can you read music? did you teach yourself?

hey there. been playing for a long time but with lots of gaps. i think i have some good knowledge but i cant read music and i want to. really just for personal enjoyment...
im getting ready to head to the library and i know there are resources o line but i would like some input.
a lot of things i see online turn out being things like wiki how and imo, that sucks.

what kinds of things did you do to learn?

again, this is just for personal gain. im not going to be sight reading bach or vivaldi

thanks

a reply to: CardiffGiant

Learning to read music should be easy for you if you have improve skills already, which it sounds like you already do! I was the opposite, I could read music as fluently as an avid book reader can read. Improv though was impossible for me to do.

There are many music books that are out there that you can purchase.

I would recommend getting a progressive learning one! Starts out easy and progresses into hard difficulty. Also a beginners book to get you familiar with reading music!

Enjoy your journey and don't get discouraged if reading music isn't your thing. You just may have the talent for improvisation, if that's the case I envy you!

originally posted by: CardiffGiant
hey there. been playing for a long time but with lots of gaps. i think i have some good knowledge but i cant read music and i want to. really just for personal enjoyment...
im getting ready to head to the library and i know there are resources o line but i would like some input.
a lot of things i see online turn out being things like wiki how and imo, that sucks.

what kinds of things did you do to learn?

again, this is just for personal gain. im not going to be sight reading bach or vivaldi

thanks

Yes I can read music. Treble clef for sax and flute. It took a couple of days of intense practice but good enough to get me in the high school band. I learned that when the musical passages move to fast...improvise.

Learn the pentatonic scale for your chosen instrument; it works in many applications!!

a reply to: CardiffGiant

I taught myself how to play piano, I'm not sure what instrument your looking to play,but I taught myself to read sheet music along the way. I used a very old method called the Pointer system. It teaches you right off how to play both treble and bass at the same time. I still have the books. There is a whole series of them. By the time I got done I was playing Waltzes. good luck

a reply to: seeker1963

I went from grade 4 to grade 0 in ten years, so once you get it dont lose it!!

I regret letting it slip now im old and bored

originally posted by: Biigs
a reply to: seeker1963

I went from grade 4 to grade 0 in ten years, so once you get it dont lose it!!

I regret letting it slip now im old and bored

Haha! Your right! However you do lose your chops! Well, I am speaking for brass players of course......

a reply to: seeker1963

I had a bit of wind

Cheap joke sorry about that, mine was a clarinet.

thanks for the replies. let me say that the library is not what it used to be. seems like it is a computer/dvd hub now.

it is not like i remember it. the pickings are thin. kind of a bummer.

seems like now people go to the library to jump on free wifi and check facebook. its a major drag.

i got a few cool books today but not the ones i thought.

i got a real cool book on classical music, one on instruments of the world and one called 'this is your brain on music'... that last one seems real cool. looking at music from a neuroscience point of view.
why do we like this and not like that??
cool stuff.

I stepped in to play guitar with the jazz band in high school. The first thing the band director asked was if I knew how to read charts. I said "Oh, yeah...sure...like walking the dog." I knew jack.
I studied and practiced until my brain had stretch marks.
Somehow I pulled it off.
Jazz leaves a lot of room for improvisation. Know you pentatonic scales and train your ear. When in doubt play chromatic or bend a string until it lands on a rest tone. Be fearless.
I can read fairly well now. Practice makes perfect, or at least a reasonable facsimile.

I just recently took a course at Coursera.org called Fundamentals of Music Theory. It was pretty decent, and free... www.coursera.org...

It's mostly videos with some documents as well...

originally posted by: CrikeyMagnet
I just recently took a course at Coursera.org called Fundamentals of Music Theory. It was pretty decent, and free... www.coursera.org...

It's mostly videos with some documents as well...

thanks a lot for that. gonna check it out