE" and "EGBDF'
But It doesn't stick with me, or if I'm attempting to read music... It takes me longer than actually listening to it and then playing it

I've never been for the whole FACE and EGBDF myself. I would actually suggest people wanting to read sheet music not to follow that idea. You may have to stare the notes down for awhile before it actually sticks with you. Some people put letters where the notes are at so they remember. What I did was this:



In the Treble Clef, the line representing the letter G has a few more swirls from the treble sign cover it. For the Bass Clef, F is always in between the two dots. Try that if nothing else works. You should learn to go backwards in the alphabet, too. Not all of it, just letters A through G.

That's another thing, rather, possibly a whole other topic
With Treble Clef, All the Treble move down in notes correct?

I'm confused by what you're asking me. I believe anything below middle C is falling into the bass clef. Is that what you're asking?

On the staff, most instruments I play are in Treble. So, of course, That is the first thing I want to read music wise. WIth the "FACE" and "EGBDF"
Next is Bass clef, Which is some brass and strings. But the Note order is now like ... I don't remember right now. But I do know the Treble staff notes all move one down.

I totally forgot about the C clef, and the Treble clefs with the number 8 below it. I'll have to look into that. I think the number 8 might mean the notes are an octave higher or lower. People are so used to regular old Treble and Bass.

[Khevyn]

Offizier Wolfgang

Khevyn

Offizier Wolfgang

Khevyn

Offizier Wolfgang

I've never been for the whole FACE and EGBDF myself. I would actually suggest people wanting to read sheet music not to follow that idea. You may have to stare the notes down for awhile before it actually sticks with you. Some people put letters where the notes are at so they remember. What I did was this:



In the Treble Clef, the line representing the letter G has a few more swirls from the treble sign cover it. For the Bass Clef, F is always in between the two dots. Try that if nothing else works. You should learn to go backwards in the alphabet, too. Not all of it, just letters A through G.

That's another thing, rather, possibly a whole other topic
With Treble Clef, All the Treble move down in notes correct?

I'm confused by what you're asking me. I believe anything below middle C is falling into the bass clef. Is that what you're asking?

On the staff, most instruments I play are in Treble. So, of course, That is the first thing I want to read music wise. WIth the "FACE" and "EGBDF"
Next is Bass clef, Which is some brass and strings. But the Note order is now like ... I don't remember right now. But I do know the Treble staff notes all move one down.

I totally forgot about the C clef, and the Treble clefs with the number 8 below it. I'll have to look into that. I think the number 8 might mean the notes are an octave higher or lower. People are so used to regular old Treble and Bass.

Yeah that's me, although I'm not use to it. But it's what I've been trying to learn at this point in time

[MaddieLion]

Khevyn

The Final Showdown

Khevyn

What would be THE easiest way to read notes?
I've played/conquered all brass, percussion and strings. But never learned to read a thing emo

Then you haven't conquered them.

There is no easy shortcut to learning this stuff. Just do it.

Maybe I said this wrong, for 6 years I've played these instruments easily by ear.
Currently I have tried to learn a note at a time, going as to far to play tracks while following music pieces. I don't necessarily want an EASY way out. Cause it's never easy. I just wanted to hear some ideas of how you(The people) learned to read notes.
All it is, is the fact I can't read music

Ah, well I just played piece by piece until I memorized what the notes were.

But there is one thing I'm pretty sure you can do when you're not sure what the note is. Starting at the ledger line where the note is you can count up 8 spaces and it will hopefully end on a note you know.

[Nilla]

I'm not sure what you're asking but I'm guessing you want the letters on the staff so I'm hopping this is what you are looking for. I actually didn't know how to read notes at all until I started to learn composing and later on in college. Everything I played or play was mostly done by ear. And I still do it with improv. I learned to read based on the acronyms the instructor had told us with the treble and the spaces spelling out FACE and the lines EGBDF which was Every good boy does fine. But to be honest, I never used EGBDF. I relied on face only.

The bass was super easy to remember. The acronyms will vary with spaces ACEG which my instructor used to say, All cows eat grass. But I like to think of it this way now. All cars eat gas. And the same applied here. I just focused on the spaces than the ledger lines. I don't remember what GBDFA stood for on the bass ledger lines. I had said to myself that I will only focus on either remembering the ledger line or the space but not both.

[AkaTsuki-chan]

Learning to read music is going to be like learning a new alphabet. It will take work, but the end result is worth it.

If 'Every Good Boy Does Fine,' 'Fat Cats Go Down Alleys' and 'FACE' don't work for you, try a different tactic.

I know when I started learning how to read music, I didn't do any of that mnemonic s**t, I just memorized where the notes were on the staff.

You can find the note names anywhere on the internet, the trick is remembering which ones are which.

What worked for me was picking an arbitrary line or space and remembering THAT one. The other lines/spaces don't matter yet - just learn ONE to start with. If you're looking at the treble clef, the best note to learn is 'G,' the second line from the bottom. It's easiest because the swirl of the Treble Clef circles around that line - which is why it's sometimes called the 'G Clef.' Once you're comfortable with the first note, get to know the note one above G (A) and the note one below G (F)- the notes go in alphabetical order - A B C D E F G (and then repeats ad infinitum.) After that, keep picking notes to memorize (and their neighbors) until you have them all learned.

What may also help is color coding. Harpists do this when they're learning which strings are which. They assign specific notes specific colors. C strings are always red, and the F strings are always dark blue/black. If you can get colored pencils and map out which notes are which, that may prove to be more useful than 'FACE' etc.


You'll also need to practice this. Reading music won't do you much good unless you can read 'in the language' of your instrument. Once again, just take it a day at a time, one note at a time. This is a process - try to do too much too fast and you'll burn out and/or learn things wrong.

Use this as your 'master key'


Good luck.

[Babd]

I came up with my own rhymes for the acronyms, since I could never remember any I learned from someone else. That's what helped me the most. Then I just stared desperately into the music as we sang along with the piano until it became a second language to me.

Other than that, to read music without sitting there counting lines/ledgers line, you just have to look at it while you're learning a new piece. I'm teaching someone (adult), right now, who spent their life monkeying whatever piece someone wanted them to learn. So while this person learns the feel of the piece very quickly, I'm having to force them to not practice unless they are looking at the music and matching that written pitch with this key/fingering/etc.

Often times, I don't even let my student touch their instrument the first few times we look at the music. We clap the rhythm for a phrase or two, then go through and say the note names aloud. I let anyone, who needs to, write the letter next to the note (I even still do it, especially for ledgers above C4 in the bass clef). Then we work on saying the names in rhythm.

In short: There is no short cut. You simply have to work at it.

What you could do, I guess, is look at sheet music for songs you already know and like. BUT! Make sure you're playing the same key you're reading. If you're not... well let's just say it's a problem. Once you get used to which line/space corresponds with which fingering, it might give you an easier way to start memorizing the letter names. With songs you know, you know how they're supposed to sound (pitches and rhythm included), so you can even sing the note names as you go through. Not only will you be learning to read sheet music, but you'll get a really good sense of the space between pitches.

One thing to remember: the only Roman letters you will ever see in the musical alphabet are A-G. Then they start over: ABCDEFGABCDEFGABC...