"Reading" Music

Today has been a bit of a reprieve. That might be because I slept in an extra half hour (3:30pm, woohoo?), or because I've been distracted by other mental stimulation such as TEDtalks, the Sword and Scale podcast, and playing Overwatch and GTA5 with a group of rowdy teenage boys. Another thing that has helped today and that seems to be the only thing that marginally helps on the worst days is MUSIC!

I've had a long history with music; piano lessons from 5 to 17 years old, playing viola from 6th grade through most of my years at college, playing in pit orchestra for multiple school plays, I even took viola lessons for a few years (including some from a protege of Dr. Dalton - the student of William Primrose). Mostly with her though, we focused on note basics because, from my audition, she couldn't tell I had the major detriment of not being able to read music.

...yeah.

I managed to get by. With piano, my teacher would play the piece for me, and I would just "pick it up." I was always able to memorize it after awhile.

Transitioning to viola was easier on me than most, because it has it's own clef, and that shifts the notes a bit to fit into the instrument's range:

vs

Because I didn't know the names of any notes in any clef, there was virtually no transition. In fact, I can still only identify C (3rd finger on the G string), and A (open A string) without cheating. With orchestral music, you basically have to look at the music. On viola, you play the open string and then put 1 finger down to raise the note. Then a second to raise the note again, and a third finger. Eventually, in higher levels of play, you learn to use a fourth finger instead of an open string, but we'll keep it simple. Viola music was easier for me to play because the notes on lines are all either 1st finger or 3rd finger. The notes on spaces are played as either open strings/4th finger or 2nd finger. This helped me to know which string I wanted to be on and approximately what the following note would be.

At this point, hearing the piece is still vital for me to play it. Upon hearing it, I'm able to assign a section of what I hear with a specific bar or line of music. It "fits". I now understand the part and, granted I'm skilled enough, I can play it! Again, this method depends entirely on actually hearing the music. It's a BIG detriment to not understand music when it's first put in front of you.

As real musicians know, there is so much more to actually reading (and playing) music! But...

I know what a time signature is.

I know what a key signature is

I know what a tempo is. 

I know what quarter notes, half notes, whole notes, whole rests, half rests. etc are.

I know about slurs, ties, crescendos, fermata, accidentals, etc

The disconnect is with the math. Let's say everything is quarter notes in a 4/4 time signature at an andante pace, I could probably play that without hearing it. But nothing is like that! First of all, not all time signatures are 4/4. What does 4/8 even mean? 6/8? How does that effect the notes? Eighth note followed by quarter rest? What?! Like, I just don't really get how much value practically any notation has in any time signature, including 4/4. It is just garbage! None of it makes any sense! I absolutely can't estimate how long to hold what in any time signature! I cannot wrap my head around that stuff.

That's why I haven't tried out for an adult orchestra. I need to sightread some things. I need to know some music that would be hard to find a recording for (let alone pick out and perfect the viola part). It's just not something I'm able to do.