Category Archives: Music Reading and Theory

The 52 essential music reading exercises (part 1)

Music reading exercises

Today we begin to practice some very important exercises.

In several lessons, we will learn to do exercises which progressively become more difficult and which in short time will give you the basis to learn music correctly.
Firstly, we will learn how to use the audio files which are found in each lesson.

Furthermore, if you follow fhe lesson which I show you, it will be like doing real reading music lessons with a teacher beside you.

Today we will do some very important exercises based on conjunct motions.

Enjoy your lesson!

Learning material of this lesson

3 videos	16 mins
1. Essential exercises of music reading	4m 38s
2. How to get the most of audio files	4m 55s
3. How to do exercises correctly	6m 28s
+ 1 pdf file
+ 5 audio files

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Music reading: do you want to practice in a very effective way?

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Music reading practice

Today we will introduce a new level of music reading practice.
It is a very important new type of exercise, which if done correctly will enable you to read any music sheet at first sight and play it immediately on your instrument.

In reality, despite music reading often being said to be boring and useless, it can be as interesting and exciting as playing the piano or guitar.

The important thing is to understand the basics from the start, combining them with the concepts we have learned up to now. In this lesson you will also learn a very important way to keep time in order to distinguish beats.

This will be very useful if you study music reading more in depth and most importantly of all if you want to write music on paper.

Moreover, before taking a look at all of these topics, we will finish what we started in the last lesson, that is learning to identify beats when the time signature is 3/4 or 2/4.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	22 mins
1. How to identify beats in 3/4	5m 06s
2. How to identify beats in 2/4	3m 26s
3. How to keep time in order to distinguish beats	8m 48s
4. A new way to keep time and an exercise to learn how to do it	4m 35s
+ 1 pdf file

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What consonances and dissonances are and how to recognize them at any time.

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What are consonances and dissonances?

Music is made of continuous alternating between moments of tension and rest.
We have already mentioned how in the scale some notes have a dynamic role (dominant and leadin tone), while others have a function of rest (tonic). When overlapping sounds, we can create either a sensation of stability or of tension and thus create a harmonic interval.
Depending on the possible combinations, we are able to obtain very different sensations of hearing.

Today’s lesson includes various things:

We will see in depth consonances and dissonances
We will introduce an important concept, the resolution of a dissonance.
We will learn to classify different intervals and when an interval is consonance or a dissonance

At the end of the videos you will find a pdf table classifying the consonance and dissonance intervals.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	22 mins
1. What consonances and dissonances are	3m 46s
2. The way to classify intervals in consonances and dissonances	4m 56s
3. Practical examples of consonances and dissonances	6m 04s
4. What is ‘resolution’ and its important consequences in studying harmony	6m 50s
+ 1 pdf files

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Here is how to read pitch and duration of notes at the same time

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How to read pitch and duration of notes at the same time

In the last lesson we saw staf and clef which represent graphically the pitch of a sound and are very important.
If we put together both pitch and duration of notes, we are able to read written music perfectly.

Today we will see how to read pitch and duration of notes at the same time, firstly through theory and then with some practical examples.

After this lesson today, you will be able to make the big step which will bring you into the world of music reading.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	24 mins
1. How to read pitch and duration of notes together	1m 48s
2. How to find the beats on staff	4m 22s
3. Time signature: how to use it	2m 52s
4. Practical exercises for identifying beats 1	7m 06s
5. Practical exercises for identifying beats 2	8m 09s
+ 1 pdf files

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Do you want to know how to read notes in all clefs?

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How to read notes in all clefs

Up to now, in our study of reading and writing music we have seen in-depth how to represent the duration of a sound.
Today we will finally get to understand how it is possible to represent the pitch of a sound. We will therefore learn to understand how the pitch of a sound can be represented by introducing two fundamental elements: the staff and clef

In this way it is possible to write the notes with their right pitch. However we will not stop here.

After this lesson, you will be able to read all notes

in treble and bass clefs
all other F clefs (baritone clef) and C clefs (soprano, mezzosoprano, alto and tenor)

So you will be able to recognize all notes on any music sheet!

Furthermore, we will learn to understand two essential concepts:

How to find an absolute reference sound (C4) on the music sheet
What are ledgerlines and how to use them

Finally, you will be able to find a pdf file containing all written notes in treble and bass clefs.

After this lesson you will be able to read music!

Learning material of this lesson

7 videos	45 mins
1. How to name the notes and distinguish their pitch	7m 55s
2. What is the staff?	8m 23s
3. What are the clefs?	5m 35s
4. How to read the notes in treble and bass clef	6m 21s
5. The other F clefs and the C clefs	5m 24s
6. How to read the notes written above and below the staff	6m 04s
7. We find a reference sound in order to play any instruments in all clefs	5m 51s
+ 1 pdf file

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Reading notes and rests practice (part 2)

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Mixing notes with rests

In the last lesson we did several exercises to learn how to read notes of different duration. As you may have noticed we have not yet seen a fundamental element of music which is the duration of rests.

Today we will introduce this important element and learn how to read it correctly. Moreover I will teach you a very effective system which you can learn now and which will help you gain a clear idea of the duration of rests in reading notes.

In today’s lesson and through the exercises you will learn to mix notes and rests and read them correctly.

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	40 mins
Intro	1m 53s
1. Why it is important to read rests correctly	9m 38s
2. Examples of reading rests	9m 41s
3. Exercises with figures of different duration 1	9m 47s
4. Exercises with figures of different duration 2	4m 40s
5. Exercises with figures of different duration 3	4m 16s
+ 1 pdf files

Intro

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Musical intervals, how to properly name them (third part)

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Minor, augmented and diminished intervals

In the last lesson we learned to recognize the perfect and major intervals. You will surely have heard of many other interval types: minor, augmented and diminished intervals…

In what way can we recognize these types of intervals?

Today we will look at this topic not only in an in depth way but also in a simple one so that you will be able to learn the method of recognizing in any moment all the possible intervals. This will be crucial not only in the study of musical theory but also and mainly in understanding chords and harmony in general.

If you have followed these lessons you will be sure to enter totally (highfive) in the world of harmony! I suggest that to get the most from this lesson , to print the pdf file which you can find attached at the end of the video.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	42 mins
Intro	1m 26s
1. Above and below major intervals	13m 17s
2. Above and below perfect intervals	11m 00s
3. Practice	10m 58s
4. How to find the specific name for intervals wider than one octave	5m 47s
+ 3 pdf files

Intro

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Reading notes practice (part 1)

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How can we read notes with the right rhythm?

In the previous lessons we learnt the most important symbols to represent the duration of sound.

Now we have to put into practice what we have learnt.

So how do we read notes? When we find a series of notes of different duration, how do we read them with the right rhythm? Today, through a series of exercises, we will learn to read of one or more bars while keeping time.

You will also learn other fundamental notions including:

how to read and play written notes, starting immediately with a right and precise “tempo” (speed)
how to find the right “tempo” to practice and perform.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	32 mins
Intro	2m 48s
1. Basic practice 1 (crotchets, minimes, semibreves)	7m 15s
2. Basic practice 2 (quavers and semiquavers)	3m 32s
3. How to find the right “tempo” to practice and perform	8m 47s
4. Practice with other rhythmic figures	9m 27s

Intro

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Musical intervals, how to properly name them (second part)

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Major and perfect intervals

In today’s lesson we will start to learn the specific name of intervals.
In fact it is not enough to know that an inteval is fourth or seventh but we have to add other information in order to have a complete name.

All this is really important to be able to enter the world of chords and harmony. We will speak of diminished seventh chords, augmented sixth, dominant seventh and diminished fifth.
It is crucial for you to be able to recognize the intervals which are part of the chords so you will have to know how to identify both the general and specific name.

In this lesson, I will teach a very simple method which allows you to identify quickly on the piano any type of interval, even the most complexed ones.
Furthermore you will find a printable pdf table which will help you follow these lessons and in the future be able to identify the specific name of an interval.

To understand as much as possible in these lessons, I suggest you first attend the following lessons:

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	26 mins
Intro	2m 24s
1. The specific name of an interval	5m 33s
2. Major intervals	7m 55s
3. Perfect intervals	9m 42s

Intro

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Why are there three types of minor scales and how to find all the notes (Part 2)

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How to find all the notes of the minor scales

Today I will show you a sure method which will enable you to find instantly the notes of all three types of minor scales.
As you will see, this will be very useful in all cases, not only in harmony and composition but also in playing scales at the piano or on other instruments … It will no longer be necessary to memorize the notes or find them on the music piece. In each moment you will be able to find them on your own.

The relations between musical scales

However I think this lesson is fundamental also for another reason: The introduction of three minor scales will open the door to another universe. Thanks to these minor scales, everything from harmony to composition will appear differently. The simple introduction of minor scales offers many new opportunities. So let’s start exploring this new universe…

Preview of this lesson

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	48 mins
Intro	1m 15s
1. How to find all the notes of minor scales pt.1	8m 12s
2. How to find all the notes of minor scales pt.2	7m 30s
3. Two examples of applying this method	11m 22s
4. The minor keys	9m 00s
5. The relations between major and minor scales	12m 07s

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With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition (36 videos).

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