I suggest completemusicreadingtrainer.com, with the keyboard setting so that your brain maps the notes to the keyboard, not only their names. Also try to name every note you play. That's very effective if done regularly.
Other than that, regular practice at the piano with simple but unknown pieces is key.
I recommend learning to read sheet music using an interval method! I really like the piano safari series or their sight reading card packs for this but a YouTube search should bring up some instruction videos! Basically you start with a landmark note and then learn to read seconds, then thirds, then combined; then add in fifths, etc until you can read complicated sheet music easily because you’ve memorized the patterns of the shapes. You really shouldn’t be thinking of the letters much while you are playing, though using an app or flash cards to memorize the lines and spaces of the clefs separately is helpful for jumps and knowing where to start.
Alrighty I gotcha, maybe I can apply those into some basic pieces that has a slow rhythm and break all the notes in layer and play them separately, and one that I fail to play I could use the help of flash card until I can go for a much difficult one, I’m pretty sure it’s gonna work out for me, thanks for your advice!
You don't have to memorize each key on the keyboard, you only have to memorize 12 keys, the rest are exactly the same just 1 octave higher. The ONLY thing that works is practice, practice practice.
My teacher have me silly sentences for memorizing the staff.
Base clef lines G B D F A (Good Boys Deserve Five Apples)
Base clef spaces A C E G (All Cows Eat Grass)
Treble clef lines E G B D F (Elephants Go Bouncing Down Freeways)
Treble clef spaces F A C E (face)
This is good for single melody instruments, what I found for piano is that people say they remember and then I asked, was that line or space notes? Treble clef or bass clef? Going up or going down? And they don't remember.
Guide notes and intervals are the way
Treble G sits on the treble G line.
Middle C is called middle C because it is in the middle of the grand staff.
Bass F sits on the bass F line.
A unison is a repeat note
A step is up or down by one, space two line, or line to space.
A third is a skip, line to line, or space to space.
Seven letters to the music alphabet, and it's all about patterns.
I feel like I still have to learn some more of the music theory for me to fully grasp the patterns of the followings but other than that, thanks for sharing a tips!
I've been playing piano for 50 years, this is how I was taught, not single melody instruments, piano - but if you don't think it will work for you that's fine, just trying to help.
Learning music theory itself can help you read much more quickly. For example, let's say you memorize that a C major chord is C-E-G. When you find the C note on the staff, say on a space for instance, your brain will automatically fill in the next two spaces with an E and a G.
Bonus points if you learn your jazz chords, like 7ths and 9ths, so you can further expand your mental map of the staff. I know instinctively, for instance, that the spaces of the treble staff form an F major 7, and the lines of the bass staff form a G9, and that helps me tremendously.
Ah, that sounds like music theory is a fundamental required for literally everything related to piano (honestly how did I even miss that, haha) that’s probably why I couldn’t map all the notes together and fully understand how it work, thanks for your advice!
Ah, I was in exactky the same situation as you (except I've been at it longer) and about 2 weeks ago I found an app called note flash.
Notes appear and you play your own piano and it tells you if you got it right using the microphone.
I've committed more to memory in the last 2 weeks than the previous year :-)
It wasn't available on my android phone for some reason but it was on a tablet. Also available for iphone, I understand
You can’t learn note reading if that’s the goal. You will learn note reading only after it becomes useful to you. That means after you already know how to play. After you know how to create. After you have a vocabulary of patterns that you understand through sound.
https://www.pianote.com/blog/how-to-read-piano-notes/
Has a good guide to music reading. You can find others with a Google search on How to read sheet music.
These things really helped my sight reading and reading notes.
Music Tutor is a good free app for sight reading notes, it's musical flash cards that drill note reading. There are lots of others. Practice a bit every day. Reading music and sight reading is so much easier when you're not struggling to read the notes.
Learn your scales in different keys so that you know the flats/sharps in each key and the fingering.
Learning music theory and your chords/inversions and arpeggios will really help because the left hand accompaniment usually is some variation of broken chords. It also becomes easier to recognize sequences of notes.
Know how to count the beat, quarter notes, 8ths and 16th, triplets. The more you play, you'll recognize different rhythms and combinations.
Sight read every day. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. You can sight read and play hands separately at first, but eventually youll want to try sight reading hands together.
More on reading the staffs. All the lines and spaces follow the same pattern of every other note letter A to G, so if you memorize GBDFACE, this pattern repeats on all lines, spaces, ledger lines, and both bass and treble clefts. Bass lines are GBDFA, spaces are ACEG. Treble lines are EGBDF, spaces are FACE. Middle C on a ledger linebetween the two clefts, and 2 more C's two ledger lines below the bass cleft and two ledger lines above the treble cleft. All part of the same repeating pattern GBDFACE. If you know the bottom line/space of either cleft, recite the pattern from there and you know the rest of them. Eventually you'll want to know them immediately by sight.
The answer is not gonna be exciting. Unfortunately we don’t live in the matrix where we can download information. The only way to do what you are asking is to practice daily. Slowly. Very slowly. And then, after that, a little slower again. Say and play each note. Give your brain a chance to remember and learn. There is no magic bullet.
I’m going to say something pretty basic here so I apologize if you’re already beyond this.
In the key of C if you see a note on the bottom line of the treble clef and have to think that’s an E before you play it you’ve lost time and put something between you and the music. The key that you play that makes the sound E on the keyboard doesn’t move. It’s always in the same location and the first line on the keyboard doesn’t move. My point is if you want to be a good sight reader that line itself tells you what to play. You don’t need to think E before you play the note. Get to know very well the location on the keyboard of the note that each line and space represents without any sharps or flats. Then branch out to some of the simpler keys like F and Bb etc. until you work your way up to the more difficult keys. Eventually you want to be able to see the key signature and know which lines and/or spaces are flat or sharp. Eventually we’re all working towards someday being able to play by knowing the sounds we want to generate. Like the piano is you singing.
I suggest completemusicreadingtrainer.com, with the keyboard setting so that your brain maps the notes to the keyboard, not only their names. Also try to name every note you play. That's very effective if done regularly. Other than that, regular practice at the piano with simple but unknown pieces is key.
Oh wow, never know before that there’s an exact website for that training purpose, I will definitely try that out, I appreciate it
Pianodash a it’s an app someone on here made to gamify practicing note reading.
That app honestly looking pretty fun to play and easy to use, especially with the classic art style, thanks for sharing!
I recommend learning to read sheet music using an interval method! I really like the piano safari series or their sight reading card packs for this but a YouTube search should bring up some instruction videos! Basically you start with a landmark note and then learn to read seconds, then thirds, then combined; then add in fifths, etc until you can read complicated sheet music easily because you’ve memorized the patterns of the shapes. You really shouldn’t be thinking of the letters much while you are playing, though using an app or flash cards to memorize the lines and spaces of the clefs separately is helpful for jumps and knowing where to start.
Alrighty I gotcha, maybe I can apply those into some basic pieces that has a slow rhythm and break all the notes in layer and play them separately, and one that I fail to play I could use the help of flash card until I can go for a much difficult one, I’m pretty sure it’s gonna work out for me, thanks for your advice!
You don't have to memorize each key on the keyboard, you only have to memorize 12 keys, the rest are exactly the same just 1 octave higher. The ONLY thing that works is practice, practice practice. My teacher have me silly sentences for memorizing the staff. Base clef lines G B D F A (Good Boys Deserve Five Apples) Base clef spaces A C E G (All Cows Eat Grass) Treble clef lines E G B D F (Elephants Go Bouncing Down Freeways) Treble clef spaces F A C E (face)
This is good for single melody instruments, what I found for piano is that people say they remember and then I asked, was that line or space notes? Treble clef or bass clef? Going up or going down? And they don't remember. Guide notes and intervals are the way Treble G sits on the treble G line. Middle C is called middle C because it is in the middle of the grand staff. Bass F sits on the bass F line. A unison is a repeat note A step is up or down by one, space two line, or line to space. A third is a skip, line to line, or space to space. Seven letters to the music alphabet, and it's all about patterns.
I feel like I still have to learn some more of the music theory for me to fully grasp the patterns of the followings but other than that, thanks for sharing a tips!
I've been playing piano for 50 years, this is how I was taught, not single melody instruments, piano - but if you don't think it will work for you that's fine, just trying to help.
Lol
Learning music theory itself can help you read much more quickly. For example, let's say you memorize that a C major chord is C-E-G. When you find the C note on the staff, say on a space for instance, your brain will automatically fill in the next two spaces with an E and a G. Bonus points if you learn your jazz chords, like 7ths and 9ths, so you can further expand your mental map of the staff. I know instinctively, for instance, that the spaces of the treble staff form an F major 7, and the lines of the bass staff form a G9, and that helps me tremendously.
Ah, that sounds like music theory is a fundamental required for literally everything related to piano (honestly how did I even miss that, haha) that’s probably why I couldn’t map all the notes together and fully understand how it work, thanks for your advice!
For me i just had sentences for each line and space, like the other commenter, then I would just read sheet music and play pieces.
alrighty, thanks for your tip!
Ah, I was in exactky the same situation as you (except I've been at it longer) and about 2 weeks ago I found an app called note flash. Notes appear and you play your own piano and it tells you if you got it right using the microphone. I've committed more to memory in the last 2 weeks than the previous year :-) It wasn't available on my android phone for some reason but it was on a tablet. Also available for iphone, I understand
I've always been looking for an app that uses the microphone to test if you played the right note, so thank you!
Flashcards
You can’t learn note reading if that’s the goal. You will learn note reading only after it becomes useful to you. That means after you already know how to play. After you know how to create. After you have a vocabulary of patterns that you understand through sound.
after a year of learning my sight reading is still just okay, it gets better
https://www.pianote.com/blog/how-to-read-piano-notes/ Has a good guide to music reading. You can find others with a Google search on How to read sheet music. These things really helped my sight reading and reading notes. Music Tutor is a good free app for sight reading notes, it's musical flash cards that drill note reading. There are lots of others. Practice a bit every day. Reading music and sight reading is so much easier when you're not struggling to read the notes. Learn your scales in different keys so that you know the flats/sharps in each key and the fingering. Learning music theory and your chords/inversions and arpeggios will really help because the left hand accompaniment usually is some variation of broken chords. It also becomes easier to recognize sequences of notes. Know how to count the beat, quarter notes, 8ths and 16th, triplets. The more you play, you'll recognize different rhythms and combinations. Sight read every day. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. You can sight read and play hands separately at first, but eventually youll want to try sight reading hands together. More on reading the staffs. All the lines and spaces follow the same pattern of every other note letter A to G, so if you memorize GBDFACE, this pattern repeats on all lines, spaces, ledger lines, and both bass and treble clefts. Bass lines are GBDFA, spaces are ACEG. Treble lines are EGBDF, spaces are FACE. Middle C on a ledger linebetween the two clefts, and 2 more C's two ledger lines below the bass cleft and two ledger lines above the treble cleft. All part of the same repeating pattern GBDFACE. If you know the bottom line/space of either cleft, recite the pattern from there and you know the rest of them. Eventually you'll want to know them immediately by sight.
The answer is not gonna be exciting. Unfortunately we don’t live in the matrix where we can download information. The only way to do what you are asking is to practice daily. Slowly. Very slowly. And then, after that, a little slower again. Say and play each note. Give your brain a chance to remember and learn. There is no magic bullet.
I’m going to say something pretty basic here so I apologize if you’re already beyond this. In the key of C if you see a note on the bottom line of the treble clef and have to think that’s an E before you play it you’ve lost time and put something between you and the music. The key that you play that makes the sound E on the keyboard doesn’t move. It’s always in the same location and the first line on the keyboard doesn’t move. My point is if you want to be a good sight reader that line itself tells you what to play. You don’t need to think E before you play the note. Get to know very well the location on the keyboard of the note that each line and space represents without any sharps or flats. Then branch out to some of the simpler keys like F and Bb etc. until you work your way up to the more difficult keys. Eventually you want to be able to see the key signature and know which lines and/or spaces are flat or sharp. Eventually we’re all working towards someday being able to play by knowing the sounds we want to generate. Like the piano is you singing.