February 24th, 2010 by admin

The printed music is the roadmap through which all musicians adhere to, and when you learn to read music you will know the very meaning of the phrase “being on the same page”.

Music is as much of a language as French or Spanish, all must learn before speaking.

All musical groups must have this written roadmap before they begin. As far back as we can research, some sort of written notation existed to pass the singing of a generation to the next one, as well as teaching people to sing together.

Before improvisation was the written note.

It all comes down to if you cannot read; you cannot be with a group that reads. This leaves you as a performer left out of a large portion of musical performance venues.

reading music is essential to understanding theory. The theory of music is by necessity based on the written note. Music theory is the building blocks of harmony and melody and must be understood first. It may seem hard, but it is worth the effort.

You can learn music without hearing it first. How many times can you try to learn from a cd or from someone else and not know if you got it right? If you can read music you can go straight to the book and get all of the basic information on your own. Have you ever learned a song from someone else and not known if you got it right or got all of the information you need? Knowing music enables you to take a piece you have never heard before and make sense of it on your own.

You can learn exactly how the author of the song meant for it to sound. It can open up new worlds when you read a song from the authors’ point of view, only to find all of the versions you ever heard did not include 
the intro or coda or a repeat etc. In “Georgia On My Mind” by Hoagy Carmichael, for example, no ones plays the intro. Even if you have known a song all of your life you may not know the entire version or the way it was meant to sound. If you are involved in songwriting, I am sure you would want people to know the way you wrote it. Think about that for a moment.

Discover new music you would never know otherwise. It is a wonderful thing to “discover” music just because you are leafing through a songbook and you find something that really speaks to you. I have found many songs this way. These are songs that I absolutely love. I would never have known they existed without being able to read.

If you can read, you can find new music. When I was young it was hard to learn to ride a bike and I fell over a lot. These days I hardly fall at all. The same is true with any new skill, it is hard at first but soon you begin to move past that and grow.

You will only become a better musician if you learn to read music.    Learning to read music will make you a better, well rounded musician and isn’t that worth the effort in itself? That is what we are all striving for. Learn to read music today and be a better musician, you will  not regret it.