Question: I have a student who has taken almost 10 years of piano with me and claims that she can’t read notes. She is a junior in high school and she starts working on her June recital pieces in September. It takes her the entire nine months to learn them. I have tried everything. She depends on her ear, plus I write in a lot of notes for her. Do you have any suggestions as to how I can make the process of reading notes easier for her. She does not “get it.”
Note Reading Reluctance
One of the most frustrating things a piano teacher can be faced with is what I call “The Reluctant Reader”. We’ve all had them….those piano students who insist on memorizing the piece without first learning it properly; the piano students who make slow to no progress; the piano students who turn around and immediately forget a piece they’ve worked on for seven months after just two weeks holidays away from the piano. We’ve all done our best to correct their bad habits during their piano lessons, and we’ve endured months of slow progress when our efforts fall flat. But…suffer no more!
7 strategies for ridding your studio of Reluctant Note Readers:
1) Eliminate the obvious first – I’ve been completely stumped by more than one student to then later figure out they had a vision issue. If you have a young piano student who is seemingly uninterested in learning to read music at all, look for clues that a vision issue is afoot. If you have any doubts, suggest a vision screening test to their parents. You’ll do them a favour in so many other areas of their life as well! Along this same vein – children with dyslexia also often find note reading next to impossible. Encourage dialogue with your student as to why they don’t like to look at their music to help you uncover any possible non-music related issues.
2) Change the way you approach new pieces – You want your students’ sheet music to be valuable to them rather than completely expendable. Students who favour memorization over reading are essentially telling you that their sheet music means nothing to them. When learning a new piece, you should be spending significant amounts of time with the sheet music before your students fingers even touch the keys. Which brings me to number 3.
3) Grab a highlighter – take the time to “chunk up” the piece with your student. Identify patterns, sequences and repeated sections. Make each their own colour so your student can easily look at their music and say “Oh..there’s the pink part again.” To some piano students a full page of sheet music can seem as difficult to decipher as a foreign newspaper. Show them how the piece was constructed, break it into sections and give them the opportunity to discover that piano pieces are not made up of single notes but rather measures of musical ideas. Make their page colourful and user-friendly.
4) Avoid writing in note names at all costs – okay you can sometimes… but really try to avoid falling back on this crutch. When you or I play piano we are not thinking “DGABCDGG”. We are thinking in terms of note direction and intervals. Instead of writing note names or finger numbers on your students page, use markings to show steps, skips, the direction of, and the distances between notes in the places that your student needs extra help. This kind of reading will be more efficient for your student and they’ll be more likely to watch their music while they play (and in turn their note reading will drastically improve).
5) Watch your levelling – these students should not be playing pieces above the level where they can comfortably read. Avoid falling into the trap of assigning repertoire based on what they can play by ear and memorize. Some students become so proficient at this way of playing (as a way of coping) that their note reading is miles behind where their playing skills are. There is lots of repertoire out there that sounds fantastic but is at an approachable level for struggling readers. The more you reinforce the “memorize-first” way of learning a piece, the harder it will be to encourage reading.
6) Make theory immediately relevant – I’m a big proponent of learning theory in context and I’m not a big fan of separate theory book assignments. Use the pieces they are currently working on as the way to teach theory in your lessons. Base your theory lessons around what each of their pieces offers. Use their page to teach theory concepts. Show them the “why” behind their music.
A great way to bring relevance to theory is through game-based learning. Our PianoGameClub.com games makes this easy by supplying you with 4 brand new games every month! Check it out and find out how $8 a month can completely transform the way you teach.
7) Vary their repertoire – frequently! Most people will stop paying attention to something they have seen over and over again. Pieces that sit on a piano for months on end do nothing for a students’ note-reading abilities. Change up their repertoire and get them reading new music all of the time. Students learn by doing. If you want them to learn to improve their music reading they will need to read music… lots of it! For some this may mean letting go of polishing pieces for performances for a short while while you focus on bringing their note reading skills up to par.
Note Reading Issues ‘No More’
Note reading reluctance in your piano students can be a thing of the past. By adjusting your approach you can take the mystery out of reading notation and give your piano students the tools they need to be successful musicians. Out with the Reluctant Readers and in with the students who “get it”! 🙂
Grace Miles says
Great article– I agree with what you said.
I don’t let my students write in the note names and I always explain ‘why’ I tell them to do this or that.
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Hope Noar says
Thanks. I will try this. But I still need to write in some note names. I once had a student who made me write in all the note names or she would do it. One day, she stopped writing them in, and she became one of my best students ever. So sometimes it works in their favor. I also have an Aspergers student who will not play unless I write the notes in. She has become more proficient at the piano now and loves it. I think it is a crutch for her, because she is too lazy to figure them out. But she is loving the piano more and doing better. Each student is unique and you have to try what works, but I like your advice for my 11th grader. I will try it at her next lesson. I have a special new piece for her from the Hunger Games and I will try the new approach. And I agree with you that she has some sort of learning disability. Thanks for your help.
Chris Moos says
Thanks. I especially like #3. Don’t underestimate a student’s problems with rhythm. I use an out-of-print sight-reading book designed for guitarists [notoriously bad readers]. I call it the Torture Book. You can make your own exercises. Same note over and over [1st line E fits neatly on the staff] with different and recurring rhythmic combinations.
When you assign Hanon exercises, do you notice that some students look up in the middle of the piece and wonder where they are? They are not ‘tracking’ the music. I’m never sure what to do to get them to follow the music on the page. [‘Up here! Everything you need is up here!’]
Mary says
I too have students who despite review after review of note names just can’t “get it”. I have resorted, instead of writing in note names all over to use a system of shapes to denote intervals-3rds are red circles, 4ths, green triangles, 5ths blue rectangles, etc. drawn in colored pencil. That seems to help with interval recognition-as they get more proficient, the colors are lessened to only a few “choice” distances in their music and finally, and hopefully, they can rely on their reading ability to help them read the music.
Sandra says
At the other end of the spectrum we have the proficient sight readers who depend on the visual cues, and find memory work difficult. I suspect they are over-dependent on the optical input and less tuned in to aural skills. …When the student in question is a transfer student, and already working at a Grade 8 level, this becomes a daunting issue to address without alienating an already recalcitrant teenager.
keiko1981 says
Any suggestions for those with very poor eyesight? I’m very nearsighted since birth.
In secondary high school I took two years of piano lessons and three of notation reading. That’s everything I had a chance to learn.
My problem is the that the piano scores are so small, and I end up straining my neck much.
I have never learned to play by ear.
Melinda says
I know many musicians who will copy their music at a large size. It may cost a little extra money, but it’s worth it to see your music!
Ashley says
Hi Keiko1981,
I know that you posted your question 2 years ago, but if my answer doesn’t get to you, maybe it can help someone else in a similar situation.
There are numerous sheet music apps available now for tablets that allow you to zoom in on the music. A bunch of them also use a Bluetooth page-turner, so you aren’t having to take your hands off the keys and hit the screen every few notes.
Jennifer Bartram says
I have a student who struggles playing the correct note, but when I point to the note on the page he almost always gets it right. Basically, he can tell me what the note is, but when it comes to playing the note he gets confused. The teacher before him wrote in ALL the notes and fingering so I am having to re-teach him since he has been relying on the “cheats”. I write in some notes but not near as many as his previous teacher. Why can he read the music, but not play it? Thanks for any advice!
Melinda says
I have this too, but the opposite. He knows where the names are on the keyboard, but not on the staff. I’ve decided to make up games that match staff note to keyboard position. I made some up with small plastic Easter eggs in 3 levels. Level one has a letter name on the top part of the egg and the bottom has a small keyboard (either a two black key group or a the black key group) with a dot on one of the white keys. Level two is the same, except there is a note on the staff to match to the keyboard. Level three, I drew a long keyboard on the bottom and labeled middle C, so they have to identify the actual keyboard note based on the clef and staff position of the note on the staff. Even my proficient readers thought level three was a bit tricky!
Robin Maples says
I do this with large size legos for boys.
Bobbie says
This reminds me of a couple students that I have who have trouble “tracking”, that is—they lose track of following the notes. It is a pretty big deterent for their reading skills that I’ve yet to solve.
Abby says
Just a suggestion I am finding useful in helping my beginner students to ‘track’ the music – is to start a piece which mostly holds the same hand position throughout, and actually cover their hands with a book/paper while they attempt it. It leaves them no option but to watch the sheet music and ‘feel’ the direction of the music etc.
Janet says
I use animal pencil toppers and flashcards which show the entire grand staff, not just the treble or bass clef. First they identify the three Cs (middle, bass and treble) and place an animal on each key. Then I put up each flashcard in between the correct Cs to help them understand which octave each of the notes falls in to. This way they understand that each position on the clef only has one key on the keyboard. Animals also jump around the piano to find the correct interval. This teaches note reading as well as intervalic reading relative to each of the Cs. Works like a charm!
Heather Lutterman says
That’s a great idea! I will try this with my students today!
Marc Mangino says
I’ve had great success with using all these techniques above but most of all sightreading. Take a few days to find or create sightreading excerpts appropriate to each level and assign these often. I use transposing and interval training with this as their daily vitamins. Life gets a wholeeeee lot easier in no time!!! Good luck.
Vivian says
I have an issue reading the base notes. I played violin for 3 years in high school. I have taken piano lessons 3 times (different teachers in different states). Each seems to think my violin has put my treble reading faster than the base so I have trouble reading the base and staying in rhythm. Do you have a recommendation for this condition? By the way, I’m 73 years old and I still want to learn to play!!