‘Reading Music - An Introduction to Pitch’ has been written, developed and refined over the last ten years or so as a consequence of my observations whilst teaching my pupils, the challenges they have when learning to recognise and remember the position of notes on the stave and the correlation of that visual information to the keyboard. I saw that it was very difficult for them to make sense of what they were seeing, they obviously just saw a mass of horizontal lines with other strange symbols scattered around in much the same way as an English reader / speaker would see when looking at say Arabic or Japanese. They couldn’t recognise the different lines and spaces on the stave and therefore couldn’t identify the position of the notes on the stave, they couldn’t recognise the musical pitch shapes that were made in a short passage of notes, sometimes they couldn’t even see when a note had already been played in a bar and the same note just needed to played again. The vital connections, concepts and correlation between the score and the keys on the keyboard were not being formed easily. Without the above being developed we and our pupils are left hoping that somehow these concepts and connections will ‘magically’ drop into place, often this can happen after a few years of struggling through many pieces but often this doesn’t happen and the pupils will give up because they find learning too difficult and frustrating. We as teachers frequently encounter pupils who are working at the higher level grades but still can’t sight read with any fluency or accuracy. The groundwork for these skills needs to set at the start of learning. ’Reading Music - An Introduction to Pitch Notation’ remedies all of this. I know it works because I’ve been using it in my lessons. After using it pupils will be able to sight read more fluently, recognise musical pitch shapes and understand more fully what they are playing. This makes remembering pieces much more easy and also lays the foundations for future aural skills as it develops the mental visual skills needed for remembering melodies and harmonies. Because it makes reading much easier pupils can make much faster progress, have more satisfaction and sense of accomplishment. The frustration is removed, they are more keen to practise and they are less likely to give up lessons and learning the instrument.

Concepts are explained and illustrated using large colourful diagrams followed by exercises to reinforce what has been learnt and a summary of the key points covered. Points and exercises are assisted by using colour scales and associations, hints and prompts which gradually fade away, reducing the pupil’s reliance on them as they move through the exercise. The book is not intended to be a full manual on reading pitch notation, for example it doesn’t cover sharps and flats or chords, it is just intended to address those particular concepts that need to be instiled and understood at the start of learning, and are vital so that good progress can be made through whatever usual methods the teacher uses. Although it is primarily intended for use by keyboard players it can be used by students of all instruments. After all, the easiest way to view the pitch order of notes is to look at a keyboard even if you are learning the trumpet! The book works particularly well on tablets, the pages can be turned quickly with a swipe or tap in exercises such as naming the notes. The drawing sections can be done with annotation tools and there are hints that can easily be zoomed up and down with finger pinching. I often put it on the piano stand and turn the pages for my pupils with my Bluetooth keyboard or pedal. Some concepts are simplified and this is deliberate. For example when counting how many notes there are between two notes the black notes are not counted and the answer is at odds with interval naming. Also it is stated that treble clef notes are played by the right hand and the bass clef by the left hand, again not strictly true, but as a general rule for a beginner it’s good enough. It is important when beginning to learn music theory that concepts are kept simple. The book is intended to be used alongside and is complementary to a usual programme or method of study. I generally look at it for the first or last five or ten minutes of a lesson. You may need to keep repeating a particular section for a few weeks, especially the sections containing exercises such as the note reading tests. Have fun with ‘Reading Music An Introduction - An Introduction To Pitch Notation’!