The most fun thing to do when learning piano is to pull out the piano bench, stretch out the limbs and let rip with a song you’ve previously learned, or a solo piece you’re familiar with. What’s not so much fun is staying on piano benches attempting to learn what all the lines and dots of music notation mean, and trying to read them as fast as possible. Often the music you’re trying to study will be thrown into a sheet music cabinet, not to be considered until motivation happens to strike again. Is learning to read music all that important? Wouldn’t it just be better to focus on the areas of playing that is fun and simple?
The answer to that is an emphatic “No”. In order to become a well-rounded player, the difficult aspects of music will have to be studied along with the easy parts. But in saying that, I’m misrepresenting the actuality of studying music. The fact is that all aspects of musical study can be fun, and as you grow more and more skilled in reading music notation, you’ll find yourself enjoying the experience.
The basics of reading music are pretty simple. The difficulty, of course, is learning to understand these symbols well enough so that it becomes second nature.
If you’ve figured to start practicing to read notation, make sure that you do it consistently. Don’t just shove in as much study as you can while your motivated and then dismiss it all until the urge to learn again comes back. It’s more effective to practice reading notation for ten










