Learning to Read Music with Comprehension

 

Reading music and understanding music are two quite different things. I’ve known players who read, I’ve known players who understand, and I’ve known players who do both.

Reading music without understanding is like learning to read a book without understanding what you’re reading. For a person such as this, how many books would they be inspired to read?

Understanding music is the most important thing, but without reading, access to new ideas, concepts, pieces, etc., is a lengthier and more difficult process. So why not learn to read music with comprehension?

I believe that the central problem lies in the way reading is usually taught. It can be boiled down to this, “When you see this note it is telling you how to play it on your instrument, i.e., what pitch and how long to hold it.” This is what I call rote reading. Rote reading means that you don’t know what the music is saying or how the music works. It’s like learning to read letters without understand the words, let alone understanding what those words are actually saying. It seems absurd that a person would read a book and not know the story, but that’s exactly what happens with rote reading. Again, I ask the question, for a person such as this, how many books would they be inspired to read?

But what if a person first learns a musical concept, let’s say natural whole steps and half steps, and then is taught how those steps are represented in musical notation, and then how they are created on their instrument? The same process can then apply to intervals, scales, chords, phrases, etc. In every case, the introduction of the musical idea precedes the musical notation. Learning to read music in this way, with comprehension, paves the way to creative and intelligent interpretation and expression as opposed to merely imitating the interpretations and expressions of others.

Andre Segovia once said, What the world does not need is another guitar player. What the world does need are musicians and artists who happen to play the guitar.” Rote reading and rote playing can never transcend the domain of the guitar player, but reading and playing with comprehension is in the domain of the musician and it is the domain of the musician that creates the foundation for the further development and expression of the artist.

“A real artist works at a level beyond both the guitar player and the musician yet embodies the highest attainments of both. Absorbed in the artistic sphere he creates works that are enduring and that assists humanity in its ongoing struggle to free itself from the bondage of ignorance and destructive self-interest. Through his works the artist, absorbed in the artistic sphere, distills the lessons of material life and its aspirations, and shapes them into an expression of life’s universal quest for meaning, fulfillment, and love.” – From Silence to Sound, by Michael Kovitz, Available from the author at fromsilencetosound142@gmail.com

                                                                                                                                  © copyright Michael Kovitz 3/2/21

 

Art, Music, and the Guitar

I sort of fell into this blog; I knew I wanted to do a blog on music for a while and so a few weeks ago I just began and posted a short history of Western Classical Music. I followed that up with a discussion of the Incomplete, Dominant, Minor 9^th, Chord. When a friend of mine commented that the latter post might be over the heads of most readers, I told him that I hadn’t yet defined my voice or my audience. Maybe that’s a good thing? We shall see…

Musical thinking is a term I use with my students and colleagues as a replacement for the more common terms theory and harmony. Theory sounds to me too theoretical and harmony seems to exclude rhythm and melody. For a while I used the anachronistic term solfeggio, but that term was just too anachronistic. I like the term musical thinking, for music is the result of musical thinking.

Music exists first in the musical sphere and then manifests in the physical sphere. Andre Segovia was suggesting this when he said, “What the world does not need is another guitar player; what the world does need are musicians and artists who happen to play the guitar.”  A guitar player’s consciousness is absorbed in the Physical Sphere; a musician’s consciousness is absorbed in the Musical Sphere, and the artist’s consciousness is absorbed in the Artistic Sphere.

An artist may create art through music and music may be created on the guitar. It could be said that an artist is absorbed in the Artistic Sphere and then communes with the Musical and Physical spheres. A guitar player is absorbed in the Physical Sphere and, at best, communes with the Musical and Artistic Spheres. It is my experience that guitar players can be very impressive, but that after a while I start to get the feeling that they speak beautifully but really have nothing to say. I leave the concert impressed, but not changed.

I remember how it was when leaving Segovia’s concerts; people were smiling, there was a feeling of tangible joy in the group and I wondered if it had anything to do with how Segovia had become a master musician—had mastered music by serving music—by making his life the servant of music?

Indeed, Segovia was an artist who painted not with pigment and canvas, but with sound and rhythm. Segovia created art and was a great musician and was also a great guitar player. Listen to the early recordings; hear how he controlled both silence and sound and time. It is my opinion that no one who has ever played the guitar did it better.