5 Ways To Learn How To Read Music At The Piano
When piano students are first learning to read music, there are a number of different approaches that can be taken to learn how to read notation. Most piano method books are based around one of these approaches. While there isn’t necessarily one right or wrong way to learn how to read music, some ap
When piano students are first learning to read music, there are a number of different approaches that can be taken to learn how to read notation.
Most piano method books are based around one of these approaches. While there isn’t necessarily one right or wrong way to learn how to read music, some approaches tend to work better than others. Sometimes this depends an individual’s learning style.
If you already read sheet music, you’ll probably identify which approach you used as you were learning. Many people use a combination of different approaches along the way.
And, if you teach music, you probably have a favorite approach that you use with all of your students.
Here are 5 different ways to learn to read piano notation.
1. Memorizing Notes
This is a pretty traditional approach that many teachers fall back on. You simply teach piano students to identify notes on the staff. You might use flash cards or an app to drill this information. Some people use clever mnemonics to help them remember each note.
For example, the spaces in the treble clef spell FACE. On the lines, you could say Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge.
While these kinds of tricks are helpful, sometimes only relying on memorization doesn’t necessarily help a student to fully understand or conceptualize how music works.
If this is the only system you use to teach or learn music notation at the piano, you might consider adding another approach to diversify the way you think about music.
2. Middle C Position
Many piano methods use Middle C Position as a starting point to learn the staff. This approach can be a really helpful starting place because Middle C is an easy and obvious visual orientation on the staff. Working with Middle C as a central point creates symmetry in the staff which makes notation seem more logical.
A lot of people quickly learn about Middle C and how to find that important note on the piano. It might seem like Middle C is a reference point specific to the piano keyboard, but really, Middle C is important because it is the note that joins the treble and bass clefs together.
Middle C Position has the student placing both of their thumbs on Middle C, then each finger on each hand is placed on consecutive keys, moving outward from Middle C.
When your hands are placed this way, each finger has a mirroring finger on the opposite hand and the corresponding notes on the staff also mirror each other.
For example, your finger 2’s are on B and D. These 2 notes are a mirror image of each other when notated.
Middle C position is really manageable for a lot of people because the there are only 9 notes to keep track of and visually, they make a lot of sense. As students expand beyond Middle C position, the concept of mirroring notes on the staff continues.
You’ll notice that all of the C’s on the staff mirror each other. Beyond Middle C, treble C and bass C are a mirror of each other because bass is is 2 spaces up and treble C is 2 spaces down.
Further, all of the B’s and D’s mirror each other, A and E are mirrors of each other and G’s and F’s are mirrors.
Even if students learn music outside of Middle C position, it’s still often helpful to explore the symmetry of grand staff and to observe how to 2 clefs work together as a unit.
3. C Position
C position is another common starting point on the piano. When a student learns to play in C Position, each hand starts on a C. Right hand finger 1 plays Middle C, left hand finger 5 plays bass C.
A finger in each hand is placed on consecutive keys – C, D, E, F, G.
This is another very manageable way to start reading notation because there are just 10 total notes to learn, 5 in each hand.
Many students who start reading in C position are quickly ready to expand to notes outside of C position.
One drawback of C position, as compared to Middle C position, is that the left hand notes seem very independent of the right hand notes. They look completely different on the staff, so there is more to keep track of.
On the other hand, it becomes easier to observe concepts surrounding note reading. For example, it is clear that notes moving from line to space or space to line are consecutive notes on the piano. The contour of the musical line stands out visually in C position.
Once the 5 C Position notes are secure in each hand, it’s easy to branch out to notes just beyond C position, which quickly gives students a pretty broad range of familiar notes to work with.
4. Landmark Notes
Learning to spot landmark notes on the staff is a helpful way to read piano music. With landmark notes, you only memorize a handful of important notes. All of the other notes on the staff fall within a step or skip of these landmark notes.
Like Middle C Position, landmark notes also highlight the symmetry of the of the grand staff.
These are the most common landmark notes to learn.
5. Intervallic Reading
Intervallic note reading is one of the most effective ways to learn how to read music fluently.
Intervals are the distance between 2 notes.
When you learn how to read music intervalically, you learn to identify intervals between notes in order to move from one note to the next.
This way of reading is crucial because it allows you to read music by observing patterns and shapes, rather than by identifying individual notes.
This is similar to how we read words. You don’t spell words in your mind before you read the word as a unit. Similarly, it’s not necessary to identify the letter name of every note before you play it.
If you can identify the starting note, then identify intervals between notes, you will be able to move effortlessly from key to key.
Each interval has a unique shape when notated. Even intervals go from a line to a space and odd intervals are either 2 on lines or 2 in spaces.
You can see that as the intervals get bigger, the 2 notes are further apart. For example, the notes in a second are squished close together, while the notes in an octave are spaced far apart.
Intervalic note reading works well alongside the other approaches to note reading. For example, using positions on the piano is a good way to anchor yourself to the keys. It’s helpful to be able to identify intervals within those positions.
You need to have a general understanding of the staff and where certain notes are located in order to read intervals, so drilling and memorizing note names all around the staff is helpful in order to read music music intervals.
Remember, that there’s no right or wrong way to learn how to read music at the piano, but a combination of these 5 approaches can help you learn to understand more completely how music notation works on the grand staff.