Stop Sight-Reading Like This! (The #1 Practice Mistake I See) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Reading note names versus reading
2. 0:02patterns. [music] Who is actually right?
3. 0:04At the beginner and intermediate levels,
4. 0:06should you be reading notes one by one,
5. 0:08or should you be training yourself to
6. 0:09read patterns? The answer? [music]
7. 0:12Hi everyone, [snorts] it's Teacher Ta
8. 0:13Ta. Have you ever at a piano academy
9. 0:15seen your teacher take a quick glance at
10. 0:17a brand new sheet of music and just play
11. 0:19it beautifully right on the spot, making
12. 0:21you think, "Wow, are they even [music]
13. 0:22human?" On the other hand, you find
14. 0:25yourself checking the key signature,
15. 0:27reading every single note one by one,
16. 0:29and barely finishing one measure before
17. 0:31moving on to the next. Working like that
18. 0:33just to master one of your favorite
19. 0:35songs and takes four or five months. So,
20. 0:37I bet a lot of you have felt completely
21. 0:39exhausted. Coincidentally, not too long
22. 0:41ago, one of our subscribers sent in a
23. 0:43really wonderful story. It perfectly
24. 0:46captures the exact same worries that all
25. 0:48of you are dealing with right now. Let
26. 0:50me briefly share their story with you
27. 0:51first. Hi Ta Ta, I'm just an ordinary
28. 0:54office worker whose biggest joy in life
29. 0:56is playing the piano after work. It's
30. 0:58been quite a while since I started
31. 1:00taking hobby classes at an academy, and
32. 1:02I mostly practice my favorite new age
33. 1:04songs or classical pieces. But lately,
34. 1:07I've developed some deep concerns about
35. 1:08the way I practice, which is why I'm
36. 1:10writing to you. Whenever I get a new
37. 1:12piece of sheet music, I check the key
38. 1:14signature first, and then I practice by
39. 1:16reading every single note name one by
40. 1:19one. Once I can play one measure
41. 1:20perfectly, I move on to the next
42. 1:22measure. That's how I practice. I'm sure
43. 1:25most of you practice exactly like this,
44. 1:27right? Because of this, to finish a
45. 1:29whole song I want to play, it usually
46. 1:31takes about five months minimum.
47. 1:33>> [music]
48. 1:33>> Since my progress is so slow, I get
49. 1:35really burned out halfway through. I can
50. 1:37completely see why you'd get tired. When
51. 1:40we were kids, we just did it because we
52. 1:41were told to, but practicing like this
53. 1:44as an adult is honestly incredibly
54. 1:46impressive. But while watching YouTube,
55. 1:48I saw people saying you should read
56. 1:50music quickly by looking at chord shapes
57. 1:52or interval patterns. However, my
58. 1:54academy teacher says that in actual
59. 1:56music, [music] patterns change all the
60. 1:58time, so you have to read the notes one
61. 2:00by one the traditional way and get
62. 2:02[music] used to it. So, here's my
63. 2:04question. Question one, at a hobbyist
64. 2:07level like mine, is it right to read
65. 2:08notes one by one, or should I do
66. 2:11separate training to see them in
67. 2:12patterns? That is the question they
68. 2:14asked. Just reading this story, I can
69. 2:16truly see how much thought and worry
70. 2:18went into this. And when I uploaded
71. 2:20videos before about having to look at
72. 2:22patterns, a lot of people shared their
73. 2:24opinions. If you just look at it a lot,
74. 2:26you'll get better. Of course, you
75. 2:28improve if you practice a lot, but think
76. 2:30about it. Most of us take Spanish or
77. 2:33French classes in school, right? We
78. 2:35usually start taking language classes in
79. 2:37middle or high school at the latest, but
80. 2:39even after studying for years, there are
81. 2:41still so many people who struggle to
82. 2:43speak a single sentence as adults, even
83. 2:45though [snorts] they've spent so much
84. 2:46time on it. Music is exactly the same
85. 2:49way. Even after practicing the piano so
86. 2:51much, there are still people who find it
87. 2:54really hard to read sheet music. So, the
88. 2:56idea that you'll just magically get
89. 2:58better by doing it a lot, I don't think
90. 3:00that's true. However, to become good at
91. 3:02reading music, it is true that you need
92. 3:04to look at a lot of sheet music. You
93. 3:06might think, what kind of wordplay is
94. 3:08this? Some people just improve naturally
95. 3:10by exposing themselves to it a lot. They
96. 3:12might just have great language skills
97. 3:14and the piano works the same way. There
98. 3:16are people who just practice blindly,
99. 3:18but if they can read music effortlessly,
100. 3:20I believe that way of reading is already
101. 3:22hardwired into them. So, if you find
102. 3:25this a bit you need to use the method
103. 3:27I'm about to share to make your practice
104. 3:29much more efficient. So, how should you
105. 3:31look at it? Reading [snorts] note names
106. 3:33versus reading patterns, who is actually
107. 3:35right? Let me explain this first. At the
108. 3:38beginner and intermediate levels, should
109. 3:40you be reading notes one by one, or
110. 3:42should you be training yourself to read
111. 3:44patterns? The answer is both. Your
112. 3:46academy teacher is right, too, because
113. 3:48you need to know the basic alphabet to
114. 3:50read words. However, if you only know
115. 3:53the alphabet, you will never be able to
116. 3:55read full sentences your whole life.
117. 3:57When beginners look at a score, they
118. 3:59read it one single letter at a time,
119. 4:01like C E G. In terms of reading text,
120. 4:04it's like sounding out F A T H E R I S I
121. 4:08N, like that. That's why it's bound to
122. 4:11be slow. But teachers and advanced
123. 4:13players, when they see that stacked
124. 4:15shape of C E and G, they don't read
125. 4:17individual notes. Instead, they process
126. 4:20the C major chord as a single word,
127. 4:23recognizing it instantly as a whole,
128. 4:25just like reading a whole phrase at a
129. 4:27single glance. Let's look at the piece
130. 4:29you're playing as an example.
131. 4:31Now, anyone can see this is a difficult
132. 4:33piece. So, at the very beginning, we
133. 4:35look at it like this.
134. 4:39>> [music]
135. 4:39>> Or maybe looking at them together, like
136. 4:41this.
137. 4:42But for now, just try playing only the
138. 4:44melody. This is a C, a high C. What I
139. 4:48mean is, you do need to be able to read
140. 4:50at least this much.
141. 4:52We have a C, a high C, and then there's
142. 4:54a B flat.
143. 5:00>> [music]
144. 5:04>> So, you should be able to read the top
145. 5:06notes like this.
146. 5:08Therefore, should you read individual
147. 5:10note names one letter at a time? Yes.
148. 5:13You absolutely need to read a melody at
149. 5:15this basic level. Next, the pattern.
150. 5:18What kind of pattern is it? When playing
151. 5:20here, notice how the lower notes are
152. 5:22spaced in fifths.
153. 5:25It's stacking the harmony, right? So,
154. 5:27you look at it as a fifth.
155. 5:30>> [music]
156. 5:30>> And this one, you look at as a fourth, a
157. 5:32third.
158. 5:35This one is a fifth, too. Earlier, this
159. 5:37part was a fifth.
160. 5:39If you look from here,
161. 5:43you do need to read individual note
162. 5:45names up to this point. But look at how
163. 5:47the pattern is changing right now. This
164. 5:49part is a fifth.
165. 5:53And this part is a fifth, too.
166. 5:56So, if you read this,
167. 5:58you can just play it easily, right?
168. 6:03>> [music]
169. 6:04>> You recognize it thinking, "Oh, a fifth
170. 6:06creates this kind of sound."
171. 6:08You internalize it that way.
172. 6:10Wow, a fifth sounds really stable,
173. 6:12doesn't it? [music] It sounds so
174. 6:14complete.
175. 6:15A fourth sounds about like this.
176. 6:22And right here comes the most important
177. 6:24part. I mentioned last time that six
178. 6:26appear a lot.
179. 6:28From here, how far down do the six go?
180. 6:31They go all the way to here. They appear
181. 6:34incredibly often, right? Okay, let's try
182. 6:37playing just the melody first.
183. 6:41>> [music]
184. 6:42>> Now, if you try to look at every single
185. 6:44note here, you'll get a massive
186. 6:46headache, right? That's why you should
187. 6:48read this using patterns instead. Six
188. 6:51appear a lot in Czerny exercises, too.
189. 6:57>> [music]
190. 6:59>> I just adjusted it slightly and played
191. 7:01it like a Czerny piece just now.
192. 7:04Next, it might get tricky with the
193. 7:05flats.
194. 7:07>> [music]
195. 7:13>> But, you just play them as six. You
196. 7:15recognize it like, "Ah, it's connected
197. 7:18in six like this."
198. 7:20You really need to understand this
199. 7:22pattern. If you didn't need to know
200. 7:24this, why would Czerny have created an
201. 7:26entire etude just for practicing six,
202. 7:29right? And then this one, too.
203. 7:32This is a sixth, too, right?
204. 7:35It's a sixth.
205. 7:37A fourth. This part was a fourth, too,
206. 7:39right?
207. 7:44This one is exactly the same.
208. 7:59>> [music]
209. 8:01>> So, you need to recognize patterns like
210. 8:02this, and you also need to read at least
211. 8:05the first starting note. That's the
212. 8:07point. Does that make sense? Next, you
213. 8:10also need to read patterns with your
214. 8:12left hand. What I told you to read first
215. 8:14for the left hand? Do you remember?
216. 8:17The bottom note. I told you to read from
217. 8:19the lowest note instead of the top note.
218. 8:22It's not a strict rule. It's not 100%
219. 8:25true all the time. But, it applies about
220. 8:2890% of the time. And do you know why?
221. 8:31Because the left hand is responsible for
222. 8:34the harmony.
223. 8:35Harmony, yes, chords. It handles the
224. 8:38chords.
225. 8:39Let me play just the bottom notes.
226. 8:45>> [music]
227. 8:50>> The bass note is crucial here. What I
228. 8:52mean by bass note is that the very
229. 8:54lowest note is the most important one.
230. 8:57So, this builds this specific chord. And
231. 9:00B flat, D flat.
232. 9:10Earlier, it was B flat and D flat, and
233. 9:12this time it's exactly [music] the same,
234. 9:14right?
235. 9:20What exactly is the same? This part
236. 9:22right here is identical.
237. 9:26For this one, only the bottom note is
238. 9:29the same, while the top note is
239. 9:30different, right? You can think of it as
240. 9:33the chords repeating in this manner.
241. 9:35Let's look at it one more time. What was
242. 9:37this note earlier? It was a B flat.
243. 9:41This one is a B flat, too.
244. 9:45An E flat.
245. 9:48An E flat.
246. 9:50An F.
247. 9:53An E flat.
248. 9:56It's exactly the same. The full chord
249. 9:58just keeps repeating over and over.
250. 10:01That's why when teachers try to sight
251. 10:03read this piece quickly, unless I
252. 10:05magically grow four eyes, I can't
253. 10:07possibly read and play every single note
254. 10:10individually.
255. 10:12>> [music]
256. 10:13>> Even if you play just this, it works
257. 10:15perfect. It means the music still makes
258. 10:17total sense even if you leave this out.
259. 10:26>> [music]
260. 10:27>> Because the fundamental chord is already
261. 10:28there. And this note is just an extra
262. 10:31layer added on top.
263. 10:33That's why you really need to look at
264. 10:35this structure. The patterns are, in
265. 10:38fact, the structure of the music. If
266. 10:40this is hard to grasp, feel free to
267. 10:43rewind and watch this part again. And if
268. 10:45it still doesn't make sense, please
269. 10:47leave a comment below.
270. 10:49Also, practicing how to spot these
271. 10:51patterns can be really tough to do all
272. 10:54by yourself because you have to analyze
273. 10:56the music on your own.
274. 10:58That's why our Piano teachers are here
275. 11:00to help you out. If you need guidance, I
276. 11:03highly recommend taking our lessons.
277. 11:06>> [music]
278. 11:06>> You can literally cut down what would
279. 11:08take 5 months into just one single
280. 11:10month. Question two, when pros play the
281. 11:13piano, do they actually think of the
282. 11:15note names, C D E, in their heads?
283. 11:19A lot of people assume that when playing
284. 11:21fast pieces, trying to think of
285. 11:22individual note names in your head
286. 11:24causes a brain overload, making you
287. 11:26freeze up. So, they mistakenly believe
288. 11:28that your hands just memorize the
289. 11:30movements and play on autopilot. They
290. 11:32think that's how it works, but I
291. 11:34actually strongly recommend singing the
292. 11:36note names in your mind as you play.
293. 11:38That is the best way to get used to
294. 11:39reading notes faster. However, there is
295. 11:42one distinct difference. Beginners think
296. 11:44of them as stiff, rigid words, like
297. 11:47reading a text step-by-step, which is
298. 11:49why they end up freezing. On the other
299. 11:51hand, pianists and teachers take those
300. 11:53note names, attach actual pitches to
301. 11:55them, and sing the melody fluidly inside
302. 11:57their heads. Think about it. How did I
303. 12:00sing it earlier? You should absolutely
304. 12:02sing the melody along like this. The
305. 12:04same goes for this part, too.
306. 12:07>> [music]
307. 12:24>> You can either sing this melody out loud
308. 12:25with your mouth, or if you feel a bit
309. 12:27embarrassed doing that, [music] you can
310. 12:29sing it quietly in your mind. Reading
311. 12:31the music while doing this will help you
312. 12:33tremendously. As for the third question,
313. 12:35I will cover that in our next video. The
314. 12:37third question is about how everything
315. 12:39completely resets when you haven't
316. 12:41played in a while, right? I'll break
317. 12:43down the brutal truth behind why that
318. 12:45happens. See you next time. Bye.