Elementary Music Education

Best Parents’ and Music Teachers’ Resources in Music Lessons for Children

Using Music Study Guides to Learn How to Read Music as Easily as Reading Regular Books

Even prior to the beginning of music training, parents understand that the child will have to read up a music study guide to learn the names and placement of notes on magic five lines in order for him to be able to read music in the future. Yes, dear parents, it not a typing error! Your child should learn to read music just like he reads regular books.

When dads and moms are anxious to find their talented and musically gifted child a teacher of music and a music study guide, they need to focus and understand what their expectations of musical education are. And it needs to be done prior to calculating the expenses for the lessons, instrument and other educational needs.

Many parents ignore this point and think that future success in musical career is absolutely impossible to plan and predict. Moreover, those parents who’ve never taken music lessons or even seen a music study guide for whatever reasons are afraid to set "musical" goals and signing the child up for music lessons say. They say that they do not want their child to become the next great musician or composer; let him learn to play a little “for own pleasure”.

Actually by saying “for own pleasure” the parents really mean for their own pleasure. It is they who wish to see their baby play the instrument with his wonderful fingers that create the sounds of music. And during the first lessons it really does not matter how well he plays – just because it is so cute...

Why are parents, who do not have a musical education or have no idea of what a music study guide is, afraid to make a good pianist, violinist, guitarist or composer out of the child? The answer is simple and obvious. They think that it is too complicated and if they, adults, did not have the talent to do it, their child will never be able to do it.

It is the same as for the family of parents-musicians to imagine their child become a carpenter or an astronaut because they plan his musical career; and nevertheless, they like how their child draws or makes rockets from a piece of wood.

Is it really possible to learn to read notes as quickly and easily as it is to read regular books? Can a music study guide teach how to? Of course!

All musicians, without exception, should master “techniques of sight-reading”. It looks exactly like if you were to give the child an unfamiliar book or a story and ask him to read out a few paragraphs aloud. Depending on age and personal reading skills, the child copes with this problem using the knowledge and personal experience which the child is not born with, but acquired due to long and studious training.

The same happens with reading pieces of music! First, the music study guide teaches the kid how to learn notes in one octave, then in another, then in the third, etc., at the same time practising to find them on the musical instrument. Certainly, it is difficult for a young musician to cope with such tasks the way he did when he first learned the letters, tried to find them in unfamiliar and large texts, and then, when printed letters changed, had to learn how to handwrite almost all over again...

Remember, the more your child practised reading, the quicker he learned to read! To learn to read books that have notes instead of familiar letters does require daily practice. And the ability to master a music study guide and read musical texts depends on your musical child’s frequency of training and his persistence.

All the music teachers possess the “techniques of sight-reading” to some extent and if it is so scary and impossible for you, dear parents, to imagine your child performing on the big stage, do not bring him to the musical school that has an obligatory training program and strict deadlines; simply find a private tutor who possesses the “techniques of sight-reading” perfectly well and can teach it to your young talent.

If you want your child to learn to play “for his own pleasure”, then he simply must be able to absolutely free read the notes of any piece, regardless of its novelty or complexity. Having mastered this invaluable skill, he will be grateful to you for musical training which you made possible for him to have.

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