Musical Literacy: The Similarities Between Reading Music and Reading Language

 

            My grandmother was a first-grade teacher who specialized in reading instruction and even taught me how to read when I was only three years old. When she entered the masters program in education at the University of Texas in the 1950s, she wrote a thesis titled The Influence of Auditory Discrimination Upon Reading Achievement.  Although the title is a mouthful and sounds incomprehensible to the general reader, the essence of her research is not hard to understand. Simply put, the most successful readers are those who have a high degree of aural perception of the spoken word.

            Many people suggest that music is a universal language and may have first developed either as a precursor or an outgrowth of language. If you accept linguistic theories of music, as some scholars have, then applying literacy research to learning musical language makes sense.

            As I read my grandmother’s thesis, I could not help but think that most of the literacy concepts were relevant to learning music. Even more surprising was that many of the cited experts specifically mentioned music as a means of developing the auditory skills required for reading readiness. For struggling readers, professional educators were encouraged to include ear training lessons emphasizing the recognition of rhymes, similar sound patterns, and word endings into class instruction. Additionally, using the piano to distinguish high and low sounds and playing rhythmic instruments could further develop auditory skills for those struggling with language. All of these teaching strategies stressed specific aural exposure to language before being taught to read. When the sounds are clear in one’s ear, translating this experience to the written word becomes much easier.

            What would happen if music literacy was taught in a similar manner to these pedagogical methods? Is it possible that the frequent practice of teaching music notation separately from sound patterns makes sight-reading difficult? What would happen if the sound patterns were taught first and then the notation was introduced as how it relates to sound? Wouldn’t sight-reading evolve more naturally and organically since the notation now connects to meaningful sound patterns already mastered?

            In my book Interval Topography, each chapter is devoted to a specific sound pattern. Ear training exercises are presented before each playing exercise so that you will already know how the sound pattern sounds before you play it. Connecting sound with sight enables a greater musical understanding and sight-reading fluency that would not be otherwise possible.   

 Stay Tuned,

 Robert