How To Read Standard Notation?

[cryptastix]

hey, what is the right way to learn to read music on my anglo....

 

 

is the music read the same as it sounds, or is it played an octave higher in standard notation?

 

Thanks!

[gcoover]

Should be shown the same as it sounds, but some books (not mine) will show it in a different octave - as if learning to read music on the Anglo isn't hard enough already!

 

Gar

[adrian brown]

If you want learn to play from typical piano scores, it's useful to be able to read from an octave lower than usual sounding pitch. This has the bottom C on my anglo as the C below the bass staff and the lowest RH c as middle c. Of course like this, you soon run into problems in the high register, where the instrument peters out, at the top of the treble clef, but it's fine for a lot of popular song accompaniments.

 

Adrian

[Don Taylor]

FWIW. If, instead of using the grand staff, you replace the bass staff with a treble-8 staff then Anglo and Duet music falls quite neatly into RHS on the upper staff and LHS on the lower staff. Both staves have the notes in the same positions on the staff but the LHS is an octave down. Only one set of staff positions to learn.

 

You can do this with ABC in EasyABC, but I found it a bit fiddly and it used to be buggy. I think the newer versions of ABC software have this sorted.

 

In Musescore it is a piece of cake as you can simply drag and drop clef symbols to change the clef notation. So you can enter or import some music in the grand staff format and then swap the bass clef for a treble-8 clef. It is also easy to import ABC into Musescore so you are not cut off from the ABC world if you use Musescore.

 

The downside of this format is that it is not so easy to visualize intervals between the upper and lower staves.

 

On the plus side, if you give the sheet music to a piano player they go out of their minds!

[gcoover]

If you're wanting to read full piano scores, Adrian is absolutely correct. The tricky part about the Anglo is that middle C is in the middle of the left side on the Anglo. So if you notate the left hand in real pitch some of the left hand notes will end up being shown way up in the air with ledger lines that very few people can easily read. So to avoid that some folks will notate the whole thing down an octave.

 

I've also seen double treble clefs used only for Anglo music, which makes a certain amount of sense but still doesn't help you read piano music.

 

For my books I just show the melody line, in real pitch, and then show the left hand as button numbers only (no notation). I feel this is best for initial learning - makes it easy to just learn the melody if you want. The down side is it doesn't help you one bit if you want to learn to read music for the left hand. To be honest, even though I have years of piano and Anglo experience, I'm just now learning to read music on the left hand side of the Anglo!

 

Gary

[adrian brown]

I guess it just depends on what you want to do with the music you want to play, and where you source it. The bass clef is not difficult to learn if you can read the treble clef, but like everything, if you don't make regular use of it, then it will take a lot longer. But this post opens up an interesting question for me, since I always consider my variously pitched anglos to be in a 'virtual' C (or C/G) and just accept that if they're not in C/G they will sound a second, a forth or a fifth lower. How is it for people who only have anglos in G/D? As far as I can see, most instruction books (like Gary's) cater for a C/G, so do you transpose the melody and use the fingerings, or transpose the fingerings and use the melody as written?

 

Adrian

[Jody Kruskal]

Hi Adrian,

 

I'm sure that I've mentioned this here before, but...

 

I mostly play G/D Anglo and that is my reference. If I'm playing an Anglo in a different key, I'm still thinking G/D and any other key Anglo is a transposing instrument.

 

Mostly I do not play from dots and scores or even think chord names or note letter names. I just play from the sounds I'm hearing and the shapes in my head that make the right sounds. Then there are those times when I have to actually read music from the page. Then, I have to go into a dual mode of reconciling my right and left hand brain activity. It's not pleasant but I manage. Reading on an Anglo is silly, there are too many ways to play the same thing and wrong roads to follow. When I have to, I actually sight sing the dots and play what I hear... the singing in my head. Weird I guess.

 

When I'm playing a Playford English country dance with unfamiliar tunes and dots to read in all sorts of keys, I have to bring three keys of Anglo to get through the night. As a guide, I actually use a pencil to transpose the chords only. When things get difficult I just play chordal accompaniment. Then, by the second time through the tune, my ear takes over and I'm not really looking at the page at all. This is not a perfect solution but in most cases it works for me.

 

Anglo is a glorious beast and does not lend itself to the tether of reading at all. Better to play by ear IMHO.

 

Gary - your tab is great and I use it all the time with my students. Still, I can't read it at any speed and use it just for learning and teaching.

Edited May 20, 2017 by Jody Kruskal

[wayman]

Jody, I do the sight-singing from notation, getting the tune aurally into my head, then using my fingers to play what's in my head thing too. We can be weird together.

[cryptastix]

thankyou for all your help guys.

 

I think I have the answer..... is to learn as its played, and learn how to read it an octave higher. how that 8v thing or w/e notates things.

 

 

sooooo the question then becomes. which to tackle first.