Did you learn to read music through Solfege class?

[Lacrimosa]

How did you learn to read music? Did you take solfège classes? I’m asking because I am led to believe that maybe the dreary study of solfège should not be given to a student until he is already quite advanced at the piano. Solfège is defined as ‘practice in sight-reading VOCAL music using the sol-fa syllables’. This is done by giving the student a score, and making him read by voice the notes out loud as fast as he can without a piano.

Personally, I learned to read music mostly by sitting at the piano & identifying the notes on the page directly with the keys. I didn’t have a real solfège class until I was already proficient enough to perform Bach Inventions. I have always found that I can sight-read at the piano much faster than I can solfège a score. My first piano teacher gave me one of those simple piano-for –beginners books, which taught me the names of the keys, but she nevertortured me by making me read the notes away from the piano, as they do in solfège classes. I remember there were a few months when I had to count the spaces to find the note and so forth, but it didn’t take me very long before I could read anything. Apparently however, I later learned that this is not the conventional method of learning.  

[kulahola]

How did you learn to read music? Did you take solfège classes? I’m asking because I am led to believe that maybe the dreary study of solfège should not be given to a student until he is already quite advanced at the piano. Solfège is defined as ‘practice in sight-reading VOCAL music using the sol-fa syllables’. This is done by giving the student a score, and making him read by voice the notes out loud as fast as he can without a piano.

Personally, I learned to read music mostly by sitting at the piano & identifying the notes on the page directly with the keys. I didn’t have a real solfège class until I was already proficient enough to perform Bach Inventions. I have always found that I can sight-read at the piano much faster than I can solfège a score. My first piano teacher gave me one of those simple piano-for –beginners books, which taught me the names of the keys, but she nevertortured me by making me read the notes away from the piano, as they do in solfège classes. I remember there were a few months when I had to count the spaces to find the note and so forth, but it didn’t take me very long before I could read anything. Apparently however, I later learned that this is not the conventional method of learning.  

of course i learnt solfege in separate class, 3 hours a week. the only proper way.

[BuyBuy]

I started my music education in France. At that time, we had but one choice in conservatories : 1 year of solfeggio/rythm/voice classes before being allowed to start instrument performance.

I never had any problem with note reading or rythm in my piano playing. Obviously.

Now, in the US, where I currently live (at least in South Florida, cause I don't know for the rest of the country) , most young people have no kind of discipline (except the discipline of the remote control and the joystick). Many are spoiled and think everything's gotta be easy, or they don't want it. So there is no way you gonna have a kid study solfeggio for a year before starting to play.

Which explains why so many students are poor sight readers, and after 1 or 2 years, have still difficulty identifying notes on the staff.

Therefore, I suggest to inforce note reading since the early stages of the learning process. Drop all that hand-position-garbage, and have them learn rigorously the notes. My way or the highway, as they say...

[Lacrimosa]

I started my music education in France. At that time, we had but one choice in conservatories : 1 year of solfeggio/rythm/voice classes before being allowed to start instrument performance.

I never had any problem with note reading or rythm in my piano playing. Obviously.

Now, in the US, where I currently live (at least in South Florida, cause I don't know for the rest of the country) , most young people have no kind of discipline (except the discipline of the remote control and the joystick). Many are spoiled and think everything's gotta be easy, or they don't want it. So there is no way you gonna have a kid study solfeggio for a year before starting to play.

Which explains why so many students are poor sight readers, and after 1 or 2 years, have still difficulty identifying notes on the staff.

Therefore, I suggest to inforce note reading since the early stages of the learning process. Drop all that hand-position-garbage, and have them learn rigorously the notes. My way or the highway, as they say...

I would like to agree with you. Fact is, I had quite a few weak spots as far as reading was concerned, and I think it was due to not having had solfeggio drilled into me before my piano courses. On the other hand, I rarely had to confront any of those weak spots until about my third year of classes, when I began learning things like Debussy, and those were purely rhythmical problems. Moreover, I don't know if  it has anything to do with kids in America playing video games, like you suggest - yet I can totally sympathise with a child who is bored with an entire year of torturous solfeggio classes, without even being able to sit at the piano.
That's why I'm thinking that maybe solfeggio classes should begin after a year of piano.

[erik-]

I also studied in a french conservatory, and it's true, you have to start solfege classes one year before you are allowed to take instrument classes. And of course separate solfege classes are compulsory in parallel with your piano classes for the following years.
The first year you also have to be enrolled into a choir class.

[Hmoll]

I went through the US public school systems. We were taught solfege in my elementary school. I did not begin piano until I was 15, and progressed relatively quickly. I attribute that to having learned solfege, how to read music, and understanding rhythm.

[squinchy]

I was US public school educated. At my elementary school, everyone was in a school choir, and therefore was taught how to sing and read music. We were also all required to play recorder, but we never played very much. However, I started piano before I went to that particular elementary school (I had gone to a different one before), so my singing/recorder playing greatly improved when my piano playing improved.