There are plenty of instances in youtube where the music is presented along with the score. I was just listening to Mozart's K.379, a sonata for violin and piano, in youtube and the look of the score made me see how the piano part was much more complex than what my ears perceived (1st movement). The work of people who assumes the task of uploading this material is something laudable. At the very least, they have to scan the score, unless they use some electronic music repository, like IMSLP. And the task of synchronizing video and audio, though facilitated by specialized software, is not to despise. But above all, their work has a high educational value.
There are more than one grownup who wishes to learn to read music. Most will do it because they want to play some instrument. But the fact that the music is there and can be recreated, independently of the instrument of choice, has a strong appeal by itself. And this, to face the printed music while listening to it, is an incentive to the study of music and is learning at the same time. Any person, given a reasonable amount of intelligence, will be able to follow the music with the score, not the Rite of Spring, but say a minuet from Mozart. He will very soon become familiar with time values and ... he has memory. So he can put music to the notes when he is removed from an external sound source. Most of the time, the piece of music is already known by heart, and the reading of the score will be invaluable.
Of course this is no substitute for conservatory musical training, but provides motivation. I think the learning process in reading music involves two phases. On the first one, intervals must be learned by heart and jumping from B to D is adding a minor third to the starting note. But suppose the composition is in G. Then reaching the D is no longer an addition process but just thinking of the fifth degree. By this time the student sees not notes, but scale degrees. At least, this was my personal experience. I can perfectly remember the moment when I "discovered scale degrees". From that moment on, the fifth degree could be intoned regardless of the note before it, it had a "sound" of itself (the fifth degree is only an example).
I assume a clever teaching method will exploit this "second manner" from the beginning and the normal process is exactly the reverse of that exposed above, or a mixture of both. Believe me, before entering the conservatory I tried to read some music by constructing the intervals by mentally adding tones and semitones, a penurious method that went nowhere. I think at present, the emphasis in institutions is toward metrical precision and not making the student to actually sing the notes. They do sing the notes but in groups and very little effort is expended in forming people with reading capabilities. I've known students from the fifth piano year having trouble in the choir because they really did not read music. The expedient was simple. Each section learned its part by heart, and everything went well. I was a student in my first year, and could not believe it. It is the instrument that prevails, specially the piano and, then, the rhythmic element is given preeminent attention. The notes are already there, in the keyboard. The same with winds and strings. Even a violinist will begin by thinking in a position first, then it's a matter of a minor adjustment to stay in tune. I mean, even in the case of a bowed instrument, it is as if the names of the notes were written in the fingerboard, so he will read very well when playing his instrument in front of the score, but what is he has to read music without an instrument at all? It'll all depend on the way music was taught to him.
In short, the presentation of musical material along with a printed score in Youtube deserves to be highly praised.
There are more than one grownup who wishes to learn to read music. Most will do it because they want to play some instrument. But the fact that the music is there and can be recreated, independently of the instrument of choice, has a strong appeal by itself. And this, to face the printed music while listening to it, is an incentive to the study of music and is learning at the same time. Any person, given a reasonable amount of intelligence, will be able to follow the music with the score, not the Rite of Spring, but say a minuet from Mozart. He will very soon become familiar with time values and ... he has memory. So he can put music to the notes when he is removed from an external sound source. Most of the time, the piece of music is already known by heart, and the reading of the score will be invaluable.
Of course this is no substitute for conservatory musical training, but provides motivation. I think the learning process in reading music involves two phases. On the first one, intervals must be learned by heart and jumping from B to D is adding a minor third to the starting note. But suppose the composition is in G. Then reaching the D is no longer an addition process but just thinking of the fifth degree. By this time the student sees not notes, but scale degrees. At least, this was my personal experience. I can perfectly remember the moment when I "discovered scale degrees". From that moment on, the fifth degree could be intoned regardless of the note before it, it had a "sound" of itself (the fifth degree is only an example).
I assume a clever teaching method will exploit this "second manner" from the beginning and the normal process is exactly the reverse of that exposed above, or a mixture of both. Believe me, before entering the conservatory I tried to read some music by constructing the intervals by mentally adding tones and semitones, a penurious method that went nowhere. I think at present, the emphasis in institutions is toward metrical precision and not making the student to actually sing the notes. They do sing the notes but in groups and very little effort is expended in forming people with reading capabilities. I've known students from the fifth piano year having trouble in the choir because they really did not read music. The expedient was simple. Each section learned its part by heart, and everything went well. I was a student in my first year, and could not believe it. It is the instrument that prevails, specially the piano and, then, the rhythmic element is given preeminent attention. The notes are already there, in the keyboard. The same with winds and strings. Even a violinist will begin by thinking in a position first, then it's a matter of a minor adjustment to stay in tune. I mean, even in the case of a bowed instrument, it is as if the names of the notes were written in the fingerboard, so he will read very well when playing his instrument in front of the score, but what is he has to read music without an instrument at all? It'll all depend on the way music was taught to him.
In short, the presentation of musical material along with a printed score in Youtube deserves to be highly praised.
Comment