Whats the best music reading software for newbies?

Pianorama · Post by **Pianorama** » 08-07-12 6:05 pm

I love Synthesia and use it a lot. And I am learning to read music with it. But I was wondering if there was something better for just learning to read music and nothing else. That is, I don't care if it helps you to learn songs. I just want to instantly be able to read music and know what keys to hit. Then I can use Synthesia to help learn songs more fluently.

I need help associating the keys with the notes/rests/ect....
I am a complete newbie and searching for keys is wasting my time.

And yes, I have the learning pack and all. But just need key/note drills without having to search all the time. Know what I mean?

Pianotehead · Post by **Pianotehead** » 08-07-12 7:53 pm

I sometimes use Notation Composer to practise my sight reading. However it has no interactivity like Synthesia, the rhythm mode - song keeps progressing at an adjustable speed, with a metronome of course. Don't know what kind of key and note drills you're after, but they're probably not hard to get and you can make them yourself as well. Hopefully the sheet music of Synthesia will get better, but it seems users would like to see other improvements first, according to the feature voting site.

jimhenry · Post by **jimhenry** » 08-07-12 8:16 pm

Maybe one of these sites will be helpful:

http://www.emusictheory.com/practice.html

http://www.musictheory.net/exercises

Pianorama · Post by **Pianorama** » 08-08-12 4:25 am

Pianotehead :

i was thinking something simple like having a big treble and bass clef with one note each (really large) and then then letter representing those notes (also large). And then have my keyboard key light up showing the two notes. The idea of the game would be to press them as quick as possible. And of course you could turn off the lights or lettering if you wanted.
But it should all be rather large.

Bruce Lee once said that thought slows action. The idea would be to get your muscle memory as fast as possible without searching endlessly for the right keys. Your hands should just go there, there should be no searching.

Pianotehead · Post by **Pianotehead** » 08-08-12 9:24 am

I see, that's more complicated. Lypur (http://www.youtube.com/user/lypur) says it's the key to good sight reading to read sheet music by intervals, rather than individual notes. Also to hear the intervals in your head, notice how they sound. You probably know all about Lypur, think I saw you on his piano chat site long time ago.

Edit: Maybe the key to intervalic reading is to memorize how each interval looks on the sheet music as a picture? For example a fifth has one space between the notes, a seventh two spaces and an eight (octave) has two spaces and a half space if you can call it that, when the upper note is on a line. But you have to see this as a picture, use visual memory. Maybe that's one way to be able to play quickly, without thinking much.

Here is Lypur's video on intervals, if anybody hasn't seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFQ0wpSU9_g

Pianorama · Post by **Pianorama** » 08-10-12 4:31 pm

Pianotehead:
I like that guys videos a lot. I'll see if he has more and watch them today.
But actually, I'm a little more of a newbie than that. It's not a matter of reading music better. It reading it at all. Being able to find the keys regardless of what all the other notation is saying.
I simple want a flash card for jeys. I think once I get that down the rest will come easy.

Pianotehead · Post by **Pianotehead** » 08-10-12 6:33 pm

Hi again, flash cards is the way to go. Made a small MIDI for interval practising, will post it in the MIDI club (that's the only place where you can attach them to posts.)

calixbrandt · Post by **calixbrandt** » 11-14-12 6:00 pm

Pianotehead,

Hi, I highly recommend Jalmus/Prestokeys for newbs and MidiIllustrator2 for advance users. Earmaster5 for learning rhythms/intervals/arpeggios/scales etc. However, these soft wares "WON'T" teach you to sight read notes in an "INSTANT" it of course requires "TEDIOUS" practice and understanding. But I can assure you that these soft wares won't disappoint you.

EDIT: One more thing, try to take lessons on chord progression on this web site http://chordmaps.com/ it'll greatly help your improvisational skills.