Reading Music - What They NEVER Told You
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- Опубликовано: 13 ноя 2023
- In this video we try and explain a different way of looking at music notation and how a differently wired brain works better without fudge based rhymes.
Come join us at the Crow Hill Company where we de-fudge other aspects of making music, membership is free. thecrowhillcompany.com/
#learningtoreadmusic 
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Place both of your thumbs on the middle C. Place the rest of your fingers on the white keys, one for each key in each direction. Voilà. You now have the three clefs in your hands … F✋C🤚G … which also forms the top of the circle of fifths 🙌🎉
That's true! but how does that help people read music?
@@joonajaakkola3865 Wow! That's a interesting and huge question 😊 Well it creates some sort of system to all the madness! 😅 Understanding why things are formed the way they are, could be one step on the way to learn how to read music.
Christian, you are the best. Thank you for all you have done for music in our world. Keep well. Love always.
Aw, blushing.
@@TheCrowHillCo I'm experiencing second-hand blushing right now, I gotta be honest.
This is MONUMENTAL! A DIFFERENT way to understand what has been always taught as a one-way-system.
As a 45 yr old lifelong musician (who has recently been considering the notion that I may have been misdiagnosed with anxiety and it's possibly closer to the ADHD side) I'd love to hear more of your journey. 🙏🙏
Thanks Scotty, when Allan showed me this my brain dripped out of my nostrils.
That curly thing that joins the treble and bass clefs is called a brace. The only way to really get good at sight-reading is to do a lot of it. Read a bunch of music in the same style with similar patterns in different keys. Eventually, everything starts looking familiar. Also, sight-reading pieces are not for perfecting like recital pieces. You just play through several pieces as best you can. As a teacher, I always help the student to know the key they're in, ask them to spot repeating patterns, harmonic changes, style, etc. For beginners, there are lots of games to learn notes on iPads, computers, etc. Learn hymns with 4-part structure and learn to play each part(SATB) individually and in different combinations. Just my two cents.
And the brace makes the two staves together comprise a *grand staff* or a *system* when looked at line by line in a score.
So true, and brent why do you think sight reading ISN'T like riding a bike. You work at it, you get good at it. But if you don't practise, it goes away. I have always found this confounding.
@@TheCrowHillCo I'm not sure that comparison holds. If you were to start learning to ride a bike as an adult, then stop riding for a while, it will also go away. If you learn music notation as a child, like most people do for bike riding, it never goes away.
@@TheCrowHillCo I think it probably depends on the level one has achieved as to whether or not it sticks. I find my level of reading is still really high but my ability to get to the notes fluidly declines without practice. I may be a an unrealistic example since I have a masters in music and have been reading music since I started piano lessons when I was 9 yrs-old. I have always accompanied people (vocalists, instrumentalists and choirs). I had to learn to read and interpret fast to keep up. I can really improvise as a result. I think people may not focus enough on what's truly important in the music. They just read vertically and try to line up everything rather than looking at the bass line, for example. If the bass line has the same arpeggio pattern for a section, you just need to know the chord outline. Unless it's a Classical piece, you can fudge it a bit. I had a professor in college who had observed that the best accompanists/sight-readers, read in more of a zig-zag pattern rather than straight up-and-down. I think there's something to it.
You have just solved the fearsome C clef for me! This from a person that does not read music... Christian, you are truly the best educator I have ever come across and I guess this is probably at the end of the list of what would appear in your CV.
So sweet, thanks. When I get to understand something a little better its only fair to pass it on, like this was passed onto me by a friend.
Yes to a video on dealing with ADHD and your journey so far… much appreciated
Dult noted.
Just a quick tip from a jobbing music teacher in deepest Portugal - introduce notes slowly one by one like in the John Thompson's easy piano method - old and recommended - and learn your landmarks, the C's, G's and F 's in both clefs, then use the alphabet to interpolate..you bump into these notes most in the early days - when you drive to the pub you use landmarks and not the name of every turning on the way :-). Thanks for all you do Christian, and I always have a Walter Piston text on my desk as well ..
Christian, Thank you so much for doing this video. I found it so interesting, helpful, and actally illuminating. IMHO perhaps the best and most important video you have ever done. Please -please keep them coming, and thanks again.
I think this is going to be a very useful video for so many, Christian! Thank you!
My story. I learned to read sheet music via reference note system. It starts the same way you showed in your video: F clef F line and G clef G line. And the middle C.
But then we can make mirroring and pairing. Like the upper line of G clef is F... and the lower line of F clef is G! 2nd highest space of G clef is C, and 2nd lowest space of F clef is also C!
There are a lot of elegancy, beauty in music, including the way notation system works!
ALSO Duolingo dropped a new course, this time it is not a regular language course, but music one, it teaches reading sheet music as well! I think that is worth being mentioned!
I have always felt exactly the same when it comes to reading music, especially that bass clef!
Thank you for this genius way of interpreting it!
I was recently diagnosed with adhd and I am still learning the best ways to navigate my life. Currently a student and a musician and balancing the two is quite the challenge. Id love to hear you talk more about it
I'm a visually-oriented person, and I eschew those silly Mnemonics all together. I just mentally locate the "C"s and visualize the notes from there; Treble, Bass and Alto clefs. I still write-out notes and fragments by-hand on the staves. One shortcut i have for working between fragments is I use graph paper to arrange scales and modes by semitones/intervals at the vertical grid-lines as-if they were on the Keyboard. Helps while analyzing a fragments or relationship.
I'm a huge believer in the graphic power of the Circle of Fifths. It's the hidden "secret decoder ring" to so many musical properties and relationships.
Have you seen this? ruclips.net/video/Gt2zubHcER4/видео.html
Every good band deserves fans and cash.
Oscillating electric fans, or old fashioned hand held?
It is very helpful to hear a guy you this. Please do keep going. With love from the foothills of northern Hungary.
Thanks so much from the foothill of a long extinct volcano in Caledonia!
Thanks for sharing! I learned to read and write the old fashioned way. Terribly slow, tedious, And since I am a pop producer and performer I only needed it a few times in my entire career as most people I work with can't read or also don't use it. However, as a music teacher in high school I was once kind of urged to teach kids who didn't play any instrument, to read and write music. I decided to take a different route and to my utter surprise all kids could read and write within 12 weeks, spending only max 15 minutes on it once a week in class. After 12 weeks they were using their skills to write down their own invented melodies so they could recall them a week later. Of course it didn't change a thing for their music. They probably didn't do anything with it, for them it was just school stuff. But it taught me the system is actually quite useable, but it is mostly taught in a very inefficient way.
Thanks for a great video!
That was a revelation about the clefs. especially when you add the alto.
When I learned to read music it was as part of learning the violin, so the connection from eyes to fingers (and thus to the melody) through practise was how I learned. The actual note names came waaay later for me.
It was playing in groups and orchestras and having to discuss parts with people that I then started to back fill my existing "sight to fingerboard" linkages with named notes. I mean, I knew what the notes where on the violin but for some reason the instant recall from the page of "That's an F" wasn't there in the same way that my fingers knew what to do. In short, I feel like lots of performance and playing both solo and with others is the best way to lock in the ability to read, not learning rhymes or learning to read music notation for the sake of it.
Yeah, the alto clef is not so scary now
This was a very good reminder. I'm a cellist and have been able to read bass clef and tenor since I was a child. For some reason I've had a mental block on treble clef for 30 years now! I had completely forgotten the middle-C crossover into treble so I think you've just opened a door for me here to approach it 'logically' as you put it. Thanks.
So pleased Jeff... The thirds thing for me has been a real help.
Please keep going with this. I gave up because I kept memorising the basic songs when trying to sight read or playing by ear. I'm not a fan of the bass having different notes but did know it was relational to middle C and the treble clef. I'll have to try and remember your tip about calling it the F or G clef next time. More of those gems please.
So so true - thank you
Christian, you are such an inspiration in so many ways! A few years back I was about to quit music for good. I have always wanted to compose filmmusic and your videos and me getting Spitfire audio sounds actually changed all that. Was so glad to see this video about this because I’ve been struggling with trying to read music all my life. Probably have ADHD as well because my brain works differentely then with people that can put things like reading music together. I have a good ear though and can mostly figure any notes or chords out but it takes time, would love to have had the ability to learn this through my life. Played as a pianist in a few bands with complicated music and had to remember everything by ear wich was tough. I am 60 now and am learning more about composing music wich I love. But the lack of understanding how to read music is disturbing because I have all this music in my head and heart there it flows naturally and really no clue what i looks on paper. A few days ago I listened to som friends playing Jazz at a bar and they are so good and talented, and i sat there thinking that if I had a guitar I could join them on stage in that moment because my playing is on the same level but my I cant read the music and therefore and cant join them and it always makes me kinda sad. Guess this is a big thing for me writing about it so yes, I’d love to se more videos about ADHD and the connection to music. Thanks Christian for all this you are doing, it really makes a big difference to a lot of people!❤
Highly recommend 'Notation Must Die! The battle for how we read music' from Tantacrul as a relevant touch point for this topic. Fascinating to see how far notation has come and how it might evolve
Seconded, watched it the other day, very good!
Came here to post a link to it, you beat me to it
Beat me to it.
I'll check it out!
Amazing video. Thank you!
xxx
Beautiful. Hidden in plain sight. I can understand why learning musical notation is critical for communicating music to be played by others, but I’ve never felt hindered in the slightest lacking this skill when creating new ideas and recording them. Music theory on the other hand is something else entirely. It was like finding a super power when learning an instrument to express myself.
Somerthing that I find incredible up here in Scotland is the level of musicianship where reading notation isn't just not expected, its quite rare. The snobbery attached to it down south is just.... well, snobbery.
This is a fascinating take and one that has considerable resonance with me. Late diagnosis ADHD is a strange thing, it suddenly makes sense of a huge range of things.
How it affects one's musicality and aptitudes is particularly interesting.
Thank you for sharing this and i will be very intrigued to hear your journey and findings going forward.
Christian... I've been dealing with ADHD for my entire life... I'm 67 now. Over the years I've learned to accept it and have developed methods of coping with it. I also found that daily meditation in the morning helped me to deal with it a lot better as meditation was about learning to quiet the mind. Please... ADHD is NOT a curse, but just a way that the brain functions. Some of the most creative people in the world have some form of what many would call a mental disability... it's only a component of the gift and nothing more!
I love what you're doing and where you're going with The Crow Hill Company. Soon to get String Murmurations... hopefully the intro price extends for a bit longer. I shortened my Spitfire Audio list of purchases and feel like I need to do more with the libraries that I have, but String Murmurations is well worth the purchase as it feels like it's very inspiring to say the least!!
By the way... this video was the BOMB!!
Yeah, I think most creatives are "touched" a little with some mental fragrance.
@@TheCrowHillCo ... Yes, Christian... If you look at musicians in general, it appears that many guitar players and drummers are ADHD and that being a musician is something that suits 'who they are'.
I always considered it ever since I was young and learning to read music that it was just like learning a foreign language. And like that the grammar etc had to be learned and practiced. Good video and something I never really thought about as just like someone who has become fluent in a language it is no longer a conscious effort.
Reading music was the absolute hardest thing I had to learn when I was playing the Clarinet and the Piano as a young kid. How hard I tried, I simply couldn't. That didn't stop me from learning the songs and from playing in a quartet... And from me being a (hobby) music producer today. But, I'll die knowing that I never could learn how to read music.
Thanks Christian, an interesting perspective. I'm a self-taught pianist, like you I've never been able to grasp reading music but I'm considering committing to learning in hopes that it might not only expand my experience of music but also enable me to land some more work! I might even document the process if I ever decide to bite the bullet! I have friends who think it will be an easy process considering my existing ability, I'm not so sure!!
Hello there Sir Christian Henson (I am not a sycophant but I really appreciate your great work and generosity “For The Greater Good !!” H.F quote.) Sir has a great ring to it 😂
I am a drummer/percussionist and now a multi instrumentalist, I have grade 5 theory of music that I obtained while doing a Btec national diploma in popular music, it’s so hard to understand the Staves when you play a tuned instrument and even harder when you don’t !! So any advice that is given is always appreciated, maybe it won’t be helpful for some but at some point a method of explanation will sink in with perseverance for all ….!!
Thank you for your honest no holds barred words !!
👍🏻😎💋
There are so many people who have been turned off this subject, because it makes no sense to them, me included. A huge thank you for bringing some real world light to this. If you want this channel to succeed then may I suggest you carry on with this sort of content. There are millions of us in the dark who need your shinning light.
Thanks so much Huw. This kind of encouragement makes me press on.
I got diagnosed with ADHD 3 years ago, age 45. Music is my passion, but because I was struggling to practice, I couldn’t follow formal training in music. I ended up learning how to compose and orchestrate for a full orchestra by myself, bypassing the rigid formal route. I am a technical entrepreneur/engineer and use the money from that to fuel my passion and not rely on the music establishment that wants you to study music in an institution in order to get access to musicians and orchestras. It feels so good to hear you Chris talking about things that others don’t - I was always embarassed to not having studied music, but now I’m just proud to have found workarounds, and well…all that matters is if I can write the music I want. And we’re so lucky we live in an era where you can have a virtual orchestra, and don’t rely on a non-inclusive framework of education. Good luck with your new company, and please do talk more about the ADHD and music, many people relate but it’s a taboo.
Dear Christian, You inspired me to write orchestral music with your Satie film for Spitfire. I'm still learning from you. Forever grateful.
Again, love the video. I have never understood the alphabet music notation having learned music in France where the clefs are called "Clef de Sol" and "Clef de Fa" and i get where you are coming from. Can't wait to see what's to come with The Crow Hill Company
I think the Sol Fa method is way more musical and makes the players understand where they are in a piece better than where they should be on a finger or keyboard.
@@TheCrowHillCo me too, even the order of the flats and sharps on the key sound melodic : fa do sol ré la mi si - si mi la ré sol do fa 🎼🎶
I learn by watching other people play a song I want to learn. Above camera on piano is very useful.
the true clef names are key ;) I sometimes use a big G and big F instead of traditional clefs when writing notes sometimes
Hi Christian, this is quite an interesting topic. I am a classical-trained pianist and composer. I must say I don't remember how it felt when I first learnt to read notes but I can say that the translation of lines and spaces into keys a third apart is exactly the same kind of thought / intuition process I feel I am doing when I see notes on page. Then, it could happen to see group of notes as meaningful units - chords, scales, arpeggios, trills etc. - depending on the musical style in which the piece is written and to feel them as gestures on the keyboard, almost feeling the geography of the white and black keys in advance. This is what I feel my brain is doing, at least.
Thanks for reinforcing this point. The "fudge" thing feels like something someone dreamt up so that a large class of kids could impress their parents by pointing at lines and spaces and saying letters. Where actually becoming not just competent musicians, but musical musicians was secondary?
For a question of mental health, I ignore music notation, but I remain very impressed by people reading easily this kind of hieroglyph as if it were their native language ! And as always, a great video, I love your calligraphy work...
This is a great video.
Thaaanks x
Music from first principles! Love it
(CH quickly googles "first principals")... x
❤ Keep it coming ❤
Will do! x
I found this quite interesting and I have always been frustrated by my difficulties in reading. But my problems do not have much to do with identifying the pitches as much with the rhythmic aspects. I understand how to divide whole notes into half notes and quarter notes etc. But I still have trouble identifying the rhythms. And when you throw in rests and ties and dots things go off the rails pretty quickly. Again I understand how these things are supposed to work but I find that putting it into practice is quite difficult for me. I would be very interested to see if you have any thoughts on this. And thank you for this video it was very interesting.
Yeah, that is where I'm totally lost too.
The reason that staves have 5 lines is visual. It's the maximum number of lines where it's immediately obvious which line is which. You have the top line and the bottom line, and the middle line, and the internal upper line and the internal lower line. All instantly recognizable. Once you get beyond five lines, it becomes harder to distinguish the different lines instantly. So five lines is optimal. Gregorian chant has four lines, but five lines can carry more information. Guitar tab has six lines, but personally, it becomes a little harder to read the notes on the middle strings.
And including the spaces, each stave supports eleven white notes, which unless you are something like a keyboard, often covers what Conrad Pope refers to as the "cash register" of an instrument. The most common, most characteristic best value notes of an instrument (even the viola!).
Another thing to realize is that "Every Good Boy Deserves Food (or football, or favours, or fudge) is that the mnemonic is only for absolute beginners, in the same way that fluent speakers don't read individual letters, they read words, they read phrases. You're right, most of the time we read music diatonically (within a key), based on the size of the gaps. Alternating adjacent lines and spaces are seconds. Adjacent lines, adjacent spaces are thirds. Things that look like octaves normally ARE octaves (rather than sevenths or ninths)...
As with English (or French, or German, or Greek, or Burmese, or Russian), if you want to be fluent, don't think in terms of note names, or individual letters. The process shouldn't be (a) see the note on the page (b) translate it to its name (c) translate the name into the sound on the instrument, but the shorter (a) see the note on the page (b) translate the ink on the page into the sound on the instrument - a lot faster
Insights from Charles always welcome!
This is a logical explanation of theory that's gotten dusty over the centuries.
There's nothing wrong with updating it. But I still hold in awe like monuments this ancient musical language. Love it
It is such a beautiful system, i think teachers underestimate students ability to see awe in something geometric and simbiotic with the maths of the equal tempered system.
I’ve always known about the reading of notes. I’ve never practiced it given I come from a “rock’y”, guitars, and drums side of music (not to say this is an excuse. It’s just how I grew up with music)
So, seeing the logic behind it, I do. Learning it by heart, I’ve never. However, I do find it interesting to see other perspectives of this. It always gives the subject a new meaning and, this will help me learning it by heart, I hope.
Thanks sir... a different angle may not always be the right one for you but it is handy to have different angles nevertheless.
So, for me Every, Good, Boy, Does, Fine | Great, Big, Dogs, Fight, Animals 😂 This approach absolutely is crippling in so many ways. Watching just now, I learned quite a lot about the clefs especially. Joyfully yours!🤓
Get buggered down Fulham airport.
11mins a day of meditation has helped me manage my adhd better than any other method I've tried.
Not 10, not 15. 11.
So I've been told... but how do you quieten the brain. When I close my eyes all I see is dead faces and maggots?
@@TheCrowHillCoI have the same experience. I've never been able to meditate because of it.
The way you put the staves on top of each other really helps! That floating 'C'.... And yes, I'd be interested in what you have to say about ADHD. I've been told I'm mildly autistic (I know that's a different thing altogether) but I'm interested.
Dult noted Steve, many thanks.
Very informative! Maybe that's why I like looking at the keyboard rather than a staff. Less steps to feel the music from your brain. 👊😎🎶
Yeah... its why I like piano rolls.... find them easier to read!
My Cello teacher always wondered, how I could play more comlicated pieces without practicing my notes and scales. It is because I played by ear and sight, not knowing what names the notes actually have and developed a feeling for music itself
Great video
Thanks
When I learned guitar, I simply memorized the location of each point on a string & fret in relation to the note on the staff. It got me to the point where I can read music on guitar without thinking. I am struggling to do the same thing on a piano keyboard. And I don't know why.
When I attended piano lessons as a child, I resisted learning notation because I was able to remember what my teacher had played and reproduce it the following week. Many years later I have yet to make any connection between what I see on the page and what I should hear if I was able to follow the score (and the position my hands should adopt in so doing).
Additionally, I have not been able to break out of playing in a just a few keys so when writing, I use my keyboard’s transpose button. This means that I can make sophisticated music with a keyboard and a Mac . . . but I have never enjoyed the pleasure of working with others in a live context or sitting down to read/play the songs I love, even simple ones.
Every year I try an intervention for one or both limitations and make little progress. If anybody out there has found a way to overcome either of these limitations, I would love to know!
Self taught musician here.. With ADHD. I don't know that I will ever learn to read notes, but luckily my ears are very good ..providing I really like the tune, I can learn most things by ear. If I don't really like the tune, even the simplest stuff eludes me 🤦♂
I think us ADHD'ers are less good at sonic filtration which when applied to music gives us a better "ear".
Perhaps! It is impossible for me to censor sounds I do not want to hear, so you may have a point@@TheCrowHillCo
Wow, Christian, I recently explained this to one of my piano students… I cut the manuscript up and joined the two clefs together and it was a voilà moment for him!
It made me realise how archaic the whole technique of teaching students how to read music has become.
I am old school but can definitely understand how it can be so confusing when it really isn’t.
Excellent vlog sir!
Eureka moment, even 😂
Scientific Notation is your friend; Middle-C is C4.
C2-C3- C4 -C5-C6.
Bass clef- gap -Treble clef
The insanity is keyboards often notate Middle-C as C3, yet in actua, MIDI-notation it's C5 (midi-60)
Thanks... wish a teacher had done that for me when I was in school.... All I remember from school was a neverending sense of confusion.
Bass staff and F cleff is just a vertical flip of the treble staff and G cleff which are flipped around the middle C note. So if you went from middle C upwards, you would soon realize that the notes repeat themselves in higher octaves. And if you went backwards from middle C, you would go into the bass staff and F cleff and you would have realized the notes just go in the opposite direction from the same point. There, everything is easy now. You're welcome. :)
The space between the 2 clefs is there to accommodate notes above and below the staves and make it easier to know which notes are played by each hand. As someone who has read music since I was 5, to have that small space between staves and try to figure out which note# are in which hand when a hand is playing notes around middle c would be a nightmare. Not to mention an engraving issue.
I started playing instruments age 4 by myself without lessons. Sounds incredible to a lot of people but 24 years on yes I can learn pretty much anything by ear but Lord knows, if I could read notes I'd probably play stuff instantly as opposed to having to hear it first, remember the sound then do it. Also, even with perfect pitch you can only play what you hear. So if the mix of something means you can't clearly make out a sound you're stuck. Where as if you read it's just like BAM! Yes sight readers, I think you make it look that straightforward😂 Great vid as genuinely in my 28 years of life, this is the first time I actually learnt enough to actually feel like I might get somewhere if I try one more time with this method.
Its like up here in Scotland. Some of the best musicians in the world. Reading is not expected, and in fact a rarity. Its passed on from generation to generation. They don't even call it fudge up here, its tablet.
A whole life of doing music, and this never actually occurred to me. Crazy. Still can't really read sheet music without counting lines though :). Also congrats on the ADHD diagnosis, just knowing will open a ton of doors.
Thanks for your encouragement, the sense of not liking being ADHD only lasted for a few minutes. The relief of "so you're not stupid" is very much ongoing.
I can (for the lack of a better term) "read" notes on a piano roll like in FL Studio no problem. I can hum along the the melody in real time and see the clear shapes of chords, their extensions, and very subtle delays (rests). I've tried numerous times to pick up sheet music but I can't do it. Probably doesn't help that I don't actually play any physical instruments. If I want to write chords and melodies, I use my typing keyboard and adjust the velocities after the fact. Call it what you want, but that's what I've been doing for 8 years and I'm happy with how much I've leaned. Sheet music in the DAW world is like newspapers to mobile phones. Unless you have a specific need to learn to read it, its largely a pointless skill.
P.S: Also ADHD (suspected by many, including medical professionals, in process of testing but the system here is very slow) so I understand how difficult it can be to sit down and learn stuff that's not remotely interesting to you, whereas you'll find no problems sitting for 3 hours straight hyperfocusing on your track. Brains are weird.
Thanks so much for sharing something that I totally relate to. I see it as a super power. You don't let stuff that is of no use to you fill your brain... just the stuff that is.
Yes please, I would be very interested in hearing about your ADHD and what led to its discovery
This is why design is so important and can make such impact either to be confusing or be to help.
One example could be (not necessary though) considering the line indicating the G and F note would be just a little bit thicker. What it might do is giving the eye a very quick guide.
The problem we see today is that the G and F clefs has taken the ornamental form. Which in todays visual aspect is very confusing. Hence ‘treble’ and ‘bass’ clefs commonly named.
Take another common example: The ampersand, or you know it as the ‘&’. Which is the ornamental figure of the latin word ‘Et’. In typography it's called a ligature-when two letter forms are bound together. Most people know it means the word ‘and’. Actually exactly the same word in all languages derived from latin. Meaning the ornamental sign being more or less universal to people not actually sharing the same language.
Just a quick note on what design can do when it's done properly. In the meaning easy to understand.
Really good video! So the clefs ascend by fifths then? From F to C to G?
Those notes always reminded me of a combination between cursive and German capital letters. I guess if you google for German Gothic Cursive you'd find similar images.
Btw, for me the trouble is converting the notes into the right sound, bind that sound with an action on the instrument and then knowing how to interact with that instrument to get that sound out of it.
ADHD diagnosis seems to be falling out of trees and landing on people all around me. Currently investigating the possibility of inattentive type myself but the waiting lists for assessment are abysmal. So, yes please go for it, especially if you are experimenting with stimulant treatments for focus
Off topic but does anyone know what's best. Adding reverb to each individual strings in parallel verses strings all dry sent to a bus and then Adding reverb
this is brilliant. i may have even given it a go if i had seen this 30 years ago..... trying to read music hurt my brain so much, i could already play the chords i needed, knew the shapes i liked the sound of so thought "i am only learning this so i can sight read and play sessions, if i hate doing it i don't want to be a sight reader musician..." ..... my experience is musicians who can read can't remember.... played in Ska band with horn players who read music, if they didn't have their sheets, they couldn't remember the tunes, even though we had played them together in rehearsal every week for months and even years.... without the sheet music they were fcuked.... i remembered every song as a guitarist who didn't read. reading is a skill for regurgitating like a robot, but a handicap for a musician who wants to serve the muse.....
Nice hack, and do you have any tips for dreaded LEDGER Lines!?😹 I learned clarinet as a kid, and I don’t think about any of the notes at all because I just have it all memorized. I don’t remember how long it took or if it was frustrating. It’s just completely committed now. But for some reason, when I look at piano sheet music, I am sitting there, plucking them out one by one, and actually write the letter name next to them, Especially the bass clef and any ledger lines. It’s so tedious. I just memorize everything that I want to play, which is ridiculous. If I’ve never heard the tune, then I’m useless, as then I need to think about rhythm too (instead of just “tab”). Need more help!
I’ve been playing piano since I was 10 and I have two degrees in music. I can barely read music and It has always been a struggle. I decided during music college I would finally get good at reading so I bought a whole bunch of easy sheet music and for a year spent an hour every morning just sight reading. I bought orchestral scores and would read through them while listening. I’d study those scores. I still barely got better at sight reading. This lack of ability made me feel like I could never be a film composer (the reason I got my second music degree) because I felt I could never work with an orchestra and never work on scores in a professional environment.
Such Good Advice!!!
I struggle to read music myself and to make things even wilder is as a drummer I only can focus is if it’s a chart and I’m on a short notice gig that has a lot of music.
I admire people who can do this. The depping culture in the pits in London is why I believe the sight reading is better there than anywhere in the world.
I have ADHD and perhaps coincidently I also could never make reading music “click” in my head. I understand the rules and concept of coarse. When I see someone that’s great at sight reading it seems like a superpower to me. Thank the heavens for MIDI. MIDI makes sense to me and it makes the impossible possible for me.
Indeed. Tech can be freeing if you don't let it restrict you.
I've found that learning the rhythmic aspects of notation in Britain is more difficult than the pitch system. The American system of 1/4 notes ,1/16 notes seems to make much more sense to learners than this esoteric, contrived system of Quavers,crotchets being one beat , 1/2 a beat etc... When you can sight read rhythms effectively life is good. I've come across lots of different systems to support this over years of teaching pupils.I started in primary school by learning to read on a single stave as a cornet player.It's a different experience slightly when you're learning music with a band of similar age to yourself as a youngster. I think there's definitely room for a global study on learning to read music effectively.I'm one of the lucky people who visualises the(rhythmic) notation when I hear music. It helps me now incredibly.
Against that American nomenclature doesn't help with triple time! Personal opinion, it's better to see time signature as a code, rather than fractions. 6/8 and 3/4 are very different feels. 6/8 and 2/4 are more closely related than 6/8 and 3/4.
@@charlesgaskell5899 I agree Charles. However from a beginners point of view it can seem more logical to see 6/8 as 6 -8th notes in a bar or 3/4 as 3 -1/4 notes in a bar.Young people ask frequently why it's called 6/8 time? The basic answer seems to be as it has 6, 8th notes in a bar.Nuance and feel can be introduced to learners after they have a grasp of the basic concept.
@@christopherjones9419 if you treat it as "code", then a number of 6 / 9 / 12 at the top simply means "beat divides into three rather than two" means you don't need to do math(s). Except at very slow speeds, 6/8 means two beats in the bar, not six - two should be the default
"It's code" (rather than "maths") covers a multitude of sins... 😉
Hepidemihemiquasisemidemiquaver whats wrong with that?
As a 48 years young child, I can understand you what you teach! looool.....
Us older children should stick together.
Neat!
But not tidy!
I always struggled and partly blame my terrible childhood violin teacher. He couldn't explain why different keys had different sharps and flats, without black notes I couldn't visualise it. It was only later when I got a synth that it made sense.
I always found it much easier to play by ear.
I think these things just take a little longer if they are explained to be understood and not simply learned.
I learned most of this when about 7 years old (69 years ago!) - I think it was easier to learn at that age.
Yeah... all I got was fudge poetry.
What gets me, as I’ve only just found out, middle C in notation is C4. In midi it’s C3. Why oh why? Completely messed me up just when I thought I was improving. I was thinking, like you point out about the space between left / right hand, why don’t they just use an alto clef. What a fiasco. Kind of ruins the fun sometimes. Can’t imagine what the great composers went through writing and sketching by candlelight across 8 staves. Mind blowing.
I started to learn to play the piano about five months ago, I’m fifty eight years old and actually, find reading music to be fairly easy… I certainly can’t sight read and wouldn’t expect to be able to for many, many years.
The overall system of notation and the certainly the piano keyboard are an amazing system….
I think one of the problems I had was trying to stuff this info into my head at an age where all was in my head was "boobs boobs boobs boobs.... ooh look a new synth.... boobs boobs boobs".
I’ve been playing for 40 years but never learned music notation. I’ve always been able to play by ear, so in school I just looked at the paper without needing to actually read the notation.
Works for folk and traditional music no problems!!!
Interesting, I've learned music in Czech language and we do not have these mnemonics. We just learned how it goes somehow. As a trumpet player, however, I never got used to reading in bass clef, it takes me quite a bit of mental power to translate the notes on the fly.
From my own perspective I learned to read at a very basic level, but I have never needed to know how to read more fully. Whether it be music or computers or whatever, I have tended to learn what I needed at that moment to progress, but not the entirety of what that knowledge belonged to if that makes sense. By the way I am not ADHD like you, but I am what is known as HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) which is both a blessing or a curse, depending on the situations I find myself in. My doctor just assumed I was Aspergers, and one of my very successful friends assumed I was Autistic like him. HSP seems a much better fit though IMHO.
Music is a language so learning to read music is like learning a foreign language- ie the earlier the better and or submerge yourself in it.
Kids I’ve taught love the ‘Elephants Go Backwards Down Fire Escapes’ and for those that remember the Muppets’ pigs in space…..echo ‘Face in space…..😂Iconic mode thinking.
I didn’t knew it was called treble clef in English : in French it is “clé de sol” (literally G Key) and I assumed it was as well in English.
I learned it as being called by both names just like the F-clef.
Ooooh, extra insight!
Knowing theory and having a good ear, I always cheated and learned what was happening and what to play after a few listens
My reading is awful.. obvs certain music situations where you need to be able to sight read
Yeah, I admire people who can!
Good Bands Do Fine Always
Every Good Band Does Fine
Would be useful if it had any semblence of truth!
C major and a minor, combined staves- treble, base clefs. Major and the relative minor.
Luckily the clefs are already named "correctly" in Norwegian, then. As a tubaist, the first thing I learned was that the "F key" points to F. I believe that first part with lots of mnemonics is really uncommon here in Norway (and probably several other countries with mostly German influenced music traditions).
So strange how different cultures do stuff so much better!
Please please please talk about Adhd...🙈 Why cant i remeber (after more than 20 years) the name of the root strings on my guitar by heart while writing in modes and doing smooth/complex key changes with no afford. Why does a video like this just makes sense while the most basic books about this stuff just doesnt...they do I think...but...ahhh...
This Video for me is just as enlightning as the Lenard Bernstein one about how music works in 5 minutes...now thats something I think...😂♥️
I’ve always played by ear as learning to sight read was too overwhelming as a 13 year old. I just viewed it ‘Super Morse Code’ which could only ever be read by people who were dropped on their heads as babies.
Super Morse Code.... gonna use that ha ha ha!
As someone whose recently decided to learn piano more seriously at 64 after years of pathetic dabbling I agree with you. For me, however, the system for notes that fall within the relatively small 3 octave range is nothing like as bad as those that fall above and below it. Obviously the past creators of music notation had perfect eyesight when they dreamed up the idea of introducing multiple ledger lines. I realise space on a music score is at a premium and probably more staves wouldn't be feasible, But still very tedious.
Yeah those poor piccolo players. However I've learned (the hard way) that people who plkay up in the gods prefer ledger lines to massive octave transpositions as they associate those lines with finger positions.
Christian, how were you tested to arrive at that diagnosis?
I took an online test which made me investigate it further where I got a formal diagnosis.
It might also be more difficult to learn as a pianist. As a trumpeter and a trumpet teacher, I learned (and now teach) one note at a time. Start with C or G and then work your way towards the other note. About 1-2 notes per lesson in the first lessons. The exercises you play contain only the notes you’ve learned so far. The gradual increase in notes makes it easier to swallow.
Also, coming from Israel where like in Europe we call the notes Do Re Mi Fa Sol, makes all of the acronyms pointless.
I had a piano student - a girl - who didn't like the boys being in the sayings. She came up with "Every Girl Buys Double Fudge". To start with, learn the name of the middle note of each clef then go up/down the alphabet from there. Over time you'll learn all the lines/spaces. Eventually you'll play by intervals rather than trying to read each note.
Love it... I'm only just uncovering the insane gender inbalance that torments us through history to this day,
Like you, I do not read music and at 73, probably will not now. But your explanation was interesting. Personally, I think you do not need to understand notation because you are unbounded from the pages of dots and can wander freely. The only time it may come in handy is expressing your ideas to others and can hand musicians sheet music. On the ADHD issue....you have no problems I can see (unless you hide them). You are a very talented, driven and precise personality. That does not sound like ADHD, Sounds like a doctor is simply wrong.
thanks, i kinda get the system but my vision doesn't want to accept that lines and spaces are all naturals
Yeah I'm with you on that, it's like imagining all numbers are odds, and you have to add or deduct a decimal point to get the odd numbers.
Perhaps it's time to print out some brass keyhole panels to stick on modern keyboards just below the middle C position. ;-)
I'm no doctor, but can I say, I believe we are all way more ADH symptomatic due to modern life and technology. Plus personality will accelerate it in some cases.
But we're we actually born this way? Is it a "disorder" or have we become disordered?
Totally agree, the industrial revolution was only a couple of hundred years ago a mere pin prick in the process of physical evolution.
Tantacrul (Martin Keary) of MuseScore just published a video two weeks ago discussing this. I think you'll also be interested in that.
I had only learned that some people use this mnemonic in college. To me, that's utterly bizarre. "FACE" is alright, doesn't work on bass clef obviously, but that's just coincidental that they spell a word in English. "ACEG" doesn't spell a word, but still easy to remember. In the end, useless. Some people use mnemonics for violin strings or guitar strings. Goodness, how do you remember your own phone number, your registration plate, or social security/national insurance number? It took me a while to accept that people don't learn the same way and at the same speed. After all, I was the one wondering why everybody was reading so slowly.
So I've just started teaching music again, absolute beginner to intermediate, wee tiny kids to nearly retiree. I try to give them all the logical solutions. Learn how the staves work, and then just learn steps and skips, and I think if your language uses the Latin alphabet, you should be set. "Rote learning" isn't bad, how did we remember those even numbers and the first few prime numbers? After you learn the steps and skips, see if you can measure intervals visually, sometimes I tell the students you don't always have to spell the notes out, just like looking a ruler without the numbers. Even looking at chords. I remember that I was taught that the treble clef and bass clef are actually G-clef and F-clef from early on, so that's also what I teach my students from the very beginning, even when their books don't tell them that. I don't know if the grand staff/great stave brace was actually a C-clef in disguise, nor if knowing having A to G three times on a grand staff/great stave would be useful to other instrumentalists, but piano books like Faber Piano Adventures (pretty popular in the US), they also show that middle C is indeed pointed by the brace, and in the Adult books they do show that you can play from A to G three times on a grand staff.
I'm still surprised of how come am I reading the comments saying this is "monumental", "a revelation," and "fascinating", because to me, everything you just said was all obvious. Part of this I guess also shows that even reading music is taught differently in different countries. Don't get me started on how some people still can't grasp the concept of "moveable do". And of course, just the different teachers parroting how they were taught, and compounded with students' individual difficulties. I tutored two students with learning disabilities. One unspecified, she was still doing first year theory class in her third year. Another has ADHD, and he had mnemonics for every fret of the guitar, like Lord have mercy that was so confusing to me.
The way that notation reading is taught also has to be changed, rather than explaining that they are because they are, also point out why. And on top of that, of course, adapt to the students and how they're learning and processing new information. We should also stop calling it "hieroglyphics", "barrier to enjoying music", and whatever other words and phrases that people have attached to musical notation, it's frankly unhelpful and discouraging. Especially teachers, we should make things make sense, not to just hammer things down until they do the same thing you do.
How great would it be if each octave in notation were represented the same way. Where a C always looks like a C regardless of which octave, just like a piano.
Its like saying wouldn't it be great if Pi was 3.15, it would make life easier but also suck the sun inside out.
I love your work and your channel. But I am an amateur musician. Playing keyboards in cover bands, some gigs every year.
I started to read music when I was a kid, so I know everything you mentioned here.
But I don't read usually, because I use only chords notation. This way I lost skill in reading music.
It is difficult, really difficult, for people not doing it regularly. That's the real problem
If you decide to do the talking about ADHD, aside from how you think it has affected your musical journey and life experience (for better or worse) it'd also be good idea to talk about how you went about getting diagnosed. My partner might well have it, according to initial enquiries, but waiting for official assessments (and therefore support) takes forever, even the "right to choose" paid ones. And many look like an obscene scam for the price! Also, do you have any thoughts on the current wave of "me too!" on social media, where everything from waking up in a tired mood to not enjoying washing up or not liking tomatoes is being linked to ADHD, in a very unquestioning mannor. Do you think this could make it harder for people (including musicians etc) who really need support if they are pushed aside by large numbers of the self-diagnosed? And do you think that being in the music world makes it harder or easier for people who have ADHD or other neuro divergences ?
Will do. There are many online tests that may not leave people feeling fully diagnosed but at least a possible sense of "this really should be investigated".