Occasionally
a singing student asks me why they should bother to learn to read music. Certainly, if they are preparing to study music in college, they will be entirely
lost if they do not know the fundamentals before they begin their courses. Outside of the realm of academia, these skills are also very important, not only to function in the
profession, but to engage in high level amateur musical pursuits.
Music literacy assists:
1)
The ability to learn music accurately and independently
2)
The ability to learn music efficiently and independently
3)
The ability to communicate musical content to other musicians without an
intermediary.
4)
The ability to perform (and rehearse) music confidently as well as the ability
to make changes on the fly.
5)
Your aural skill. Yes, reading music makes your ear better. MUCH better. Interestingly better your ear, the
easier it is to learn sight singing AND the more you sight sing, the better
your ear gets. It really works both ways. Some say that musicians that read do not have as developed a musical memory as those who learn by ear. I believe
that the rote learning (learning by repetition) that illiterate musicians
must do, itself, aids in memorization. When reading musicians repeat an equal number of times, memorization occurs as well but so does musical accuracy.
Learning
by rote can hurt your voice and it can also interfere with developing a good technique.
Learning by rote (or singing in amateur choirs or ensembles that teach
and rehearse by rote including some bands) requires repetition that wears your
voice out, ingrains tensions, bad habits and the mannerisms of the singers you
are mimicking.
If you
have memorized music from a recording and are singing based on your memory,
your focus is divided between your memory of someone else’s performance and
your attention in the present to the task at hand.
If you
have memorized music from a recording and are singing based on your memory,
your focus is divided between your memory of someone else’s performance and
your attention in the present. to the task at hand.
Learning
to sight-sing or learning music fundamentals including music literacy, should
not be a daunting experience. As a teacher, all I expect from a student is to
learn little by little, getting a bit more proficient each time.
The
frequently asked questions (or occasionally asked ones):
1)
What is music literacy?
The ability to read music
notation
2)
What is contained in music notation?
Music
notation contains the basic information of pitch and duration, with some
direction, although most notated music contains phrase markings, dynamic
markings and other interpretive direction, it does not contain information concerning the finer points of style. A feeling for musical style is developed by analyzing the performances of
fine examples of each particular musical style.
3) If
__XXX_ (insert name of famous singer/musician) does not read
music why do I have to?
Some
things to consider:
a) Did XXX have the resources of an entire movie studio or
record company and unlimited funds to compensate for their lack of musicianship
skills? If you do not have unlimited funds and need to approach quantity of
music literature at a level at a high level of quality in order to generate an
income, you should develop professional level musicianship skills.
b)
Is it true that famous musician/ singer XXX really does not read music or are
you simply believing an urban legend? The frequently repeated statement that Pavarotti
could not read music was the result of a something said by a former manager and
then misstated and misunderstood by others.
Pavarotti’s
manager said he could not read orchestral scores (which requires reading
specific clefs for cello’s, string bass, etc. and transpositions for
brass instruments, a HIGHLY complex thing). Pavarotti could read and learn
music from piano vocal scores just like all opera singers , that is what his
co-stars/ accompanists and conductors have told me. That is right ,and
guess what?: with almost no exceptions ALL OPERA SINGERS read music. All
professional opera singers I have ever met and heard of are musically
literate!!!! ALL OF THEM!!! YEP. 100%. They might not be excellent sight
singers, but they can take their piano vocal scores home and learn all the
basic notes in advance of their coaching sessions where polishing and minor
corrections occur. Many of the top and most respected rock musicians also
read music. Yes they do, even the ones who wear funny hats and glasses
like Elton John. Even weirdo’s like Frank Zappa who, I believe had a doctorate
in music, even Barry Manilow, who went to Julliard, even hot chicks like Pat
Benetar, Even all of those famous bad boy British rockers who claim they don’t
read music but were British choir boys for many years in their youth
READING music in their choirs. Maybe they are claiming they don’t read music to
keep the competition out of the way or to feed the PR of their magical,
amazing, unexplainable music abilities alive in their fans, the same reason why
many well-known vocalists make singing teachers sign confidentiality agreements
before studying with them. I make it a policy to never disclose who has studied
with me without permission but charge triple scale for lessons if I am asked to
sign one, believe me the issue comes up all the time.
Because
I have spent my life endeavoring in music, most of the people I personally know
are musicians. I would say over 90% of the musicians I personally know who
derive all or a significant portion of their income from music
(including, for example a bass player with a top Van Halen Tribute band amongst
others, so I am not talking about “classical musicians”) are musically literate
or have an extraordinarily strong understanding of jazz harmony and theory (the
complex system of chords, modes and scales). If you aspire to be a professional
musician, and nobody you know personally reads music or knows a significant amount
of theory on top of the basic fundamentals, you are definitely hanging with the
wrong crowd.
So
the next time a person with a day job that he/she hates tell you, an
aspiring pro, that you don’t need to read and/or understand music don’t
take advice from them. If you hear a superstar entertainer say that they
don’t read music or need to read it, make sure that your financial resources
and you musical perception resources is on the level of that super star. They
might not have to read music (or have a good working understanding of
music fundamentals and theory) but it might possibly be the case that YOU just
might have to, in order to function in the profession.
c.
The few musicians who operate on a high level who are not literate are musical
geniuses (or near-geniuses) and have incredible ears. Don’t confuse having an ear good
enough to be a musician (and not a “civilian”) with being a genius.
Some signs that you may be a musical genius Signs include but are not limited to:
I
You sing perfectly in tune, almost all the time II You play a large number of
musical instruments proficiently III You can hear a song once and then sing
(and probably play it, not just the melody but all of the parts on all of the
many instruments you, as a possible musical genius, probably play) it with
great accuracy after one single hearing, and doing so is so easy that you can
do it under pressure. (No BS excuses such as, I can do it when no one is
watching me).
* If
you think you are a musical genius you can test this idea through a variety of
tests including the most famous one, The Seashore test which tests : discrimination of pitches,
dissonance, rhythmical figures, and intensity; as well as an ability to remember
melodies and The Karma Music Test
is
designed to measure auditory structuring in a way that it should minimize the
effects of training and/or culture.
Just
as an IQ test determines whether someone has extraordinary intelligence, there
are objective tests that determine whether someone has extraordinary musical
perception abilities.
Don’t
be discouraged if you are not a musical genius. You don’t have to be one to be
a highly skilled professional musician. Most professional musicians are people
who started out with some natural ability and then developed those skills to a
point where they are marketable skills. Most professional musicians are
talented mortals.
While
it takes savant-like abilities to memorize an entire book (that someone else
reads to you), almost anyone can learn to read a book. If you only have
to deal with one or two (or ten) pages of a book, most people who can’t read,
can learn to memorize those pages, just as people who have a developed music
hobby can learn a dozen songs by ear and or’ with the help of a coach. People
involved in music for their own enjoyment can get away without music literacy
skills. But if you need to “learn the whole book”, or need to constantly
learn new music, as professional singers do, you need literacy skills.
4)
Will learning musicianship skills interfere with my creativity?
No,
most literate musicians who write music, create or “hear” music in
their musical imaginations, and after use their musicianship skills to
accurately communicate what they hear in their heads to other musicians. It
serves self-expression, because you are not dependent upon others to read your
mind or arrange their own parts in YOUR creations. You create more of the
content of your own music, when you have the needed skills.
5)
Am I too young/ too old to learn?
Too
young? Probably not, many of my musician friends report to me that they read
music before they read English.
Too
old? Not in my view, as I have witnessed many people acquire professional-level
musicianship skills / music literacy well into middle age. Acquiring
these skills is a process. Once you do the basic work, every hour your
practice on your instrument (voice) not only helps you learn the piece at hand
but increases and re-enforces your music skills
6)
Can I just learn an instrument and will that suffice?
Probably
not. Learning an instrument will help, but all instrumentalists must learn to
sight sing, because that is how you connect what you see on the page with the
sound you hear in your mind. All musicians are required to train in sight
singing classes (sight SINGING) because it is possible to learn to push
buttons on an instrument without hearing it in your ear. The only way to
determine what a musician is actually hearing in their brain is to hear them singing
it, because the brain is generating the pitch and the voice is communicating
that information.
7)I
don’t want to learn how to read and understand music will you still work with
me?
I do
work as a coach/ repetiteur and technical teacher on many different bases with
singers, actors, dancers and performers of many kinds according to their needs.
When
I was teaching in university music departments most singers that had access to
my instruction had some basic skills and were also required to e developing
them. Although a vey strongly feel that music literacy is vital, in
my private practice I am willing to assist singers any way that they think will
help them best, but with the understanding that they are following their own
advice and not mine.
Consider
the adage: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish
and you feed him for a lifetime. As a teacher if I spoon-feed the notes, I am
teaching a student to sing particular song. When I teach a student music
literacy, I am teaching them how to learn any song, accurately on their own.
Just
as an IQ test determines whether someone has extraordinary intelligence, there
are objective tests that determine whether someone has extraordinary musical
perception abilities.
Don’t
be discouraged if you are not a musical genius. You don’t have to be one to be
a highly skilled professional musician. Most professional musicians are people
who started out with some natural ability and then developed those skills to a
point where they are marketable skills. Most professional musicians are
talented mortals.
While
it takes savant-link abilities to memorize an entire book (that someone else
reads to you), almost anyone can learn to read a book. If you only have
to deal with one or two (or ten) pages of a book, most people who can’t read,
can learn to memorize those pages, just as people who have a developed music
hobby can learn a dozen songs by ear and or’ with the help of a coach. People
involved in music for their own enjoyment can get away without music literacy
skills. But if you need to “learn the whole book”, or need to constantly
learn new music, as professional singers do, you need literacy skills.
