Free music reading tool

[wrinkleygit]

Noticed several posts along the same theme as how can I improve progress etc followed usually with the advice learn to read music which can unlock so many doors, from my own experience note recognition was the hardest part,trying to recite rhymes such as "good boys deserve free apples" while I gazed at all the tadpoles strung on the lines before me made learning to read a hideous ordeal.

This advice was passed on to me by a music teacher,its so simple I couldn't believe I hadn't come across it before, sit with your left hand on your lap,palm facing upwards with fingers pointing left to right, angle your thumb so it points in the same direction, you are now looking at the five lines of the music stave, write the notes GBDFA on the tips of your fingers (starting with your little finger if you don't already know) & every spare minute you have recite the notes in relation to your fingers,after a while you will soon memorise the note/line relationship, do the same with the notes using the spaces between your fingers & very quickly you will be able to look a note in a bar of music & know its name instantly.

Timing is another matter,but at least knowing the names of the notes has allowed me to make sense of some great books that are available only in standard notation, one I can recomend is " The Jazz Bass Book" by john goldsby , cheap as chips on amazon & you don't have to be jazzer or upright player to get some good stuff out of this, best of luck all, mike b.

[Blademan_98]

That's good advice!

I am just starting down the reading road.

Along with ear training.

Thanks for the tip

[lucatus]

Teacher suggested drawing a perpendicular line on the chart on all the notes that fall on the beat, it really simplifies things! I need to improve reading, too...

[ZMech]

Not a bad idea, although I've gone for a slight compromise. Have written it out on a small strip of paper, which is now stuck down the side of my computer monitor.