getting better at reading music

[cwjalex]

i have been playing for a little over a year and can play things around grade 7 or 8 but I am frustrated with how poor my ability is to read notes quickly and navigate fluently and comfortably around the keyboard.  My question is in 2 parts.  Do you guys have advice for:

1) reading notes better.  I am getting much better at this but I still can't immediately identify notes with three or more ledger lines for instance.  One thing I used to do is pick a note a day to just focus on when im not playing piano and think about the location on the staff in relation to the location on the keyboard.  anyone have any other tips or exercises that would help me with instantly identifying notes?

2) being fluent and comfortable on the keyboard in relation to reading notes.  what I mean by this is I never have to want to look down at my hands to figure out where I am.  I want to be able to just stare at the music and know where my fingers are at all times and where the notes around my fingers are. 

now I understand mastery of these skills is by no means an easy task but I ask those of you who have mastered this ability if you might be able to share some tips or something that helped you during the learning process.

[rwking]

I agree that ledger lines can be a bear sometimes! More than 3 and I have to start counting. Sometimes when I'm sight-reading, I try to identify the chord and deduce what those really low or high notes can be. It's not always a sure thing, but might be helpful. I also write on my music if I need to cue myself. And I would imagine the more you play music that has notes outside the staff, the better you'll become at recognizing them.

As for playing without looking at your hands, my experience is that it comes in time and is relative to your comfort level with the music. There are some pieces that I can play without ever looking at my hands. There are other pieces where I just glance down infrequently. And there are still other pieces where I have to memorize the music because I can't play it without looking at my hands. Don't feel badly about looking at the keys. Professionals do it. The important thing is that you can play the music well.

I'm looking forward to other feedback on your questions.

[iansinclair]

Cheer up.  I've been playing keyboards (classical organ and now piano) for more than half a century... I still count ledger lines if there more than three or four of them.  In fact, my eyes aren't what they used to be, so I do it more now than I did years ago!  No harm to it.  Of course, the trick is to remember what you counted to, next time you play the piece.

As to playing without looking at your hands.  This is an aspect of playing which organists do far more than pianists, for the simple reason that the custom for playing organ music is to have the music up at all times, rather than memorizing it.  And no, I don't know why.  What does happen, though, to organists at least, is that after you practice the music a good bit you find that you are "reading" it more for cues than for exact notes, and you do look at your hands, particularly for larger leaps or, on the organ, when you are changing manuals or registrations.

Being able to play without looking at the hands is something which comes with time and consistent practice, as it is a muscle memory and not at all conscious.  There are several bits of it, if one wants to be really analytical about it.  The finest bit is to get a thorough feel for how far your fingers are spread to reach any particular interval.  This goes right along with being able to look at the music itself, and reading the interval rather than reading the individual notes (sort of an "ah, that's a fifth and I want to play it with 2 and 5" and the fingers go to the exact spread they need)(this, incidentally, is why transitioning to a harpsichord is hard -- the keys are closer together).  The other half is to recognize and get used to where the hand is in relation to the body for a particular note or group of notes.  One sometimes overlooked part of that is to be slightly fussy about exactly where you sit -- left or right -- with relation to the keyboard.

And it all just takes time...

And, as rwking said, don't be a fanatic.  Professionals look at their hands very frequently -- in fact, one of the best reasons for memorizing music is so that you can look at your hands!

[m1469]

Ever since I started studying music formally and seriously, I have held to the idea that there is something specific and discernible occurring within a skilled player.  It may not be something that the player her/himself is even fully conscious of, but there is something specific happening in their mind, nonetheless.  And, as I have held to that idea, I have worked (very hard) at discerning anything I possibly could, which I could somehow articulate at least to myself, both while observing other players as well as in my own, consistent and conscious practicing.  And, those efforts have not been fruitless.

At first, watching other, skilled players, represented something of a magic trick to me.  My ideas about what was happening while they played was quite blurry and mysterious, and if I were to try to conceptualize what was actually happening at the keyboard, it could have been reduced to thoughts like "that was fast!"  But, as I worked to clarify in my own consciousness specific ideas during practice, during teaching, as well as taking what my teachers presented to me, as well as reading books, as well as reading this forum, I began to better know what I was looking for in specific terms, and the fog began to disappear.

I still hold to the belief that there are very specific things happening while a person is making music, and that includes reading!  There are things which can be pointed out, and in my teaching it is a large part of my aim to do so clearly, but it is still up to each individual learner to begin to codify the motions at the instrument, the layout of the instrument, the sounds in note-groupings and registrations, and the notes on the page.  And, the learner has a real responsibility to find ways to connect those together in a way that makes sense for them personally.

It could be *anything* that works for you!  What one person thinks of as "The bear sat on that distant stump, after wandering through the forest" could mean "First play "C", then play "F", then travel scale-wise up an octave and land on the "F" above" to somebody else.  In some regards it DOES. NOT. MATTER. HOW. YOU. ORGANIZE. YOUR. OWN. MUSICAL. UNDERSTANDING.  so long as it is something that makes sense for you, and is something that you can utilize over and over again, as well as develop and expand upon.  Communication with other individuals regarding these things, however, is another story!

[j_menz]

1) reading notes better.  I am getting much better at this but I still can't immediately identify notes with three or more ledger lines for instance. 

Ledger lines can be a pain. You tend to spend less time reading them, so you don't get the pratice, and they aren't intuitive. Don't sweat it too much - 3-4 is about all most people are ever comfortable with. I've encountered bot the bottom A and the top C written out on ledger lines, the bottom A was not even part of a chord (which gives at least a clue)! Fortunately, it doesn't happen much. Practice will make you better at it, so seek out works to read that have them. As a 7-8 grader, you should be reading (if you're good at it) 5-6 pieces, so you're not going to find too much to read that's both suitable and has those extended ledger notes. 

2) being fluent and comfortable on the keyboard in relation to reading notes.  what I mean by this is I never have to want to look down at my hands to figure out where I am. 

You'll probably always have to look at least occasionally. Aim to look by glancing rather than any longer, and aim to look after you've hit a wrong note, not before you've hit a correct one, and aim to look only as strictly necessary. In time you'll get it right down, both in number of looks and how disruptive they are.