Reading music can be overwhelming. But often sheet music looks harder to play than it actually is because it combines the elements of music all at once. The written elements of music are rhythm, pitch, musical expression and the ‘map’. Learn about each element and it will make reading music much easier.
Reading music is easier when you know the basic elements of written music
Often subjects like mathematics or reading and writing are taught by starting simple and then getting more and more complex. There’s always a danger you’ll miss something and slip behind the rest of the class and never catch up. Written music is not like that. There are a limited number of variables within each musical element. Unlike other languages, they don’t change much over time.
Here is a list of the basic elements you need to know:
Rhythm:
Note and Rest values (there are only 8, eg. quarter note or crotchet)
Time signatures (there’s only about 9 commonly-used)
‘Modifyers’ (there’s really only ‘ties’ and ‘dots’)
Tempo (how fast or slow, speeding up/slowing down).
Pitch:
The Stave (lines, spaces, ledger lines)
Note names (A, B, C, D, E, F, G - that’s all there is!)
‘Modifyers’ (there’s only 5: sharp, flat, natural, double-sharp, double-flat)
Clefs (treble clef, bass clef, alto clef are most common)
Key signatures (15 different key signatures: from no sharps/flats to 7 sharps or flats)
Chord types (number of notes played together, and how far apart they are from each other).
Musical expression:
Dynamics (louds and softs)
Articulation (short and spiky (staccato) or smooth and dreamy (legato) for instance)
Phrasing (musical sentences)
General style directions (eg. “Moderate groove”).
Musical signs for ‘Directions’:
Repeat sign
Da Capo
Dal Segno
DS al Fine
Repeat Bar sign
Coda
More tips for reading music
Simplify
Simplify sheet music by reading the rhythm first. Clap it out so you can get the feel. Then read the pitch (melody and chords). Practice tricky chord shifts or melodic leaps before playing the whole song.
Each instrument brings its own challenges to reading music. For example, the flute usually has to read many ledger lines above the stave. Guitarists find certain key signatures more physically difficult than others. Singers find big leaps in the melody challenging. It just takes experience and practice to get used to these challenges.
I really wish I knew much earlier in my career as a musician, that there is a difference between what music is difficult to read versus what music is difficult to play.
Start slow
The quickest way to learn any piece of sheet music is to give your brain a chance to make all the necessary and correct connections. If you don’t give yourself enough time to absorb what you are reading, you will solidify any errors. You’ll then have to un-learn the mistakes and start again.
Look for patterns
Finding any patterns in the music that may be present in the rhythm will help your brain read quicker. Repetitive patterns in the melody and chords help you with the structure of the overall song (eg. Verse, Chorus).
Zoom in on the tricky bits first
It’s so tempting to stumble through the whole song, ignoring the mistakes. That is a sure way to feeling frustrated with your playing. Also, you’ll be cementing in the wrong notes. Instead, pull apart and analyse the most difficult-to-read notes first. That will remove that barrier to reading the piece of music fluently.
Think in the right key
Play or sing the scale that belongs to the key signature first. Play the main chord for that key signature, too. You can usually figure out whether it’s the major or minor version of the key signature by looking at the last note or chord of the song. Look at the key signature while you’re playing the scale. Look through the music to see if there are any key changes.
Feel the time signature
Check out the time signature. Count out a few bars in your head (e.g. “one-two-three, one-two-three” for a piece that’s in 3/4) so you can anticipate what the feel is going to be. In other words, get into the groove!
Figure out the musical ‘map’
Pop music is notorious for complicated maps! However, there are only about six essential symbols you need to learn, which are listed above. Then check through the whole piece. Are there any repeat signs? If so, where do they repeat back to? Do you need to jump to the coda at some stage? You might have to use a pencil to highlight the symbols so you don’t miss them.
Listen to a recording with the score
This is a powerful tool to help you read music: Sit down with the score (and a cup of coffee) and read through while listening to the piece. Even if the music looks too difficult, try to let your eyes skim across the music. Do this several times. You can go back and look closer at the difficult bits later.
Make sure you’re listening to great musicians. Imagine yourself playing the music. Get specific - imagine you’re actually playing the notes, even if the piece is super-difficult. This will program your brain to tell you, you can play it!
Practise silently
This is perhaps the most powerful way to not only help you improve your sight-reading, but also your playing or singing.
All you need to do is sit and read through the music and imagine what it sounds like.
This is great because you can do silent practice anywhere, even on the way to work on the bus or train.
Whether you have never before heard the piece, you’ve been working on it for a while, or you know exactly how it sounds, this will help with your reading and ear-training.
If you play by ear, learn to read rhythm first
Having taught rhythm exclusively in my music classes for a couple of years, I can now understand why musicians who play everything by ear have so much trouble reading music: their playing level, particularly their sense of rhythm, is way above their music-reading level! It’s like being able to recite long tracts of Shakespeare with ease while struggling to read The Cat in the Hat.
Why syncopation is important
Instinctive musicians who play by ear can play complex syncopation (playing against the regular beat) with ease. Yet the written version cannot be more complicated. This is true whether you are a singer, guitar player, keyboard player or drummer. Nearly every piece of popular music has syncopation no matter what the genre (country, pop, jazz, metal, rock…).
The opposite is true for musicians like myself (ie. from the classical world), who have to read just about everything and can’t even play Happy Birthday by ear!
If you're interested in learning more about rhythm and are just getting started, you can enroll in our free course You Got the Beat - Improve your sense of rhythm.
Then check out the big course:
You Got Rhythm! - a comprehensive course on rhythm
In the course, I cover all the above elements of music except for Pitch so you can focus on improving your rhythm.
The first section you learn how the note values work.
Students first learn how these note values (and their Rests) relate to each other. Then we practice together how to read, write and play all the notes.
Section Two we build on your knowledge of note values to learn and understand Time Signatures. You learn how they work and how they affect the ‘feel’ of the music.
In the Syncopation section, we teach you the tools to read the most complicated syncopated rhythms. We show you how to break it down so you can see clearly how to play it. This is all so you can ‘read it til you feel it’.
There’s a whole section on ‘Maps’ where you learn your way around sheet music things like: What to do when you see a Coda sign; What to do when you get to a Second Time Bar.
There’s even a section on Polyrhythms (‘easy once you know how’)!