Today’s topic is specifically musical. The last several episodes have had to do with getting the new school year off to a strong start. We’ve talked about the non-musical benefits of studying piano, being careful not to overbook our child’s schedule, and last week was all about setting up routines. Today, let’s talk about the nuts and bolts of reading music.For a more detailed description of the staff and it’s history, listen to Episode 004.

Reading music is like reading any other language

I’ve tried to learn Spanish here and there. I know a few words but I always associate them back to English. When I try to read something in Spanish, I’m looking for English clues or associations to help me understand. I am not fluent in Spanish. In my opinion, to become fluent, I need to stop associating and adding a second step in my thought process. For example, when I say Gracias, I’m thinking ‘Thank You’.  I simply need to trust the Spanish words and let them stand alone. The closest I may have come is the word Bienvenidos. I first learned it in a song when I was on a mission trip to Costa Rica years ago. I didn’t learn the English equivalent – still don’t really know the equivalent.

Think about how children learn to read books

When your child learns to read books, they follow a fairly common path:They hear words as you read to them. You might even track the words with your finger as you read so your child begins to associate letter symbols with the sounds you are making.They learn to recognize individual letters, call them by name, and know the sound they represent. We might say, “A is for apple. B is for banana. C is for cat.” When they see the new letter, they connect it with a familiar object to help them remember the sound.They start putting groups of letters together to form words. Cat. Hat. Mat. You wouldn’t take the time to draw the objects next to the letters when they are trying to read. For example, when spelling the word CAT, you wouldn’t draw a cat, then an apple, then a turtle, would you? That adds too much work to the process and now the child is so busy trying to remember what each drawing means they can’t focus on the original task – C-A-T spells cat.As children mature and gain experience with letters, they are able to put more letters together to create and understand more complicated words, put words together to make sentences, and sentences together to make stories. They learn to add inflection to their voice as they read to make the story more interesting. The letters are not the focus anymore, they are the tools used to create a bigger picture.Children do not wait to speak and use the words they know until they can read fluently. Spoken language generally comes first.