Writing Staff Notation

For many non-reading, ear-trained musicians, the best way to learn staff may not be to practice reading it. The best way to learn staff may be to practice writing it.…

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Reading Mixed Sharps and Flats

Classically-trained players are sometimes put-off because a piece of music or a chord chart has a mixture of sharps and flats. Of course, it’s bad form to randomly mix sharps…

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Staff Notation and Info Chunking

Let's apply Mr Rogers’ earlier question to reading staff notation. “What do you think about when you read staff notation?” What's the inner experience of reading music? The conventional description…

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Sight Reading Music

"Sight-reading" means reading a piece of sheet music that you have never seen before. It's an important skill in many professional settings, and in nearly all academic settings. Music competitions…

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A Systematic Approach to Reading Music

PDF: Instructions to set up note identification app at MusicTheory.Net The Musictheory.net note ID app works from their webpage. There's nothing to download or install. If reading is important to…

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Reading Staff Notation – Part 2

Staff notation reveals certain kinds of musical structures at a glance, because they form recognizable shapes on the staff. The convention of writing the key signature at the beginning of…

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