I’ve been trying for 3 weeks now and I cannot seem to learn sheet music. What’s wrong with me?! As I try to improve my skills with new music, I find myself needing to look up the notes and writing them down in Whistle Notation to even have a chance to play it…
Any suggestions on how to learn to read sheet music???
-Biggie
I had the same problem when I started to play whistle about 3 months ago.
Now I can read THE NOTES in the sheet music, but I’ve problems with the rythm yet, it’s not that easy. Although, if I already know the tune/song and I have a midi or mp3 I can read the sheet music pretty well.
I think you just need practice, I still can’t read very fast. Do you already know how to identify the notes in a sheet music?
Cheers,
Martin
A good excercise for recognizing the values of the notes is clapping the beats as you count out “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and” (4/4 time) or “1-2-3-4-5-6” (6/8 time) etc.
Part of learning to sight read is not only learning the names and values of the notes but recognizing the space between each note on the staff.
That said, for traditional music I’d suggest that you don’t spend more time learning to sight read than you do listening to the music.
Hello Biggie, Can I assume from your post that you first started playing whistle using notation? If so, then trying to unlearn one system by replacing it with another will always be difficult. Many have done it though and for good reason. standard music notation, once learned is infinitly better at conveying the bones of the music (and faster to interpret also) than whistle notation.
The best, and really only way to learn sheet music is practice, a lot of it. Straycat also mentions a good piont about learning the intervals between notes. That too will come eventually. The brain must reckognize a particular interval, say three whole steps (notes) without even stopping for an instant to know what actual notes those even are. This skill takes time. If I were you though, I’d not “revert” to whistle notation anymore. You’ll only slow your overall progress at standard notation.
Of course you could always do what many others have done and learn by ear only and not worry about any music. I personally enjoy playing from sheet music though, it gives me a lot of access to all kinds of music besides Traditional for a nice variety. Best of luck 
Indeed, it’s time to quit cold turkey, let offa that crutch, sink or swim
Three weeks is NOTHING. How long did it take you to learn to read letters and words? Lot longer than three weeks. Learning music is very similar.
It would be best to go about it systematically using a good whistle tutor. My favorite is Bill Ochs’ The Clarke Tinwhistle. Bill starts you off right at zero using very simple tunes in whistle notation and notes. He soon discards the whistle notation though and leads you stepwise through reading music. Be patient with yourself-- it’s a skill worth learning.
Do you know the basic theory?
If yes, all it takes is slow easy tunes and lots of practice.
If no, then learn the basics behind reading the key, how long a note is (in non musician language, the “black one with a line attached and no “flag” on the line” = 1 beat) etc etc… and look at - if yes
extra info: the normal clef is actually an elaborate G that makes a cross (inside the “circle part” of the clef) on the line where the G note is placed.. then every step (going up from line to space to line to space etc) is the next note, going G, A, B, C etc.. and the written key (#'s or b’s at the beginning) show which notes should be played sharp or flat unless written otherwise
(i tried to write this as basic as possible, i hope it doesn’t confuse too many people)
A device that has been helpful to some in learning what the notes of the staff are is the word “FACE”. F, A, C and E are the notes (from the bottom of the staff to the top) that fall between the lines.
EX:
E_____________________________
C_____________________________
A_____________________________
F_____________________________
Then, of course you fill in the notes that rest on the lines:
F-----------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------
FACE
EGBDF
Every Good Boy Does Fine
I think that is how the other one goes?
I learned to read music as a child. Then I stopped doing anything musical for about 20 years or so. When I went to take it up again, I was shocked! I couldn’t read sheet music anymore. I didn’t think you could forget such a thing!
It has come back, but I really remember what it was like at first. About all I could manage was I could tell that the next note was either higher or lower. I remembered where middle C was supposed to be so I would count the bars to figure out what a note to start on was. Then guess from there. Up or down? Higher or lower? I made a lot of mistakes in my guesses.
The thing I use the music mostly for is time. If you can learn the basics of how a note represents time that’ll get you far. And fortunately there seem to be mostly 3 kinds of time to learn (note: this is not musically accurate information, but my own mental model).
More bars on top (or a little squiggly flag like a broken off bar), faster. No bars. Slower.
So with that minimal understanding and always an example to listen to, I’ve been able to bring a lot of my former knowledge back and can now sight-read again. (Irish music anyway, I can’t sight-read classical.)
I’ve heard a few different ones over the years. Here’s another common one:
Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
This one must’ve been invented by an American 
A lousy 3 weeks! You must be kidding. It takes a lot longer than that. How long would it take you to learn a new language, or a new alphabet? It’ll be months before you can do it badly, and years before you can do it well. (The genius exception applies, of course).
One last thing: I took a shortcut in learing to read dots. I didn’t worry about whether a particular dot is an A or D or F# or whatever. I just taught myself that a particular dot represented a particular position for my fingers on the whsitle. Even now when I read a dot I have to think for a second to come up with the “letter”.
Another hint. Don’t be afraid to use MIDS files (in JC’s ABC Tune Finder) to get a feel for the value of notes. Once you have the tune in your head you can look at the sheetmusic and the note values begin to make sense (with TIME!). I learned that it was a waste of time strugging to figure out note values by force of intelligence and will. It’s more of an intuitive thing that soaks into you over time…like a child learning a language.
Frankly I never thought I’d learn to sight read. My only goal orginally was to be able to help me remember where to put my fingers, after I had already learned the tune in my head. (Using dots as a sort of reference for when I got lost). If I had set out to learn to sight read I probably would have given up in discouragement.
Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it.
I’ll keep pushing along.
spend some time looking at sheet music and saying the names of the notes out loud or in your head. just like you did when you starting reading.
when i read sheet music, i’m actually visualizing the letters a, b, c# in my head while i play. if i’m playing a wind instrument, i’m visualizing the letters in my head, with keyboars the letters are floating around my hands and the keys, and with the guitar, it’s the chord (Em) that’s floating in my head, sometimes with the picture of the chord too.
one of my friends who plays the clarinet always had a strange view of sheet music that i am now just beginning to understand. she can’t read sheet music for crap and i would always have to tell her what her starting note was then she’d play the rest of the song beautifully just by reading the differential between the notes.
let us know how it goes for you.
I disagree with Mutepoint. (Sorry Mute). Don’t worry so much about what letters are associated with the notes. That’ll come to you. The important thing is to train your fingers to go to the right position on the whistle when your eye looks at a certain dot on the staff lines. That’s the first step, IMHO.
A handy free program (game) to help learn the name of the notes on the clef is NoteCard found at http/familygames.com/
I agree however that it’s more important to correlate the dots on the page with the fingers on the whistle but knowing the names of the notes helps in communication with others, writing abc notation, etc.
What I’d really like is a program that would display a note on the scale, listen to me play that note on the whistle and tell me when I’m wrong. If I had a program like that and could speed it up sufficiently it should help my sight reading.
What I’d really really would like is audio samples of tunes I want to learn (preferable the way they’re played around here) but most of my opportunities come on paper.
Santa, are you listening?
you’re more than welcome to disagree with me whitmore. i can see where you’re coming from. if i were only learning to play one instrument, i’d follow your advice. i’ve learned to play a few instruments, informally and self-taught, knowing the name of the note helps generalize sheet music for whichever instrument i’m playing. it does however add a step to the process but that’s what works for me.
I think that you should work on seeing the note, know its a D say and then also know that its fingering, but again this all comes with practise, sooner or later you will just see the note and go right to knowing the fingering without having to think about the note
also heres a website that teaches basic theory
http://www.musictheory.net/index.html
good luck!
personally, i’ve always used either recordings or whistle notation. i know i should use real music (i’m a violist, it’s not like i can’t read the music), but i use the excuse that learning from hearing the music is keeping the folk tradition alive.