I've played piano almost all of my life. But I'm the type of person who can play just about anything by ear but when it comes to sightreading music for piano I'm terrible. The notes dont just pop in my head like they do when I am reading trumpet or tuba music. Whenever I'm reading music for a song I already know I find myself slipping away from the sheet music soon and just playing by ear. It sounds so much better if I could play just from sheet music but I just can't seem to do it. Does anyone have any advice?
2006-06-23 09:11:14 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music
K thanks everyone, I think I'll kinda combine some suggestions here by drawing a small graph will on the notes on the lines and spaces, and keep it next to my music. Then I'll just play stuff I've never heard before so it's impossible for me to play it by ear.
2006-06-23 12:56:49 · update #1
I had the same problem on guitar. I just had to keep sight reading until I got better at it. The main problem that I ran into was that, since I had been playing for so long, I would suck it up into body memory too quickly, so that I did not have to keep reading a piece over and over until I got it. Once I played a song, I barely had to look at the music anymore. The key was to have a large variety of music and go through it one after the other, before I had a chance to memorize anything. Use music that you are not familiar with so that you don't know what to expect next. Good luck. It is quite an undertaking.
2006-06-23 09:27:20 · answer #1 · answered by Oblivia 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
My brother was like that....nobody could ever help him. He'd struggle to read the notes the first time through, and then do it by ear from then on. I have the opposite problem, in that I simply cannot memorize music. I think our minds work in entirely different ways. I wish I had a suggestion for you. It's odd that you can sight read music for instruments other than the piano. Is it possible you're always playing familiar pieces on the piano? Maybe you need to work with some fairly simple, but unknown (to you) music until the reading becomes more natural to you.
2006-06-23 09:18:32 · answer #2 · answered by MOM KNOWS EVERYTHING 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
make a graph type thing of all the notes and write the correct letters for the notes on the correct lines.Whenever you look at sheet music, look at the graph to tell what note you must play.
2006-06-23 09:18:51 · answer #3 · answered by Nick 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
practice practice practice my friend.
2006-06-23 09:58:28 · answer #4 · answered by Tobin Green 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋