How to read Music? (+rep!)

[.x.miss.angel.x]

So, im thinking about starting singing lessons, only problem. I have never been able to read music! Anybody explain to me or help me learn? (like saying or whatever) Since if i also learnt how to read music I could play my Keyboard better aswell ;) Thanks!

[Triz]

It's like learning a new language, however not as complex.. It just takes a little time and dedication.. There are some online websites that can help you in your basic introduction to reading music such as:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNqQqvT43yo

[RockyHorror]

I would suggest, going through a tutorial online but if you start singing lessons, and you need to learn to read music then I'm sure they will teach it too you, because they won't expect every pupil they teach to know how to read music.

If you want a basic understanding, here is a tutorial I just did a quick search for;

http://library.thinkquest.org/13734/lesson/lesson1.html

[scott]

Do you get the chance to do music at school? If so then that's a great place to start trying to learn it as you will be in a class with others who are learning as well and it's free! Like others have said as well if you look at some guides and tutorials online then that can help but it's really not something that you can pick up straight away it will take a lot of time and work to be very good at it. Good luck and stick at it if you do start to learn :)

[.x.miss.angel.x]

The website & the Video really helped ;) And the school we go to is a Preforming Arts so we have learnt music but not the basics (Art academy fail) But i may do my lessons there so it should be ok ;)

[Conservative,]

Check out the guides others have posted ^^^ but for singing it's a little different, because it depends on what voice you have as to what cleff you will be using.

But your singing teacher should not expect you to know it - I'm fortunate, I started learning music at a young age and could read it fluently by year 3, so when I started singing it wasn't a problem. But to be honest, for singing you don't really need to be able to read it other than for sight reading if you do grades.

One tip though, once you learnt it keep practicing it and reading it, I switched from classical to electric guitar in year 7 and started using a different form of music notation and had to re-learn everything for some music exams in year 8 because I didn't practice it.

[Eoin247]

To learn its initially is fairly easy. It shouldn't take you more than a week or two if you practise a bit (depends how many octaves/clefs you want to learn). After that just practise continually and soon enough you'll be able to read it as easily as an english book. The harder part is getting to read it fluently without having to think about it.

For singing you don't need to utilise it as much as you would if you were playing an instrument (Since most people can remember and then sing the notes of a song after hearing it a few times). Still, it's always a great thing to learn.

[grain]

There are different types of music for different type of instruments,
For instance guitar music will look like they have the same notes (crochets, minums, semi-quavers ect) as clarinet music but they are different notes played in different ways.
So if you learn piano music don't go try read flute music for instance,
but learning music is really easy though you usually don't need it for singing,
if you get a teacher/book/video tutorial you will be able to pick it up within days.

[AgnesIO]

There are different types of music for different type of instruments,
For instance guitar music will look like they have the same notes (crochets, minums, semi-quavers ect) as clarinet music but they are different notes played in different ways.
So if you learn piano music don't go try read flute music for instance,
but learning music is really easy though you usually don't need it for singing,
if you get a teacher/book/video tutorial you will be able to pick it up within days.

Are you trying to say the flut doesn't use quavers, crotchets etc? If so, errrrr what?

[grain]

Are you trying to say the flut doesn't use quavers, crotchets etc? If so, errrrr what?

No,
When you read music there are lines.
The music notes are placed on these lines.
Different lines mean different parts on the instruments, so for guitar music they'd be strings ect.
So if you put quavers on for instance the top line, they'd be E in guitar music or D in clarinet or whatever.

[AgnesIO]

No,
When you read music there are lines.
The music notes are placed on these lines.
Different lines mean different parts on the instruments, so for guitar music they'd be strings ect.
So if you put quavers on for instance the top line, they'd be E in guitar music or D in clarinet or whatever.

You don't need to talk to me like I am an idiot.

The notes on the stave are universal. If the quaver is in between the top two "lines" on treble clef it is an E..

[Circadia]

Depends on what instrument you want to play, when I started playing the flute my tutor taught me a way of remembering the basic notes by using somthing called 'f,a,c,e' for the treble spaces (the gaps in the stave) And ' Every Good Boy Does Fine' for the treble lines (the lines on the stave) So its like this: http://i55.tinypic.com/2a9v71k.jpg Sorry if you don't understand! But its the only way I really know how to describe it, the other way you could do it is just write notes underneath the notes, but this isn't good because you don't actually learn it and you rely on the letters being there! But you generally don't need to know how to read music if you want to sing..

[grain]

You don't need to talk to me like I am an idiot.

The notes on the stave are universal. If the quaver is in between the top two "lines" on treble clef it is an E..

Okay.
All i'm trying to say is if you know how to read one type of music it will be really confusing to read another.

[AgnesIO]

Depends on what instrument you want to play, when I started playing the flute my tutor taught me a way of remembering the basic notes by using somthing called 'f,a,c,e' for the treble spaces (the gaps in the stave) And ' Every Good Boy Does Fine' for the treble lines (the lines on the stave) So its like this: http://i55.tinypic.com/2a9v71k.jpg Sorry if you don't understand! But its the only way I really know how to describe it, the other way you could do it is just write notes underneath the notes, but this isn't good because you don't actually learn it and you rely on the letters being there! But you generally don't need to know how to read music if you want to sing..

NOOOOO it is "Every Good Boy Deserves Football"!! And bass clef is "Golden Butterflies Don't Fly Away"!!

Not that it matters but anyway lol

[Circadia]

NOOOOO it is "Every Good Boy Deserves Football"!! And bass clef is "Golden Butterflies Don't Fly Away"!!

Not that it matters but anyway lol

:L I know that one as well but that was the first one that came into my head :')

[AgnesIO]

Okay.
All i'm trying to say is if you know how to read one type of music it will be really confusing to read another.

All I'm trying to say is, how on earth is it any more complicated?

If you can read one book in English, you can read another book by a different author in English?

It is not difficult, nor confusing.

Unless you are referring to the different clefs. In which case guitar and flute would have been terrible examples.

[Alex3213]

Okay.
All i'm trying to say is if you know how to read one type of music it will be really confusing to read another.

No this is wrong and the only argument which can possibly make this right is the range of an instrument (for example the piano goes from an A to a higher A 7 octaves higher whereas a flute goes from Middle C to a C 3 octaves higher). There are different clefs however but the two instruments you chose which were the piano and flute both use the treble clef (kk the piano does use the bass clef but because you see a new symbol you'll obviously be curious and know they won't mean the same thing) so I'm not sure what you're trying to say here.

As for learning to read music, practice, practice, practice. First of all you need to know how high you can sing: as you're female I'll assume that you're a soprano! :P Just try to understand where the notes are first before going to values of notes. It does come second nature to you but I assure you you have to work at it for the first couple of weeks otherwise it just seems tiresome as 6 weeks down the line you're still struggling with a couple of notes because you don't practice! Make sure if you do decide to take singing lessons that you maintain your enthusiasm, don't let it die off because I can assure you the only way you will get a lot (key words here, I never used to practice... tut tut) better is by "keep on going"! :D

[Circadia]

Oh and young people shouldn't really take singing lessons as your voice is still developing and therefore could damage your voice in the long run.

[Eoin247]

There are different types of music for different type of instruments,
For instance guitar music will look like they have the same notes (crochets, minums, semi-quavers ect) as clarinet music but they are different notes played in different ways.
So if you learn piano music don't go try read flute music for instance,
but learning music is really easy though you usually don't need it for singing,
if you get a teacher/book/video tutorial you will be able to pick it up within days.


Are you trying to say the flut doesn't use quavers, crotchets etc? If so, errrrr what?


No,
When you read music there are lines.
The music notes are placed on these lines.
Different lines mean different parts on the instruments, so for guitar music they'd be strings ect.
So if you put quavers on for instance the top line, they'd be E in guitar music or D in clarinet or whatever.


All I'm trying to say is, how on earth is it any more complicated?

If you can read one book in English, you can read another book by a different author in English?

It is not difficult, nor confusing.

Unless you are referring to the different clefs. In which case guitar and flute would have been terrible examples.

I think grain was talking about the clefs. Grain should have made that clear though.