Today’s topic is specifically musical. The last several episodes have had to do with getting the new school year off to a strong start. We’ve talked about the non-musical benefits of studying piano, being careful not to overbook our child’s schedule, and last week was all about setting up routines. Today, let’s talk about the nuts and bolts of reading music.
For a more detailed description of the staff and it’s history, listen to Episode 004.
Listen to the full episode here
Reading music is like reading any other language
I’ve tried to learn Spanish here and there. I know a few words but I always associate them back to English. When I try to read something in Spanish, I’m looking for English clues or associations to help me understand. I am not fluent in Spanish.
In my opinion, to become fluent, I need to stop associating and adding a second step in my thought process. For example, when I say Gracias, I’m thinking ‘Thank You’. I simply need to trust the Spanish words and let them stand alone.
The closest I may have come is the word Bienvenidos. I first learned it in a song when I was on a mission trip to Costa Rica years ago. I didn’t learn the English equivalent – still don’t really know the equivalent.
Think about how children learn to read books
When your child learns to read books, they follow a fairly common path:
They hear words as you read to them. You might even track the words with your finger as you read so your child begins to associate letter symbols with the sounds you are making.
They learn to recognize individual letters, call them by name, and know the sound they represent. We might say, “A is for apple. B is for banana. C is for cat.” When they see the new letter, they connect it with a familiar object to help them remember the sound.
They start putting groups of letters together to form words. Cat. Hat. Mat. You wouldn’t take the time to draw the objects next to the letters when they are trying to read. For example, when spelling the word CAT, you wouldn’t draw a cat, then an apple, then a turtle, would you? That adds too much work to the process and now the child is so busy trying to remember what each drawing means they can’t focus on the original task – C-A-T spells cat.
As children mature and gain experience with letters, they are able to put more letters together to create and understand more complicated words, put words together to make sentences, and sentences together to make stories. They learn to add inflection to their voice as they read to make the story more interesting. The letters are not the focus anymore, they are the tools used to create a bigger picture.
Children do not wait to speak and use the words they know until they can read fluently. Spoken language generally comes first. They hear their native language spoken in the home and learn thousands of words and use them correctly before they every see the symbols that represent those words.
This is the realization Dr. Shinichi Suzuki came to when he developed the Suzuki Method of learning to play instruments.
That is a wonderful topic for another episode. If there are any Suzuki Method teachers out there, please email me to we can get together to chat and share the philosophy and strategies behind Dr. Suzuki’s “mother-tongue approach”.
Now, let’s apply this analogy to reading music
Every young musicians’ first encounter with music comes through listening. I would say that begins even before birth. Babies hear their mother’s voice as she talks and sings during her pregnancy. Babies hear and can feel music the mother listens to. Toddlers instinctively move to the beat when they hear music playing. Young children learn to sing songs without reading music, or reading words for that matter. In fact, I teach my preschoolers familiar nursery rhymes in song to help them as they begin to read the nursery rhymes in print.
When your piano kid begins taking piano lessons, you can help them learn to track the melody line of music in the same way you would if you were reading a story to them. Many primer level method books include CD’s or access to audio files. Sit down with you piano kid, listen to the audio tracks, and follow along on the music staff with your finger. You don’t even have to be at the piano yet – just sit in a comfortable chair, turn on the music, and “read” the piano book.
The next step in music reading offers a variety of approaches. The end goal is to help students learn to recognize notes on the different lines and spaces of the staff and to associate them with the piano key they represent.
Many teachers and parents begin by using the same association tactic that worked with learning to read written language. Remember “A is for apple”? Well, for music that becomes, “Every Good Boy Does Fine” and “FACE”. It is a tool that has been used for years to help students learn to navigate the music staff.
The problem is that students begin to use the tool as a crutch and it is difficult for them to go beyond “Every Good Boy Does Fine”. Just as you wouldn’t draw symbols to represent each letter in the word CAT, it is not helpful to write in letter names next to notes on a music score. Students become trained to read the crutch and not actually learn to read the music notation.
Piano teachers these days prefer different tools to help students read the music staff. One tool is Landmark notes and the other is Intervallic reading.
Landmark notes: Middle C, Treble G, Bass F
Intervallic reading: following the distance from one note on the staff to the next. Repeat, step, skip, leaps.
For early music readers, the more opportunity they have to read lots of note patterns, the better. In my studio, I have many used books I’ve collected over the years to loan out to my students. They can take home a different book each week, in addition to their lesson books, and read as many pages as they like. Just like reading lots of books helps kindergarten students gain experience with the language, reading lots of music books does them same for beginning piano students.
As children gain experience with a few music notes, they are able to decipher more notes at a time with more complex rhythm patterns. Ultimately they are able to add inflection in their music to add beautiful expression.
Final thoughts and a shout out
Think back to the time when your child was first learning to read. It was a slow process and probably not the most entertaining thing to listen to (though you were so proud of their accomplishments!). Musicians go through the same process. Their music is very slow and not very melodic at the start but with time and experience, they learn to interpret the symbols on the page and translate them into beautiful music that everyone can enjoy.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is just get them to the piano to practice. (It was hard to sit down with them to practice reading too, remember?)
I have something for you that will make that part of the process a little more fun and engaging. My studio is participating in the Fall Into Music Practice Challenge this September. We are aiming to practice 20 or the 30 days in the month and we will be sharing our progress with each other along the way; both in the studio and on social media.
When I know other people are working on the same project that I am, I am more likely to follow through. I don’t want to let them down and I don’t want them to get ahead of me!
You can learn more about the Fall Into Music Practice Challenge at www.pianoparentpodcast.com/fallintomusic
Before I say goodbye today I’d like to do a combo: iTunes review and shout out in one!
Shout out this week goes to Clara from Clara’s Music Studio! Clara writes….
Shout out to all of Ms. Clara’s students too! If you’re listening today, tell your teacher I said hello and thanks for the encouragement she gave me in this review and, I’m sure, that she gives you at every lesson.
I am convinced that only the best piano teachers listen to my show. If you are a student of one of those teachers, lucky you! (and thanks for listening)
I’ll see you next week!!
Thanks for Listening!
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