Amos - 11-25-2006 at 06:51 PM
hi everyone,
i hope that this message finds everyone well and healthy. i am writing to ask for some help in learning to read music better. i play mostly kef
music and i learn by ear. i know how to identify most of the symbols on the page, but i am having difficulty with applying what i see on the staff to
the oud itself, and also the rhythmic notation is challenging for me...i know the rhythms of the music very well but sight reading everything together
is really difficult!
does anyone know any good primers or books that can help me with this? what has worked for everyone else?
my teacher, the late master Al Bardezbanian, told me that i needed to get on with it and learn to read music when i was with him on the last day of
his life... he was going to work with me to teach me how to play semais and pesrevs, etc...i now feel like i have no choice but to jump into the task
and try make him proud. i want to be able to do this so much, any help is appreciated.
all the best and thanks,
amos
Jameel - 11-25-2006 at 07:34 PM
Do you have John B's book? It has some great excercises that will introduce you to reading. I think since you can already play, you would be able to
pick it up quite quickly.Once you get going and understand the basics, a great way to learn further is to take a piece you already know, like a samai,
and listen to a recording of it along with the sheet music. Kind of reverse sight reading. You'll have to play a while to be able to sight read. You
basically have to be able to read music like you read text. Second nature kind of stuff....
mavrothis - 11-27-2006 at 06:53 AM
Hi Amos,
One way to help make the transition to reading is to sing/say the note you are playing as you play it, whether while practicing scales, or while
playing a song. This makes you start to associate the actual note with what your fingers are doing.
Of course, the only way to start reading comfortably is to just dive in and practice with sheet music. Work on easy melodies first, until you get
more comfortable. Mr. Bilezikjian's books is perfect for that, and Mutlu Torun's method in Turkish also has great exercises too (there is also the En
Chordais method, by Kyriakos Kalaitzides in Greek).
Believe me, it's not something that is very difficult, you will master it in no time. You just need some patience and before long you won't even
remember when you couldn't read music. 
Take care,
mavrothis
Rambaldi47 - 11-28-2006 at 09:56 AM
http://www.musictheory.net/
seems like a very interactive site. just found it through StumbleUpon!
extension for Firefox. great site imo.