Sight reading learning aid

[hpeterh]

Hi,

I invented a simple learning aid to speed up sight reading:

http://www.hphsite.de/Testbilder/learning_aid.jpg

I used adhesive paper dots and put them onto the keys.
The five red points at the left side are for the bass clef. The middle line got two dots for quicker visual orientation.

The same for the right side, the green dots mark the positions for the violin clef.
Again, the middle line of the clef got two dots.

The point in the middle, wich is half red and half green is for the c1 key.

I found that this speeds up sight reading, it is easier to find and memorize the keys with this method.

On the other side, when I play with the "follow the lights" option, then I learn how the score should look at the same time!

When I start to learn scales then I will also put colorized stickers for the scale onto the keyboard.
That should help a lot because my visual memory is better than my literal memory :-)

Hope this idea is helpful for other beginners here!

brgds,

Peter

[johnnykeyboard]

Hi Peter,
I liked your invention of the dots on the keys. It gives you a visual that helps you remember the notes; and the notes do have to be learned where their position is in relation to each other. Here is an idea that was given to me a few years back that has helped me. It has to do with muscle memory. I even used it when coaching young basketball players. When a player demonstrated that he or she could successfully shoot a free throw (from the foul line), I told him/her to remember all the muscle groups involved to get the ball through the hoop.......how far to bend the knees.......how much strength used to release the ball.........the follow through with the shooting hand..etc.........Then I told them to step up to the line, look at the basket, remember all the muscle groups,and then...........close their eyes and shoot the ball. Of course it was terrible and no one could make their shots until I did it for them and sunk 10 shots in a row. The more we use all of our senses to do a task, the less we rely on any single one. We basically use our eyes to see our position on the floor and the direction of the basket. After that, it's all up to our muscle memory, a much more important component in making the basket. Now, try the same thing on the piano keyboard. Turn out the lights, or close your eyes and play. At first it is hard but soon becomes easy. It really makes you "know" the music, the rhythm, the key changes and all the other things that you used to leave up to your eyes. Now you know these things by memory......how far to reach with your left hand for that low A........how to position your hand for a minor 7th chord....etc. At first you have to use your eyes, but make the use of your eyes count, by remembering what and especially how you did it. Soon you will be able to play your favorite piece with your eyes closed because you really "know" the music! I hope you try this experiment and let me know if it works.
............Johnny Keyboard...........

[hpeterh]

Hi,

thanks for the advice. I have read that before, it was called "mental playing" and I believe it can help.
Hoever, I am a very beginner and can only play 2 short songs: "Du Du bist in meinem Herzen" (german traditional) and "Silent night" and possibly a little bit blues. (started 1/2 year ago to learn)
Still have problems to play 2-handed and to hit the keys in time.
So it is a little bit early to try that technique, will try after another 1/2 year ;-)

brgds,

Peter

[sbrbot]

I don't know if Yamaha accepted your suggested learning method or you're referring to this same functionality implemented inside Yamaha keyboard!?

I don't know how it is on CVP-96 but on my CVP-403 there are LE diodes for each key on keyboard. Playing a song in GUIDE mode these LEDs are lightening for notes from score showing you which key(s) should be pressed for particular note(s)! Also one can start MIDI and these LEDs show which keys were pressed during recording.

I was really wondering who needs this functionality. I don't like this feature - seems to like light-show! But it seems that there are people that like this.

At the end, I have to say that musicians (at least not total beginners) do not memorize keys position and duration that should be played for particular song but melody itself. This is like language, you do not have to memorize position of letters in words you actually memorize words. (Can you say in which position in word "INTERNATIONALIZATION" is letter "Z" of course not if you do not count now, the same is with playing piano).

[hpeterh]

Hi sbrbot,

it is meant for absolute beginners.
As a beginner there are a lot of things to learn: Notes,keys,rythms.

I have much less problems, when I know a song in advance (holy night, Du Du, Oh when the saints) But there are a lot of songs where I dont know the melody and have no Midi file. Im currently not at a state where I can look to a score and immediately sing or play it. So I need to hear the melody before I can play. To hear the melody, I must play it. To remember Melody and rythm I must have heard it. This is a chicken egg problem... When there is no human teacher, then there must be technical methods to solve it.

So I must figure out the keys before I know Melody or rythm.

And yes, I love the lights, when I have a midi file. It speeds up learning new melodys and rythms. If I where fast enough with score reading I would probably not need it. When I have "got" melody and rythm, then I dont use the lights anymore.

brgds,

Peter

[dbjorck]

Hi!

it is meant for absolute beginners.
As a beginner there are a lot of things to learn: Notes,keys,rythms.

I have much less problems, when I know a song in advance (holy night, Du Du, Oh when the saints) But there are a lot of songs where I dont know the melody and have no Midi file. Im currently not at a state where I can look to a score and immediately sing or play it. So I need to hear the melody before I can play. To hear the melody, I must play it. To remember Melody and rythm I must have heard it. This is a chicken egg problem... When there is no human teacher, then there must be technical methods to solve it.

So I must figure out the keys before I know Melody or rythm.

And yes, I love the lights, when I have a midi file. It speeds up learning new melodys and rythms. If I where fast enough with score reading I would probably not need it. When I have "got" melody and rythm, then I dont use the lights anymore.
I completely agree. Follow-the-lights is gold for beginners, and I like your original marking scheme of the keys. As a child I would write in pencil the notes' ordinal numbers (1, 2, 3, etc, like practicing dance steps) for a given piece directly on the keys before practicing. That's a bit difficult now with for instance the Minute Waltz though... So I'm too lazy to do it anymore :)

Once I learned C, D, E, F, G, A, B and how they related to the lines on the score, I just wrote those instead on the keys. But then came the black notes into my life... Didn't work very well to write C#, Eb, F#, G#, Bb on the black keys in pencil (believe it or not, but I tried. The best result was to write it on the wood of the piano instead but my mother didn't approve)..... So I started to highlight the black keys in the score instead with markers, green for sharp and red for flat. Stopped doing that too at some point, for some reason..

Now I find the best way to sight read is to look out the window and relax.;) Que sera, sera.

Brgds

Danny

[dk21208]

I think Danny makes a good point by describing many iterations of a lifelong process. Including various types of cues to aid learning can be highly beneficial. Just be ready to adapt to a new learning tool when the old ones start to be more of a crutch than beneficial.