How I learned sheet music (in a day)
In the course of one humans events, I've had to take several music classes. When I was about eight years old, I had a guitar teacher who thought I was a natural. I could play anything I heard, and repeat it with near perfect precision, but I couldn't read sheet music. My tutor was sure I would become the next Clapton, but I could never figure out the sheet music, and I got frustrated. Eventually, I gave it up, and dashed his hopes. Such is the mind of a child. I've had many opportunities to look back on that in regret.

Now, allow me to explain why I had so much trouble with it. My brain is just wrong in some fundamentally odd way. I have a learning disability called Dyscalculia (bad math, bad memory, but an uncanny skill at the printed word), and a mild manic/depressive disorder. I am a concoction of mental oddities, but I'm cool with it.

I have a very simple system for learning. If something makes sense, it will stick in my mind forever. I can remember derivations of projectile physics formulas that would make Newton proud. However, I can't remember anything if you tell me, "Just memorize it." I still don't know my multiplacation tables. I can't remember them by rote, but my mind is quick enough to calculate it so most people don't notice ( 9 * 6 = (10 * 6)-6 = 60 - 6 = 54).

The rules are simple enough. Tell me why something is, and I'll never forget. Tell me to memorize something, and I won't remember it long enough to write it down.

Sheet music was rote memorization. The teacher would point at five lines and say "That is E, G, B, D, F. You can remember them by the phrase "Every Good Boy Does Fine!" I would ask, "Why are the letters all over the place like that? Why aren't they in order?" The teacher would respond, "Just memorize it. Remember the phrase!" I would then reply, "What phrase?"

I even found out that there were letters for the spaces between the lines, but those were just as bad, "F, A, C, E, you can just remember 'face' and memorize it!"

So anyway, I had similar results in all my school music classes. I had a better voice range than my choir teacher, I could pick up any instrument and play a song running through my head. But I never could get very far in music, because all the school curriculum wanted us to play specific songs, written in sheet music. Damn.

I learned to live with it. Sheet music kept me out of band, so I ended up working in journalism in high school (school newspaper, yearbook, that kinda stuff). I took up the theater, and went to the State UIL competition twice in high school for acting.

But the sheet music thing always bothered me. It's always been something of a personal failure to me. Something that I just assumed I would carry to my grave.

I keep a guitar by the desk here at home, and occasionally I pluck at it. My wife bought me a 'Guitar for Dummies' type of book, perhaps to rekindle some interest in playing. Yesterday, I opened up the book, and as I flipped through it I cursed aloud to see my nemisis in bars staring back at me. Every clef was a middle finger, insulting me with my own deficiency.

So I started reading it from the front, and when they got to the half-page explanation of sheet music, they pointed out that all the bars were E,G,B,D,F and the spaces were F,A,C,E. Then something astounding happened. The book pointed out that if you put the bars and spaces together, you get E,F,G,A,B,C,D,E,F. I just blinked at the page. It was so simple. So obvious. It was all the letters in order, one right after the other. There was a reason behind it. It made sense.

And it clicked. After an hour or so, my hands were hurting, and I'd thrown away that book in favor of my internet search on Paul Simon solos. Holy crap! I can find any note now, and I don't mean I can read it off the page. I mean, I can hum it just by seeing the note. I can tell what 4/4ths means, I can find sharps for given notes. Baby, I can play!

Now that my fingertips are throbbing and I've stepped away from it for a while, it makes me think about alternative education. Why the f*%# hasn't any teacher thought to mention this? Is is just so obvious for normal people that it's not even worth mentioning? Or is this simple measure just one that's been forgotten by music teachers that grew up with the "Just memorize it" school of thought?


Technocrati tags: music, guitar
- posted by BrandG @ 2:48 AM