Can you read music? (Page 5 of 7)

I play alto sax and can read fairly well in G clef in second line. As my intrument transposes, I´m used to transpose too, for the alto sax is useful C clef in first line. I can read well F clef in four line. Not long ago I could read F in third as well as C in all the other lines (Third, Four and second line), though not as well as the other clefs. Now, due to lack of practice it coasts me a little more in these last ones.

In fact, as a saxophone player said: reading is easy, the difficult part is the music... if you understand what I mean.

Last edited by wandering genie (Sep 3, 2012 1:08 am)

oh god, this is a painful topic for me.  brings back a ton of very embarrassing memories (at least to me).

i basically can't sightread at any useful level.  i'm always shocked that in my various piano exams as a wee teen i scored anything above a 2/10 in the sightreading portions, because i'd take me forever to figure out the notes to play. 

i'm honestly amazed at those who can sightread and play a written score in real time because i have no idea how someone can go from reading a clump of notes -> assigning notes to the right fingers -> getting those fingers above the right keys -> not leading said fingers to a dead end that makes it nearly impossible to play the next clump of notes.

anyway yeah, i can read, but really slowly.  some days i feel i'd like to pursue a career in composing musical scores, but then i back out of that decision when i remember that committing notes to a musical staff is such a laborious and draining task for me.  that's really the biggest barrier as far as that's concerned.

i'm fortunate to be a musician that can assimilate and produce music by ear & feel.  i really don't think that will change, ever, unless i commit to, say, taking a course where i basically have to write traditional music for 24/7 for 4 months.  (ugh)

same. thankyou. hahaha.

sadly no.
I just hum melodies into my phone so I don't forget them...
boo for me.

And....@an0va -when's the new release, dude?!

Last edited by Falling For A Square (Sep 4, 2012 11:20 pm)

I play percussion/drum stuff, and can read that very well. On the melodic side, I can't sightread worth shit; whenever I need to play some melodic part I usually just memorize the thing.

ive struggled jamming with musicians who learnt music by sight reading.

not because they are bad musicians or anything but because it seemed like they could not really play anything unless it is note for note written out for them, or you tell them exactly what to play.

you cant just say ok this goes G# Fm and then there is a bit of Bm7 after a couple of bars and get them to jam along.

music theory is useful though. understanding how notes make chords and what notes fit together is pretty helpful, along with scales.

i did a bit of sight reading when i was having guitar lessons at school and college but i was never really into playing other peoples music.

i don't think this is an interesting thread at all

what do you get out of knowing whether people you kind of know from a forum are able to read music or not

sorry an0va