How to start learning sheet music with a child? Step 1.
The dots, lines, and keys are symbols, similar to the letters of the alphabet, that your child is told to learn to link to a specific sound. Learning to note music and learning to read are similar activities and involve auditory-motor synchronization, meaning that body movement (including the vocal chords) is in sync with what the child hears. To start reading, the child must see the shape of the letters; he still needs to hear the sound of these letters in his head; then the brain has to "tell" the vocal cords and lips to move to get the right sound.
The same goes for musical notation: the symbol on the staff represents a specific note (pitch) and a certain length of time (rhythm). The child needs to recognize what the symbol means, hear a sound in his head, the motor cortex in the brain should give a signal so that the fingers and body move into a certain configuration, and then make a movement such as pressing a key, pulling a bow down, or blowing a trombone. It is a very complicated and time-consuming process. Therefore, the main thing a parent needs in the process of learning a sheet of music is to be patient and not have expectations. Fortunately, learning to read sheet music is the same as learning traditional reading - anyone can learn it!
We will divide this article into several parts so that you and your child can learn the notes step by step. So let's go to STEP 1:
Before a child starts reading and learning letters, he or she knows the language very well and can say the simplest sentences. Not yet able to read, he holds a lot of books in his hand, sees how his parents are reading, and even if he is not asked to pay attention to specific shapes - the appearance of the letters is something he is familiar with. It should be exactly the same with music. Most of the difficulties in learning notes are that the child has never dealt with these strange shapes, has never encountered them in his environment, has no idea what they are for - notes are simply foreign to him. First of all, it is worth tame them so that they become natural and friendly for the child.
Where to start
Open one of our songbooks (link) and look at the sheet music with your child. Take, for example, the song We are krasnoludki from the Polish songbook Volume 2 (link). A whole mysterious world of different signs in the notation of a melody opens up before us. Before we learn to read it, we need to know where the note is.
Staff
Notation begins with a staff: it's just five lines and the spaces between them where the notes are written.
How many notes are there?
There are 7 notes and each has a name or even two. Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si - these are the so-called solmization names - that is, those that facilitate solmization (singing). Each note also has a letter name - for theoretical term - C, D, E, F, G, A, H. At the beginning of learning the notes, it is worth focusing on the names of solving, but the letter names should not be forgotten either. If the child already knows the letters, it can be said that each note has a given name - surname: Do - C; Re - D; Mi -E; Fa - F; Sol - G; La - A; Si - H:
On a piano keyboard it will look like this:
And now we will read the notes of the melody We are dwarfs, which we mentioned above:
Now listen to the song We are dwarfs (you can also do it in the pomelody application - link), and then try to sing the melody yourself by looking at the score and naming the notes aloud instead of the lyrics of the song.
You can also play a melody on any musical instrument, e.g. bells, ukulele or keys (if you do not have an instrument at home, we recommend downloading any piano keyboard application to your phone or tablet, e.g. Virtuoso).
The more repetitions - the better! Try it yourself and let me know in the comments how you are doing with memorizing the names of notes. What is better remembered by a child, solmization or letter names? And you? ?
The same goes for musical notation: the symbol on the staff represents a specific note (pitch) and a certain length of time (rhythm). The child needs to recognize what the symbol means, hear a sound in his head, the motor cortex in the brain should give a signal so that the fingers and body move into a certain configuration, and then make a movement such as pressing a key, pulling a bow down, or blowing a trombone. It is a very complicated and time-consuming process. Therefore, the main thing a parent needs in the process of learning a sheet of music is to be patient and not have expectations. Fortunately, learning to read sheet music is the same as learning traditional reading - anyone can learn it!
We will divide this article into several parts so that you and your child can learn the notes step by step. So let's go to STEP 1:
Before a child starts reading and learning letters, he or she knows the language very well and can say the simplest sentences. Not yet able to read, he holds a lot of books in his hand, sees how his parents are reading, and even if he is not asked to pay attention to specific shapes - the appearance of the letters is something he is familiar with. It should be exactly the same with music. Most of the difficulties in learning notes are that the child has never dealt with these strange shapes, has never encountered them in his environment, has no idea what they are for - notes are simply foreign to him. First of all, it is worth tame them so that they become natural and friendly for the child.
Where to start
Open one of our songbooks (link) and look at the sheet music with your child. Take, for example, the song We are krasnoludki from the Polish songbook Volume 2 (link). A whole mysterious world of different signs in the notation of a melody opens up before us. Before we learn to read it, we need to know where the note is.
Staff
Notation begins with a staff: it's just five lines and the spaces between them where the notes are written.
How many notes are there?
There are 7 notes and each has a name or even two. Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si - these are the so-called solmization names - that is, those that facilitate solmization (singing). Each note also has a letter name - for theoretical term - C, D, E, F, G, A, H. At the beginning of learning the notes, it is worth focusing on the names of solving, but the letter names should not be forgotten either. If the child already knows the letters, it can be said that each note has a given name - surname: Do - C; Re - D; Mi -E; Fa - F; Sol - G; La - A; Si - H:
On a piano keyboard it will look like this:
And now we will read the notes of the melody We are dwarfs, which we mentioned above:
Now listen to the song We are dwarfs (you can also do it in the pomelody application - link), and then try to sing the melody yourself by looking at the score and naming the notes aloud instead of the lyrics of the song.
You can also play a melody on any musical instrument, e.g. bells, ukulele or keys (if you do not have an instrument at home, we recommend downloading any piano keyboard application to your phone or tablet, e.g. Virtuoso).
The more repetitions - the better! Try it yourself and let me know in the comments how you are doing with memorizing the names of notes. What is better remembered by a child, solmization or letter names? And you? ?