Unique Original Articles » Simple steps to learning to read music notes

I bet you didn’t know that many of the best Rock Musicians in the world today cannot read sheet music.

Hard to believe, but true. Today many singers and musicians can’t read music, havn’t ever read music, and probably won’t ever.

Therefore one could easily ask the question if its necessary at all to read music. Certainly for a Rock musician they can pick up nearly everything they need by ear and so why should they?

The purpose of this article is not to argue the rights and wrongs for a musician of reading music, it is just to share with you some insights as to why it is so difficult. If reading music is something that you’d really like to achieve, then hopefully this might give you a couple of things you can do to get there.

There is a multi-dimensional aspect to reading music, which is what makes it so difficult. What do I mean by that? well every musical event that is notated on a score involves two elements - its pitch (what note to play) and its duration (how long to play it for). Add to that the need to have an expression or an articulation on it, then a dynamic as well (how loud to play it). The musician not only needs to be able to see the note, know all those things about it, they then have to remember how to translate that into a sound using their instrument. We then ask the musician to read sometimes many of those notes at once.

Therefore reading music is definitely NOT something that is easy.

However there are a few tips that can help you if you are just starting out and you really do want to learn to read music.




Concentrate on the mechanics of your instrument first. You’ve got to have them down; remember where to find an “C”, a “D” or a D chord, depending on what instrument you are playing. Once you’ve got the mechanics down you can move onto reading it. You’ll be up for a huge challenge to learn everything at once!

The next step is to find some drills and games that will help you remember each aspect separately. Do some note drills and games that help you learn just the pitches, then move onto learning the rhythm values in a separate exercise. Don’t get a training program that doesn’t separate them into different activities.

Lastly take the time and work through a good music theory tutor, with a teacher if you can. Irrelevant as it may seem at first you’ll benefit from it in the end.

You’ll find that reading music is a journey that is really worth it if you do just those couple of things.


The Author, Kevin Tuck has worked for many years as a music teacher, and has taught music theory in schools as well as his private music studio. Kevin is now the main editor of Music Theory Worksheets for the Fun Music Company.

Kevin Tuck, the author of this article has worked for many years as a private and school music teacher, and has taught theory to a high level. Kevin is now the main editor of Music Theory Worksheets for the Fun Music Company.
Article Source: JS2 Article Spinner