How to Improve Your Music-Reading Abilities

Polishing your music-reading skills can actually help you become a better songwriter.

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There are many advantages to being able to read and write music. You’ll be able to communicate your musical ideas to others. You’ll ensure that your musical ideas aren’t forgotten. And by seeing your music written down, you’ll be able to modify and develop your ideas into even better music. I say that knowing that there are some notably excellent songwriters who can’t read music. So I want to be clear about what I’m saying: improving your reading skills doesn’t necessarily enhance your musicianship (though over the long term it might — a topic for another blog post!)

The treble clef is probably the most common clef used by musicians. If you are a guitarist, a sax player or flutist, this is the clef you would use. But if you are a pianist, you need to be able to read both treble and bass clefs.

As a music teacher, I am always being asked for advice on how to improve reading abilities. Here’s the best way to do it:

1. On a blank piece of staff paper, write out a scale in the clef that you are trying to learn. Under each note, write the note names. (If you need help with this step, Google the term “music note names” and click on “Images”. You’ll find many pages that will help).  Set that sheet aside.
2. Take another blank piece of staff paper, draw the clef, and write the notes again. Now instead of writing the note names underneath, simply begin randomly pointing and naming the notes. If you get stuck, look over at the original sheet with the note names, remind yourself of the name, and keep going.
3. If you already read music in another clef, take music that you know and mentally place the new clef in front of the music. Now try playing your old music in a new clef.

As you can see, there’s not much to it. So why do so many people have a problem reading music in a new clef? It’s usually because of the bad habit of writing note names underneath notes they don’t know. The problem with that is that every time you get to a note with a letter written under it, you’re tempted to read the letter name, not the note name. So… you actually aren’t learning anything.

Resist the temptation to write letters under notes when you are trying to read a new clef. Though the progress may feel slow at first, you will learn it quicker and more solidly in the long run.

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Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website.
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