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Brighton/Southampton
Dr Treble wrote:
rasta_dan wrote:

i can read treble clef and bass clef well, and i can kinda read alto and tenor clef, but they're kinda useless...
i can't read drum music (and neither can i write it)

I've never even seen a tenor clef. mind bown.

Tenor clef looks exactly like an alto clef, but positioned on the next line up.
Middle C is on the "D" line (4th line of the stave)

Alto clef is very useful for viola players. It's rarely used otherwise though, and almost never in keyboard music.

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KC
HPizzle wrote:

yea, I started taking piano lessons two years ago. One of the best decisions i ever made with my life. it's like learning a second language. i still can't sight read very well unless its an easy song where your hands aren't moving too much, but if they're is a lot of movement i find myself having to look down at the keys, and then i lose my place on the sheet music. i usually just play a piece until i memorize it. My piano teacher is the complete opposite and it amazes me. Everyone is different i guess. also i'm glad decktonic posted the video of the ridiculous sight reader - that dude is my hero.

It's all about practice man, Im in a similar situation. My piano teacher can sight read like nothing Ive ever seen but she also has her masters degree in piano performance. so remember practice!

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Paso del Rey, Argentina

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)

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Paso del Rey, Argentina

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.

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vancouver, canada
an0va wrote:

SO, can you read?

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)

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vancouver, canada
Zan-zan-zawa-butt wrote:

im self taught and skipped the sheet music stage entirely

thank you for giving me hope in this area.

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orange county, CA
bryface wrote:
Zan-zan-zawa-butt wrote:

im self taught and skipped the sheet music stage entirely

thank you for giving me hope in this area.

same. thankyou. hahaha.

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AANABAY01

:B it matters what type of musician you want to be though

my stuff is fairly murky and nongenre... people find my music mysterious at best, repellent at worst... if you have ambitions to follow in the footsteps of your favourite musician then don't do it my way, haha, it would backfire like crazy.

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New York, NY

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)

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BK

I can, but I haven't written or read from traditional notation in a few years now. I should probably give it a shot again though.

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ohio gozaimasu

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.

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Brunswick, GA USA
Kris k wrote:

I can, but I haven't written or read from traditional notation in a few years now. I should probably give it a shot again though.

It's not something you forget. Sight reading can get weaker but that's about it.

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England

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.

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Jellica wrote:

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.

Being a good "on-the-page" musician has no real correlation to sucking at improvisation. I know tuba players who have a huge vocabulary for soloing in jazz, but most of them never get to jam because most jazz ensembles don't use tubas (unless it is a super-oldschool group) so the dudes just stick to classical literature. With improvisation it's a matter of knowing your instrument so well that you can make your own roads, not just follow the roads of others. It has very little to do with reading music. EDIT: Given, these guys may be creatively lacking, which is all too common right now with the musicians I am around hmm

This is an extremely interesting thread. I learned how to read music (sort of) thanks to Mario Paint, combined with piano lessons later.

Last edited by thebitman (Sep 5, 2012 2:16 pm)

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uhajdafdfdfa

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

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Brunswick, GA USA
ant1 wrote:

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

Since OP didn't want debate I considered simply posting my answer as "yes."