Tips

*Please note: this post contains affiliate links.

As discussed in an earlier post, written music is simply a shorthand for what you hear. Writing music down is an effective way to coordinate multiple musicians playing together, and learning to read music is a great way to expand the amount of music you can play.

Even if you aren’t a beginning player, it’s a good idea to start at the beginning when learning to read music. It can be easy to become overwhelmed if you don’t have a system to follow. Fortunately, if you are a string player, you have LOTS of good options for learning to read music.

I personally LOVE the “I Can Read Music” series, by Joanne Martin. Yes, it’s a Suzuki series rather than a non-classical one J but if it ain’t broke, right? These are available for violin, viola, and cello (and I’ve used the cello one with my bass players at school, to no long-term detriment or visible scarring).

Ed Sueta Rhythm Charts. I used these when I was in high school band, and I swear by them with my advanced students (who have completed the I Can Read Music books, around Book 4 or so). These go beyond what you’ll need for fiddle/folk and most pop/rock, but these two books will take you as far as you wish to go.

These are best used with a teacher, since it’s important to get feedback on whether or not you are doing it correctly! If cost is an issue, maybe you can trade favors with a musically literate friend. (I won’t recommend what you should offer in trade, of course – that’s for the two of you to work out.)

Don’t forget, the point of reading music is to speed up the learning process – it’s a shorthand for what you hear. I recommend that once you reach intermediate/advanced fluency in reading music, join an ensemble and put those new skills to use!

If you’re interested in learning more about music theory, stay tuned – I plan to cover that in a future blog post.

Would an audio/video course on music reading be helpful to anyone? I want to help you guys in any way I can! Let me know your biggest music reading stumbling blocks, and let’s see if we can help!

*Please note: this post contains affiliate links.

Even though I can read music fluently, I LOVE to learn new music by ear. There’s really no better way to get to the point of what something is supposed to sound like than to listen to it over and over.

Of course as a teacher, I force encourage all of my students both to learn to read music and to gain the skills to learn by ear. Only a small percentage of the population is truly tone deaf, so this is something that almost anyone can learn, regardless of age. And yes, there is such a thing as talent (albeit overrated) and some people will learn faster than others; but anyone can get better.

In lessons, the way I work on it with students is by playing “Hide and Seek for Notes.” Basically, they turn around so they can’t see me, I play a pitch on my instrument, and they have to find it on their instrument. When they are brand-new, I will often give them a hint like “this note is on your A string.” As they progress, I won’t give them any hints, or I will even give them a couple of notes in a row (especially if they’ve listened to the piece or tune ahead of time like they were assigned to… #teacherlife)

You can easily get this kind of practice for free with a friend, just take turns doing the “hiding” and “seeking.” Who says it’s just for the little ones? J You’ll be amazed at how much better you get after a while! (To that end, would a “Hide and Seek to Improve Your Aural Skills” audio/video course be helpful to people?)

Okay, on to the fun stuff – how do we learn from the masters? (Or the MacMasters, for that matter?)

Amazing Slow Downer

My favorite app for learning by ear is called. I love that it’s right on my phone and can import any song from my music library.

It works like any other music player, with a few key (read: awesome) differences:

• Pitch: This feature is not as useful if you’re trying to learn pitches as you hear them, but utterly fantastic if you’re trying to transpose!
• Speed: This is the gold, as far as I’m concerned. Slow the speed down as low as 25% of the original speed, or (just for kicks) up to 200%!
• Loop: Play the part you’re working on again and again until you’ve got it! (Or a specified number of times, at least).

YouTube

Okay, I love Amazing Slow Downer, but this feature of YouTube is my new favorite thing! OH my gosh – did you know that you can change the speed of YouTube videos without changing the pitch? Yeah, you guys probably knew that already, but I didn’t until just recently. This is SO helpful when learning by ear!

Just like in the ASD program, you can change the speed of the audio without changing the pitch. PLUS – the video slows down, and now you can see what a player is doing with their bow! Whoa, what a game changer!

All you have to do is:

1. Choose a video (like this amazing one of Liz Carroll tearing it up)
2. Click on the “Settings” gear in the lower right-hand corner
3. Click on “Speed,” and select how fast you want Liz to play. Yay!

Finally – trust the process. Celebrate the little wins. (I found that one note again! Yeah!) I love this article, which has some additional tips, and a lot of nice encouragement

Do you guys have other tools you like to use for learning by ear? Leave a comment and let us know!

Welcome to AltStrings: the Blog! (to be followed closely by “AltStrings: the T-shirt,” “AltStrings: the Coloring Book” and “AltStrings: the Flamethrower.”)

A constant (though fallible) measure of musicianship used by well-meaning family members around the world is their favorite musician’s ability to “just sit down and read any piece of music!” or “just sit down and play anything they heard on the radio!” Ever self-deprecating musicians describe themselves in these terms too, wishing they had greater skills in one or the other arena.

Cats vs. Dogs? Butter vs. Margarine? (Butter.) In today’s first-ever AltStrings blog post, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages to reading music vs. learning by ear.

Reading Music

Advantages:

1. You can learn a lot of music quickly!
2. Lots of people can agree on how the music is “supposed” to go. (This has its own issues in folk traditions, of course, but it can be very helpful in an ensemble setting.)

Disadvantages:

1. If you want to play a piece from memory that you’ve learned from the sheet music, you’re going to need to go through a separate memorization process. Otherwise, you’re “tied to the sheet!” (So to speak.) Fortunately, you will get faster at memorization over time (provided you continue to practice doing it over time, of course.)
2. Even though we can agree on pitch, rhythm and usually tempo based on sheet music, there’s a LOT that isn’t covered. Exactly how short is that staccato note? Where exactly are those ornaments placed? The point is that music is an aural art form, and written music can never show every inflection and expressive quality your favorite players are producing. Reading and writing music is an inexact science at best.

Learning Music by Ear

Advantages:

1. Once you’ve learned some music by ear, you’ve really learned it! No need to memorize it later. Yay!
2. As stated earlier – music is an aural art form. Eliminating the written middle man and focusing strictly on how you want it to sound can get you closer to an end product you’re happy with.

Disadvantages:

1. It can take a really, REALLY long time, especially if you’re brand-new to learning by ear. Fortunately, just like for memorization, you will get faster at this over time. But even if you are totally fluent in both, learning by ear will never be as fast as reading.
2. It can be really difficult to learn, especially without help! You can pick up a book to help you learn to read music, but that won’t work for learning by ear.

Of course, these two seemingly disparate techniques don’t have to exist in a vacuum, totally separate from each other. Most musicians will (or should, at least) use a combination of learning by ear and reading music. For example, if a string quartet member is expected to show up at a first rehearsal of a piece and be able to play it all the way through, they will definitely listen to the piece before rehearsal. They will even follow the score or their part along with the recording, making sure they know what their part is supposed to sound like, and how the parts fit together.

Heck, they might even practice it before they get there! Just kidding, we all know practicing is cheating.

(Just kidding again! Ack! Please don’t take my degree away!)

What do you guys think? Do you prefer to learn music by reading, by listening, or both? Do you wish you could improve your skills in one or the other? What have you tried, and what has or hasn’t worked for you? Leave a comment and let us know!