Having trouble learning to read music

[kelnet]

Originally Posted by viivian23

I am in high school and took band class this year. I didn't know how to read music so I figured I could learn as I went along.

Isn't that like saying you took Math and just figured that you would learn to calculate as you went along?
The goal in band class is to learn to read music, and also to play an instrument. Surely you were expected to be learning it from the very first day. Sounds like someone didn't pay attention in class or do their homework.
The teacher's expectations are like any other teacher's expectations: you must be able to demonstrate learning before you can pass the course. I suggest you ask the teacher if you can spend some time after school working on the exercises that he most likely gave you throughout the course.

[Saxguitar]

Originally Posted by kelnet

Surely you were expected to be learning it from the very first day. Sounds like someone didn't pay attention in class or do their homework.

That could be unless maybe he decided that he wanted to begin music this year and in a since is a "late bloomer" in the band. Where I live we begin band in middle school and if he is in high school and just began band this year maybe he doesn't have the advantages of the other students.

I agree with Kelnet when he says that the OP should get with the director and see if he can help you. The best way I have found to learn has been one on one study. I did that a few times in highschool and now I can sight read on my sax with no problem.

Just remember don't give up, you will get it eventually even if it takes more time than you planned. If a member of the colorguard team can learn to play xylophone in one semester and be playing in the pit orchestra the next semester I have no doubt in my mind you can learn what you need in two weeks.

[Eric Karonen]

I've mentioned this a couple of times, but it was only after graduating from high school that I appreciated what I had been taught in music class ... and I'm no musician to say the least.

But when I met our music teacher at a reunion well down the road, I thanked him ... some of us don't grasp a lesson so quickly, but you don't forget a good teacher. (Heck, we played Stravinky's Firebird Suite ... and I didn't have a clue!)

Just bucker down, and practise. My proudest music achievement was making a study of Django ... a very long study. But now, I like c-f-g. You can make so much good music, so simply.

[jefrs]

Sight-reading guitar score is almost impossible because there are too many options as to where a given note is. Other instruments are simpler e.g. there's only one middle C on a piano. But reading the melody line off piano score to play it on a guitar is probably essential. There again, Django couldn't read score, hell he couldn't even read, but he knew what all the notes and their relationships were, and could compose and arrange music for other instruments, if someone-else wrote it down for him.

[BigDaddyLH]

I don't think playing the Django card on his teacher will work for the original poster

[Mark Davis]

Paul McCartney cant read music neither could SRV or Hendrix.

[jazztele]

Originally Posted by Mark Davis

Paul McCartney cant read music neither could SRV or Hendrix.

yep, and they'd all fail music class right along with our OP.

you can certainly be talented without reading music, but people who read music can read music, which means they can play things paul, jimi and SRV couldn't.

[Saxguitar]

Originally Posted by jazztele

you can certainly be talented without reading music, but people who read music can read music, which means they can play things paul, jimi and SRV couldn't.

+1

Just imagine what they would have played if they could have read music.

[BigDaddyLH]

Originally Posted by Saxguitar

+1

Just imagine what they would have played if they could have read music.

"Holiday for Clarinets"?

[The Teleist]

If it helps, not that it will, but Jimmy Page couldn't (and probably still can't) read music whilst he was a session man, according to a Zep biography. Neither can Paul McCartney. I'm trying to lean to read music too and it is difficult, but i find it helps actually seeing someone write the notes down and explain it as they go along. There are a few videos on youtube which i found helpful. Check em out.

[Notalent]

I've had guitar and music teachers that swore that they could teach me to read music and learn music theory, guess what, NOT! I have some mutant moron gene that prevents me from learning music and math, and after all, music is math.
You should keep at it, learning to sight read is a big plus. I wish I could.

[Mark Davis]

Originally Posted by BigDaddyLH

"Holiday for Clarinets"?

hahahahah

[BigDaddyLH]

My work here is done.

[brewwagon]

Music reading is a complex subskill of musical per-
formance that is learned through explicit tutoring. It
includes both the basic skill of deciphering musical no-
tation and the advanced skill of reading and perform-
ing a score in a musical context.
Not all musicians are music readers; some popular musicians,
for instance, may well sustain lifetime careers in
music without being able to read music. However, scores
are the universal means of communication between
composers and performers of classical music. Performing
in professional musical circles requires the mastering of
music notation.
Music reading differs from text reading in a number of important ways. As characterized by Sloboda (1980), music differs from text reading both in spatial demands
and constraints and in temporal demands and constraints.
Whereas text reading proceeds sequentially (i.e., hori-
zontally) music reading proceeds both sequentially and
simultaneously (i.e., vertically). Unlike text reading, mu-
sic reading involves the decoding of single elements in
sequence (notes) and elements in combination (chords).
Moreover, unlike text reading, music reading involves
decoding the vertical dimension over time. Changes in
vertical distance and direction of the elements indicate
pitch changes; there is no parallel involvement of vertical direction and distance in text reading. Another critical dif-
ference concerns pace. Unlike text reading, the notation
of a musical score contains information about duration
that must be decoded to realize the music as the com-
poser intended; text reading has no such information or
constraints on pace to derive the meaning intended by the
author

from
Music-reading deficiencies and the brain
Sylvie Hébert and Lola L. Cuddy École d’orthophonie et d’audiologie, Université de Montréal Department of Psychology, Queen’s University 2006

bw

[Mark Davis]

I think the style of music you wanna learn has more to do with it.

Most Rock musicians and Blues guys probably cant read music.

Id say most all Classical musicians can read music and alot of Jazz artists can too along with most studio musicians.

It cant hurt to learn but its not totallty necessary to become a good player to learn it.

What if you can read sheet music as good as any book if you still cant play what good does it do?

[930vet]

Originally Posted by jefrs

Sight-reading guitar score is almost impossible because there are too many options as to where a given note is. Other instruments are simpler e.g. there's only one middle C on a piano. But reading the melody line off piano score to play it on a guitar is probably essential. There again, Django couldn't read score, hell he couldn't even read, but he knew what all the notes and their relationships were, and could compose and arrange music for other instruments, if someone-else wrote it down for him.

I guess that sight reading is almost impossible for violinists as well, then, yet somehow they do it. If you learn to read music in some kind of structured method, the position will become second nature. Heck, my daughter's been taking lessons for a year and a half and is already well on her way. I can barely read music myself, but I'm guessing position is probably a function of range and key for a specific piece. Musicians I have known who are good sight readers are reading well ahead of where they are playing; part of the processing of the music probably involves (most likely unconscious) decisions about position change. I'm sure that many of the players in this forum don't make conscious decisions about position changes when they solo; why should that be an impediment for a sight reader, who, all other things being equal, is a more accomplished musician than someone who can't sight read?

[octatonic]

On the 'should you read' question my position is very certain.

It is SOOOOOOOOOO much easier being able to read than to not.
It is a big pain to learn but infintely worth it.

You have access to much more music, you have a better understanding of the music and the most important thing is compound learning- I can sit down with sheet music and study anywhere.
That alone is worth the effort.

[casterway]

Originally Posted by kelnet

Isn't that like saying you took Math and just figured that you would learn to calculate as you went along?
The goal in band class is to learn to read music, and also to play an instrument. Surely you were expected to be learning it from the very first day. Sounds like someone didn't pay attention in class or do their homework.
The teacher's expectations are like any other teacher's expectations: you must be able to demonstrate learning before you can pass the course. I suggest you ask the teacher if you can spend some time after school working on the exercises that he most likely gave you throughout the course.

+1 Sounds like a personal discipline problem, not a learning problem.

[viivian23]

maybe I should add a little more background. Every single other member of this class has been in it with this teacher since 1st grade! Also I am playing bass in the band (how could I have left that out) even though there are 2 other bass players (no guitar in this band). The teacher TOLD me it was ok that I couldn't read music. This teacher isn't the most reasonable guy. No one likes him. I really need to take this class because I want to go to Berklee and it is a pre-requisite that you can read music.

[Mark Davis]

You are gonna be forced to learn it if you wanna go to Berklee.

Time to buckle down and learn it.