The Music Learning Workshop Home
Hi, my name is Brad Chidester, and I created this site and blog as a place to help others learn music theory in a workshop type of methodology. This is the new blog home page to introduce you to the workshop.
The music theory taught here is biased to the piano but is really for all instruments. The site has many prinicples of music in short lesson that can be seen in our theory section.
It is not my intent to teach specific instrument technique but to guide you through the theory and provide recommendations to other specific courses and method materials.
I also talk a lot about the philosophy of learning music through teaching and learning processes and methods.
I am the primarily provider of the content and commentary within the site and hope that you find it of value. As the community grows I hope to add other associates that will contribute to our pursuit of learning music.
If you have something to contribute and would like to guest post please contact me.
Please take the time to participate in the Music Learning Workshop Blog. I welcome your commentary and views and instruction that you only you can uniquely provide. I moderate comments to ensure that we get good commentary and non abusive dialog.
The full site has lots of information and we’ve expanded our recommended resources section with new pages on piano, guitar, bass, and software.
I do welcome differing points of view and insight, so I encourage you to challenge my thoughts and we’ll go forward from there. Check out some of the categories and posts in the sidebar an let me know what you think.
For detailed study of music theory I offer digital download workshops and courses.
Our newest offering is the 12 month, fixed term, music theory course.
You can read more here: Monthly Music Course.
The workshops and course materials are at: Getting It Down Cold Workshops/Courses.
Enjoy and Stay tuned!
Beginning students want to quickly sight read for rhythm and note combination on music scores. However, it takes a little time to get the pieces together to achieve this skill.
Two Approaches
There are a couple of approaches to getting this skill mastered. One is to have a mentor show you how this is done and then study the music over several weeks and get repeated instruction until it sinks in. Honestly that’s probably one of the best ways to learn. Having another musician show it to you is a tried and true method of learning.
However, not all of us can afford lessons or know someone that can take the time to give this personal instruction. For the rest of us we need to work it out in a home study situation. So you have to understand the process from a higher level to start and work the parts of the theory to get to this level.
Three Parts to Start
Let’s start with three parts to learning to put rhythm and notes together to try and gain an understanding of this process.
First you need to understand the alphabet which is note names such as C and D or G. Then learn that the note is used as a symbol on a set of lines and spaces to indicate the note and tone to be played associated with these names. These are displayed on the master staff to give 4 octaves or sets of notes to work with.
The second part of the symbol is the time value, which is associated with rhythm or the beats. The time value is relative to the speed which is defined within a measure of a song, which is the time period. You get to know whole, half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth notes. These are the symbols used in rhythm.
A third step is working the symbols as notes and beats together. By adding combination of notes using the symbols and the note names and patterns you begin to play your instrument by moving from note to note or chord to chord using the time values.
This is not an overnight thing it takes several weeks to learn it, actually it can take years to master it, and it is a repeated process. The more you work with it the easier it gets. You have to work on it over time.
Monthly Course
The monthly music course and the lesson plan for the full course are designed to get you through these various pieces and puts them together a little at a time through a home study version. The immersion in a straight theory course is to help you reduce the time in getting to an understanding of what you are playing and skill level.
If you are stuck on something specifically, ask a friend that has been there before. Sometimes it takes a little nudge to get you past some basic idea. Other times it takes a review process to reexamine things you’ve learned and connect them with what you may be learning at this point in time.
It does take effort. You are not going to just read about it and know it. You have to connect to your brain by seeing, listening, and phsyically working it. That’s one of the core principals of learning that you need to adopt.
Take your time to learn the pieces then work on putting them together. Keep at it.
