How Long Does It Take To Learn To Read Music

How Long Does Information technology Take to Learn to Read Music?

"Tuh ruh uuuuurrrrr nnnnnnnnn duh."

"Tuh ur nnnnnnnnnnnn duh"

I was sitting on the couch on a fall afternoon listening patiently as my kindergartner sounded each each word. Well, I was trying to listen patiently.

"Tuuuuuuurrrrrrrr nnnnnnn duh"

Ugh. Did I mention that this was but i of many, many words to go in this primer level story?

"Tur nnnnnnnnnnnn duh"

By this time, I was bitter my lip during this excruciating process while all the same trying to give her an encouraging smile. It was all I could exercise not to yell out the discussion "turned!" after listening to this type of elongated phonetic pronunciation of each discussion for 15 minutes.

Fast forward one year. Yes, a whole twelvemonth.

I was sitting on the same burrow with the same footling daughter when I heard this:

Right then, I remembered what information technology was like to be a child learning to read. I could see through my own daughter how very long information technology takes for children to acquire to read. I realized how patient my teachers had been with me. How patient my parents had been. I saw the struggle that average children experience as they learn this reading process and imagined how much more difficult it is for children with challenges.

Possibly it'south obvious to everyone else, but…

This is what it must be like to learn to read music!

How many years does it take for a child to learn to read music?

Learning the sounds of each letter, learning to put the sounds together, learning to pause at the periods and commas, learning to put the words together into the rhythm of a sentence, learning to emphasize the right words and syllables. All of these tasks have years for children to do properly!

Withal, we are oftentimes impatient with our pianoforte students when they haven't learned their note names in just 6 months of pianoforte. We get frustrated and baffled when they aren't "reading" music in a rhythmic and perfect way after only i year of lessons or less.

But that fact is, it'south natural for a child to accept years to acquire all of their messages, learn the sounds, and acquire to read music.

Let me say that again in a visual way: It takes yeeeaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrs for a child to learn to read!

Sometimes information technology might seem like it might merely take 1 year for a kid to acquire to read. They enter Kindergarten and so by first grade, many (but certainly non all) might be reading adequately easy books well. Only what we don't ofttimes think almost is all the things that the parents and teachers of those children did prior to kindergarten to help them be gear up:

They taught them their letters and sounds. This may non have been washed formally through preschool. Only most kids know a lot of letters and sounds before they enter kindergarten, either by direct or indirect exposure.
They read to their kids. They exposed them to words that had significant and that uncovered a story.
They encouraged them to talk.
They let them use equally many words as they could.
They taught them new words.
But nigh of all, they didn't require them to larn to read words before they could speak the words. Speaking was always get-go.

All of these things must be factored in when determining how long information technology takes a kid to acquire to read. And this list certainly bumps up the number of years to at least iii years, probably more!

It's going to have even longer for kids to learn to read music.

I don't take any scientific evidence for this, only pure logic would tell the states that if it takes a kid two-3 years (actually more than when you think most all the exposure to words in infancy) to learn to read well, and so it's going to accept even more than for a child to learn to read music well.

Why?

Retrieve about these two facts for a moment:

A child goes to school five days a calendar week and is with a teacher 5 days a week. A piano student just comes to lessons 1 day a calendar week and and then is "on their ain" to practise those aforementioned things over and over again for five days. Of course, their progress is going to be slower.
A child is exposed to talking, reading, and words about every 24-hour interval of their life. By the fourth dimension they are v, they will take experienced 1,825 days (five years) of words. How much exposure to hearing music, seeing music scores, and playing music practice most children have when showtime pianoforte lessons? Definitely less than i,825 days.

So what does this mean for teaching students to read music?

I think information technology'due south okay to take a deep jiff and relax a flake nearly students who are struggling to read music. It's going to take fourth dimension and it's going to be bumpy in the process. Our students are going to forget notes names and locations of notes on the staff but every bit my daughter seemed to forget the three sounds of the letter A for a long time (a, āe, ah in instance you lot are curious).

Even now, though my daughter is reading quite well, the syntax and rhythm is not quite in that location yet. There's still the intermission before the hard word. There's however the hesitations and awkward pauses in inopportune places. There are still those hard words that she can't figure out. There are still those words that she just mumbles through considering she doesn't desire to have the time to audio them out phonetically!

And of class, I nevertheless struggle to be patient with her when the same discussion has appeared on the page four times and she still doesn't recall what the word is.

But I keep letting her talk, of class. I keep reading to her and pointing to the words as I read. I continue having her read to me even though the rhythm of the words isn't perfect. And she keep getting better. Slowly just surely, she is getting better.

Is there more to it than just flashcards and notespellers?

But what other things also flashcards, note name apps, and fill in the blank workshops are nosotros doing to assistance our students during this very long process of reading music. Are we letting our students "speak music" (i.e. play) without being tied to a score? Are we reading music with them and showing them what it's like on the page simply like parents do while reading books to children?

That's why I think the concept of rote teaching is powerful when combined with education students to learn to read music. Just equally it doesn't practise students any skillful for us to restrict the words that they utilize when they haven't learned to read words, and so it doesn't practise any good to restrict the music that students play when they oasis't learned to read music notation.

Could it be dangerousnon to use rote pedagogy?

Equally a matter of fact, I think it might exist dangerous to restrict students to playing only music they can read!

You don't have to expect far to find studies virtually the benefits of reading to your children when they are little (when they can't even form words for that matter, much less read them). And the dangers of non reading to children, not letting them talk, or restricting them to speak merely words that they tin can read are obviously disastrous and even ludicrous.

In addition, the furnishings of restricting students to play only music they can read is even more detrimental to older beginners. These beginners may already feel cocky-witting about starting later than their peers, and certainly requiring that they play every piece in their book including the "I Am a Princess" and "Silly Troll" songs are demoralizing. Using rote piano didactics with these students is even more important to assist them achieve their goal of playing and to achieve your goal of teaching them to play musically and learning to read.

How can we practise better at pedagogy our students to read music?

Now of course, there is e'er a breakdown in every illustration, so non everything about learning to read music is similar learning to read. Only if nothing else, I think this analogy tin can teach us that:

It's okay and of import to employ rote teaching.
It'due south okay and normal when students forget their notes.
Information technology'south okay if information technology takes a long time for them to larn to read music.

Too merely keeping at information technology, here are some things you can actively do to aid students learn to read music:

Remind parents that simply as their kid has to read every day at abode and school to get amend, then they must likewise read and practice their note names every day (or iv-5 days a calendar week) to actually make much progress.
Brand it easy for parents by giving them a set up of flashcards to use with their students or suggesting apps to download to help. Parents are decorated. They would honey for you lot to manus them something they can use immediately.
Do the obvious things similar didactics landmark notes to assistance with intervallic reading, utilize flashcards that actually crave students to find the notes on the piano, not just name the notes.
Use rote teaching pieces. Allow them "talk" music with forcing them to read it. You can practice this by educational activity the piece past rote and then showing them the notation of what they simply played.

Rote Teaching Pieces that can help!

In that location are many rote pedagogy pieces out at that place these days so let me direct y'all to a few of them. First, at that place are these that are available on ComposeCreate.com:

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Rote and Reading®

$9.99
Joy to the World – Rote and Reading®

$9.99
Amazon Take chances Bundle

Product on sale

$27.99
River Dolphins

$9.99
Jaguar Jungle

$nine.99
Monkeying Around

$9.99
American Adventure Package

Product on sale

$37.99
Mountain View

$9.99
Booming Animal

$9.99
Legend of the Eagle

$9.99
Bison Are Back

$ix.99
Black Central Jingle Bells – Rote and Reading®

$nine.99

Other rote and reading® pieces that you might be interested in include: Design Pieces 1 and two on the Piano Safari Web log as well every bit Paula Dreyer's book Petty Gems for Pianoforte.

What are your thoughts on how long it takes children to learn to read music? I'd love to know! Please exit your ideas in the comments below. Many teachers read these comments and your ideas may be just want they need!