I am new here. I have a question/s. :-)

[chopinrules2005]

First of I must say that I am quite happy that I have run across this board. All of you folks seem quite nice and genuinely interested in helping those who come here.

1) I have some sort of mental block against flats. Sharps don't bother me, even keys like C-sharp minor... C-sharp major requires a little more processing, but... you know how that goes. Is there a way to get over my favoritism??

2) I see the notes and their names on a score instantly. It requires no thought. It is almost as fast as reading a word on a paper, yet I have difficulty in "responding" to the music as fast as I could say: read a book. I find that my mind concentrates so hard, yet when I relax a little bit playing becomes easier... any reccomendations on how to overcome this??

3) How to get over that feeling of longing... when I hear performances of Chopin's pieces I burn inside... =P (kinda threw that in for comedy.)

I suppose a little info on my background might be useful. My love for the piano came when I first heard Rondo Alla Turca... (don't be rolling your eyes!) I've had a keyboard since 1998, but just recently (about a year ago) I got a Baldwin upright. It's quite nice. I took a few lessons, but I had to stop taking them. I made quick progress, but now that I don't have a teacher anymore I feel stuck in the mud.

Ummmmm. Yeah, so I love discussing music and this looks like the place to do it! Please respond... if that's possible!

[westman]

What pieces are you working on now?

[super_ardua]

1) So do I
2) As well as recognising notes,  recognise patterns.  For example,  most people do not pronuonce each letter of "the" before making sense of it.

Instead when one sight reads, one should reognise eg.  that is a chromatic scale starting here and ending here.  So one only has to read 2 notes instead of many

3) Try one.

Also get a teacher again

[Daevren]

Yeah, if someone has some tips for reading scores and hearing music in my head, please post them.

You can't get good enough at that.

[Daevren]

[double post, delete]

[bernhard]

First of I must say that I am quite happy that I have run across this board. All of you folks seem quite nice and genuinely interested in helping those who come here.

1) I have some sort of mental block against flats. Sharps don't bother me, even keys like C-sharp minor... C-sharp major requires a little more processing, but... you know how that goes. Is there a way to get over my favoritism??

Drop all sharp scales and pieces that use sharp keys (hmm, “sharp keys” this sounds like the sort of thing that may be dangerous… ) for a month. Instead during this month only practise flat scales and pieces on flat keys. This should get you over it.

Alternatively, ignore flats altogether and work on the enharmonics instead . For instance, instead of Bb major, think in terms of A# major. It is the same scale, except that in A# major you will need to contend with 4 sharps (D#, A#, E#, B#) and 3 double sharps (Fx, Cx, Gx). Then again you may decide that this is not such a good idea and just deal with Bb major which has just 2 flats (Eb, Bb)

2) I see the notes and their names on a score instantly. It requires no thought. It is almost as fast as reading a word on a paper, yet I have difficulty in "responding" to the music as fast as I could say: read a book. I find that my mind concentrates so hard, yet when I relax a little bit playing becomes easier... any reccomendations on how to overcome this??

However efficient you may have got at this particular strategy (and I commend you for that), it is not the best or even most efficient strategy. The best way to get to grips with musical notation for the piano is to understand that musical notation for the piano (=keyboards in general) is completely different from all other instruments. The score is actually a map of the keyboard. Each line and space stand for a white key (with the invisible line in between staffs standing for middle C). So if you turn the score sideways 90 degrees to the right, you should have the equivalent of guitar tablature notation for the piano. Train yourself to see the score as a diagram of the keyboard and the notes as the geographical location where your fingers end. Then if you can imagine the movement that you must do to go from location to location (the bit missing in scores and the reason to get a teacher, so s/he can show you – if they know about it), sight reading becomes a breeze, and the sound association comes by default. (If this is not clear I will expand on it. Just ask).

3) How to get over that feeling of longing... when I hear performances of Chopin's pieces I burn inside... =P (kinda threw that in for comedy.)

Get a favourite Chopin piece (e.g. fantasy Impromptu, Minute Waltz). Listen to it and nothing else day and night for a couple of months. Trust me: you will get over it.  

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[chopinrules2005]

Thanks a lot for that response. I've noticed something... here is what makes me think that my sightreading may be improving: I can look at music as somewhat of a reference now.. If I've practiced a lot the music comes second nature. I'd say this is similar to reading a book and memorizing the plot. Is that a valid statement to some degree?

~Jeff