Read sheet music easy?

Hey guys, I was just wondering exactly what you did when it came to enhancing your sheet music reading skills?

I play the piano and whenever I want to cover a song I just end up spending a lot of the time trying to read the sheet music. The good thing about this is that I’m quickly able to memorize the song but I’ve always been far better at memorizing songs that reading sheet music.

I’m wondering if there’s a software or some sort of interactive learning tool that can help me with this. Or if you know of any tips or tricks on how to identify the shapes of the chords and the notes easily then that would be highly appreciated.

But if the only way you would recommend is to just tough it out, then could you please tell me what kind of schedule or learning procedure I should follow?

By the way, I like to do Tori Amos cover songs but her playing is so intricate that I just end up giving up most of the time. I would love to go back and just finish learning the songs I had started and this would really help me out a ton.

Thank you and I look forward to your replies. Take care : )

ORIGINAL: jinga8

you do realize, of course, that she is a prodigy that plays with nuances that can hardly be written out in standard notation...

I've used that one ever since someone first stuck a score in front of me...

Learning? Sounds like hard work to me...

I found this link
http://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Sight-Reading-Piano-Music

Might help, but I think Rico is right, practice, practice, practice

I had a three book series call Speed-Reading At The Keyboard In Three Volumes
A Complete Course In Learning To Read Music At Sight.
It was a very useful series for me years ago.
I think it is out of print.

Ekay Musi Inc 333 Adams Street, Bedford Hills, NY 10507 was the publisher.
ISBN# 0-943748-25-9
Authors Edward Shanaphy, Stuart Isacoff and Julie Jordan.
No I won't sell my copy, keeping it for my daughters

Ed

My first real gig was a 4 hour big band gig. I was 18, on the trombone 3 book. We just went through the book... I think I'd never seen 95% of the charts. It's the musical equivalent of dad taking you down to the swimming hole and tossing you in.

ORIGINAL: cityrat

Variety and practice. If you are learning and memorizing you are not "struggling". The learning turns off once you memorize it and you don't really "see" the notes.

I know because I do this too. I am quick enough to memorize, then I turn off the sight reading or throttle it down.

Try a bunch of different pieces. Any pieces. It always sucks at first because we don't like to struggle. Its more fun to be able to play smooth etc but with reading its just putting in the time.

+1

Also, another thing to keep in mind, reading alone will probably not help you with the "little nuances" or with any other note-for-note covers. Simply because there are not many(very few, in fact) note-for-note keyboard transcriptions available on the market (I'm talking pop/rock/whatever kinda stuff.....not sure about Tori Amos stuff in particular though). Most of the stuff is piano/vocal arrangements that incorporate the melodies and other things. they still provide a solid chord structure and possibly may be close to the original in certain small areas and fills, but for the most part, will still require a good deal of playing by ear and interpretation to get close to the original.


I don't want to play down the importance and usefulness of good reading skills, but I'll suggest an additional area to focus on. Learn and practice the CRAP out of scales, in every key (maj and min at the very least). Also, learn chords in every root....and learn at least maj, min, and all the 7ths. One good way to learn and practice these chords is pick a chord type and play thru the circle of Fifths...do this for every chord type, in every inversion (ie, do this with maj7th's, then dominant 7th's, and so on).
Also, keep in mind, what Cityrat said about memorizing applies tp practicing scales and chords too. Don't fall into the habit of simply memorizing the patterns of scales and chords (I know this is easier said than done, I have to force myself to to the same when learning new things). Think about what you are playing and why, think of individual notes and intervals asw you are playing them. Doing that is what will ingrain it in your head as something other than just a pattern. (If you survive the sheer boredom of it )

Good chord and scale knowledge, coupled with reading will make it much easier to figure out what someone is actually playing.

Unfortunately, there is no quick & easy way to do any of this other than drilling it into your head.

There is no easy way arround it. You need to practice technique and play as much music as you can as often as you can. Good sight reading skill can only come from practicing the unfamiliar. Find some easy piano music at your local music store (not Sam Goody) and start reading, you should also get a bood on basic piano technique to get some practice in chord and scale recognition. If you want to get really good, get a teacher. And please...forget Tori Amos , I would hardly consider her a piano prodigy. Try Rafal Blechacz.