Hey Neal,

For me, I learned to play mostly by using my ears and reading (theory books) any material that I can get my hands on. To tell you the truth though, sometimes I don’t really understand what it is I’m reading or I get the sense that I haven’t really gotten the depth of the material. However, my real frustration is not being able to read music properly. I played both in the concert band and jazz band in high school under a very good teacher. But, I’ve come to realize that even back then I relied more on my memory of how the music played rather than reading the music as written. I am on my own now and I can’t afford private lessons at the time, how can I improve my reading and how will I know if I’m  reading correctly without the guidance of a music teacher?

-Dolu

Hey Dolu,
You probably just want to practice sight reading a little bit each day.

An etude book that comes with a CD where the music is played so you can listen and play along might be good.  Greg Fishman came out with a few good books.  I got those a couple of weeks ago.
And if you don’t have a metronome, get one and start using it more.  Then you’ll be able to tell if you’re playing the rhythms in time.
Is the issue with reading the notes, rhythms?
-Neal

Dolu

Hey Dolu,
All right, I figured it was probably with rhythms on the page. 

Using a metronome and starting slowly will help build your skills and make you more comfortable.

Reading properly will help you with improvisation since it will give you quicker access to written music and ideas.  It also lets you share your ideas, esp. if you start composing.

To make it your own, you’ll add your personality and your style and maybe even change the rhythms.  But it’s important to be able to play music as it was written sometimes, especially when you’re playing with other musicians.

It’s much faster to be able to play music by reading it than playing it by ear, IF you’re a good reader.  I’m not saying your ear is not important, however, you want to have multiple tools for music.  If you were building a house, you would want a hammer and a saw and probably a lot of other tools.  Having a really big hammer wouldn’t make up for not having a good saw.

And think about this, if someone suddenly can’t play a gig and you get called to come in and read some charts, you won’t get the gig if you can’t read well.  It will go to someone who might not sound as good as you, but who can read.

-Neal