Being able to read music is a requirement to speak the music language.  Music is a language unto itself.  Given that, how can you communicate if you cannot speak it?

Ensembles, bands, choirs, opera, jazz all operate on the written notes first.  As far back as we can research, some sort of written notation existed to pass the songs of a generation to the next one, as well as teaching people to sing together.

Before improvisation, defined as creating unwritten music over the written notes, there was the written note.  The written note dates back to 1307.  Simply put, if you cannot read music, you will never perform in any ensemble that requires it.  We could really stop right here.

Reading music is essential to understanding the theory of music.   The written note is the basis for all communication in music.  I know, you say, “Well, this is boring”, but someday you will be so glad you started now.

You can learn music by only reading it,  like you would a book.  How many times can you try to play the music from a CD or from another source and not know if you performed it right?  If you can read music, you can go straight to the book (sheet music) and receive all of the basic information on your own.  If you can read music, you can learn a song much faster and more completely without having to play a CD over and over and wonder if you played it right.

Know the way the composer of those songs meant for them to sound.  This is a very compelling aspect of reading music.  It can open up new worlds when you read a song from the composers’ point of view.

You may find all of the versions you ever heard or played, did not include the introduction, coda,  repeat or proper dynamics.  In “Georgia On My Mind”,  by Hoagy Carmichael, for example, no ones plays the introduction. Even if you have known a song all of your life, you may not know the entire version or the way it was meant to sound.   I know, as a performer myself, if I wrote a song and no one ever included a large part of it,  I would want them to know they are not performing it correctly!

If you can read music, you can discover new music.  Imagine if you were in a library full of books and you could not read.  How sad that would be.

When you can read music the discovery of a new world awaits you.   It may seem a little hard at first, but so was riding a bicycle as I recall.  In fact, the first time my mother let go from holding me on a bicycle, I ran into a post and knocked it over!

You will only become a better musician if you can learn to read music. Learning to read music will make you a better, well rounded musician and isn’t that worth the effort in itself?  Isn’t improvement what we are all striving for?  Learn to read music today and be a better musician, you will not regret it.