Can You Read Music?

[skyneed]

I can read music, but I don't use it very often, so i'm pretty slow now. When I was in my school's concert band, 17-18 years ago, I was a good reader.

I voted yes, but I'm really rusty.

same here.

when I was taking piano lessons before, I could read it well, but I have to say that I became very slow now...

 

[Lady Kayri]

Learned to read music during 5 years of playing flute - no tab for woodwinds! And as it was school orchestra with mostly classical music, didn't really work to well trying to memorize or play by ear. Learning to shift that knowledge to bass has been the problem; and I'm still working on it every day. Slowly, though, I'm starting to get there, even though there still is a lot of "that's an...A; that means I need to fret THIS string HERE and..." rather than being able to do it quickly and smoothly.

My instructor will either give me tab and have me put it into dots, or give me dots and have me figure out which fingerings on the fret board will work best with my hands & how far my fingers will stretch, while trying to keep good 'economy of motion' so I'm not moving TOO much on the fretboard. Now at the point where I'm trying to do that without writing it down as tab.

I'm not too bad at the rythmn part of the equation, although I'm finding I need more work on that - you don't have a conductor to give you directions in a garage band, after all! +2 on "The Rhythmn Bible" by David Fox; I recently got a copy and so far it looks like it will be very helpful.

 

[Stumbo]

ok weird question. I can read the notes dead on. But reading rhythm is a problem . Any tips ??

Write out the rhythm separately from the chart. Practice each measure very slowly. If you have trouble with something, maybe type the rhythm into some music software and play it back to hear how it sounds.

+1 on the eighth note counting.

 

[KsToaDangr]

i learned a little of reading music back in middle school, but haven't used it since. i can still pick out notes on a staff, but i couldn't play the piece or sight read to save my life.

 

[Stilettoprefer]

I can read!! It really is a very useful skill in the jazz world to also be able to read chords. Which i can also do

 

[Rob22315]

Count your bar in 1/8 notes, eg: 1and 2and 3and 4and. It will not only help you reading rhythm, it will help your playing rhythm and note placement.

For 16th notes -

1 - ee - and - uh - 2 - ee - and - uh etc.

That's the way we do it for the bell choir.