How did you learn to play/read

[tracey-kjonegaard]

Hi guys, this might be kind of a weird/stupid question but I feel like I’ve always learned and played music differently from other people- maybe. I played piano when I was younger for a year or so and then again in highschool for a few years. Other than that, I’ve pretty much always played guitar (which doesn’t really apply to this question cause guitar tab isn’t like sheet music at all). But anyway, learning to read sheet music was always really hard for me and I HATED it. I feel like for the few years that I did play piano, I kind of just got by, by taking pieces home and memorizing them for my lessons and recitals and by that I mean I memorized where my hands go and when to play, rather than reading music and making the connection between my seeing the notes and my hands going to the correct keys..

Now that I’ve taken up harp, I’m really REALLY trying to force myself to learn to read sheet music because this is an instrument that I want to pursue more than guitar and piano and at least semi-professionally (some day). I know I can’t do this without learning to read sheet music correctly. This would be some thing I would talk to my teacher about but (some of you may already know) I can’t take lessons yet for another month or so, that said.. I’m asking you guys…

How did you learn to read sheet music? Did any of you get in the habit that I’ve always had, by just memorizing pieces? I guess I’m just really curious because its something that I don’t know and can’t just pick up and know how it feels to be able to sight read. Once you actually learn to read music, does seeing the music and placing your fingers just come naturally to you, like reading a book and understanding the plot or story line, or something?

[Sylvia]

Depends on what your harp goals are. I think music for gigs should be memorized because music stands detract from the picture. My rep is all memorized, and I play a free left hand.

When I play opera or orchestra parts, then I have to play what’s really there, and I have to work on it quite a while…I get my parts way ahead of time….once I get the notes down, I practice with the recording. No sight reading here!

Everyone learns differently, and I think harp players are reeeally different from each other. I think your memory ability will serve you well. BTW, I started harp in college, and I could read only the treble clef when I started.

When I got out on my own, I found that written-out music was almost impossible for me to learn, so I just write down the melody (with chord symbols) in a comfortable key, The left hand takes care of itself…and sounds much fuller than in written arrangements.

[brian-noel]

Learning to read music is akin to learning a new language. You have to constantly reinforce what you’ve already learned, and build your skills from there. If you take a break in the learning process, you will regress rather than move forward. There are music theory books that can compliment your regular harp lessons, or “Notespeller” books that go along with piano books that may be helpful as well. I think one of the best ways to learn to read music is to internalize (read the notes, identify them, etc…), and then externalize your knowledge by writing your own music on paper or in notation software. This way you are directly applying what you have learned and forcing yourself to use your knowledge in an external manner.

I think many of us just learned how to read music at the same time we were learning to read words, so it’s just hard wired in to our brains since childhood in the same way English (or whatever first language we learned) is. The good news is that adults can learn very quickly, but you just have to be persistent and patient.

Learning any new “language” isn’t easy, but it’s not difficult either if you try and make daily progress on it. As an arranger, I’m always reminded of the challenges of reading music whenever I have to arrange for viola, which uses a “C” clef, and it makes me more sympathetic towards my students who are just starting to learn to read music (and for the young ones, words as well!). You will get there, but you have to be patient, and expect moderate, steady progress.

[lyn-boundy]

I started learning quite late in life with only a very sketchy knowledge of how to read music and I especially didn’t want to waste a lot of time, once I found a tutor, in doing theory when I could have been playing. At first I wrote the names of the notes on the music but over time and with lots of practice I found I could tell which note was which much faster (and, more importantly, its relation to the other notes around it) and that writing them in wasn’t always necessary as far as the treble clef was concerned; I still stumble over the bass clef but I’m hoping that will also fall into place in time – I think it’s beginning to happen. It is still hard for me to play an unfamiliar tune and I take my information on rhythm etc from other people’s playing (thank god for YouTube) rather than from the written notation though gradually the two are starting to come together.

I like Brian’s analogy with learning a new language, which is something I have much more experience of. There are definitely similarities. With learning a language, there are basically two ways of going about this. The first way is to learn the theory from a book and by making notes and having friends test you; the second is by immersing yourself in the language (eg. going to live in your chosen country for a couple of years). With learning music, there’s no reason, as far as I can see, to spend hours memorising the theory when it’s more effective to play and try to notice what is going on on the page at the same time, while tryng to relate that to what you hear when your tutor, or other pro plays the tune.

I believe that young children can learn the theory very quickly and it is therefore beneficial to them to start off by tackling that, whereas older learners find it easier to apply that theory to ‘real life’ and probably shouldn’t worry too much about simply acquiring the theoretical knowledge as they go along.

[Tacye]

If your brain is like mine it is slightly lazy – and if you are only working on a few pieces then why learn to sightread ? It was only when I started getting vast numbers of orchestral parts to learn on short notice that I had enough music going over my music stand that my sightreading improved. So play through something new every day – a conductor really helps too, so you can’t stop and think!

The other thing to point out is that reading individual notes is dreadfully inefficient – just as you don’t read A N D but ‘and’ as a whole word you don’t want to read C, E, G, A but rather the whole pattern whether you mentally call it skip skip step, triad of C with a 2nd on top or first inversion 7th of A… Also when you are looking at the music and not your hands it is far more important what the interval is from the last note, than the note name – it is irrelevant that the C string is red when you aren’t looking at it, what matters is it is the one above the B you last played.

[tracey-kjonegaard]

Wow thanks for your responses! I think these answer most of my questions however I was just playing and I thought of something else I’m curious about.

When you’re playing a piece that you’re memorizing, do you find that you’re remember where and what strings you play, or do you actually play and think about what notes you’re playing? Does this just depend on what kind of learner you are? I guess I’ve realized that I definitely just have a photographic memory cause, like I said in my initial post, everything I’ve played, I’ve always just memorized where I’m supposed to be putting my hands and feel when I need to play. Would it help me more if I try to think about what strings I’m playing? I know what each string is on my harp, just as I know where each key is on a piano. But do you think that memorizing what I’m playing rather than actually thinking about what notes I’m playing in my memorized pieces, is hindering my learning?

[Allison Stevick]

I seem to do some of both (reading *and* playing by ear/memorizing). I usually learn the tunes from written music, and then once I’ve learned the melody I just play it by ear so I only have to watch my left hand while I play. Maybe everybody does that? I don’t know because I don’t have other harpers to ask in person. 🙂 Anyway, I also find that I visualize the music differently if I’m trying to memorize from sheet music or from working something out by ear. Some of the ones I’ve memorized are now harder to play from music (even though I learned them that way) now, because I just play them by feel, and don’t think about the notes anymore. That being said, I do remember some of the main notes throughout each tune, and can use them as sort of anchor notes if I do get lost while playing. I don’t know if that is helpful at all, but it’s how it works out for me. Looks like lots of good advice from others above!

[Alison]

I think the issue here is that you’re not a child and can’t be led through the simple steps and junior pieces at a child’s pace… guess you want results without the slog, There is a lot to it, so much knowledge and agility to acquire – the fastest way on a single voice instrument is to join a band or orchestra, that way you struggle to begin with but are encouraged by the group and you can ask others what the syntax means. With a harp you really have to know what you are doing before you go out…

[Sherri Matthew]

Hi Tracey,

It’s been so *many* years since I started piano lessons that I’ve forgotten what the process of learning was like then, but you’ve got me thinking a bit about it, because at some point in my mid-30’s I started transferring all of those years of keyboard/notation reading skill to the harp and it was a challenge. For me, sight reading in itself tends to be pretty automatic, so I know what it sounds like when I look at the music, much like reading text. I don’t remember when I got to that point. I read pretty much everything because my memory is so bad. Always has been, even when I was a teenager. I never even considered that route, so I guess I can’t be of much help there.

I think if you stick with learning to read music you’ll get there. It helps a lot if you are into theory (I enjoyed it a lot; it was my favorite class). That way you can see how everything goes together, like going from the alphabet on up to sentences, paragraphs, and then larger constructions in writing. Even if you don’t get into arranging music at some point in the future, it just helps to be able to see the overall construction of a piece, and then the subparts, etc.

[hannah-roberts]

Practice reading simpler pieces first. Just reading the melody and adding in your own left hand will take you a good long way. Harp arrangements are pretty busy, even the simplest ones.
Practice reading something new every day or two. If you get stuck, play a tune and listen on Youtube. I taught myself neumes (Renaissance music writing) this way.
There are some Bernard Andrès pieces that would be great for practicing left-hand melody reading, in his first three books.
Also, many harpists work without sheet music. It may not even be a hindrance to your goals if it wasn’t on piano. There is no right or wrong way, it’s a very individual matter. I only memorize when I know that there’s too much going on in a piece for me to look everywhere at once, and even then I keep the paper in front of me in case something goes awry. Other people play the harp for years and never look at the printed page.
Oh, and another thing that helps, especially with reading rhythm. Find another friend who plays another instrument and play together. This will make it more fun.

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