How to Learn?

[Doug Sjostrom]

I'm 60, built my own pipe organ and taught myself to play by ear. Now in semi-retirement, I'm finally taking lessons. My instructor is a wonderful Juliard trained organist from Uganda. I came to him completely illiterate regarding notation and theory. While he's been most patient, I feel he's somewhat dissappointed in my slow progress. He's away for the summer and I'm attempting to really improve my reading skills in his absence.
My question here is what you feel is the most expedient way for someone fairly highly motivated to become proficient.
Thanks,
Doug

[Contratrombone64]

If you can't read music then this needs to be something you should change foremost I would imagine.

[Krummhorn]

Firstly, congratulations for wanting to learn to play the organ. I feel it's never too late to begin, provided there is a willingness to listen and practice.

The John Stainer organ method book would be a great purchase if you can get your hands on a copy. There are scored exercises as well as some simple four and five part practice pieces. You need to develop your reading skills - playing by ear is helpful, but in order to properly learn, for example a Buxtehude Passacaglia, one needs to see the notes and learn the music that way.

Having taught organ in the past, I can understand your instructors 'impatience'. As instructors, we all want to see our student do everything we hand off to them ... fact of life is that this will rarely happen. It will all come together in time.

[wljmrbill]

The key is "Practice" . I have had students who played pieces well within a matter of weeks and others who would take months.. Seem like they all learned at different levels...wether learning to read the music, play the music, perform the music..Practice makes it all come together. Good Luck my friend.

[Contratrombone64]

Billy-boy makes a good point ... I played (not anymore) the viola professionally and could sight read with fluency pretty well anything put in front of me. On the organ, I struggle and have to play things in chunks over and over and over (without error) before it sticks in my mind. Coordinating hands and feet for me was a big problem initially but it has become easier with practise.

[Doug Sjostrom]

Thanks All,
What I'm asking is is there any particularly effecient thehnique for developing reading skills? I have Gleason, Stainer and a few others. My instructor settled in on Stainer. My issue here is this. I figure out the notes quite slowly and then fall back on aural and motor memory to master the exercise. I think at this point this is counterproductive.

[wljmrbill]

Doug. It will come easier and faster as you continue to read and play ( the brain must have time to learn its thought process for you). Even myself when I tackle a new complicated piece I read it slowr than I would normally read. Most of us reduce the tempo downward to learn and then increase tempo to performance level.

[Contratrombone64]

I think part of my fluency in reading music was due to the fact that I did an awful lot of score reading when I first started music. I have a huge study score collection now as a result and still love following along while I listen. I'm sure this helped with fluency.

[Doug Sjostrom]

I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.
—Albert Einstein.

Interesting!

Mark 10 : 15

Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

[wljmrbill]

CT64 I too like to following score when listening to music.Gives me an insite unto the way the performer is interpreting the score..get alot of ideas from doing this to I noticed. I even do this when listening to youtube postings.

[teddy]

Although I could read music, and played the piano when young, following my heart surgery and stroke I found I could no longer make any sense of sheet music when I went back to playing the guitar. I had to invent my own form of notation which I write above and/or below the staves. Just goes to show that professional tuition may not provide all the answers for you and some people have to adapt a system if they really want to play. Best of luck with it.

teddy

[AllanP]

Reading Music
My first organ teacher assigned a different hymn each week to enable me to learn to read music well. This practice of playing a new piece each week greatly improved my music reading skills.

Allan

[Stella Maris]

Teddy- what does your own notation system look like exactly?
I've always been wondering why haven't anybody invented something easy to follow

Doug - I would like to encourage you but I do not how, because I adore learning by ear, too. I guess it takes years for some people to read sheet music fluently, your teacher must know it and should be proud of every little step you make. Look at children who start reading - some children learn it in few weeks, others in few years,
but most of them will read sooner or later if they practice enough.

[teddy]

Stella
It identifies the string and the fret so I can immediately make sense of it. It can be a little clumsy when you are playing several notes simultaneously but it works for me. When I look at normal notaion now it is like I suffer from dyslexia. It is totally meaningless. I am sure people have tried to find an alternative before, but like Esperanto, it did not catch on for one reason or another. I always say that if you want to do something badly enough you will find a way.

teddy

[Stella Maris]

Teddy, it sounds good your system!