sight reading

[fortymile]

it is time i got swift with reading sheet music.

i took piano lessons for six years as a kid but was not motivated to really internalize how to read. i stumbled along and held myself back, preferring to play by ear. at a certain point i quit and started joining bands.

i want to be able to read, now, but im still having a hard time memorizing those notes on the staff. particularly the bass clef. if i have to use those every good boy does fine devices, i dont own my process. success would come when i can look at the sheet and know the note on sight, so thats where i want to be.

so it comes down to getting really familiar with the staff.

should i get some freeware and practice sight reading tests on it? anyone know of anything good? i dont actually want to 'play'--dont want to do real sight reading yet, because my lack of skill is too depressing. i move very slowly and have to think it out. i will get bored and quit if i start with that.

so how did you come to memorize the notes on the staff? any ideas for someone who wants to learn? i find it very hard for some reason.

[SostenutO]

Well, first I started out with very simple song books. I strongly suggest that you read and play. It's the only way to learn the notes. Simply by playing you will memorize the notes.

I also used to draw staves in my spare time at school and write all the notes in. That kinda helped lol.

I did used to use some freeware things. It was a tiny program that had a note pop up and you click the right one on the keyboard. I'll tell you what it was when I remember the name lol.

[keith_uk]

Go to Musictheory.net, click on trainers then click note trainer. I think this is the kind of thing you are looking for. Hope it helps

[fortymile]

i think i want something with MIDI capability. i think it's probably important to play the notes as i see them, to get my eyes to associate lines and spaces with keys, and not with letter names in my head. anyone ever seen anything like that?

i envision it this way.

a program that starts in a single key and runs through a preset (by you) number of notes and/or chords (your choice of either or both) in that key. then it switches to another key at random. and so on. you wouldnt want a new key every time, of course, so youd want control over that parameter.

thats what i'd want. you hit the piano keyboard and thats your input to the program. more fun/quicker than sight reading because you dont have to 'check' yourself.