Can’t Read This – Reading Music

What is reading music?  After years of studying this, I have come to a conclusion.  What we think of as reading music is actually spelling.  Think about the alphabet.  You know the whole thing right?  So… if you know the alphabet you should be able to read.  So.. with that in mind, if you know the alphabet you should be able to read any language that uses that alphabet.  So you can read English, Spanish, French, Swedish, Italian?  You probably are thinking that’s absurd, but we often think that if we know all our notes on the staff, then we can read any music.

Let me give you an example.  Click on the link to see the songs!

do re mi matching

Can you read C D E or Do Re Mi?  Of course you can.  That’s easy, but how do you play them?  How fast, what key are you in, what style?  Think about this:  Do a Deer, Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty, Oh How Lovely is the Evening, Bach’s C major 2 part invention and Grandioso all start with Do Re Mi, but they are not at all the same.  What’s the other hand,or fingers doing?  Those notes need to be read too.

We musicians know that there are many languages of music.  I find I can read Mozart easily, and Bach if it isn’t too hard because I have studied those composers and those styles.  I’ve learned their melodic, rhythmic and harmonic vocabulary so I can read and play quickly.  Put a little Joe Sample in front of me and I can’t even get the first measure right.  I am not good at those syncopated rhythms and those fancy chords. Never played much stride bass, so I’m not so good at Scott Joplin and I always got too bored reading those tiny notes to read Liszt, and the list goes on.

We take lessons because we need a guide.  We need someone to interpret and explain the roadmap so we can discover the music that is hidden in those black dots, lines, arcs, numbers and letters.  Each week, piano teachers are painstakingly explaining, and re-explaining the intricacies of reading music.  Our goal is that we can give each student enough experiences playing and reading music  so some day they can read the map for themselves and set off on their own great musical adventure.

by Lois Jensen