Why you should learn to read music
Being able to read music is a requirement to speak the language, as it were.
Music is as much of a language as French or Spanish, all must learn before speaking.
Imagine a choir singing without a written score! Impossible. As far back as we can research, some sort of written notation existed to pass the singing of a generation to the next one, as well as teaching people to sing together.
Before even the greatest musician improvised, he knew where he could or could not go within the framework of his song.
It all comes down to if you cannot read; you cannot be with a group that reads. This leaves you as a performer left out of a large portion of musical performance venues.
It is impossible to follow anything but the most rudimentary knowledge of music theory without the written note. The theory of music is by necessity based on the written note. I know you say well, this is boring, but someday you will be so glad you started now.
You can learn music without hearing it first. How many times can you try to learn from a cd or from someone else and not know if you got it right? If you can read music you can go straight to the book and get all of the basic information on your own. Have you ever learned a song from someone else and not known if you got it right or got all of the information you need? Knowing music enables you to take a piece you have never heard before and make sense of it on your own.
Know the way the author of those songs meant for them to sound. This is a very intriquing aspect of reading music. It can open up new worlds when you read a song from the authors’ point of view, only to find all of the versions you ever heard did not include
the intro or coda or a repeat etc. In “Georgia On My Mind” by Hoagy Carmichael, for example, no ones plays the intro. The fact remains that just because you have heard it on the radio a million times does not mean it was written that way. It may be even better the way the author originally intended it! If you are involved in songwriting, I am sure you would want people to know the way you wrote it. Think about that for a moment.
Find new music you would never know otherwise. If you can read music you can open up a songbook and discover new worlds. I have found many songs this way that are favorites of mine now and if I did not read I certainly would never have found them.
Detect new music you would never know otherwise. It may seem a little hard at first, but so was riding a bicycle as I recall. In fact the first time my father let go from holding me on a bicycle I ran into a post and knocked it over! I rarely do that these days now that I have learned how. In fact there are days when I don’t knock anything over.
Learning to read music will make you a better musician. Are you prepared to discover new music, perform with people you might never have met otherwise, speak with authority about the origins and intent of a particular piece of music or composer? Learn to read music, you will not be sorry.
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