How do you know when.............

[talmidah]

Hello everyone,

I am new here, and taking up the piano again after many years.

My problem is, as a child I played by ear, and felt that I had a talent for it. At age twelve I took lessons, but did not like the discipline of having to read notes, so after about a year I ceased taking lessons. I regret that now.

I had played for years afterwards for groups, choirs, weddings etc but did not take up reading notes at all, or least very rarely. I suppose I felt that reading music, one could not improvise. I was wrong about that.

I had always struggled with the bass clef notes, but that has improved over the past two weeks since trying to read notes again.

I was able to learn moonlight sonata in a week, and I am pleased with that accomplishement,  however the execution and interpretation is of course a life time goal. Keeping that thumb quiet is hard when playing the arpeggios in the piece.

Now to my question. How do you know when you are reading the notes and not playing by ear or memory?

I had the most mortifying experience yesterday, when I down loaded Beethoven's Russian Folk Song, and was humliated that I did not play it as well as I thought?? It is a level one piece. 

I knew the melody after playing it a few times, but how does one know if one is reading the notes and not memorizing the piece?

Another question is, how do you unlearn mnemonics? It is possible. You know..... The "all cows eat grass" that is used to help when learning? I am finding it so hard not to resort to that when trying to read at times.

[valor]

You'll know when your playing by notes when you get a peice you've never heard before and play it.

And that "all cows eat grass" thing, i never learned it, infact i never tried to relate the notes on a sheet to letters, instead i just thought of them as the keys, this could be a short cut to learning the keys, the only problem with this is it gets a little difficult to learn the rest of the notes above the staffs (i've learned every note in the staffs and a couple of ledger lines up after 3 years, i dont play peices with notes above the staffs often though)

[guendola]

...infact i never tried to relate the notes on a sheet to letters, instead i just thought of them as the keys...

Maybe that is why kids lear so fast

As for the Russian folk song which I don't know, I tried to find the music and found FOUR different levels, "keyboard" which might be a one-finger version, level 1, level 1.5, level "Original". Besides, I find that some pieces are just a bit weird and therefore pretty difficult to play instantly.

[valor]

Maybe that is why kids lear so fast

As for the Russian folk song which I don't know, I tried to find the music and found FOUR different levels, "keyboard" which might be a one-finger version, level 1, level 1.5, level "Original". Besides, I find that some pieces are just a bit weird and therefore pretty difficult to play instantly.

well from what i've seen in my classes, im the only one who really thinks of notes this way, thats why whenever i get tested on notes I get an answer or two wrong

[themockingbird]

And that "all cows eat grass" thing, i never learned it, infact i never tried to relate the notes on a sheet to letters, instead i just thought of them as the keys, this could be a short cut to learning the keys, the only problem with this is it gets a little difficult to learn the rest of the notes above the staffs (i've learned every note in the staffs and a couple of ledger lines up after 3 years, i dont play peices with notes above the staffs often though)

that makes sense, because that way you're not translating from written note - letter - key, it's more direct. on the other hand it could make it harder to be more adaptable in terms of learning other instruments and things like that.

i can't really explain how to learn to read music though, i suppose it's just practice, practice, practice...maybe you could try getting a selection of simple pieces to sight-read, and play each one no more than a couple of times? but the thing is, being able to read music isn't necessarily about looking at an interpreting every note individually, it is (in my opinion, probably best to check with an expert though :p) a bit like reading words: you don't read every single letter, but you come to recognise different patterns that come up regularly. of course you have to be careful you don't just start guessing and find that there's an accidental somewhere or a slight change that you didn't anticipate, but it can be helpful. if you learn what a C major arpeggio looks like written down, and can recognise it anywhere, then you will be able to read it much faster than if you are having to work out C, then E, then G, and so on.

did that make any sense? that's just the way i think i read music anyway.

[talmidah]

if you learn what a C major arpeggio looks like written down, and can recognise it anywhere, then you will be able to read it much faster than if you are having to work out C, then E, then G, and so on.

Hello and thank you for your responses.

Yes mockingbird, I agree with this totally.

I recall when playing hymns that one can recognize chords used the more you play them and you do not need to "mentally" think of them before playing them. So yes, learning to recognise patterns is useful. Though as you say, you need to still read the notes too!!! Hey, I am sure there is some "study" out there where reading music is actually recognizing patters!!!! Surely there is some truth to that??

I was thinking about this today when driving, and I suppose it is like learning to read.

As I child you stumble over words, and as you develope you improve and your pronounciation is better, and you can read more quickling, not using monotones, but reading with inflecton. I think learning as an adult is humbling because as a child I think for the most part you do not  feel as embarassed when making mistakes. However as an adult you think " you are an adult so why can't you just learn and stop making mistakes." I think we can be hard on oursleves. I know I am!!!