Planning for music literacy: an inquiry

Music literacy includes skills, such as being able to read and write musical notations, that can be crucial to a musician's progress and success. However, different kinds of musicians may need different kinds of music literacy, and some find that they do not need it at all. For example, a classical guitarist needs to learn to read treble clef notation very accurately, while a country-music guitarist may find it more practical to begin with reading chord charts. A drummer may want to be able to read rhythms correctly, while a singer in a choir may simply want to be able to pick out the notes one at a time on a piano. (See How to read music for a more detailed discussion.)

Learning to read and write music is not an easy task; even music students with good teachers and plenty of opportunity to practice can take years to become very proficient at it. You may not want to spend a lot of time and energy perfecting skills that you do not need. This inquiry is designed to help you determine what kinds of music literacy are most necessary or useful for the kind of musician that you would like to be.

The inquiry

Ask

To begin with, you should have a clear idea of what you want to be able to do as a musician. Do you want to be able to play an instrument, talk intelligently about music, sing, dance, compose? Specifically what type, style, genre, or tradition of music do you want to be capable in (as an instrumentalist, composer, etc.). Do you have a musical role model, someone who has gained the skills that you would like to master? If you have multiple goals, pick the one that interests you most right now. If you do not have any, choose a goal that you think you might enjoy even if you eventually change goals. (Good musicians typically choose new music-learning goals regularly, so do not be concerned that you might not pick the "right" goal.)

You should have in mind a particular kind of musician, for example a "Celtic-harp player" or a "heavy-metal song-writer" or a "choir tenor." Your question for this inquiry is What kinds of music reading and writing skills do such musicians have, and how might I acquire those skills?

Investigate

Remember to look for information about:

1. Is music literacy necessary in this situation? Are learning by ear, improvising, and/or playing from memory common? Are they considered more valuable skills than reading music?
2. What kinds of notation are used? If a variety of notations can be used, is one easier to learn, more common, more respected? Would you be expected to know all of them?
3. How good would you have to be at reading the notation in order to do what you want to do?
4. Would writing music also be a necessary or useful skill?
5. How have others learned these specific music-reading or writing skills? In lessons, classes, while playing with others, or on their own?