I’ve just about had enough of my inability to make sense of the telegraph wires and tadpoles that so many of my friends see as musical notation.
I’m not ‘unmusical’ - I can sing and I play harmonica (I jam or pick out a tune by ear) and naturally I’m dimply aware of how the basics of musical notation work.
It’s reasonably certain that at age 35, I have left it later than I should have, but I believe I still have the capacity for learning (for example I’ve learned (self-taught) various programming languages (among a wide range of other things) in the last few years).
Are the ‘teach yourself’ type of books any good at all?
I have a number of (very accomplished) musical friends who have offered assistance, but they are not teachers.
I play several instruments, and in my experience, when you learn to read music, you will tend to learn it for one instrument only. I can, for example, read notation for the violin but not for the cello or the viola. I play the guitar but cannot read music for the guitar. I can read music for the penny whistle, but not the harmonica. So choose wisely.
The next thing is to learn the basics, and I really think the only way to relate the tadpoles to notes, and to recognise their timing, accidentals, key signatures and all that nonsense, is to do it practically.
Bringing these things together, I’d recommend you get a simple instrument (one note at a time rather than chords), and buy yourself a “teach yourself” book for that instrument. This will take you note-by-note through playing the instrument, and will give you a basic grounding in the generalities of musical notation.
Also, I’ve found that people who learned to read music at an early age (i.e. me) find it very difficult to explain notation to people who approach it later in life.
What is typically a great way to learn musical notation is to learn the piano. I learned it first, and then transferred it to a wide variety of brass instruments that I now play such as tenor bone, bass bone, baritone, trumpet, french horn, etc. Additionally I picked up voice from what I knew from the piano. I would suggest you start there, as it tends to be a good foundation.
I began playing trumpet when I was 8 years old. That allowed me to later in life pick up the guitar (classical only though… never did learn any chords) and piano, and be able to sight-read for voice.
I’d echo jjimm’s comment about learning a single-note-at-a-time instrument rather than the piano or guitar. It’d be much, much easier. However, one big advantage of learning on the piano is that you’d learn bass-clef in addition to treble-clef. The bass-clef remains a huge struggle for me because I spent nearly 20 years exclusively on treble-clef before trying the piano. My left hand is still nearly useless (obviously I’m not much of a pianist).
You could self-instruct the relationship between the notes on the staff and the corresponding fingering on the chosen instrument, but I believe that the only way to learn rhythm is with an instructor to help “count out” the beats/notes. I think that would be the biggest hurdle to learning to read music, but being one of those people who learned early in life, this is just an opinion.
My experience is exactly the opposite of jjimm’s. But then, I was one of those people who learned to read music “early” (depending on how you define that) - so I might not count. But knowing how to read music does seem to have transferred from instrument to instrument. ((It also might depend on the instruments))
I’d possibly recommend the “teach yourself to play” books, or a book for children, big pictures, easy to understand.
Guitar teacher here… so I’m coming at it a little bit biased
Brace yourself I’m gonna get windy grin
An absolutely fabulous self teaching series (which I have even used with my students) is from Alfred Publishing http://www.alfred.com/frameset.cfm?sub=home , primarily Alfred’s, “Teach Yourself Guitar” By Morty and Ron Manus. There are really two books; one for method (practical) one for theory ( music notation). The the Method book that comes with a CD that you can install on your computer; it gives even more visual/aural examples of what each piece should sound like.
Here’s what it does:
The Method book utilizes and relates two different ways of learning for those that don’t know music: music notation and Tab notation. Tab is designed for fretted instruments and is a physical layout of the strings (that resembles a music staff) with numbers correlating to the fret number. (It’s really not as confusing as it sounds). As you learn, the Tab corresponds to the musical notaion engaging both physical and logical aspects of the learning process! I’ve had students from 8 - 48 and it just seems to work.
The theory book only has notation so it gives you a better opportunity to not ‘cheat’ by looking at the notation all the time.
Another equally outstanding curriculum is “Jerry Snyder’s Guitar School”
One drawback of which my piano-based friends will agree on: music for Guitar, pennywhistle, harmonica, recorder, flute etc… are only written in the G or Treble clef (of which there are two: Treble and Bass clefs). So if it is both you want to learn, piano would be the choice. If it’s just the Treble clef, 'guit a guitar and go man go.
Sorry for the exceptionally windy post…I’ll stop now…
You can learn to read musical notation without relating it to an instrument.
Start by learning rhythmic notation. (Time signatures, whole note duration, half note duration, sixteenths, triplets, etc.) Practice by tapping out the steady beat while "ta ta ta"ing the rhythm you’re reading. Once you’ve mastered that,
Begin learning “lines and spaces”. In other words, treble clef, bass clef, Every Good Boy Does Fine, etc. You may already know this stuff, but it will do you well to memorize it. Since you have a good ear already, you might want to relate this to sight-singing. Learn fixed “do” (Do = C). Singing Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si(ti) Do relates to C - C scale. Once you do this, La will always be A, Fa will always be F, etc. It makes life easier.
Move on to learning key signatures. Pick up a good theory book(sorry, no recommendations but any basic theory book will probably do) and learn sharps and flats. Understand relative and parallel major and minor keys. Maybe touch on modality.
At this point you will probably want to start moving over to a piano. You’ll have a great knowledge base and should be able to begin translating your “book learnin’” to practical play. Buy a beginning, but adult, keyboarding book. Locate “middle C” and understand that that’s the C that falls below the bottom line of the treble clef and above the top line of the bass clef.
Practice, practice, practice. You’ll be at the point where you’re moving from learning the vocabulary of the new language to becoming fluent. This is a lifelong process. Have fun.
It is my strong conviction that NOTHING beats the piano for a place to start, for a few reasons:
Lessons are easy to find
Both bass and treble clefs are covered (see above)
No technique is really required if all you want to do is learn to read music, as opposed to wind instruments (amisher), stringed instruments (finger positions and bowing techniques), etc. If you learn to play a few scales hunt and peck style, you are already well on your way to learning musical notation.
Versatile instrument
The piano is a visually intuitive instrument. Low sounds on the left, high sounds on the right, c in the middle. These days I play guitar and hardly ever touch a piano, but I still think in the visual terms of the piano when I’m trying to figure things out.
So take some cheap lessons for a few months. I guarantee you’ll be pleased with the results.
I concur: to get a thorough comprehension of manuscript, the piano is indeed the way to go. The only thing against it would be the length of time it would take. My suggestion was IMO the fastest way to learn how to read music - not the best.
Wow! How is this possible? GDAE or EADGBE, what’s the difference? I play guitar, but I am convinced that if you stuck a violin in my hand and music in front of me I could read it (I’m not saying anyone would want to listen to the output).
Anyway, MT, what others said, specifically, the most important thing is to do it. I wouldn’t bother buying some high-falutin book, googling brought methis (I can’t recommend it I haven’t read it), there are many more such pages.
Well my experience is that I would have to learn where GDAE etc. are on the fretboard. If I look at a piece of guitar music, since I have never played it from manuscript, it would take me about 30 seconds to find each note, which would not exactly be listenable-to(able). I’m sure with a few weeks practice it would be feasible, but it’s a lot of hard work. Similarly, try going from reading guitar music to attempting to play an oboe, or a trumpet. The only thing you’ll retain is the time signature - learning the notes will be like starting all over again.
Well, for one your fretting would be all different. Well, that and the violin isn’t fretted. However, you should still be able to read the music. They’re both in treble clef, so in theory you should be able to read both, if not instinctuarlly know where their place on the strings is. Plus the violin is in 5ths and the guitar is (mostly) in 4ths, which confuses the issue.
With cello and viola, there’s a different clef to deal with. It’s the funny-looking one in which the middle C is usually placed on the middle line (alto clef), or sometimes a line up (tenor clef). It’s not THAT difficult to read if you’re familiar with bass and treble clef notation, but it does take a little getting used to.
Also, the treble clef is also known as the “G” clef and the bass clef is known as the “F” clef. The circly part of the treble clef loops around the “G” above middle C. The black dot on the left side of the bass clef indicates “F” under middle C. Also, the line between the two dots on the right side of the bass clef indicate this F. Maybe this will help, maybe not. (To be extremely technical, the treble and bass clefs can be shifted up and down the staff, but this is a very very rare occurence, and not worth bother about at this level.)
Otherwise, I agree with the posters who say learning on the piano is probably the best way to do this.