Many people say that they are not able to play the music from the dots on lines. It is so simple really. If you can read this then you are almost there. It is only your mind set that prevents this. Reading is how we install software into our brain. The consequence of subliminal interference and the refusal to acknowledge this setback is what holds you back.
Now, if you have read that last statement and understood it you are well on the way to overcoming the problem. There are only TWELVE sounds in the music vocabulary; and these sounds make up ALL the music. Fifteen minutes a day for two weeks just playing the dots and you will have it done. Just DON"T play from the EZ-Play with letters in the notes as this is detrimental.
Now play my video right through.



Regards Den.

Hi! Den
I looked at your notes and in my head could hear "this is my story, this is my song " I often read music to enjoy the sound. As you say its like reading a book. Ken

Hi Den. Sounds good to me. I’ll have to give it a try. John

Den,

This is the first time I have ever seen a really good explanation of 'how to read the dots'. I have never been able to play from the 'dots on lines' and I now know why. It is because I had music lessons (in my early teens) where I was taught the letters of the piano notes, together with some mnemonics to remember how the dots on lines were allocated to them .. something to do with good boys deserving fruit, and cows eating grass .. which is totally irrelevant to instantly knowing which dot on which space/line corresponds to which note to play.

My took my two granddaughters to keyboard lessons and they were taught with EZ-Play music ie. the letters were written inside the notes on the stave.



They got absolutely nowhere, and after a couple of years I stopped taking them. Then one Christmas, the eldest granddaughter said that if I played a Christmas carol on my AR80 organ and put the music up, she would accompany me on her recorder, which she was learning at school. So I did that, and she sight-read the carol from beginning to end with no mistakes. I was astounded, and asked her how she had done that. "Well," she said, "see that note there? I put my fingers over this hole on my recorder to make that note; and that note there I put two fingers over these two holes etc.". "So you don't know what the names of the notes are?" "No, she said. What I see on the music tells me where I put my fingers."

And there we have it. Just learn which note on the keyboard corresponds to it's position on the stave. Forget the letters!

Of course we do need the letters, as they tell us what chord to play. But this has nothing to do with sight reading the melody. So put sight reading the melody (eg. from a Busker book) into a different compartment to learning chord structures from letters.

The chord part of playing a keyboard I am fine with; and the melody I usually play 'by ear'. But I shall have a go at reading the melody from a Busker book and see if I can get the hang of it.

What is it they say .. you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Well, we shall see!

Hugh