Learning to read sheet music can be intimidating. But, it is one of the most rewarding skills that you’ll ever learn. There are many benefits to learning how to read sheet music that will help you in your life and career as a musician. And, if you’re not convinced, take a look at these five reasons why you should learn how to read sheet music!
Musical Notation Is Universal
It’s true! Wherever you go in the world, music notation accompanies it. And even if you don’t know what musical notation is yet, once you learn how to read sheet music on Music Notes your eyes will be opened up to countless opportunities for learning and experiencing new genres of sound that exist across cultures around the globe. Music has always been something shared by all people everywhere since prehistoric times. The oldest known example of written music was found on a cave wall in France dating back over 30 thousand years ago, making this practice almost as old as writing itself! Since then our fascination with reading and playing sheet music has only grown stronger.
You Can Play With Others
There are many other musicians, bands and singers that you can play with. You will find these people at local music events or in online forums like Craigslist (for free) or Reverbnation (for a fee). Sometimes it is very hard to get your first gig together because not everyone wants to work for free – but the more gigs you do, the better chance of finding regular collaborators. Some venues may even allow all-inclusive cover charges where they pay each musician equally instead of paying by the hour which means that sometimes people might be willing to work for less than usual if there’s an opportunity to make good money out of it later on! So keep hunting around until you find someone who shares similar interests as yours. Once you do, try practicing together and playing at local venues. You’ll most likely have a lot of fun in the process!
Learning to Read Music Increases Your Accuracy
By learning to read sheet music, you can take your musical abilities up a notch. You will be able to play songs much more accurately and quickly than if you were reading from tabs or chord charts. Learning how to read the notes on the page is like giving yourself an extra couple of hands. It’s easier for many people who learn this way as well since they do not have to focus so much on both playing their instrument and watching where they place their fingers/mouth at all times (if using vocals). Additionally, with enough practice and time spent reading sheet music, one can easily transpose almost any song into another key – great for making that cover song sound just like the original!
You Can Compose Your Music
When you learn to read sheet music, it opens up the possibility of creating your musical compositions. This is especially true if you are a songwriter or composer because then you can record yourself playing what’s in your mind on paper and share it with others! Just like writing down lyrics for songs, this process will help improve both skills. You don’t have to be good at drawing either—sheet music comes with symbols that tell us how high or low each note should sound. If you are familiar enough with these symbols already (which takes practice), try using them on your own without any traditional notation underneath so that they stand out more clearly against blank sheet music paper. Then watch as even non-musicians enjoy listening to pieces that are 100% your work!
Improves Your Listening Skills
To make sense of sheet music, you have to learn how to listen. In the same way that a child has an innate ability to understand the language even if they don’t speak it themselves, all human beings are born with the ability to comprehend pitch and rhythm – two key components of sheet music. When children first start listening and singing songs, their brains process both the lyrics and tune as one big chunk because they don’t yet know about individual words or phrases. As we grow older our brain learns this separation between speech and song which is why most people can easily pick up new languages but struggle with writing poetry from different dialects. By learning how to read sheet music, your ears will become stronger at picking out each sound so when you listen to a song all you can hear is the individual instruments and voices. This makes it much easier for singers to pick up on lyrics without having to rely solely on reading sheet music itself.
Incredibly Versatile
Sheet music can be used to play just about any instrument. The great thing is that all sheet music has the same symbols regardless of what it’s being played on, so a flute player and a pianist would both use the same notes if they were playing from the same piece of sheet music. This makes learning how to read sheet music useful for more than just one type of instrument since once you understand these fundamental elements you’ll have an easier time picking up other instruments too! For example, violinists learn their first songs by reading them vertically where each line represents a different string while guitar players mostly rely on horizontal notation which goes left-to-right across six lines representing six strings (the top two are thicker than the bottom four).
Knowing how to read sheet music is not only useful for players of various instruments but also incredibly helpful when it comes to composers and songwriters. If you wanted to write your songs then learning how to play an instrument would be very beneficial since you’d have a much better idea of what sounds work well together in harmony. Another cool thing about reading sheet music is that it can help you learn a ton of other skills such as mathematics and geometry which are both used heavily in the composition process, especially when it comes to arranging sounds into chords or scales.
Learning how to read sheet music would be incredibly beneficial if you’re looking for ways to improve your math skills because they work together like two peas in a pod! If there’s one skill everyone should master by their teen years, it’s literacy. Not only does this open up an entire world of new opportunities but also helps with self-expression, listening habits, creativity all while sharpening your mind at the same time!