This is just something I’ve wondered about for a few years, but I learned to read sheet music back when I was about 8 or 9 years old, and I tend to take the ability to read music for granted, but logic tells me not everyone can do it. It’s not an innate skill, and one would have to have a reason to want to learn. Most of my friends are musically inclined, so we can.
So, can you read sheet music? If not, please do say so. Also, I’d be interested in reading any WAG’s or hard statistics about the percentage of people who can or cannot.
I had accordion lessons when I was 7 - been reading music ever since. Dunno how many choruses and choirs I’ve been part of… I can’t sight read very well, but I can work my way thru almost any piece of music eventually.
Yes. I played drums in elementary school, and the band teacher told my parents I should also take piano lessons so I would learn how to read music. So I’ve known how for most of my life.
Unfortunately, I read music a lot better than I play it.
I can read it WRT the violin and therefore the mandolin, and at one point in my life I could sight-read when singing - but not for the guitar (though I can read guitar TAB).
I tried to teach a friend at college (he was in his 20s), and failed miserably. I had been studying music since I was 7, and I realised that the amount of background knowledge and rote learning required to start from scratch is very high indeed.
Personally, I think classical notation is needlessly complex. There are better forms of notation that don’t have so many arcane irregularities, but the likelihood of them ever being adopted is negligible.
I play the guitar (for about a year now) and I have no friggin’ idea how to read sheet music blush. what I do is usually look at tabs or chords and figure it out like that. I would really like to learn but I don’t know anyone that does or even if they do, don’t have the patience to teach me how to read it. I have taken music classes during elemetary school but for some reason didn’t learn how to read it…I think the teacher kinda gave up on me…My elementary music class went something like this…
Teacher: Reoch, what note is this on points to line
Me : staring blankly Uh…A?
Teacher :No Reoch, look closer irritated a bit
Me : Uh…B?
Teacher: Nonono, looooooooook at it closely sorta pissed
Me : Ehhhhhhh…K?
Teacher: flabbergasted Reoch, go sit in the corner…
Me : Yes sir…
EVERYONE seemed to get it except me…hmmmn…weird huh:D
Reoch
I played the violin from elementary to high school, so I used to be able to. Don’t know if I still can, as it’s been years since I tried. I hope it’s like riding a bike-- supposedly, once you learn, you never really forget.
I started playing the clarinet when I was 10, and we were taught to read music as we were taught to play our instruments. It was a pretty good system–learn how to play new notes, learn how to read new notes. Though, I can only read treble clef. And I can only play if I have music–no improv/jamming for me.
I took piano lessons for a few years starting when I was 8 and played the flute throughout my school years, so I can read music.
I think it is like riding a bike. I haven’t played anything in a long while, but if you put a piece of music in front of me I would still be able to “hear” it in my head.
I play violin by a combination of sheet music and by ear… sheet music for practice, and by ear for fun. Over the years I’ve practiced [sub]as a dutiful Chinese child should[/sub], I’ve gotten fairly proficient at playing by reading notes (I hope).
[Sorta hijack]
It seems to me that most people can’t play by ear. Is this true? Some of my friends originally couldn’t, but they “learned” how. Is this possible?
[End hijack]
First instrument was trumpet, so even though I moved on to keyboards and a variety of bass-clef instruments, the treble-clef line still seems the most “natural” to me. Reading bass-clef still feels like I’m doing mathematics in my head while I play.
One of my instruments is tuba, which is a “non-transposing” instrument. Which is a bloody nightmare, because if you put down your CC tuba and pick up a BBb one, you have to REVISE ALL THE FINGERINGS IN YOUR HEAD.
I once played in a little pick-up band for an event at my daughter’s pre-school…two flutes and a viola. The viola player did the transcriptions, which were a bit difficult. The other flute player leaned over to me and muttered “be grateful she didn’t do 'em in tenor-clef.”
I can as well. In fact, I can’t even remember a time when I couldn’t, or even learning how. As far as I could remember, I just taught myself. It takes a little longer to read alto & tenor clefs but I figure it out. I used to be able to read & play entire orchestra scores at once, but now, sans piano, that skill has deteriorated a little. Being a visual learner, it’s actually harder for me to learn entirely “by ear” than it does by reading the music.
I can read music. Have a bachelor’s degree in Music. I was a vocal major and I also studied piano (though was never good enough to major or even minor in piano).
I’m in a couple of different bands now where I’m the lead singer/keyboard player.
I almost never read music anymore since we learn everything by ear. But it all comes back when I need it. Mostly when I’m writing.
I can read sheet music. It results as from being a saxophone player in school bands from middle-school through early college.
I’m still amazed, though, at piano players and the others who can read a half-dozen notes from two staves and get all their fingers to cooperate. I’m very much a note-at-a-time player (and singer).
I noticed that after much practice, though, I was no longer looking at a note on a page and thinking “A-flat, two beats”. Rather I was much more on an auto-pilot with “a note there means my fingers do this.” I think it’s the same shift most people make between reading individual words on a page to reading by gestalt.
Just noting that while most everyone posting so far took lessons in an instrument at some point, such lessons are not necessary for learning to read music.
All I had was standard once a week music classes in grade school with the rest of the masses and can read most sheet music reasonably well. I later taught myself to play the piano and the guitar so I’ve been able to maintain proficiency.
Of course, I was a very unusual student in school I actually retained what I was taught.
I am always surprised to hear that Famous Composer X didn’t know how to read music. It isn’t that hard.
I play (mostly classical) piano, so, yes, I read music. I can’t sing from a score, nor can I hear the music in my head. I don’t play by ear very well, either. I do intend to develop these skills, though.
I played Saxophone in school from grade 7 through grade 12. I picked up guitar on my own a couple of years after that, but never learned to transcribe sheet music to the guitar fretboard, so I wound up learning tab.
Now I’m taking Piano lessons, and having to learn to translate sheet music to the keyboard, plus work with both hands and read both staves at the same time.
To my way of thinking, there are two parts to reading sheet music. The first is to be able to read the notes and ‘hear’ the music. The second is the ability to actually translate the notes on the page to finger movements on your instrument of choice and re-create the music.
I can still pick up my saxophone 20 years after I last played it seriously, and read sheet music and have my hands just go where they are supposed to without having to think about it. On the piano, I have to laboriously work through just about every measure and think about where each finger goes. But I’m picking it up fast, and now the basic notes on the staff are easy enough - though I still get tripped up on notes on ledger lines above and below.
