How to Read Music

Last year my son took an online guitar class, which he really enjoyed.  However, he quickly fell behind because he did not know how to read music.  So unfortunately he struggled with trying to learn chords and frets, while at the same time, trying to get up to speed with everything involved with reading music. This made for one frazzled kid.

I wish I had know about the Ricci Adam's Music Theory website, which does an excellent job of teaching people how to read music.  Ricci Adam first envisioned this website during his senior year of high school. His first lesson was: The Staff, Clefs, and Ledger Lines. He then developed the Interval Ear Trainer and the site launched on January 1, 2000. Four years later, Adams graduated magna cum laude from Millikin University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.

The website is divided into three sections:

Lessons - which provide animated step-by-step slides for beginners.  I especially like the interactive lessons because they really make the job of learning how to read music so easy.  And, it's great to have the yellow highlighted text move as I advance the slide.

Exercises - that help you practice

Tools - which provides an assortment of resources to help you measure notes, intervals, and chords.  For anyone that is learning to play the piano, you can access an online piano to learn the notes.

While there is no fee to use the website, there are offline lessons available (for a nominal fee) for use with an iPad or iPhone.  As a little tip, you can also download all of the lessons for free by accessing the older "classic edition" of the website.  To access that link, you just need to scroll down to the bottom of the home page.  Or to make your life simpler, here is a direct link:  http://www.8notes.com/school/theory/musictheory/files/index.html

I found this website simple and easy to use.  For anyone that needs to learn how to read music, or just wants a great music theory resource - Ricci Adam's Music Theory is worth checking out.