Why Should You Learn to Read Piano Notes?

For far too many people, reading music is the biggest obstacle to really learn how to play piano. Do you really need to know how to read notes to learn piano? Well, you can play without reading notes, but this can take you only so far. The language of music is standard notation. In this article I will try to explain why the ability to read notes is so important and how can it be beneficial for your musical improvement.

Many think that reading music is very difficult to learn. I’m not going to say it’s a walk in the park, but it’s really not as hard as it looks. Learning it is similar to learning another language, only easier. This is because musical language is one of the simplest languages there is. The musical alphabet is made up of only seven letters: from A to G.

The basics of standard notation are quite easy to learn. Besides notes you have the staff, the clefs, the time signatures and a few other things. At first it may seem like a lot, and of course, you need practice to become efficient at it, but once you get the basics down, the whole need world of music will open to you.

Reading sheet music will give you a deeper understanding of music and your instrument. Standard notation is the universal language of music and if you understand it, it will give you the ability to learn any piece, regardless of style, much faster and easier. Whether you like classical, rock, pop, country, jazz or anything else, music is always written is the same language.

This is how musicians communicate. It’s not necessary to know how to read the language of music in order to play it, just like it’s not necessary to read in order to speak. But just imagine how much information would not be available to you, if you wouldn’t know how to read. It’s similar with reading notes.

I hope you can see how this ability can really be beneficial to your musical development.