DU musicians: Do you read sheet music?

[Kathleen04]

Poll question: DU musicians: Do you read sheet music?

:headbang:

[progmom]

1. yup.

:hi:

[Kathleen04]

2. Hey progmom

:hi:

What instrument do you play? :)

[progmom]

4. a few, but none well anymore

saxophone, flute, piano...and i can noodle around on percussion and guitars/basses.

[Kathleen04]

7. Cool--

I always start and stop. Piano, clarinet, and guitar. Someday I'll pick the piano and guitar back up again. :)

[Seabiscuit]

3. Other:

I play most of my music from sheet music, but I also play by ear.

[trackfan]

5. Same for me.

[jpgray]

6. What do you mean by "read"?

As in being able to sight-read something and play it, or just knowing what the bars and dots mean?

[walldude]

8. Exactly.. I can read music but I can't sight read

it's not really a necessity for a blues guitarist...

[billyskank]

16. No, I'm sure sightreading is not required

I always found sightreading on the piano extremely difficult. Trying to follow two lines of music at once is a great challenge, so on the piano I always learned the sheet music by heart and played it back that way. On the clarinet I can do a little better.

[Kathleen04]

10. Sight-read and play

Just knowing what the bars and dots mean I'd put under option 3.

[jpgray]

I can sight-read perfectly well, but I generally don't use sheet music

So I fit in nowhere in your poll. :cry:

:D

[Kathleen04]

22. Other is a special option!

Just for you, my friend. :)

Actually, I think that'd also fit under three. You have the ability to read sheet music but generally don't when playing.

[silvermachine]

28. The way I do it is...

...I hop on my white bicycle, ask Colonel Brown for directions, have my own little revolution, shed a tear or two for Grocer Jack, clear my mind of hallucinations, sort out about 10,000 words in a cardboard box, and then, in a twink, I read the music.:evilgrin:

[jpgray]

30. Hehehehe

Meet you at Claremont Lake. :thumbsup:

[silvermachine]

38. OK...

...but if it's too crowded then I recommend you contact me care of cell 44 at Beechwood Park where I can pick a rose for Emily, light brief candles, and try to avoid getting hung up on a dream with friends of mine at this time of the season.:toast:

[jpgray]

41. Give me a minute while I try to string SF Sorrow song titles together

:dunce:

I always thought it was neat that the Zombies' two main songwriters had synonymous surnames.

[Blue-Jay]

9. Yes, but I play by ear equally as well.

Depends on what type of music and the setting.

[Misunderestimator]

11. Yes, read and sight-read...

since I was about five. :hi:

[eyepaddle]

12. I went with other,

I learned bass clef playing trombone--but I haven't touched that for more than twenty years so I've pretty much completely forgotten. Treble clef, well, I can puzzle it out and eventually get it but I can't sight read for guitar.

[Rising Phoenix]

13. Ernie Gives Bert Dead Frogs and FACE

thats how I learned the notes

[progmom]

17. ha ha - i heard Every Good Boy Does Fine

or Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

[billyskank]

20. Every Good Boy Deserves a Friend

is another on for the notes on the lines, or Good Boys Deserve a Friend Always for the line notes in the bass clef.

Also, for the order of accidentals in sharp key signatures: Father Christmas Gave Dad an Electric Blanket, and for flat key signatures, But Every Afternoon Dad Gets Cold Feet.

:)

[tonkatoy57]

42. I Must Have Gone to A Weirder School

For the circle of 5th my teacher taught me"
Fat Cats Grow Dizzy After Eating Barbituates

[billyskank]

45. LOL!

:D

[jpgray]

23. I started out in bass clef with the cello

For us the main mnemonic was "the g-string is on the bottom." :D

[XNASA]

26. Every Good Boy Deserves Favor

And it's still my personal motto to this day.

[Kat45]

55. In school, we learned Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, and

Every Good Boy Deserves Favor.

With FACE for the spaces.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. Yes, but

I wish I could improv better...

[WeRQ4U]

15. Sho Nuff.

I took piano lessons from 3rd grade until I was 17. I still suck, but I can sight read music and play.

I also played percussion for quite some time. Haven't sat at a trap for at least 4 years though. Oh how I miss it.

[Gothic Sponge]

18. No, only guitar tabs

[walldude]

35. Tabs rock..

it's how I learned how to play. But back in those days tabs were not so easy to get ahold of. Now you can find tabs for almost every song ever written on the net...

[jpgray]

40. Tabs can be rough if you've never heard the song

Though as a guitar teacher I've made up "super tabs" that have rhythmic notation. Still, they are helpful for fingering information.

[kiraboo]

19. Classical piano. I can improvise in a pop-ish way but I'm really

not comfortable doing it.

[tridim]

21. I can only read and play violin/mandolin sheet music

because that's all I learned formally. I can certainly read piano and guitar sheet music, but I have to hunt for the right notes. IOW, I know the note is an 'A#', but I don't instantly know where it is on the fret board.

[ghostsofgiants]

24. I can read it, but I don't very often

[XNASA]

25. Only if it's in C.

I can read a chord chart, no problem....but it's actually easier for me to just start playing off of the top of my head.

[billyskank]

31. On the piano, C is actually quite a hard key to play in.

True blue. Black notes are useful for getting your fingers underneath each other!

[jpgray]

33. My favorite key for piano is Eb

That feels so good to play in.

[billyskank]

37. Yup, three flats. Nice compromise.

Most of Joplin's rags are in three or four flats. Probably because it makes it easier for the stomping left hand.

[jpgray]

47. I had a stereotypical German music teacher

Who told me the three flats (bs) in Eb were for Brahms, Beethoven and Bach. :eyes:

:D

[XNASA]

34. It may be a little tougher to play.....

But it's a hell of a lot easier to read.

[trackfan]

39. Irving Berlin had a special piano, wherby he could play

everything in F-sharp or G-flat, but could move the action in such a way as to adjust the pitch to a different key. (Or so I was told by one of my professors).

[Misunderestimator]

54. Fortunately for me, my digital piano has a button that does exactly that.

You can transpose by half step increments up or down. It's great for playing the piano and singing in a key that's more comfortable for the voice than the music you're reading, or even the key you would be more comfortable playing.

You have to block out any pitch familiarity you might have though... it can be disconcerting to be reading music that is a fifth away from what you are hearing.

[name not needed]

27. I use sheet music and tab

[ComerPerro]

29. I can and will read sheet music

but TAB is so much easier...

When I am playing piano though, and not going by ear, then yes, I like to use sheet music. But I guess that only makes sense, doesn't it?

[meganmonkey]

32. Other. I can read it

but I seldom do since I don't play any instruments. I couldn't figure out where to fit that :)

[johnnie]

36. What's that?

:shrug:


Actually, I know enough about it, but never made a habit about using it.

[tjwmason]

43. Yes - but badly

I learned the treble clef at a very early age for both the piano and the violin, then as I progressed with the piano I developed the bass clef as well. I switched from violin to viola which necessitated learning the alto clef (and the tenor clef is exactly the same in terms of the principle concerned).

Whilst singing in a church choir I learned the principles of neume notations for plain-chant singing which has two clefs (the c clef and the f clef).

At the moment I can figure out treble or bass clef music on a piano fairly quickly (though my playing is horrendously out of practice). If I sit down and work things out slowly I can do the same with alto and tenor clefs - though I can only play these on a piano or other keyboard instrument - so too with the neume notations. If singing as part of a group, I can sing along sight-reading from neume script, but by no means can I sight-sing it.

[Mr. McD]

44. I learn the music from sheet music but

never perform with sheet music.:)

[Bonhomme Richard]

46. Can't read music. Self taught and I only play by ear or..............

guitar tab.
Wish I had learned. Maybe next life.

[no name no slogan]

48. I'm an ear musician, but I can read music

usually just single notes. I can't read a piano or guitar score to save my life.

I guess those five years of sax lessons really did come in handy.

[Chovexani]

49. I can read music

I play the violin and keyboard, but only for fun. I learned in school and kept it up as a hobby. :)

[FuzzySlippers]

50. I can sight read the treble clef sorta OK.

[swag]

51. Yes, of course. Play by ear as well.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

52. I'm learning right now.................

I can read music just fine, but I'm taking theory lessons so I can learn to wrangle all the dots and staves.

[enigmatic]

53. Nope

I've always been a "feel" player on guitar and bass; I read chord charts, but that's about it..

[sakabatou]

56. I'll play the whole piece with the sheets

But I'll do parts by memory.

[stlsaxman]

57. I read slowly so I usually don't do it...

but i have the ability to fall back on.

Give me a chord chart and I'm happy.

[VOX]

58. I can read it, but I don't use sheet music.

Play blues harp and guitar, and I can also read tabulature. But once I get down to playing, I pretty well know what I'm going to do, besides improvisation :)