I don't know how you specifically train for this skill, or you just
acquire it through necessity. I have it (to a certain extent), but then
I also play piano, and I have done quite a lot of conducting (both
choral and orchestral), and so it really is necessary for learning
scores. I seem to remember that I wasn't very good at it when I
started, so I guess it's a combination of practice, practice and more
practice.
As fo piano skills, I was told a really useful exercise for improving
sight reading and the associated score reading skills required. Take a
hymn book, preferably a traditional one with straight 4 part harmony
written on two staves (no cheating with guitar chord symbols). Find a
quite simple hymn tune and play it on the piano. Then play it again
transposed up or down a semi-tone (half-step). This is a quite easy
place to start because many hymns are in Eb major (english organists
favourite key!) Change the key sig from three flats to 4 sharps and
play in E major. Then try transposing further. What I found this does
is it starts to improve your recognition of the relationship of the
harmonies. With (lots of) practice you start to play music as much from
this knowledge as from just reading the notes. It also means that you
"hear" the music before playing it. I was a very average self-taught
pianist when someone suggested I do this. (Mainly it was because I had
just taken over directing the music at my University Chaplaincy and had
to improve my keyboard skills just to play the hymns each week). After
about 6 months the improvement was amazing. I guess it depends upon
what standard as a pianist you are at already.
Best wishes
Colin
Isabelle Bracamonte wrote:
>
> > I like the idea of learning to hear scores in your
> > head. Sounds like
> > it would take a lot of work, but would be really
> > wonderful!
>
> I second that! Whoever suggested this -- how in the
> world do you train for such a skill? I know that
> people who have been pianists since childhood can
> often instantly hear a melody line they look at, but
> how does an adult go about trying to learn this? Just
> sitting with a pile of scores and some recordings, and
> listening through? Are there people who will teach
> this kind of auditory skill?
>
> Score reading... I want to be able to do that!
>
> Isabelle B.
>
> =====
> Isabelle Bracamonte
> San Francisco, CA
> ibracamonte@y...
>
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--
Colin Reed, Tenor
Newark, Nottinghamshire, UK
Tel +44 1636 706158
Mobile +44 973 952447
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