by Jessica A. Tucker

Created on: October 15, 2009

Like learning anything new, learning to read the musical alphabet is much the same. With the will to learn, the patience to try and the determination to follow through, learning to read music is not that difficult. Of course, not everyone learns the same or wants to learn, which may make it seem that learning to read music is hard to do.

Some easily pick up how to read music on their own by way of theory books, instructional websites, learning manuals, or one of the many other self guided learning courses offered these days. The good old fashion piano teacher has to be the best choice though, especially for students requiring more structure and face to face instruction than a self taught program may offer. Most piano teaches are registered with the

Royal Conservatory of Music and teach techniques and theory registered with the Conservatory. If you are planning a career involving your musical training, a teacher of this sort will be most beneficial to you. The best and easiest choice for which type of musical learning will work best for you depends wholly on your individual preference.

One of the best tricks to help children (and the big kids at heart) find it easier learning to read music is to find rhymes or easily remembered sentences to match the notes, scales or sets on each the bass and treble staffs to use as memory tricks. Once the basics of this new language are understood the student then moves on to the more complicated theory of it all. The notes and theory soon start to make more sense as the two seem so correlated. To be able to sit looking over, what to some might seem as six sheets of scrambled scribbles, and hear a symphony roar in your mind with not a sound in the air, is a magical experience. Once you learn to unscramble the scribbles, notes of different lengths, slurs, rests, fortes and codas unravel themselves to create a beautiful piece of music to express this beautiful form or art.

So, is it hard to learn to how to read music? No, but yes it can be. A child that may not be interested in learning to read music will guaranteed make if extremely hard, if not impossible to learn. On the other hand, an older child or adult with the interest to learn this new skill should not find it difficult at all. As a child pushed through many years of piano and music theory lessons, I thought it painstakingly difficult at the time. After the hours spent learning this language with fingertips hard on the keys, whether it really was or was not difficult, I am so thankful for the lifelong skill I learned.

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