Hi Peeps.

It has been a long time aim for me to read fluently on stick, loooooong term.

So I'm just quietly getting on with the pleasure of learning new things, some very simple things. It occurred to me that Mikrokosmos is the perfect tool for not only becoming a good reader but as a way to learn the whole touchboard.

As a suggestion, try these exercises but don't be too hung up on fingering. Instead use a free approach to fingering like Greg Howard's methods, but be more concerned with making the notes themselves.

I've attached a pdf with a suggestion of the first note and fret number. It would be great just to learn these 4 exercises over as many different note position as possible, don't you think?

I read through that whole thing, in 5ths and 4ths tuning as well as piano (well - keys) and at the end of it I realized that while it didn’t hurt my playing, it certainly wasn’t the one stop shop that one might hope that it might be - at the end of the day it’s a much better practice to work on “real-time” reading a wide variety of music daily ranging from exudes to full on pieces to self composed positional studies and compositions to fake book type arrangements (lead sheet with a melody and chord symbols. I personally found that 10-15 minutes of realtime reading something new every day really exploded through my playing as far as getting familiar with the neck and adjusting to thinking about thinking about two things separately. Lol Mikrokosmos also sounds ummm not nearly as good as Mozart or Bach, and if you can insert yourself into the works of anything that is written down, well hey - there’s a key to creativity without a doubt.

I am a big fan of reading, I do it on every instrument I play...

Great thread. To be honest, reading music is not my friend (due to extreme learning disabilities)
I HATE reading music and it hates me...... I do it every day but I’ll never be able decode information as quickly as is needed with music.? I applaud your pursuit

I play laying down with my eyes closed.
So, reading is very difficult for me.

Let your fingers do the walking...
and feel the music!

Hi Peeps.

For myself, I'm really only concerned with note recognition here. Jaye, as you mentioned, not a one stop shop though there are more volumes of Mikrokosmos and while I do like to read from a number of different sources, I found that Mikrokosmos has an overarching melodic intent which is very simple but effective.

It's comforting for me to have one book that deals with one simple aim. It helps me not spread myself too thin across too many areas. Having said that, what's become very exciting for me is to understand the value of much acquired knowledge through university etc and to know how to apply it more successfully.

Just something I'm excited about for now. There are many ways to climb a mountain yes?

Hey, I am not saying “don’t” do it.

I spent about 4 months with it as my main reading practice, but in the end once I could read through it completely, I had to stop as I was starting to just memorize it and not real-time read it. As far as note recognition goes, there are apps for that - seriously- flash card apps that time and score you. Having trouble with ledger lines? Set it to ledger lines... intervals? Set it to intervals. 5-10 minutes a day will put your “note recognition” through the roof.

And honestly, when I read I don’t think hmm this is an A, oh fuck here comes a jump to D then a jump to F#... no, that’s just downright slow. Instead, it’s more like “There’s an A, P4 from that, now M3 from that...” etc. That’s a mindset due in no small part to my own schooling, where eartraining and sight singing were core parts of the curriculum. I can work anything out with solfeggi... I am not really a drummer (I dabble) , but I read drum notation probably better than anything else. Why? Each “thing” you hit is visually quite different on the score. Plus, 95% of pop, blues, rock, metal, country, etc has the snare on beats 2 and 4. So there are a lot less melodic surprises, just need a thorough understanding of rhythm...

Plus, it depends on one’s objectives.

Another thing to consider is how small children learn language - how to speak, read and write.
It’s about a 5 year process of being absolutely immersed in learning to communicate. It starts with saying a parent’s name, or yes/no, being read to, looking at simple picture books and drawing shapes that eventually become letters. Until eventually, the little monsters are highly proficient texters, can easily read the menu at McDonalds, and have a savagely sassy spoken wit... Sure, you could learn to read by only studying the bible - but one might find that being exposed to a much wider reality may lead to a bigger proficiency with one’s communication skills...

Just an opinion... and yes, there are many ways to climb a mountain, but if your objective is to go “up” there may be certain logical steps, and maybe even a centuries old path...

Ha ha . Most of my playing is similar, although i have a basic understanding of reading, I cannot read and play at the same time.

There is an old joke. How do you get a piano player to stop playing? Take away his sheet music. How do you get a guitar player to stop playing? Put sheet music in front of him

Truth, right?!

Hey Jay, your comments have got me thinking about this more deeply.

I'm with you there on interval recognition, which has become much stronger for me. Solfege is also something I became quite good at but had dropped the ball on that. It's a great skill and I fall back into it pretty quickly.

Seems to me there a few layers that help with fluency in reading. There's the vertical or harmonic approach, understanding chord shapes helps me to recognise melodies made from an arpeggiated chord. There's the horizontal line of pure melody and both the vertical/harmonic line plus the horizontal line intersect to some degree and at different times.
There's the interval recognition and ear training.
Then there's pure inspiration.

What I'm trying to do is let myself go down a more methodical path because I feel that I have ample creativity but less mastery. It's a bit like when Branford (Marsalis) says improvising has more to do with having more vocabulary than it does, pure inspiration. Ya still gotta read that stuff to learn it..

I know what you mean by Mikrokosmos becoming something that you memorise and found myself going down that road. I suppose what I'm finding is that my grab bag of accumulated knowledge is slowly becoming a practical reality, so I'm probably spinning a few plates while giving the impression of digging in to the simple note recognition old school reading method.
Truth be told I like all these levels but your comments have helped me think of this more clearly and in a different way.

Cheers

Good thread stickrad.

This, as simple as it is, is what i am working on currently, to learn reading, I am not so concerned with the octave intervals between the bass clef and g clef, as ledger lines are not in my brain currently, just trying to find the chords between both sides and best finger placement, to follow the way the notes are written, as in, up or down the scale. So up a 4th, down a 4th etc. Also trying to be able to switch between any of these chords fluently, as well as trying to stay in time, and create Melodys, and or bass runs. I usually start by learning the bass side, then learn the melody side chords, then put them together. Eventually my hands get tied up, and i have to change the left or right hand to make them work together, and not get tangled. This requires moving either hand to a different box, or using one hand to create the chord.
Rock and Roll. Its a long slow process for me.

Every Good boy does fine and face.

Cant remember the bass gbdfa.
Aceg.