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Topic: I hate learning new notes  (Read 1348 times)

Offline samjiyon23

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I hate learning new notes
on: August 28, 2013, 06:53:09 PM
Whenever I practice, I spend about 20 minutes (if that) awkwardly sightreading the notes. Everything sounds awful, and afterwards I feel exhausted and I don't want to practice any more... doing this several times a day in order to get in a sufficient amount of practicing is insanely frustrating and depressing. Am I doing it wrong? How do I overcome this?

Offline mikeowski

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Re: I hate learning new notes
Reply #1 on: August 28, 2013, 08:31:05 PM
I'm just trying to pull through. Short pieces (1-2 pages) I'm reading through multiple (~5-10) times a day. For longer pieces (4-6+ pages), I try to play through 2-3 pages a day multiple times.

When I started working like this, my note reading was pretty bad, and I took about 10-20 minutes or more for one simple page (if I even made it through before giving up). But if you stick with it, it actually gets pretty efficient. I've worked on new pieces like this for about 2 months now and I'm at a point where I can memorize (not play perfectly, but play completely without sheets) about 1 page per 2 days. (I don't know how fast you or other people are, but compared to how fast I was before this is warp drive to me. ;D)

What also makes learning notes easier, is to make a harmonic analysis while reading through. After every chord change, try to identify the chord before you keep reading on. And also look for modulations and cadances. Everything of that sort aids memory a lot.

Offline faulty_damper

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Re: I hate learning new notes
Reply #2 on: August 29, 2013, 01:31:59 AM
You're obviously doing too much and not proficient in the easier stuff.  Go back to Alfred's and sight read those for a couple of months.  Then progress.

Offline minorsocietydotcom

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Re: I hate learning new notes
Reply #3 on: August 29, 2013, 08:31:30 PM
I suggest you begin with a few notes and only do songs within those notes, then expand as you learn.   Music will always be learned in steps.  There are many, MANY things to learn, you will completely frustrate yourself if you take on too much at once.  Pick something small and focus, focus, focus!
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