Five Free Music Websites to Improve Note Reading

A guide to some free music websites available on the Internet to help music students improve their note reading skills.

Two common challenges faced by beginning music students are note learning and identifying a note's location on their instrument (geography). Until note reading fluency is achieved, this can lead to some frustrating practice sessions at home.

It is important to develop note fluency at an early stage. The process of learning new music will become easier. Sight-reading and sight-playing will be less stressful. Students will be able to read through music more quickly and play more expressively.

Online Note Reading Websites & Note Reading Games

The following list is a compilation of some of the sites available on the Internet to help with practicing and improve note reading.

musictheory.net

Musictheory.net has quite a few music drills. Under the "Trainer" section, click on "Note Trainer". Users can specify whether to be drilled on reading in the treble clef, bass clef, tenor clef and alto clef. Hints are available and Note Trainer keeps score. Users can also do ear training drills, watch flash presentations of various topics of music theory and print off blank manuscript paper. Note that the Note Trainer may be too advanced for young beginners as it tests students' reading of the entire Grand Staff plus ledger lines.

Funbrain.com – The Piano Player

Students drill their note reading and keyboard geography in this online game. Four levels of play are available: Beginner (one octave with labels), Intermediate (one octave, no labels), Expert (four octaves with labels) and Virtuoso (four octaves, no labels).  The Piano Player is best suited for younger piano students (12 and under).

musicards.net

Eight sets of online flashcards are available on Musiccards.net: Note Names, Key Signatures, Intervals, Triads, Piano Note Names, Reading Piano Notes, Guitar Note Names and Reading Guitar Notes. Reading Piano Notes and Reading Guitar Notes are instrument location/geography drills. Students try to identify the note. To get the correct answer, scroll over the card. Several "decks" are available – no ledger lines, staff and ledger lines, naturals and accidentals.

Piano Pedagogy Plus

Online flash games are available on the Games page. Users can practice note reading on all four clefs. The games are timed and points are deducted for each incorrect answer. Students can also practice their interval reading.

emusictheory.com

Five note naming games are available on emusictheory.com: Note Names, Paced Note Names, C-Clef Note Names, Piano Keys and Guitar Frets. The first three are straight note identification exercises while the last two are instrument geography drills.

Online Note Reading Resources – Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Each of these websites listed contain a variety of drills and tools to help music students improve their note reading. There are other sites out there. Explore the many sites available and choose what sites work best for the student and his music practice needs.

For more information on practicing music, read Five Free Music Websites to Improve Ear Training, Free Websites to Help with Music Theory or Rudiments, and Reasons to Practice Daily.

Originally published on Suite101.com on November 22, 2009. Updated March 24, 2013. All rights reserved by Rhona-Mae Arca.

With Music Software, Timing is Everything

I'd like to say that I know my way around a computer. At my last full-time job (for someone else), I was called one of the "super-users". However, I  have been experiencing several challenges with my Studio Lab computer. It's operating on Linux Ubuntu and it's not as easy as Mac or as familiar to me as Windows or even Unix or DOS. Linux has some fabulous apps available for education and more specifically, music education and music. For example:

• music notation software (e.g. MuseScore)

• audio recording and editing (e.g. Audacity)

• drum machine (e.g. Hydrogen Drum Machine)

• note reader trainers and more

Music and technology has never been so tempting. "Sudo apt-get install" is just so gosh-darn easy to do. Getting the sound set up and audio controls cooperating with all one another? Now there's my technical challenge. Thankfully, some super Linux users have posted some helpful tutorials. The Linux Community Forums have been good too, but having the visuals and working through the steps along with the video helped. It's just been challenging getting the time in to focus on it. The process has made me rethink my roll-out strategy for these music software programs. Rather than having them all available for my students to explore at once, I am going to just roll out a few programs at a time. I have learned that it's important to have Jack Control and those connections set up properly. 

After three weeks of on and off fiddling and re-installs, I can say with confidence that Hydrogen Drum Machine, Virtual Midi Piano Keyboard and Score Reading Trainer are playing nicely together in my computer lab.

Life was so much easier when dealing with physical midi and audio cables. Trying to set audio up in a virtual environment has really challenged my learning style.

Setting up the Studio Computer Lab

Technology and music is a huge area for growth as far as music teaching goes. I recently transformed my old office laptop into a music computer lab.

I downloaded various cool (and free) apps from Ubuntu's software center, including:

• Audacity

• Linthesia

• Score Reading Trainer

• GNU Denemo

• GNU Solfege

• Hydrogen Drum Machine

• Linux Multimedia Studio

• Virtual Midi Piano Keyboard

• Musescore

Generally, I zoomed in on apps that help students with note reading practice, ear training and rhythm work. The music notation software and audio recording software is to give them something fun to create.

One student was tickled pink that he earned three Maestro Bucks for creating a funky drum loop (and tutored his sister on how to use the program).

Music Review 101

The one thing that music teachers enjoy about Christmas break is that it's a chance to rest our overworked braincells and catch up on sleep. The downside however, is that some students really take "Christmas Break" to a whole new level. These links are for those students and the teachers that are looking for funky ways to refresh their memories:

Speed Note Reading eMusicTheory.com Practice - everything from note reading to ear training drills Pedaplus.com - Games

And let's not forget my all-time favorites: musictheory.net - Head to "Trainers"

funbrain.com - The Piano Player

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Note Reading Geography Help

Some of my students are having trouble associating a note written on the staff with its corresponding note on the keyboard, regardless of how many times I say, "The farther it is from middle C on the staff a note is, the farther away it is from middle C on the keyboard."

For example, they do identify the note correctly on the staff as a "B" but when I ask them to play the corresponding note, they pick any "B" on the keyboard. Well, Middle B is written on a different part of the staff from Treble B, which is nowhere near "Really Low B" or "Really Really High B". See what I mean?

The Piano Player is a game is for them and for all music students struggling with this.

(c) 2007 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.