Another question about reading music and learning a new piece

[total_newb]

You guys were so helpful with my other inquiries I must pester you again about a dilemma I've got.

I'm trying desperately to learn 1 Gymnopedie (I have such a fondness for this piece..the first time I actually made the first part sound "like music" I got teary-eyed). I have issues, though, with reading the chords in the bass clef. I have to stop my playing and read each chord each time through, at least on page 2 (I've got the ones on page 1 memorized through much, much repetition...plus there are fewer on the first page). I spend much of my playing time - which is extremely limited since I have three small children - stopping and analyzing the notes to figure out what note to play next. It turns into play a note, stop, analyze, play a second note, stop...you get the picture.

So, here's the actual question:
Would it be a terrible thing for me to jot down in pencil next to the chords which notes they consist of, to speed up the actual playing process? I'm getting lots of experience reading music in my Alfred's course, I think, so I don't believe this would hinder my overall progress. However, I'm serious about learning the piano as well as I can under my circumstances (adult learner, limited time and resources, and no teacher), so I don't want to mess myself up in any way.

What say you?

[pianissimo123]

It's funny that you say that actually. I used to write out the alphabet names of the notes
right beside the actual note. ..However, I soon realized that this was not speeding up my learning
process any further. What I did find helpful though, was slowly diciphering the notes, then learning to recognize groups together. What you can do is you can write what position you or in, or numbering fingerings with corresponding arrows. It helps if you personally check to see what works best for you, because once you start inversions and extentions of the fingers, it can get tricky. I think it's better slowly recognizing groups of notes. Sometimes if you write out what they all are, you can find yourself focusing on which is which. With a chord, I ask myself: broken, stacked, or inverted? And if so- which one? I've found this to be helpful in identifying the chord. Focus on the bottom notes. Those will prove to be helpful. Good work!~ It sounds like you are coming along quite well for a newb! That is a very involved piece musically. I'm impressed.

[total_newb]

I think it's better slowly recognizing groups of notes.

I think you're probably right. Maybe I need to break it down into smaller chunks for learning and then try to play through longer passages once I've mastered the smaller ones. I actually printed one of Bernhard's posts where he talks in detail about how he teaches new students to play this piece. It's very helpful. I may just need to do as he says and break it into smaller chunks for learning. Thank you for confirming my hunch. 

Anyone else want to weigh in? Has writing note names on the music helped anyone progress or is it really just counterproductive?

[pianoamit]

I find that writing note names on the score is only really helpful when the notes are very far from the stave (i.e. when there are more than two or three leger lines).

Otherwise, sight-reading is what I advocate in respect of issues like yours. Sight-read anything and everything. Over time, you'll learn to recognise certain note groupings. Much in the same way that you no longer read words letter by letter, you will learn to recognise chords in the same way.

Amit Yahav

[total_newb]

Thank you, Amit, for your insight. This piece does have several bass notes that are a couple ledger lines below the staff, and those trip me up along with some of the chords. I'll keep plowing through, perhaps in much smaller chunks, and see if I can get this committed to memory. Hopefully I'll still love it as much as I do now by the time I get it learned. 

[miken49]

Although the other forum members might not advocate this method, when I was a beginner I remember I would take piece and just for practice write in the notes just to familiarize myself with the notes. It helped quite a bit. At this stage I wouldn't worry about recognizing chords. That comes after you know the notes on the staff well.

Just my opinion(Don't Crucify Me )

[total_newb]

Although the other forum members might not advocate this method, when I was a beginner I remember I would take piece and just for practice write in the notes just to familiarize myself with the notes. It helped quite a bit. At this stage I wouldn't worry about recognizing chords. That comes after you know the notes on the staff well.

Just my opinion(Don't Crucify Me )

LOL, last night my mom brought me a pile of old sheet music (like from the 40's-50's when she and my uncle were kids and learning to play piano) and the note names were written in.  

I am considering doing it just for the really low (off the staff) notes, I think.

[learntopianoonline]

A good way to quickly learn a measure is to practice hands separately, only combining your hands when you have no difficulty with hands separate. Play the measure a few times with one hand, then switch to the other. This will give the first hand time to rest which is important for avoiding repetitive strain injury from replaying the same note pattern. While practicing hands separate, you can occasionally try hands together practice just to get a feel for it, but don't spend much time on that until you've mastered hands separate.

[scottmcc]

the gymnopedies are great pieces to learn using a theory-based approach.  look at each chord, and write it down (on a separate sheet of paper) and analyze what chord it is.  from this, make a chord progression chart.  you'll find some interesting, unconventional modulations and if you associate the notes with the name of the chord, it will be one other tool to memorize.  Satie liked to deliberately break a lot of the rules of musical composition (look at the time signature for the gnossienes for example), but if you learn a little about the structure, you will find the pieces much easier to memorize and read.

it's ok to write down the names of the notes if you're having trouble, but as others have said, you'll find it superfluous once you get better at reading music.  I still do it sometimes when there is an excess of leger lines (more than 3).